2023 Speakers

Mattia Adani is the President of UEIL – the European Union of the Lubricants Industry, the body representing at the European level the interests of the European lubricants industry.

Through its members, UEIL covers the entire lubricants value chain, from manufacturing and distributing to recycling. It represents over 450 companies, SMEs and large corporations, with more than 100,000 employees, serving the needs of European citizens and industries, with an average annual consumption of lubricants in the European Union of more than 5 billion liters. Mattia is owner and CEO of Nowal Chimica, an Italian SME, blender of lubricants, metalworking and other process fluids for the metalworking sector.

He began his professional career at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm.
Subsequently, he was a member of the Council of Experts and then a Director at the Italian Ministry
of Economy, where he worked on the regulation and privatization of SOEs in the energy and
infrastructure sectors. He was then Executive Director and Member of the Board at the InterAmerican Development Bank in Washington, DC.
Mattia holds several positions within Italian Industry Association Confindustria. From 2016 to 2018
he was Senior Advisor in the cabinet of the Italian Ministry of Industry, advising on industrial policy
and foreign investments attraction.
Mattia holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, a degree in
Production Engineering from the Ecole Centrale Paris, France, and a Master of Public Administration
from Harvard University, United States. He is a member of Italy’s Order of Merit

Dr. Atanu Adhvaryu has over 20 years in active research and product development in Academia, National lab. and Industry. Research interest in hydrocarbon and bio-based renewable technologies, developing and deploying commercial products in lubricants, additives, specialty fluids, and electric drive fluid platform (EDF). His research leverages technical collaboration with OEM, Tier-1, OilCo and University. He is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and technical program leader and has managed resources in all global regions for technology and new product development. Active in the industry forums and has authored peer reviewed papers, patents, book chapters and industry specifications.   

After obtaining his organic chemistry degree from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a placement period at Birmingham School of Chemistry (UK), Giulio Assanelli joined Eni in 2011. With a focus on advanced biofuel development initially, his expertise expanded to encompass oil additives synthesis and lubricants formulations. 
Through his work, he gained valuable insights into the critical relationship between friction reduction and lubricant performance.  
With a passion for excellence and a deep understanding of lubricant chemistry, Giulio contributes to the development of high-performance lubricants and innovative additives that enhance energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability for different commercial applications such as passenger car motor oil (PCMO) and industrial lubricants. 
Giulio leverages this expertise as an R&D Project Manager, leading innovative projects that drive advancements both in oil additive synthesis and sustainable lubricant technology. 

Adam Banks is a Senior Marketing Manager at Afton Chemical. He has a wide range of experience – stretching over 20 years – in the chemical industry and joined Afton in 2007. Combining a strong technical background with commercial experience, Adam has guided Afton’s continued growth in Driveline and is currently leading Afton’s global drive for leadership in eMobility.  He holds a masters­ degree in Chemistry with Industrial Training from the University of Bath and a Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.  Adam has provided a wealth of guidance to oil companies and manufacturers, presented at industry conferences and written extensively about transmission lubricants and electrification.

Philipp is part of a rapid innovation team at Miba Gleitlager Austria GmbH which focuses on providing Miba’s bearing technology to Miba’s customers in order to improve their systems. As a System Engineer Future Products it is Philipp’s responsibility to understand the need of customers and develop a bearing with an added value for customers. After having the role as a System Engineer in the field of wind turbines for 4 years, he has started in his new responsibility in February this year. Philipp is a trained mechanical engineer and made his PhD in the field of tribology. In his leisure time, family, friends and sports let him refuel his batteries. 

Mathieu joined bp in January 2018. Currently, he’s a Member of the Supervisory Board at Castrol France SAS and the Managing Director of Castrol Germany GmbH. He also serves as VP for Industrial Lubricants Europe & Global Accounts. Prior roles include Global Technology Manager and Industrial Global Product Development Manager. Preceding bp, he spent 14 years at TotalEnergies in various leadership roles within technology, strategy and sales. 

As a Technical Specialist at Lubrication Expert, I leverage my 13 years of mechanical engineering experience and my credentials in machinery lubrication to provide independent and unbiased guidance to mid-sized industrial businesses. My mission is to help them improve their equipment uptime, reduce their environmental footprint, and achieve their corporate sustainability goals. 
 
I also share my knowledge and insights through various platforms, such as my YouTube channel, podcast, magazine articles, and technical committees. I’m passionate about educating the industry on the importance and benefits of lubrication best practices, contamination control, energy efficiency, and root cause failure analysis. By doing so, I aim to bridge the gap between lubricant suppliers and operators, and empower reliability engineers to implement effective lubrication programs. 

Sabrina Craciun is a Senior Business Development Manager  within the Energy Practice of Kline’s Management Consulting group, based in London. She has over 12 years of experience in business development with 28 countries globally ,in such areas as new market entry, marketing and growth strategy and market size & segmentation, product development, business developement. She is focusing on finished lubricants value chain across international markets. Prior to joining Kline, Sabrina worked for 9 years in Bucharest, Romania for P&G, CDI International Transport and Square One Relocation from London across all transportation value chain.

•Over the past 4 years she has been working closely with base oils and finished lubricant producers from Europe and Americas helping them better understand the challenges that the industry has been facing and seeing where the next opportunity lays and how they can adapt in this emerging market.

•For 9 years she worked in the transportation industry in Romania covering supply chain( passenger transportation, road freight, sea freight and air freight )with 28 countries globally.

•Managed the P&L of one of the biggest passenger transportation companies in Romania and was responsible for supervising the operational cost of the fleet in order to maintain high profit margins. Oil collection and supply of oil was included as part of the fleet maintenance for over 300 HDMO’s.

Samuel is the Global Segment & Product Manager promoting the Blending and Formulation Solutions – Cellier as part of Specialty Portfolio of Energy Industries Division from ABB Process Automation.
His focus is to develop and grow the activity throughout the ABB Global footprint leveraging the local presence supported by the Center Of Excellence expertize based in France.

Samuel has an extensive international experience in Execution and Sales Support for greenfield and brownfield projects in diffirent industrial sectors.

Samuel holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (USA) and an Engineer Diploma from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Bordeaux (France).

Terry Dicken holds a BSc (Hons) degree in applied chemistry and a MSc in
Instrumental chemical analysis. He has worked for a number of lubricant companies,
in various roles including: research and development, technical services and
marketing. He is currently Managing Director of Global Lubricants Ltd a speciality
lubricants company he founded in the UK in 1997.
Terry has been Chairman of ELGI (European Lubricating Grease Institute) since 1998
and is also Chairman of the Institute of Energy’s cutting fluids test methods panel,
STC5 a role he has fulfilled since the early 80’s. He has written and presented many
papers on the technology of lubricants and is currently the vice chair or the REACH
consortium for lubricating grease.

Joshua Dickstein, Ph.D., has spent the last six years working at Lubrizol in the Industrial Oils group. In his current role as a Technology Development Manager, Joshua is responsible for supporting key business developments in hydraulics, industrial gear oils, and turbine oils. Prior to joining Lubrizol in 2017, he spent 8 years as a Polymer Scientist in the tire and rubber industry.  Joshua has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. 

Marco was appointed as President of ATIEL the Technical Association of the European Lubricants Industry in 2018. A Brussels-based transport industry expert, Marco has 20 years’ experience of positioning and lobbying in Brussels on behalf of transport organizations.  

Prior to his appointment, Digioia was director for Government Affairs at Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Europe and member of the European Sustainable Shipping Forum. 

Prior to that, he worked for several road hauliers associations at the national and European level and was also transport expert representing businesses at the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). 

He holds a Master’s Degree in Law with a Specialization in European Affairs, International Relations and Diplomacy. 

Andreas Dodos received a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology from the University of Manchester, UK. He has spent the last 18 years at Eldon’s SA, with duties mainly focused on industrial and marine lubricants development. Since 2007 he has been actively involved in product stewardship with focus on global regulatory developments. He is a member in a number of professional bodies such as the ELGI, the Hellenic Maintenance Society and National Tribology Centre. Since 2010 he has been the Chairman of the European REACH Grease Thickener Consortium and he is currently serving on the ELGI Board of Directors. Andreas has extensive experience in formulation and application of lubricating grease and since 2018 he is CLGS certified by the NLGI – Certified Lubricating Grease Specialist. 

Guido M Donà joined Elf Atochem (now Arkema Group) in 1992. Since then he has covered a number of Business Development and Management positions in Italy, France and the US covering global roles. Guido worked for more than 15 years in the Adsorbents field and then in 2012 he joined Arkema’s Specialty Polyamides Business Unit at the head-office in France. Guido is now Director, Sustainability Strategy and as such he sets priorities and supervises the Sustainability initiatives and activities of the BU.  Guido holds a Master degree in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano.

Jeroen van Dorp has a background in organic chemistry and started his career as strategy consultant at Arthur D. Little, after which he transitioned into commercial roles in the biobased chemical industry.  

Another transition is driving Jeroen’s enthusiasm for ChainCraft. The transition for agrifood, chemical and material industries towards the use of renewable, circular feedstocks. Since 2020 he has been commercializing the fatty acid products developed by ChainCraft, which are produced by upcycling of organic residues (e.g. potato peels) via a unique fermentation process. 

The products marketed by ChainCraft are 100% biobased, circular building blocks. ChainCraft is scaling its operations towards a 30 kt capacity fatty acid plant, to be commissioned in 2026. 

In his spare time, Jeroen enjoys home fermentation, travelling, cycling and family time with his wife and daughter.

Kristina joined bp/Castrol in 2011 as part of bp’s graduate program working in product development of driveline and metalworking fluids. From 2014 to 2017, she advanced as a Development Chemist, specializing in product development of high-performance greases. Between 2017 and 2020, Kristina held the role as high performance lubricants team leader. Since mid-2020, she has excelled as the Expert Team Leader for the Product Development of Grease in Mönchengladbach. 

Dr. Duchowski graduated with a bachelor degree in chemistry from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and obtained a doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. From 1992 to 2004 he held the positions of Principal Scientist in the Scientific and Laboratory Services Department and Vice President of
Technology in the Machinery & Equipment Division at Pall Corporation. In 2005 he moved to HYDAC Technology Corporation where he holds the position of a Corporate Director R&D Filtration. His projects focus on the effects of physical and chemical contaminants on the performance of hydraulic and lubricating systems and the fluids employed in those systems. Dr. Duchowski is a Fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) and an STLE Certified Lubrication Specialist and Oil
Monitoring Analyst I and II.

Kevin is a Market Applications Specialist for Cargill Bioindustrial’s Energy Technologies sector, specialising in lubricants and focussing on technical developments in environmentally acceptable base stock and additive technologies. His career started in 1988 at Croda’s Application Chemicals Division before moving on to Q8 Oils, Houghton, Cimcool (Milicron), Q8 Oils (again) and Metalube, all the time being involved in finished lubricant development and formulation. He is now at Cargill Bioindustrial in his current capacity. Kevin has always worked closely with the United Kingdom Lubricants Association (UKLA) where he is currently a Director and Board member.

Dennis Eijdenberg is Technical Support Manager at Axel Christiernsson, the world’s largest private label lubricating greases manufacturer. Within this role he is the linkpin between the technical, development and commercial side of grease-manufacturing and -application. Dennis has a focus on sharing knowledge, and finding practical solutions for technical challenges and inquiries. 

Recently he has successfully led the attribution of the EU Ecolabel to the Dutch Axel grease manufacturing site, and has been certified as Certified Lubrication Specialist by STLE. He is currently involved in the field testing of several extreme heavy duty EALs (Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants), as well as supporting the lithium transition at Axel Christiernsson and its customers.

Elisa Swanson-Parbäck is responsible for Perstorp’ s business development in sustainable Engineered Fluids and Synthetic Lubricants. Since joining the company in 2018, Mrs. Swanson-Parbäck has been active in various market segments also leading digital transformation initiatives cross the company. Her current focus is on Perstorp’ s sustainability agenda and the transformative journey the lubricants industry is on to reach net zero.

Prior to Perstorp, Mrs. Swanson-Parbäck has over 12 years’ experience from senior marketing roles at Axis Communications, a market leader in network video solutions. Ms. Swanson-Parbäck holds both a master’s degree in economics and business administration and a master’s degree in work- and organizational psychology from Lund University, Sweden.

About Perstorp: As one of the world’s leading specialty chemicals innovators, we know little things make a powerful difference. Using nature’s tiniest building blocks, we can help advance everyday life – making it safer, more convenient and more environmentally sound for billions of people all over the world.

From 2003 – 2008 Frank Studied Mechanical Engineering at Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg. Following this, from 2008 – 2011 he became a Research Assistant and Chair of Machine Elements and Tribology at Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg

In July 2014 he received his PHD at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg; the title of his thesis was “Wear Resistance of Sintered Chain Wheels”. Since January 2012 Frank has worked at Schaeffler Technologies AG & CO. KG as a Specialist in the department of Tribology & Lubrication Technology.

Dr. Alexander Friedrich studied chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany where he received his PhD in the field of organometallic chemistry. Since April 2021, he is working at Setral, a medium sized German-French special lubricant producer. His field of activities includes chemical compliance, product management and R&D measures. All these fields are somehow linked together by regulatory obligations which are in constant change.  

Hans graduated in chemical engineering and business administration at University of technology Berlin and UBC Vancouver, Canada.

For 27 years, Hans worked for Shell in Lubricant, contributing to Shell becoming market leader in lubes. He led businesses directly (e.g. in East Africa and Eastern Europe), but was also in charge of Shell’s procurement of additives for both fuels and lubricants. 4 years ago Hans started working for two different SME in the area of production and marketing of lubricants additives, in setting up operations and recently in business development into others sectors.

Apu has been responsible for pioneering work in this area and held the position of Vice President & Chief
Sustainability Officer at Fuchs SE for over 10 years.

Apu now acts as independent Sustainability Expert Adviser and Partner at Fokus Zukunft, providing sustainability consultancy to clients looking to achieve carbon reduction and sustainability objectives across a wide array of applications.

He is also Senator at the Senate of Economy in Germany, where he chairs the Commission Sustainable Economy.

Satyan Gupta is a Director in Kline & Company’s Energy team. With over 15 years of experience in the consulting and market research industry, his focus is on business strategy, business planning, technology benchmarking, competitive assessment, market analysis and market entry strategy within the lubricants, natural gas, & chemicals industries.​ His education background is MBA (Petroleum) and bachelor’s in chemical engineering.   

Born and raised in Zagreb, Croatia, I spent 20 years in wood processing and manufacturing before joining the Ultrasound, Condition Monitoring, and Reliability journey as a member of the SDT International team. 

Focused on the improvement of Reliability performance through all its aspects, still particularly focused on Ultrasound technology, Condition Monitoring, and, as a strong passion, Condition-Based Lubrication. Deeply involved in Reliability Culture improvement and proactive mindset through Lubrication excellence.  

Writing, publishing, and presenting, but most of all learning. 

Proud member of SDT Ultrasound Solutions team where continuous improvement is a way of life. 

Matthias Hof is chemist by education and has studied at the Gerhard-Mercator University, Duisburg, and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry and has over 20 year experience in the lubricant industry having worked for companies like Cognis, Ciba and BASF in the past.

4-2001 till 9-2008            Working at Cognis as Laboratory and Project Manager for oleochemcial base stocks and additives for the lubricant industry

10-2008 till 12-2009        Working at Ciba in Basel, Switzerland, as Technical Promotion Manager Europe for Lubricant Additives

1-2010 till 6-2014            Working at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, Germany, as Senior Expert Europe for lubricant components, additives and packages as well as Gp V base stocks

7-2014 till 12-2018          Global Head Product and Application Development at Emery Oleochemicals GmbH in Monheim, Germany, for the Bio-Lubricants department

1-2019 till today              Global Business Manager Biolubes Ester, Bio-Lubricants Division, at Emery Oleochemicals GmbH

In his current position with Emery Oleochemicals GmbH as the Global Business Manager Biolubes Matthias is responsible for the business of base stocks, components and intermediates for the lubricant industry based on oleochemical raw materials. Matthias is leading project activities with key customers, defines the global strategy for the ester business and supports the regional sales and marketing activities.

Guo Harn is responsible for editorial direction and market engagement operations of the Argus Base Oils team and leads the company’s Base Oils Outlook publication. He has previous experience in the financial, media, and architecture industry. Guo Harn graduated from the National University of Singapore with First Class Honours in Economics and was on the university’s Dean’s List. 

Annie is Director of Global Business Development for Kline’s Energy Management Consulting Business, based out of Kline’s London office. Her focus is working with clients involved in the lubricants value chain and associated industries. She also is a key member of Kline’s lubricant value chain advisory and due diligence team.

Prior to joining Kline, Annie ran a global lubricants and greases performance benchmarking and analysis project. This saw her work with numerous global, national and independent lubricant companies advising on operational improvement and cost reduction through advanced data analytics.

Earlier in her career Annie worked as a process engineer primarily working to optimize biogas and energy production from wastewater treatment facilities.

Annie has a BEng (honors) in Chemical and Process Engineering, and a B.Sc (Chemistry), both from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

After a master’s degree and a PhD Thesis with Rhodia (now Solvay) in Process and Product Engineering (France), I joined TotalEnergies (Belgium) in 2008 as Technical Service & Development Engineer for Polymers. In 2014 I decided to discover the world of Lubricants as Product Manager for Metalworking. As Metalworking is a fascinating industry, I chose to continue as Senior Product Manager and now as Product Specialist.

• Chemist with doctorate degree and 35 years experience in the lubricant industry, 29 years in various roles at Dow Corning‘s Molykote® lubricants product line 
• Recognized (STLE fellow) contributor to the tribology community worldwide through presentations at conferences, journal articles, book chapters and society’s board membership. 
• Editor in Chief of Tribologie und Schmierungstechnik, the leading German peer reviewed Journal on Tribologie, available online, English articles possible, Open Access possible. 
• Initiator and Co-Editor of Schmierstoff und Schmierung, quarterly German language publication for the lubricant industry. 
• Board member of ELGI (European Lubricating and Grease Institute) and GfT (Gesellschaft für Tribologie) 

Rainer Keiemburg started his career at TotalEnergies in 1997 as a sales engineer and then gained further experience in industrial lubricants. Afterwards he was responsible for different business units in Germany and took over the responsibility for the specialties business within the management board of TotalEnergies Germany.  

Today, Rainer Keiemburg is responsible for the international business line of Greases and Specialties within TotalEnergies Lubrifiants 

Throughout his career, the focus has been on providing partners with innovative solutions that help them optimize their value chain. TotalEnergies has been committed to better energy for many years and the Greases and Specialties Division helps its partners to reduce their total cost of production and their environmental footprint while increasing the performance of their production units. For this purpose, TotalEnergies Lubrifiants has developed the TCO2 approach (Total Cost of Ownership + CO2 reduction), which proves that both concerns are not competing but can be achieved together. 

53 years old. After school, apprenticeship as industrial mechanic, studied mechanical Engineering at University of Duisburg with specialization for manufacturing technology. Before joining NSK, 2 position as Project Engineer for manufacturing technology. One of them in mass production context (mobile phone manufacturing). Taking over responsibility for PCB manufacturing and mobile phone assembly. 2007 starting at NSK as application engineer for industrial projects and specialized 2009 for wind turbine technology. Leading projects for bearings for wind turbine gearbox and introducing new manufacturing quality controls in the main plant for large and giant size bearings in Japan. 2011 Taking over leadership for a team ofIndustrial Application Engineers. Since 2016 head of Automotive Bearing development in Europe and leading two teams for HUB Wheel Bearings and Powertrain applications. Driving customer projects for high volume and premium customers for OEM´s and Tier 1 & 2.

Dr. Anant Kolekar is a Chief Scientist who leads the Global Drive System Fluid Development at Valvoline Global Operations. He earned his PhD in Tribology from Imperial College London. He has multiple patents and publications on drive system fluids and hardware designs. He has a unique professional background in Automotive and Aerospace product developments using Tribology, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Computational Mathematics.

Dr. Kolekar has received multiple awards in professional work and sports. He has been actively involved promoting nature conservation and wild animal protection.

Thilo Krapfl is Head of the Industrial Segment at Evonik Oil Additives. With a background in Chemical Engineering, he joined Evonik 20 years ago in the engineering department, focused on design & engineering of the Oil Additives production facility in Singapore. Since then, he has been actively supporting the lubricants industry in various functions such as Technical Service, Plant Management, Head of Sales EMEA and most recently as Project Lead for establishing the sustainability journey of Oil Additives. In his current role Thilo is focused on driving the development and growth of sustainable lubricants in all industrial applications.

Klaus is the European Application and Technology Leader for Lubricants in the Dow Industrial Solutions organization. He provides the technical product and application expertise to select customers in his region and drives the innovation portfolio for lubricants.
The technical solutions include SYNALOX™ and UCON™ Base Stocks for lubricating oils.

Klaus Kunz joined Dow Corning in 1992 and held a variety of development and technical service roles before moving to an European technical leadership role within Dow Corning’s Specialty Chemicals organization in 2008, including the Molykote^® Specialty Lubricants team.

After the integration of Dow Corning into Dow he lead the European TS&D team for Silicone Elastomers. In 2021 he moved into his current position.

Joshua Dickstein, Ph.D., has spent the last six years working at Lubrizol in the Industrial Oils group. In his current role as a Technology Development Manager, Joshua is responsible for supporting key business developments in hydraulics, industrial gear oils, and turbine oils. Prior to joining Lubrizol in 2017, he spent 8 years as a Polymer Scientist in the tire and rubber industry.  Joshua has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. 

Verena Leumann obtained her Diploma in chemical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Georg Simon Ohm in Nuremberg, Germany. She is working in the product management for Setral Chemie GmbH since October 2011. Being the head of product management for several years, she is responsible for the development of the product range of lubricants at Setral. Trainings for national and international distributors, customers or new employees on tribology and high-performance lubricants are a focus of her work. She coordinates and participates in R&D projects of her company.  

Dr. A. Link is a studied chemist that began his career in the petrochemical industry as quality and developing chemist in the mid-1990s. From 2002 he changed the industry to start to work for OEMs like Daimler, General Motors, and Liebherr. There he worked in several positions in the Powertrain manufacturing, tooling, chemical management, process engineering, and machine/part development. During this time and the growing management responsibility he also did a second degree in automotive entrepreneurship and finished this education with a DBA in international business and administration. Since 2021 he is responsible for the metalworking product portfolio of Petrofer globally. In this position he is leading the product portfolio development but is also working and aiding the metal working machine/tool producers, metal manufacturers as OEMs and SME all over the globe with product and process technology.

Mark Lord, Managing Director and Founder of Aztec Oils Ltd. An independent lubricant blender established in 1995. 

Based in Bolsover, Derbyshire we manufacture a complete portfolio of industrial and automotive lubricants, and distribute around the world, through authorised distributors and our own company owned sites in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Lithuania. 

Aztec has enjoyed consistent growth through strong branding, an ethical approach to sales balancing the demands of our distributor network and end user customers. 

We have extensive technical capability with superbly equipped laboratory facilities, highly experienced staff and a proactive approach to product innovation majoring on sustainability. 

In 2021, 50% of the company became an Employee Ownership Trust, giving the employees the incentive to drive their own future as I step back into semi-retirement. 

Fiercely independent, Aztec Oils, is fully equipped to embrace the challenges that face our industry currently and into the future. 

Rahul is a digital transformation leader with more than 20 years of experience supporting companies globally to harness the power of data to make better decisions and have positive impact on their financials. He has worked with several start-ups and Fortune 500 companies on big data projects while working in Silicon Valley. The phrase “Data is the new oil” became synonymous with the value they derived from insights from these projects.

In 2022, it was a natural fit for Rahul to join FoxInsights, a provider of innovative remote tank monitoring solutions with a focus on data and AI. He and his team pride themselves on supporting FoxInsights partners in Energy, Mobility, and Recycling sectors; ensuring their adoption of digital solutions to optimise sales and logistics processes.

After finishing his Master’s degree in Sustainability Sciences (M. Sc.), Mario Majic joined the AVISTA OIL Group in 2014 starting as a Project Manager and Management and Supervisory Board Assistant.

In 2016 he took over the responsibility for the Risk Management and introduced a Compliance Management System into the Company.

As of 2018, Mario Majic is taking the role as Head of Corporate Governance, Business Development and Marketing focussing mainly on improving the sustainability performance and sustainability portfolio of the company, as well as expanding the business operations into new markets.

Production Engineering, University of Applied Sciences (Rosenheim)

Professional Career
2006-2008: BMW Group in Munich. Development and production of
petrol engines. Dealing with topics on technical cleanliness and
driving characteristics.

2008–2013: Diagnose-Engineer for lubricant analysis at OELCHECK
in Brannenburg

2013-2015: Head of Technical Service at OELCHECK

2016-2017: Head of Product Management Lubricants at BayWa AG

Current job
Business Director Technical Service & Sales at OELCHECK

Further training
Since 2012: CLS (Certified Lubrication Specialist

James Moorhouse is Director and Founder of ABN Resource, a Global Executive Search firm that supports lubricants, additive and base oil companies across the world. Focused on executive leadership, sales and technical hires. A strong global industry network, paired with ABN’s award-winning search and assessment process and industry knowledge assures the best outcome for all parties.

Philippe is Senior Process Engineer, for the Blending and Formulation Solutions – Cellier as part of Specialty Portfolio of Energy Industries Division from ABB Process Automation.

In his role, Philippe apples his expertise of lubricants and greases manufacturing from R&D, plant audits, conceptual and FEED studies up to project implementation. His primary fields of expertise are lubricating oils and greases production.

Philippe holds an Engineer Diploma from Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieur de Poitiers, with a specialization in Petroleum Refining & Engineering from the Institut Français du Petrole (IFP).

Piotr Niemiec will be presenting on behalf of ATIEL at Lubricant Expo 2023 

The importance of lubricant quality and compliance with market standards cannot be underestimated. Safeguarding European Engine Lubricant Quality lies at the heart of the role of ATIEL in managing and maintaining compliance with the ACEA Engine Oil sequences. 

Piotr Niemiec, a Board member of ATIEL and sponsor of its’ Quality Management System (QMS) Committee, will outline the role ATIEL plays in safeguarding European market standards so retaining the confidence and trust of end users in the automotive engine oils they use.  

Piotr attained his PhD in Chemical Technology from the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland in 2005 and his PhD in Management and Quality Sciences from the University of Lodz, Poland in 2022. 

Since 2006, he has been employed by LOTOS Oil (by ORLEN Oil after acquisition), where he worked in the areas of technology, development, technical support, and market analysis.  

Since 2009, Piotr has been active member of various ATIEL’s technical committees, since 2020 he is a member of BoD being also QMS committee sponsor.  

As technical manager Pär Nyman coordinates the work with lubricants and lubrication within the transmission development department at Scania R&D. He has the technical responsibility for lubricants for both traditional transmissions, axles and retarders as well as those for electrified transmissions and axles. Before this he was a Development Engineer, then a senior development engineer for Statoil Lubricants R&D. Additionally he was a Research Engineer in tribology at  Luleå University of Technology.  Pär holds a M.Sc. degree in Vehicle Engineering from the Royal institute of Technology. 

Dr. Manish Patel is currently Market Development Advisor for PCM and HDMO applications, as well product development team for Group V fluids (esters and alkylated naphthalene). Manish is based in ExxonMobil Product Solutions Houston campus.

Manish has held a number of roles in the lubricants and chemicals manufacturing companies with deep dive into various chemistries in lubricants formulations. Manish’s educational background is coming from physical chemistry.

He has an MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from Chimie Paristech in Paris and a second MSc degree Energy and Petroleum products, from IFP School (French petroleum institute)  

He has spent now more than 10 years in the lubricant industry on multiple functions: Field engineer in the United kingdom and Grease product manager at Total and is now sales manager at SEQENS 

He was awarded the UKLA Young employee of the year award in 2016. (but has unfortunately left the club of “young people” now, especially since he became a dad) 

Clearly passionate by greasy, steaky and oily stuff but he also spend his free time proposing coaching and help to his colleague and friends on creating efficient PowerPoint presentations.  

Anders Pettersson holds the position as the Global Lubricant Coordinator for Volvo CE.

He is working with lubricant product development, engineering support, procurement support, used oil analysis and supplier relations for the Volvo group. 

Anders Pettersson has a Ph.D. from Luleå University in Machine elements.

Beside his position at Volvo CE, he also works part time as Senior Lecture at Luleå University of Technology, teaching Tribology, Mechanical Engineering and perform research in the field of Tribology.

Giuseppina Pisaniello is the Head of Additives and Specialties at Eni Sustainable Mobility. With a background in  Chemical Engineering, she started her career at Eni 29 years ago in the R&D of Lubricants and later on she served in the  Refining technologies sector, dealing with Base Oil production processes. She has been responsible for the development and technical assistance of products (fuels, lubricants, bitumen) for several years. After an extensive experience in technical sectors, she moved to commercial roles as Head of Overseas Lubricant sales before playing the current role. She is an expert in biofuels, promoting the knowledge of HVO (Hydrotreted Vegetable oils) and the role that biofuels can play in Energy Transition.   

She was also member of several Board of Directors (American and Chinese Eni branches and of some JV in the field of lubricants or technologies -Singapore, Ghana, Venice) and she is currently President of the JV Arezzo Gas. She was also member of the advisory board of Lubricant Expo 2022. 

In his current role, Kevin is accountable for leading Infineum’s Sustainability Team which sets the strategies and targets for achieving Infineum’s ESG objectives, with a particular current focus on the corporation’s Net Zero ambitions.  

Kevin has over 35 years of experience in the fuels and lubricants industry and has been with Infineum since formation in 1999. He started his career with Shell and has since enjoyed a variety of technology, commercial and business development roles in the US, UK and Singapore.  

Kevin holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in the US. 

Giulio is graduated in physical-chemistry at Milan University and since 1990 he has been working in the lubricant sector uninterruptedly for 32 years. He started his career in Eni R&D centre, dealing with additives and engine lubricants for 15 years.

In 2005 he joined Viscolube (now Itelyum Regeneration), as Product Technical Manager reporting to the Commercial Direction, dealing also with re-refined base oil sales and technical assistance to Customers.

In the course of his career in RRBO industry, he had the chance to witness from the beginning the increasing interest on re-refining and its perfect and unsurprising matching with the sustainability criteria applied to the lubrication supply chain.

He was also a member of the UEIL Sustainability Task-Force in 2019, contributing to lay the groundwork for the launch of the UEIL Sustainability Committee in 2020.

Grégoire Roux, is senior lubrication engineer. He is a Mechanical Engineer by education.   

He held several position inside TotalEnergies Lubrifiants SA in link with the iOEM such as for bearings, gears and hydraulic components.  

During 2018 and 2021, he was responsible of the strategic research cooperation with the RWTH Aachen University. He was based in Germany 9 years 

Since 2022, he is back in France and in charge of heavy industry applications with a focus on gears, bearing, hydraulic in the Lubricant Technical Division.  

Siddharth Sachdeva is the drive behind the advances in technology usage at Siddharth Grease & Lubes in India and Trinity Lubes & Greases, a new State-of-the-Art facility in the UAE.  From these two companies, lubricants and greases are manufactured, then exported around the world. The Technology Centre, built at their Indian plant; have developed new and exciting products and SGL holds many patents that are used by the world’s biggest lubricant brands.

The Technology Centre has had great success in producing and testing products not only in the lab, but also field trials, that work harder for longer. Helping to not only to reduce waste but also the cost of ownership. Focusing not just on environmental sustainability but economic as well. 

Willem has over 25 years of experience in the lubricant industry, holding positions in sales, technical support, and OEM relationship management, for finished lubricants, lubricant additives, and lubricating greases at different organizations such as Petronas Lubricants, Afton Chemical and Axel Christiernsson. 

Currently Willem is taking care of Customer Technical Support for ExxonMobil base stocks out of their regional headquarters for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, based in Brussels.

Willem will familiarize us today with trends and dynamics within the Extra Heavy base oil market and their impact on the lubricant landscape, and he will also touch on how recent investments will provide lubricant blenders with a new type of molecule to meet their customers’ needs.

Jörg joined Shell 28 years ago, following a career as Officer and Commanding Officer in the Navy. During his career at Shell Jörg worked in different roles, i.e., Engine oil development, Lubricants Technical Service, Fuels development, Manager of Testing facilities and was responsible for several teams within the Shell R&D community and within the Lubricants Business.

As Dipl.-Ing. Maschinenbau (Automotive Engineer) Jörg is passionate about the sustainable development of Lubricants and Fuels and the interaction of these with engines, drivetrains, and Industry applications.

In his current position he is responsible for Shell’s Lubricants Development Team in EMEA and Lubricants Technical Service.

Joseph is currently Business Development Manager for Synthetic Basestocks at ExxonMobil; based in London.

Joseph has held a number of roles throughout the lubricant value chain during his time with ExxonMobil; which he joined following the completion his Mechanical Engineering degree in 2015.

Gemma is an Industry Relationship Specialist for Cargill Bioindustrial’s Energy Technologies sector, looking at both internal and external business activities through a sustainability lens. She has a technical background, obtaining a PhD in Materials Chemistry in 2012 from The University of Manchester, before joining Croda Lubricants in 2012. Here her main focus was on tribology as well as additive and base oil development. Leaving the laboratory behind she joined the commercial side of the business, gaining experience and qualifications in both professional marketing and environmental management. Gemma now focusses purely on sustainability for the business, on corporate, product and customer level initiatives. 

I am 31 years old and live around the area of Niederrhein (close to Essen) in Germany. Since August 2014 I am working as Chemical Laboratory Technician at the Research and Development department of Kao Chemicals Germany in Emmerich. I was already introduced to the subject of formulating metalworking fluids during my training period and have now about 10 years of laboratory experience. In addition to working on customer projects and optimization procedures of various formulation types, I am currently working intensively on possible biobased solutions for our technical application area. Furthermore I am also increasingly concerned with technical marketing related topics. That is why I took a further training course to become a Technical Sales Manager (CCI) in August 2021. My horse is my balance to the daily routine in the lab.

32 years from Cologne. After school I did an apprenticeship as industrial mechanic and in parallel started studying mechanical engineering with focus on product development at the RFH Köln. In 2016 I joined NSK as an Application Engineer for automotive powertrains. My role started with the technical support of projects for conventional gearboxes, which then changed more and more to HEV and BEV applications. The technical support included the calculation and design process of rolling bearings from development stage into mass production. With increasing knowledge and experience I took over the technical lead in these projects as senior application engineer. Since March 2023 I am working as an Innovation manager in the Technology Scouting Office of NSK. In cooperation with NSK R&D groups around the world I am working on innovation projects related to mobility. Additionally to these innovation projects I am supporting NSK departments with market research and trend analysis. 

Initially trained in Doncaster as a research and development chemist, developing specialist lubricants for the metal rolling industry. I later moved to Houghton Vaughans now Quaker Houghton developing a wide range of different lubricants, coatings and metal treatment products. Before re-joining the lubricants industry at Aztec Oils, I taught Chemistry in a secondary school. 

Although a graduate of The University of Hull, the majority of my formal education was part-time starting at 16 direct from school at a time in the 1990’s when the lubricant industry employed and trained relatively few young people. Currently the technical lead at Aztec Oils with responsibility of developing and training new talent.  

Aztec Oils is an energetic, fiercely independent lubricants manufacturer and distributor with several sites in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Lithuania.  

Initially trained in Doncaster as a research and development chemist, developing specialist lubricants for the metal rolling industry. I later moved to Houghton Vaughans now Quaker Houghton developing a wide range of different lubricants, coatings and metal treatment products. Before re-joining the lubricants industry at Aztec Oils, I taught Chemistry in a secondary school. 

Although a graduate of The University of Hull, the majority of my formal education was part-time starting at 16 direct from school at a time in the 1990’s when the lubricant industry employed and trained relatively few young people. Currently the technical lead at Aztec Oils with responsibility of developing and training new talent.  

Aztec Oils is an energetic, fiercely independent lubricants manufacturer and distributor with several sites in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Lithuania.  

Gabriella is responsible for editing, product development and strategy, and coverage for the Global Base Oils report. Gabriella is an experienced commodity analyst having previously covered the biomass markets at Argus and Maritime industry at IHS Markit. Gabriella is an industry professional and began her career in ship management at CMA CGM. 

Deepak Halenahally Veeregowda has a PhD in tribology. He is currently the 
director of Ducom Instruments in the Netherlands. For over 15 years he has extensively worked 
with the lubricants industry customer base and has contributed to new technologies, test 
methods and measuring instruments.   

Will Vickers belongs to the seventh generation of the Vickers family, who have been contributors to the lubricants industry since 1828. While he has learned much from, and respects the lessons and values passed down through his lineage, he believes in the importance of evolving with the times. He sits on both the Board of Directors of Vickers Oils and is Chief Executive of the family holding company, Mary Randall Vickers. 

He studied Fine Art at the John Cass School of Art in London, and has taken the learnings from his degree to make small yet meaningful steps to ensure the family business remains relevant in today’s world.

Will lives between Stockholm and New York City, whilst visiting Leeds and the UK regularly for work and to visit family. 

• Dr. Sarma Volety, PhD in Tribology of unlubricated and marginally lubricated Bearing materials, from Jost Institute of Tribotechnology, UK
• MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Karlstad University, Sweden
• Currently Senior Tribologist at Tata steel UK.
• Look after all matters relating to Lubrication products and services for Tata steel UK

I hold a PhD in Synthetic Chemistry and I’ve been working in the lubricants industry for over a decade in the USA, China and Europe in technical and commercial roles. I am currently the technical manager for the Lubricants and Metalworking fluids division of Univar Solutions covering EMEA out of Montreuil, France. 

Dr. Per Wiklund founded the company Biobase Sweden AB in 2019. He has worked exclusively with development of biobased functional fluids since 2016 during which time he has invented several patented products including a novel biobased electrical insulating oil. Per has worked in the field of specialty base oils for over 15 years in various positions. He holds a PhD in bioorganic chemistry and is currently tutoring a PhD candidate at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Based in London, Yana Wilkinson is the global leader of Kline’s Energy practice. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, her practice focuses on downstream energy specialties, namely the whole lubricants value chain and adjacencies, including a broad range of automotive and industrial end-use applications. Engagements led by her team include strategy support and market intelligence. Examples of projects include market insight and intelligence, facilitating strategy review and development, business growth and market entry, opportunity identification, M&A, and more. 

Yana’s self-described ambition is to leave our clients better equipped to handle challenges and capture opportunities by separating the insight from the noise, especially important when converting mega themes like Sustainability, Mobility, and Digital into clear implications for the daily business of our clients. 

Yana holds a master’s degree from the Copenhagen Business School. She speaks several languages including English, Russian, and Ukrainian. She enjoys exploring the outdoors with her family including activities of cycling, running, and hiking. 

Lee Wootton is Marketing Director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India at Afton Chemical. He has a wide range of experience – stretching over 10 years – in the chemical industry and joined Afton in 2013. Combining a strong marketing background with commercial experience, Lee has guided Afton’s growth across Passenger Vehicle applications with experience across both fuels and lubricants.  He holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Oxford Brookes.  Lee leads a dynamic and entrepreneurial commercial marketing team and has worked collaboratively with both oil companies and industry bodies to identify strategic growth and areas for differentiation.

Edward Worthington is the Global Technology Manager for grease Products and is based in Hamburg, Germany at Shell Technology Center Hamburg. He joined Shell in 2008 and has held several roles in the Shell Projects and Technology (P&T) group. He has 18+ years of experience in the Lubricants business covering grease research, additive technology, failure mode and effect analyses, production optimization and formulation development. Edward received his engineer degree in organic chemistry from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and his master’s degree in chemistry from the VU University Amsterdam.