Virginia Janssens joined PlasticsEurope as Managing Director on 16 March 2020 with a clear mandate to help accelerate a solution-driven approach working towards the circularity and climate goals of a sustainable plastics industry represented by PlasticsEurope. Virginia has been the Managing Director of the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) since 2012. Virginia brings experience in association management, the packaging value chain industry and European governmental affairs. In this capacity, Virginia worked progressively with different parts of the plastics value chain, in addition to the glass, paper and metal value chains. Prior to EUROPEN, Virginia acquired experience in the Brussels arena working both as a public affairs and public relations consultant for various clients coming from the environment, food, chemical and energy sectors.

Arnaud Scaramanga joined PlasticsEurope on 1 September as Finance and Business Services Director.

Arnaud is a finance and administration professional with over 15 years managerial experience gained within international membership associations.

Arnaud is responsible for all finance, IT and HR matters, as well as legal and competition compliance. He is leading the Finance and Business Services day-to-day operations as well as the related development and implementation of internal policies and processes. This includes current and future digitalization strategies to further support the transformation of our Association.

Arnaud previously worked for ENTSO-E, an organisation developing pan-European engineering designs and software developments in the frame of the energy transition.

David Carroll was appointed to the new position of Director External Affairs and joined PlasticsEurope on 1 May 2020. David brings expertise in coordinating and implementing Brussels and pan-European governmental affairs campaigns. David has worked with different parts of the plastics industry for almost all of his career, and has seen how the industry has transitioned to a new circular vision. David worked for five years at Hill + Knowlton and four and a half at Teneo. His main area of focus with Teneo was on helping companies, governments and trade associations facing challenging external issues with strategic positioning.

Sylvie Aitken joined PlasticsEurope on 15 June 2020 as Director Communications. Sylvie has over 15 years’ experience in corporate and public affairs communications (both in-house and agency). She has successfully led the creation and execution of integrated communication strategies, profiling business (Boeing, Mondelez, FoodDrinkEurope, e-Pure) and civil society innovators (World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), The Ocean Cleanup, Oxfam) from thought leadership initiatives, on and offline engagement programmes, brand repositioning, to building strategic coalitions and partnerships - showcasing their contribution to the EU’s policy agendas.

Dr Patricia Vangheluwe graduated from the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1984 with a PhD in Organic Chemistry, followed by a post-Doctorate at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). She also holds a master degree in Controllership from the Vlerick Management School (Ghent, Belgium).

She joined Shell in 1989 and held various positions from manager to Senior Vice President in Shell, Montell, Basell and LyondellBasell in the fields of research, marketing, strategy, communications and human resources. She worked in Belgium, Germany, South America and South Africa and travelled extensively around the world.

In October 2010 she joined PlasticsEurope to lead their pan-European Technical Department. Together with expert teams, she manages and coordinates the scientific content to support the association’s mission. 

As of May 2020 Patricia will take the role of Director Strategic Council – End-of-Life and Circularity.

Hervé spent 22 years within the Solvay group in various business and service functions. In 2010, he joined PlasticsEurope in Paris as Director of Technical and Regulatory Affairs for the West Region and as European project manager for Fire safety. Late 2014, he took the additional responsibility to manage the Waste Management topic of the association at European level (recently taking the chairmanship, on behalf of PlasticsEurope, of the Monitoring Working Group of the Circular Plastics Alliance).

Michel joined Total in ‘95 as a technical service engineer. For more than 20 years, Michel build up industrial experience in Plastics by holding various management positions in R&D, Customer Services, Polymer Production Process, Business Management & Business strategy. In 2016, he joined PlasticsEurope to coordinate Food Contact, REACH activities and certain sector groups.

In June 1999 she joined the European Chemical Industry Council as a sector group manager and was appointed director of the plastic additives department in December 2001. At this position Brigitte managed a team of Technical managers and Communication counsellors and developed in-depth knowledge of PVC stabilisers, plasticisers, flame retardants, antioxidants and food contact additives. 

In December 2011 Brigitte became general manager of the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM) and developed knowledge of resin manufacturing. ECVM operates in Brussels under the umbrella of PlasticsEurope and consists of 5 companies in the PVC business. In 2011, she also became deputy-general manager of VinylPlus, the legal body in charge of the implementation of the Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry.   

In January 2014 she became general manager of VinylPlus the umbrella under which 200 companies from the PVC value chain (resin, chemical additives, and plastic converters) work together to increase the sustainability performance of PVC. 

In 2012 she registers VinylPlus in the UN Registry of Commitments and engaged VinylPlus with UNEP/UNIDO. IN 2013, VinylPLus became a member of the UNIDO/UNEP Green industry platform, a global high-level, multi-stakeholder partnership to mobilise action on Green Industry around the world.   

Since 2012 she is the chairperson of the Global Vinyl Council composed of worldwide Regional Vinyl Associations (Asia-Pacific, US, Japan, India, South Africa, South America, Europe).   

She is Belgian, born in 1960, she is married and has two sons. Brigitte is passionate by science & sustainability, women in chemistry & education. She supports the ‘Women in Green industry chapter’ of UNIDO/UNEP.

For 25 years, Nicolas has been involved in French and European politics – both as an actor, and also as an observer of the often complicated and Byzantine world of how Brussels functions. He has a track record of successfully shaping public policy at the EU and national levels on energy, environment and reputation issues. Prior to his role in PlasticsEurope, Nicolas worked as in-house PA director for leading glass packaging company, general secretary for electronic and payment system trade associations and manager of Brussels based PA consulting firms.

Dr Christian Block joined PlasticsEurope on 15 April 2016 as new Director Styrenics Chain.

He has German nationality and holds a PhD in Chemistry from Cologne University. 

Before joining PlasticsEurope, Christian held various management positions at Henkel and AISE, and until recently, was the Head of Technical & Regulatory Affairs at Colgate-Palmolive.

Ingemar Bühler joined PlasticsEurope Deutschland e. V. and serves as Managing Director and Regional Director Central Europe. Ingemar was born in Leverkusen in May 1981. He earned a master’s degree in international politics at the University of Erlangen. In addition, he earned a global business diploma and several executive certificates in the area of strategy development and negotiation at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and at the LSE. During his studies he also worked at several renowned think tanks, including the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, SWP, SNV, Chatham House and the foreign office. Ingemar is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish.

Ingemar joined the corporate world in 2009 and worked first as a project manager and executive management support at Bayer AG HQ, prior to leading its newly established international advocacy team. In 2014 he moved to Bayer’s agricultural business division as head of strategy, executive and financial communications. From 2016 to 2019 he was executive management support and chief of staff of the global public affairs team, before taking over responsibility as head of public affairs & sustainability in Germany with additional responsibilities for EU affairs.

 Ingemar is married and father of two daughters.

Alicia Martín holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Salamanca, and has two master's programs, one in Advanced Specialization in Plastics and Rubber from the CSIC and the other in Quality Management from the Spanish Quality Association. In addition, she has been trained in the Development of Leadership Competencies at the IESE Business School in Barcelona.

During her professional career in the industry, Alicia has held different management and leadership positions at PlasticsEurope in the areas of sustainability, consumer protection and product stewardship, both at national and European level. In addition, during the last three years she has collaborated with two multinational companies in the plastics sector, Dow and Repsol, in the implementation of their sustainability and circular economy strategies.

Giuseppe Riva graduated from the University of Milan in 1971 with a Degree in Industrial Chemistry. Over the next ten years Giuseppe worked in the research and marketing departments of various chemical companies. In 1981, he joined Montedison and later assumed responsibility for Montedison’s office in Prague. Giuseppe returned to Montedison’s headquarters in Milan in 1988, as assistant to the President of Ferruzzi Europa and Federchimica. He moved to EniChem/Polimeri Europa in 1991 to manage Strategic Studies and Competition Analysis. In January 2000, Giuseppe joined the Internal Relations department of Federchimica. Since 2004 Giuseppe has been Regional Director for PlasticsEurope Italy.