Speakers
Wayne Franklin
2023 will mark thirty years in the paper industry with his main focus on Décor paper. Wayne has a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Marketing and an MBA in Accounting. He has had direct responsibility for the sales of Décor paper into N. America for the last 22 years from Munksjo and prior to that ArjoWiggins. Most recently, due to the spin-off of the Munksjo business from Ahlstrom on Oct 1, 2022, Wayne created and leads a new US entity – Munksjo USA Inc. – to handle the import, sale, and distribution of papers from the Munksjo Group into North America.
Mike Knoblauch
Michael Knoblauch is the founder and president of Keyland Polymer Material Sciences. Keyland’s business focus is Ultra Violet curable resins and powder coatings. Keyland has operations in Barcelona, Spain and Cleveland, Ohio. Michael has 30 years of experience in the decorative surfaces industry.
Jane Lockhart
Keynote Speaker
While some kids grow up playing with dollhouses, Jane grew up designing, building, and refurnishing hers. It’s no wonder she’s an award-winning interior designer today.
Popular television personality, author and spokesperson, Jane is one of Canada’s best-known experts in the world of design and colour.
Jane is immediately recognized from her role in the TV series, Colour Confidential, as a guest speaker at many home and design shows, and as a design expert on national talk shows such as CTV’s The Marilyn Dennis Show and City TV’s, Cityline. Her broad knowledge and straightforward approach as an authority on creating transformative experiences through good design has inspired viewers for more than two decades.
Since graduating as an award-winning student from Ryerson University’s interior design program (Bachelor of Applied Arts Interior Design), Jane has never stopped building her brand.
Launched in 1997, Jane Lockhart Design specializes in interior design and renovation for retail, hospitality, home-building and residential clients. The Jane Lockhart Platinum Series, a Canadian-built, eco-conscious luxury furniture collection designed by Jane, was launched in 2011 for the design and architectural trade community. This was soon followed by a second Canadian-built furniture collection, Jane by Jane Lockhart, currently available at a growing number of major and independent retailers across Canada.
Jane’s design work is regularly featured in publications across Canada and the United States. Jane Lockhart Design has been recognized with many awards from several national associations for its stellar design work.
Julia Mörk
After completing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Julia Mörk subsequently specialized in the coatings technology field of expertise in the course of her master’s degree in applied surface and material sciences at Esslingen university.
Since 2017 she has been project manager for new developments in the business unit paper & coatings additives at MÜNZING and dealt with all topics related to surface modification. In 2020 she switched responsibility to additives used for laminates as well as reconstituted and engineered wood and took the position as BU FENTAK Processing Additives.
Nadia Oukid
Nadia is an accomplished business developer, truly multicultural, with international experience in design & strategic product development. With a background in textile engineering, her career expands over several industries including market leaders in fashion brands, decor design, texture development and digital printing. Since 2014, Nadia Oukid is global design manager at the Casting and Release paper division of Sappi.
David Palmieri
David began his career in the graphic arts industry roughly 30 years ago. The early part of his career was focused on the production side of the business in New York City. He joined CGS ORIS | Americas in October of 2000 and has been instrumental in the overall development and growth of the company. David has a tremendous passion for the graphic arts industry and an advocate for our customer’s success. He currently leads our team of CGS ORIS, Business Development Managers, helping to educate the Industrial Manufacturing Market on the benefits of 3D Surface Imaging, Color Workflow and Digital Print technologies.
Michael Riffel
Michael’s product focus is on wood-based panels and decorative surfacing materials, especially paper-based surfaces in Europe and China, having spent 12 months in the country. His work focus is on economic and demand analysis, scenario planning, cost competitiveness and modelling as well as due diligence projects. Michael has a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management, Hochschule Mannheim Germany and Tongji University in Shanghai, China and a B.Eng. in wood technology, Rosenheim Germany.
Duncan Ross
Duncan graduated from the Universities of Wolverhampton and Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences in 1994, with BA Honors in European Business Administration and German. After working in the gravure and decorative printing industry for three years, Duncan joined the growing software company AVA CAD CAM in 1998. Initially providing technical support to the Northern European market, he was promoted to Global Sales Manager in 2004 and then to Commercial Director in 2012. AVA CAD CAM provides design and colour solutions, support and workflow consultancy to the décor, flooring, wallcovering and textile industries.
Nicolas Simonnet
After receiving his Master’s in Paper Engineering, Nicolas started his career working in the paper industry by leading production units, driving process improvements, and a variety of development projects. In 2007, he joined what is now the Munksjo Group, eventually becoming the Technical Customer Service Director for Décor Paper, leading a team providing global technical support to its customers. Most recently, Nicolas received a Global Executive MBA and since Oct 1, 2022 has also taken management responsibility for the French entities of Munksjo – Arches paper mill and Apprieu R&D Center.
Guillermo Velarde
Guillermo Velarde currently serves as the Director of Business Development, Growth and Innovation at Arclin, focusing on future business opportunities with new and innovative market solutions that create enhanced value downstream.
At Arclin, Guillermo has expanded his leadership roles within national trade associations and organizations to further develop the science-based understanding and knowledge of different product categories. He is an active advocate for the wood industry as a whole with special focus on the decorative side of the industry. These efforts are targeted to a better understanding of our products and to facilitate industry growth.
Prior to joining Arclin, Guillermo worked with leading industry players, including suppliers, customers, and competitors in individual or co-sponsored projects. His focus was on the performance of a wide diverse group of bio-based surfaces but the breadth of work included biomass solutions, additive manufacturing, construction and healthy homes, wood machining, and value-added solutions.
Guillermo has over 15 years of experience, with professional collaborations both in North America and Europe, as well as peer-reviewed and non-scholarly publications and has also conducted numerous national and international presentations.
Frank De Jonge
My career is dedicated to human and environmental well-being. Circular economy, CO2-reduction, renewable energy, energy efficiency are as important as resource-optimization and selecting the least harmful processes and material for health, life and well-being. Inkjet printing in industrial scale is my passion. Driving new applications in co-operation between end-user, substrate-manufacturer and printer integrator is the future of the printing market. Guiding and supporting the innovators in the printing industry is my speciality. My career started at Olympia, where I started as junior product manager for one of the first laser Printer launched to the European market. I had the opportunity to sell inks and toner from global leaders like Mitsubishi Chemicals, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sensient to a broad number of challenging and exiting digital printing applications from desktop to industrial scale. I managed development and production of inks for industrial printing applications ie. high speed single pass with water-based inks. The highly efficient dryers from adphos ensure reliable evaporation of water and solvents from any printing and coating application.
Florian von Kuczkowski
After graduating in the USA, Florian von Kuczkowski started his career at Süddekor GmbH. After 10 years in sales, he was entrusted with the product management of innovative products.
After taking over Surteco in 2013, he worked there in product management for four more years. In 2018 he founded Upco together with the Coveme Group. Since then, he has been responsible for corporate development as COO at Upco.
Moritz Menier
After his Bachelor and Master in addition to his DBA studies Moritz Menier, is working since over 10 years in the woodworking industry. As a start of his career he was working as a VP of Sales and later CEO of the BMK Group, the largest independent paper impregnation company worldwide. The responsibilities included global sales and purchasing as well as lead responsibility of North America plant.
Mr. Menier served under his previous employment globally. Involved in nearly all laminate and furniture production facilities with melamine papers, especially focused on North and South American market.
As of January 1st he joined the Classen Group, one of the leading manufacturers of laminate flooring, Ceramin (Non-PVC Floor) and doors with over 2.000 employees worldwide and manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland. He is now CEO of Classen Americas, Inc.
