Brought to you by Smithers and L.E.K. Consulting, The Future of Packaging is the premier event in North America dedicated to providing timely, insightful content to the C-suite and investors in the packaging industry. This exclusive, invitation-only program regularly attracts commercial leaders and financial sponsors in the packaging sector to discuss the key opportunities for value creation in the packaging industry. During this year’s event, you’ll be able to:
Anh is currently the Sr. Marketing Director responsible for the NA strategic innovations and sustainability teams for the Avery Dennison Materials Group business. Her teams are responsible for creating market & customer insights to drive long term innovation & market development strategies across a broad range of market segments. Leveraging Avery Dennison's unique material science capabilities and leadership in digital triggers & smart labels, her business looks to enrich packaging to deeply connect brands and consumers through responsible physical and digital solutions.
Anh has been with Avery Dennison for almost 10 years. Prior to Avery Dennison, she worked for 18 years at a consumer packaged goods company in the areas of R&D, Supply Chain/Ops and Marketing/Product Management. She has a BS in electrical engineering from Iowa State and an engineering masters degree from Case Western Reserve. She resides in northeast Ohio with her husband and three teenagers.
Alicemarie Geoffrion is President of Packaging for DHL Supply Chain in North America, where she is responsible for DHL’s end-to-end packaging operations to drive innovations, create efficiencies, and realize savings for our customers. Alicemarie is also a member of the DHL Supply Chain North America Board.
Before stepping into her current role, Alicemarie worked in DHL’s Strategy group as well as served as Head of Global Solutions for DHL’s former Williams Lea Tag division. Prior to joining DHL, Alicemarie held positions at Cap Gemini Consulting and she was Vice President of eCommerce/Business Solution for IMS, an Omnicom Group company.
Alicemarie earned both a bachelor’s degree in Management Science and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.
Bio coming soon!
Jie Yan is Sr. Manager in PepsiCo Global R&D located in Valhalla, New York. She leads packaging innovation of PepsiCo Beverage North America (PBNA) ecommerce platform as well as commercialization of leading CSD brands, including Mountain Dew, KickStart, and GameFuel. Jie is also responsible for developing new packaging platforms in PBNA beverage business unit.
Jie Joined PepsiCo in 2004 and held roles across multiple R&D functions, including Sensory & Consumer Research, Analytical Science & Brand Sustainability and PepsiCo Advance Research, where she has advanced the packaging agenda base on renewable material.
Jie holds two Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology, a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. She is also a PMI Certified Project Management Professional.
Sameer is a R&D Director, External Innovation at PepsiCo. In this role, he manages PepsiCo’s open innovation platform and strategic partnerships to source external technologies that can impact the company’s wide portfolio of food and beverage products. These technologies can range from packaging materials, ingredients and processing to digital technologies and business model innovations.
Prior to his current role, Sameer held various roles within Packaging R&D at PepsiCo and before that at the Wm. WRIGLEY Jr. Company, successfully leading packaging development for commercial launches of new beverage, food and confectionary products as well as longer term development on new packaging materials and technologies. Sameer began his career in the materials industry working on polymer films and coatings as well as glass and fiberglass for GE Plastics and PPG Industries. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Bio coming soon!
Justin is a Managing Director in Baird's Industrial Group and has coverage responsibility for the global packaging industry. Justin’s investment banking experience covers a range of products, including mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, high yield debt and leveraged lending. Justin has advised on more than 95 transactions involving a variety of publicly traded, sponsor-owned and privately owned companies within a number of different industries, including more than 60 transactions totaling over $17 billion in transaction value in the packaging sector. Justin is also a member of Baird’s M&A Fairness Opinion Committee.
Prior to joining Baird in 2003, Justin was with Deutsche Bank Securities for nearly five years where he worked on numerous M&A and financing transactions primarily in the industrial sector. He received his MBA degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and graduated with a BA degree in Economics from Haverford College.
Karin von Kienlin is a Senior Partner in L.E.K. Consulting’s Munich office. She is Head of L.E.K. Germany and is an elected member of L.E.K.’s Global Leadership Team.
She has more than 25 years' experience in growth strategy development and implementation, having worked for a diverse range of clients across Europe, North America and Asia.
Sector-wise, Karin has been working with clients in automotive, machine manufacturing, building products, chemicals and packaging to identify priorities for profitable growth, and to support organizational change and mergers & acquisitions to make them happen. This includes, for example, buy-and-build projects, acquisition target screening, commercial due diligence, marketing and sales planning, and organizational strategy projects.
Karin holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Brasenose College, Oxford University.
Thilo Henkes, Managing Director, L.E.K. Consulting Thilo Henkes joined L.E.K. in 2000 and has more than 17 years of consulting experience specializing in transaction support and developing post-acquisition, value-enhancing strategies for clients. He is a Managing Director and Partner, and leads our Paper Goods and Packaging practice. Thilo is also active in our Building Materials & Industrials Products and Private Equity practices. He has worked with his clients to evaluate merger and acquisition opportunities, assess growth options in new markets and new products, construct business plans in conjunction with developing new growth strategies, and identify value in cost-cutting initiatives.
Ciaran is responsible for delivering Smithers global growth initiatives and supporting Smithers Asian client base.
Ciaran has been working for Smithers for nearly twenty years supporting the packaging, print and paper value chains with key market and technical information in the form of conferences, reports and consulting. Ciaran has worked on winning and delivering a wide range of market consultancy projects to major industry players, recent projects include a global assessment of printing and packaging growth trends and market assessment for a major new product launch for one of the world’s largest packaging converters.
Ciaran has launched and managed many international conferences in this sector including Digital Print for Packaging, SustPack, Specialty Papers and Print Futures.
