Fibre & renewable material, now and into the future - AIP Panel Discussion
Presented by Chris Thomas, Apoorv Mehrotra and Florian Graichen
Chris Thomas
Divisional Manager Packaging at BJ Ball, a part of the Ovol Group owned by Japan Pulp and Paper. With 20+ years of sales and account management experience, including 8 years in the print industry, Chris brings valuable expertise to oversee sales channels and procurement of packaging materials from key suppliers to converters. Recognized as a NZ Pride and Print Award Judge in 2023, Chris contributes significantly to the print industry and BJ Ball's position as a leading supplier of sustainable packaging materials.
Apoorv Mehrotra
Apoorv has extensive experience in corrugate packaging industry, industrial instrumentation/control systems and manufacturing. With a Bachelor’s in Engineering background, he has 10+ years of sales and business development experience.
Currently working as a BDM at Oji Fibre Solutions, selling packaging solutions across various categories, specialising in food, horticulture and industrial segments.
Florian Graichen
Dr Florian Graichen is General Manager for Scion’s Bioproducts and Biomanufacturing Areas – which include the Portfolios covering High Value Biorefineries, Distributed and Circular Manufacturing, Bioproducts and Packaging and Integrated Bioenergy. These activities are directed at solving new product and process challenges and opportunities that arise through transition to a Circular Bioeconomy.
In 2022 Florian was appointed as an Honorary Professor by the University of Waikato in the School of Engineering. Florian is board member of Packaging New Zealand and the Bioresource Processing Alliance. Florian also represents New Zealand on the Australian New Zealand and Pacific Islands Plastics Pact (ANZPAC) Collective Action Group and is a member of several advisory groups to New Zealand ministers and ministries. Additionally, Florian co-leads a Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge (SfTI) Spearhead around 3D and 4D Printing. Previously Florian worked as Senior Scientist and Commercial Manager at VITO (Belgium) and CSIRO (Australia).
Florian was born and grew up in Germany – but has been living in New Zealand and Australia for 20 years.
