Alessandra De Martino
Senior Scientist
Biofortis Merieux

Alessandra De Martino is Senior Scientist, Expert Microbiota, in the CRO Biofortis Mérieux NutriSciences, France to support companies or academic research team, on microbiota projects (from the study design to the result valorization). She has been PhD graduated at the University ‘Pierre et Marie Curie’ of Paris in Marine Biology (Rocher group), project’ manager during more than 10 yrs in the field of ‘microalgae genomic and engineering’, in academic research structures and Biotech. She is also trained in strategic marketing and quality insurance.

Dr. Mechtild Petersen-Thiery
Senior Regulatory Manager Personal Care
BASF

Dr. Mechtild Petersen-Thiery is a Doctor of Analytical Chemistry, Master of Science in Chemistry both at University of Saarbrücken, Germany. She is working as Regulatory Manager for cosmetics with specific responsibility for the registration and product stewardship of UV-filters for sunscreen products. She supports cosmetic companies to comply with the different cosmetic regulatory environments. She is nano expert for the Care Chemicals Division of BASF, conducts dialogues with different stakeholders: authorities, consumers, scientists and non-governmental organizations. At BASF she is responsible for the REACH registration of UV filters and their precursor products.

Ajax Mohamed, Ph.D.
Resident Director & Prokurist
Sabinsa Europe GmbH

Ajax Mohamed holds a doctorate degree in Chemistry from AMU, Aligarh, India. He travelled to Germany in 1998 to join George August University, Göttingen as DAAD fellow for post doctoral research and later on continued to do research work at Goethe University at Frankfurt. Later on, he joined as a sales and marketing manager for an international company at Frankfurt. Before joining Sabinsa he was heading the business consulting unit of a Frankfurt based consulting company. Since 2008 he was working as Vice President- Sales for Sabinsa Europe GmbH. Ajax has more than 20 years of experience in R&D, consulting, marketing and sales in the chemical, cosmetic and food supplement industry and has many publications in scientific journals and has made presentations at several conferences and exhibitions. Since 2010 he has taken up the additional responsibility as VP – Sales of the sister concern Organica Aromatics who are manufacturers of high quality aromatic chemicals and perfumery compounds.

Currently he is heading the European operations of the Samilabs/Sabinsa group of companies. Sabinsa Europe GmbH is a subsidiary of the Samilabs/Sabinsa Group and represents Sabinsa’s European platform for marketing, sales and distribution of Phytonutrients, standardized herbal extracts, speciality & fine chemicals and organic intermediates. Sabinsa is a premium supplier & manufacturer of herbal extracts, phytonutrients, cosmeceuticals, minerals and specialty fine chemicals. A vertically integrated biotechnology based R&D and six production facilities it has offices all around the world. The European office at Frankfurt is having qualified sales team with own warehouse facility.

Dr. Mario Luca Russo
Founder & Director
Dr Russo Skincare

Sébastien MIKSA
CEO
SUNCERT
&
Laboratory Manager
HelioScreen labs

Dr. Jakub Kostal
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The George Washington University

Dr. Jakub Kostal is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The George Washington University and co-Founder of DOT Consulting, a company that develops and maintains the ToxFix platform of predictive tools and design guidelines for reduced toxicity of commercial chemicals. Dr. Kostal holdsBA from Middlebury College and PhD in Theoretical and Biophysical Chemistry from Yale University, where he studied under the auspices of Prof. Bill Jorgensen. During his postdoctoral research, Dr. Kostal worked with Profs. Julie Zimmerman and Paul Anastas, the father of Green Chemistry, developing in silico tools for toxicity testing.Dr. Kostal’sgroupat The George Washington University researches the utility of computational chemistry, particularly classical and quantum-mechanics simulations of biochemical systems, in designing safer chemicals. While predicting toxicity is important for screening existing chemicals for safety, incorporating safety criteria at the design stage could drastically decrease new product development costs across industry.

Sylvie Gallage-Alwis
Counsel
Hogan Lovells

Sylvie Gallage-Alwis is a Counsel of the Litigation team of the Paris Office of Hogan Lovells. She is both an Avocat à la Cour in France and a Solicitor in England & Wales. Sylvie has extensive experience in product liability claims both civil and criminal, and regularly handles product safety issues. She has in this respect assisted a number of clients during pan-European and RAPEX recalls.

Sylvie is in charge of the chemical & toxic torts cases in Paris and has in this respect developed a specific expertise in cosmetics law, advising numerous key players of this industry on a variety of issues, both on a regulatory and litigation standpoint. She has been listed amongst the best product liability lawyers in France by Who’s Who Legal, 2015 and 2016. Sylvie has also been designated as the rising star for Litigation in France in the LMG Rising Stars 2015 and 2016 editions of the Expert Guide.

Ellen Pfrommer
Head of Regulatory Affairs Cosmetics
BASF SE

Ellen Pfrommer graduated from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) with MS in Food Chemistry, which is a special branch of chemistry with focus on analytics and regulations. After graduation she joined BASF and started her career in application work for colorants for use in food, pharma and cosmetics.

Later on she focused on cosmetic ingredients at BASF and stayed in this area, holding various positions throughout the years; Technical Product Management, Development, Technical Service and Global Key Account Management. Prior to taking over the responsibility of the Product Stewardship unit, Ellen was responsible for the Technical Service in Europe. Ms. Pfrommer has been with BASF for more than 20 years. Today, she has the responsibility at BASF for Product Stewardship for Personal Care Ingredients.

Marc Pissavini
R&D Director
COTY

Marc Pissavini is a chemist Ph.D. He started his career in the cosmetic industry in the field of Analytical chemistry in 1997. In 1998 he joined the Sun Research Department of Coty-Lancaster Group. He has been promoted to the Director of the Basic & Applied Research in 2008 which specialized in In Vitro spectroscopy and in the study of the roughness of supports.

Marc frequently publishes articles and contributes in conference to further the innovation within the field. He is also an active member of different specialist groups and industries which include AFNOR, or FEBEA. He also holds chairman positions for the Sun Protection Methodology Task force for Cosmetics Europe as well as ISO in the SPF In Vitro group, since 2012.

Dr. Aline Weber
Director— Regulatory Affairs COSMED

Aline Weber is a doctor in pharmacy specialized in the regulatory and quality management of health products.

She joined COSMED, the French Association for the Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) of the cosmetic industry, as International regulatory manager in September 2010.COSMED has now become the biggest network of SMEs in the French cosmetics industry.
There are 725 member companies bringing together all trades from the sector: own brands mainly, but also suppliers, manufacturers, expert laboratories, etc.90% of which are SMEs, COSMED is now considered as an essential player in the cosmetics industry.

Director of European and International Regulatory Affairs since 2012, her work focuses on establishing with the European Commission the new regulations and guidelines in line with the interests of the cosmetic industries specially the SME’s. For that purpose, she participates or collaborates in the Working groups of the European Commission and the national authorities regarding Cosmetic Products.

Fernanda Motta
Principal Claims Creation & Communication Scientist
Oriflame

With a degree in Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Science from De Montfort University, England, Fernanda Motta first began her career as a formulation chemist in Unilever and then Reckitt Benckiser.  She joined Oriflame Research & Development in 2009 as part of the Claims & Scientific Communication team where she was primarily working within the skincare division validating the scientific communication and developing clear support routes for challenging product claims.

It is within Skincare where she honed her skills and applied her passion for developing product claims that are both creative as well as regulatory compliant globally. Through her experience with Oriflame, Fernanda has grown her expertise in translating the chemistry and science behind the products and actives into innovative and engaging claims in line with consumer needs and in an ever more challenging regulatory environment. She has collaborated in the delivery of several research projects, one of which has recently been presented at the IFSCC 2016 Conferenceand is a speaker at Oriflame sales conferences representing R&D.

Dr. Michaela I. Hegglin
Lecturer
University of Reading

Dr. Michaela I. Hegglin is Lecturer in Atmospheric Chemistry at the Meteorology Department of the University of Reading, United Kingdom. She obtained her Masters degree in Environmental Sciences (Dipl. Natw. ETH) in 2000 and a doctoral degree (Dr. Sc. ETH) in 2004 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. After her Ph.D. she spent 7 years at University of Toronto, Canada, as Research Associate, before moving to the University of Reading in 2012.

Her research expertise covers stratospheric ozone chemistry and transport, tropospheric air pollution, chemistry-climate interactions, as well as their impacts on human and ecosystem health. She is internationally recognised as one of the leading experts in the synergistic use of observations and chemistry-climate models. She has taken on several leadership positions within the World Climate Research Programme’s core project Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC); has been Co-Author of the WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessments of Ozone Depletion in 2010 and 2014; Lead Author of the 20 Questions and Answers on Ozone Depletion (an integral part of the WMO/UNEP Assessment Reports aimed at public education on the topic); and also Reviewer for the UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel Reports in 2010 and 2014.

Dr. Bobby Awadalla
Founder and CEO
UVO

Dr. Bobby Awadalla is a  board-certified dermatologist & creator of UVO. He belongs to The American Academy of Dermatology, The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and The American College of Mohs Surgery. He earned his medical degree with honors from Drexel University College of Medicine and went on to become chief resident at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dr. Awadalla honed his skills in Mohs micrographic surgery, a tissue-sparing skin cancer removal and facial reconstruction procedure, and other cosmetic dermatology procedures as a fellow at Methodist Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Houston. He has also published numerous papers in the field of dermatology. Dr. Awadalla spent years researching natural alternative methods of providing sun protection and repair, which led him to develop UVO.