Tom Carr has been in the Plastic Packaging Industry for 28 years, beginning his career with Trigon Packaging Systems in 1991 as a BSc(Tech) Student. Working in the Research and Development lab of their Hamilton plant, he became proficient in film analysis and physical properties testing of plastic packaging. In 2009, he ventured into the world of packaging regulatory compliance. Mentored by Sealed Air’s Regulatory Directors in Europe (Dario Dainelli) and America (Martin Ecoff), the learning curve was steep, but rewarding, eventually overseeing the compliance needs for Sealed Air’s Australia/New Zealand products, predominantly for Fonterra and the NZ Meat industry.
In 2015, Tom moved his family to Palmerston North to join Fonterra’s Packaging innovation and Development Team as a Senior Packaging Technologist at Fonterra’s Research and Development Centre. For the past 5 years Tom has overseen packaging compliance for Fonterra’s local and export business.
Fun fact: Tom is passionate about Litter reduction, and was Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s “Tidy Kiwi Award for 2017”, for picking up over 1300kg of litter since 2015. Tom is New Zealand’s leading user of the Litterati App, having snapped, tagged and bagged over 35,000 pieces of Litter since April 2017.
Marco has been involving in safety of food contact materials for more than 20 years, which specialized in analysis and assessment of Chemical contaminants in food contact materials. He has been serving as an expert in various organizations, such as the member of Review Committee for National Food Safety Standards, The member of Standardization Committee for plastic food contact material, paper and board, etc. To date, he has published more than 60 papers on food contact materials in journals and academic conferences ,while completed 20 national safety standards and analytical methods. He is currently leading the team to draft Chinese regulations for multilayer articles, wood and bamboo, Paper and paper board, as well as various analytical methods for specific migration. He once participated in a FCMs programs In 2008 as a visiting scientist at JRC of European Commission.
Marco was also appointed as the chairman of Expert committee for FCMs in China food industry association, and the member of Scientific Committee (SC) for the 7th International Food Packaging Symposium organized by ILSI Europe , dedicated to assist government agencies and industry to manage the safety of FCMs with scientific support.
Ms. Xiaolu Wang is a Senior Chemical Regulatory Compliance Consultant with Verisk 3E. Xiaolu has over eight years of experience working in the field of EHS compliance, focusing on regulatory compliance for consumer packaged goods (CPG), including food, food additives, food contact materials, cosmetics, and personal care products. Xiaolu is a frequent speaker at the Global Food Contact Conferences and serves as a member of the Advisory Board.
Xiaolu is a licensed attorney admitted to the bars of the State of New York, District of Columbia, and China. She is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and is fluent in English.
Sylvain Rannou holds a PhD of Polymer Science & Engineering from The University of Manchester, UK.
With over 10 years’ experience in the polymer and food packaging industry in UK and Singapore, his expertise covers a range of functions, from packaging development, polymer processing & regulatory compliance, to training & coaching, issue management and networking to leverage expertise.
Having worked in R&D for Mars Drinks UK and A*STAR Singapore, his current responsibility within Nestlé is to ensure that Nestlé factories in zone Asia-Oceania-Africa (AOA) implement the Nestlé packaging safety & compliance (PS&C) program. His responsibility covers both food contact materials (i.e. mainly packaging) and non-food items (i.e. promotional items).
Danhof Lee is Director of Regulatory Affair & Technical Administration, Asia Pacific PPG Packaging Coatings. He graduated from Shanghai University. Before joining PPG he had worked as engineer and subsidiary company director of a state-run paint coating manufacturer.
After joining PPG Packaging Coatings he has been Business Manager, Coating and Ink Technical Service Manager, China. Since 2007 he has been PS & Technical Administration Manager of AP and Director of Regulatory Affair & Technical Administration, Asia Pacific.
Mr. Lee has been in the role of leader who encourages and inspires team with insightful guidance. He possesses talent of foreseeing, evaluating the needs from home and abroad, to ensure R&D run on a more effective and correct way. In 2010 Mr. Lee was elected as Coating Subcommittee Chair of Industry Policy Advocacy Committee (IPAC), AICM and has been working with it till now.
David Ettinger is the chief representative in Keller and Heckman’s Shanghai, China office. Mr. Ettinger counsels multinational companies on the import and export of food and food-related products to ensure compliance with regulations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He also counsels clients on compliance with the laws and regulations in China regarding consumer products and tobacco-related products, such as e-cigarettes. Mr. Ettinger worked in the firm’s Washington, DC and Brussels offices, and is uniquely positioned to counsel foreign companies who need to navigate the regulatory landscape in Asia.
Mr. Ettinger is on the Executive Board and Chair of Mackrell International. He is on the leadership committee of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai’s Food, Agriculture & Beverage Committee. He is a frequent lecturer and author on international food safety matters. Mr. Ettinger is a Chambers and Partners ranked attorney in the area of Life Sciences (International Firms) – China and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2016 (FDA Law).
Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Mr. Ettinger was a trademark attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, he has extensive trial experience as a former assistant district attorney in the Nassau County District Attorney's Office in New York where he prosecuted felonies and misdemeanors.
Kevin is co-founder and owner of Decernis and is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted for 20+ years in the food and consumer products space. He advises some of the world’s largest manufacturers on Food, Food Contact and Supply Chain Compliance challenges globally. Working with a team of native speaker experts in all major markets, Kevin has led a Decernis team effort to expand regulatory coverage to over 200 countries. He spends much of the year meeting with clients to identify and satisfy their needs across the Decernis global client base. Kevin builds cooperative and partnering relationships with governmental agencies and organizations (today 40+ countries across five continents, including US FDA, European Union, Canada, China and Japan).
An expert on food contact and food additive regulation globally, Kevin is a frequent speaker at international conferences and an active participant in the Regulatory Affairs Committees of food, cosmetic and consumer product associations. Kevin also attends the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Additives in China annually as a member of the International Food Additives Council.
Prior to founding Decernis, Kevin worked as a regulatory attorney and later VP, International Operations at Ariel Research, which managed product safety regulations globally for chemical manufacturers.
Linda Zhu is a senior Manager of Quality Systems and Compliance for Greater China in HAVI, who has been leading quality, food safety and compliance for food packaging over 20 years by managing nearly 50 food packaging suppliers for McDonald’s Greater China market.
Linda is a standing member of the China FCM Expert Committee of CFIA. She set up the regulation work-groups and anticipatory issue management teams with upstream and down stream supplier network and promote a proactively regulatory compliance and food safety assurance culture in McDonald’s packaging supplier system. Linda received Outstanding Contribution Award from McDonald’s China and Hong Kong in 2019 and a series of awards in HAVI in past years.
Alistair manages the Food Packaging Safety Section within Smithers. This involves advising clients on the safety legislation which applies to food packaging in a wide range of different countries throughout the world and coordinating work programmes to ensure that clients' products meet these requirements. His expertise spans all the EU countries, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Russia and all the South American countries.
Alistair graduated with a degree and PhD in Chemistry from Birmingham University. After working for BP and the Department of Health, he joined Smithers in 1994, taking up his current position in 1995.
