Jens Lundsgaard
Keynote Speaker

As one of the two Deputy Directors of the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, Jens Lundsgaard helps oversee work on issues related to science, industry, productivity and the green transition.

From 2011 to 2017, he served as Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Business and Growth in Denmark, leading the preparation of reforms to promote productivity and sustainable growth including in sectors such as energy, water, food, life science and urban economics. From 2018 to 2022, he served as a resident member of the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, UK, chairing the Bank’s first Ethics Committee and developing strategies to transform key sectors such as food and agriculture to climate neutrality and nature-positive solutions. While being a board member, he has also been a regular economic commentator in Danish and international media.

From 2001 to 2011, Jens worked at the OECD – as Deputy Head of Division in the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, as Head of the Sweden and Denmark Unit as well as economist covering UK and Finland in the Economics Department, and as an economist on public finance and health.

A Danish national, Jens holds an Economics Degree from the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

Mattia Adani

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.

Mattia is the owner and CEO of Nowal Chimica, an Italian SME, blender of lubricants, metalworking and other process fluids for the metalworking sector.

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.

André Anacleto

André is a partner in McKinsey & Company’s Lisbon office, focused on energy transition, including future e-mobility trends. With extensive global experience, especially in Europe, he has guided numerous companies towards carbon neutrality. His experience includes developing strategies for the future energy mix and promoting decarbonization efforts in downstream sectors. André also led transformation projects for major European utilities, global renewable energy companies, and oil and gas operators.

André is also involved in strategy definition and impact assessment of critical metals, in particular lithium, in the evolving context of energy transition and industrialization. He collaborates with companies to anticipate market trends and leads projects that drive industrial development in both established and emerging industries.

Miltos Bantis

Miltos Bantis holds the position of General Manager of LPC S.A a fully vertical supplier and trader of Lubricants, Greases and Other Petroleum products located in Greece, member of Motor Oil Hellas Group of Companies.

Miltos is a Chemical Engineer and has started his journey in LPC in 2005, undertaking continuously roles of increasing responsibility across the Supply Chain, becoming Plant Manager in 2014 and General Manager in 2020. During his career, he has set up production plants, lead numerous refinery production improvement projects, optimized organizational process flows, engineered the opening of new markets that have lead LPC to become a company serving more than 55 countries worldwide.

Moreover, he is leading the LPC ecosystem towards sustainable development where LPC’s re-refinery plays a key role in supporting Greece reaching its country WLO collection targets.

Stephan Baumgärtel 

Dr. Stephan Baumgärtel has been the Managing Director of Association of the German lubricants industry VSI for over a decade. With extensive experience in Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) management, technical sustainability, lubricant technology and regulatory affairs, Stephan has a proven track record in leading technical groups and facilitating communication between industry stakeholders and policymakers.

Stephan holds an MSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Frankfurt.

Richard Camper

Richard Camper is the Executive Vice President of Hasco, a distributor and manufacturer of industrial fluids and lubricants. He is currently the Vice President of ILMA and the founding chair of the ILMA Sustainability Committee. He lives in Long Beach, California with his wife Kara, their son Matthew and their dog Charlie.

Michael Connolly

Michael Connolly is the Head of Refining and Base Oils analytics at ICIS. His role includes Supply/Demand database forecasting, price forecasting, analysing trends in refining and single client work. He is a globally experienced chemical engineer, well versed in understanding the dynamic refining industry and its impact on the market. He has worked in the refining sector since 2001, both as a consultant and in refineries themselves. Key topics of interest include the shift to petrochemicals in refining and the evolution of the base oils market.

He was previously the Regional Process Consulting Manager for KBC in Europe and prior worked in refineries for ExxonMobil and Chevron in Australia in technical and operations roles. He holds a Degree in Chemical Engineering from Sydney University, Australia and is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Terry Dicken

Terry Dicken is a Chartered chemist and holds a BSc (Hons) degree in applied chemistry and an MSc in Instrumental chemical analysis. He has worked in the lubricants industry for almost 50 years in research and development, technical services & marketing and technology transfer.

Currently, he is Managing Director of Global Lubricants Ltd, a speciality lubricants company he founded in the UK in 1997, but also works as an independent consultant for several companies on REACH compliance, product development and plant construction.
He has published many papers on lubrication and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

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 80s, and he established and was first Chairman of ASTM – M committee for aviation greases.

Marco Digioia

Marco Digioia 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 operational management, positioning and lobbying in Brussels on behalf of sector associations.

Prior to his appointment, Digioia was Director for Government Affairs at Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and member of the European Sustainable Shipping Forum and other EU Commission working groups.

Prior to that, he worked for several transport organizations at the national and European level and was also 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.

Sander van Donk

Sander van Donk joined Lubrizol as Vice President of Europe in January 2024, based in the UK.

He is an industry veteran with 20-plus years of international experience in transformational business leadership, growth strategies, B2B sales and research & technology. Sander most recently served as Senior Vice President leading the largest Global Business Unit in Sulzer, a Swiss technology company. Prior to this, Sander held multiple leadership positions with the Finnish refining and renewables company Neste, with the global technology leader Honeywell UOP, and several technology management roles for French energy and oil company Total Energies across Europe. Sander received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry, as well as his PhD in Industrial Catalysis, from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He also holds an Executive MBA from HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. 

Markus Garb

Markus Garb is the Vice President Sustainability and Chief Sustainability Officer at FUCHS SE. He is a passionate driver of sustainability standards in the lubricants industry.

With an academic background in Mechanical Engineering, Markus Garb began his professional career in the automation industry. Entering FUCHS in 2003, Markus has spent 16 years in Automotive Lubricants Product Management for FUCHS Germany, starting with application-focused technical roles, first on engine oils, followed by transmission fluids and successively assuming management roles such as European and Global Product Manager Automotive. Since 2019 Markus Garb works for FUCHS SE, and in May 2020, he took over responsibility for FUCHS’ corporate sustainability activities.

Aside from his corporate role, Markus Garb was a Member of the UEIL TC for many years, and since 2022 he acts as Chairman of the UEIL Sustainability Committee which merged into a joint ATIEL & UEIL Sustainability Committee in 2024.

Trevor Gauntlett

Trevor Gauntlett has been an independent consultant and industry commentator since 2016, offering market analysis for upstream suppliers and identifying opportunities for market entries and expansion in lubricants. He began writing for Lubes’n’Greases EMEA in 2017 and has written regularly for several industry magazines since. He began podcasting on lubricants business matters in 2020.

Prior to this Trevor spent 18 years with Shell at the Lubricants/supplier interface, responsible for Lubricants component & formulation quality and regulatory HSE (e.g. REACH, the Biocides Directive, TSCA and OEM compliance), with spells as a plant auditor, “big data” manager and gatekeeper to Shell’s lubricants R&D activities.

His PhD and post-doctoral studies of petrochemical catalysts were highly relevant to the development of Lubricants base fluids (GTL and metallocene PAO) in the 21^st century.

Johan Leckner

Johan Leckner has an MS and PhD in chemical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.

He worked for six years as a researcher, first at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and then at Chalmers University of Technology. In 2009 he joined Axel Christiernsson International as Senior Development engineer and since 2016 he has been working as Group Technical Manager. Since 2021, Johan is an adjunct Professor in Lubricant Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

James Moorhouse

James Moorhouse is the founder and director of ABN Resource. A global executive search firm for lubricants, additive and base oil markets.

With staff in Europe, USA, Middle East and China, ABN Resource partner with market leading companies who seek to hire the best leadership, commercial and technical personnel for the lubes sector. ABN Resource have a global industry network of over 26,000 lubricant professionals, and our dedicated research and recruitment teams nurture this network to fill exclusive job opportunities. 

Thomas Norrby

Thomas Norrby was born in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1997, he graduated with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with a Thesis on Artificial Photosynthesis, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

His current position with Nynas AB is as Technical Manager for the application area Lubricants. His main tasks include Naphthenic base oil products development and lubricant application model studies. This includes technical demonstrators, often in joint projects with customers and end-users. New and exciting knowledge and findings are disseminated through technical marketing, lecturing and presentations.

Thomas Norrby also holds a chair as Adjunct Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), at the Department of Machine Design. The focus of his industrial research is tribology and Tribochemical investigations of base oils and lubricants.

Marcel Paris

Marcel Paris is an automotive engineer and started his career as a CAD-designer in the automotive industry. After 1.5 years of experience he took over the role of a Project Leader. As of 2021 he is working for the Product Management OEM as an Application Engineer at FUCHS LUBRICANTS GERMANY. At FUCHS he is responsible for Heavy-Duty Transmission oils for conventional drivetrain but as well for electrified drivetrains. Additionally he´s responsible for dielectric thermal fluids for batteries, traction motors, charging cables and other applications.

Marcel is 33 years old, married and has a 7 years old daughter. In his spare time he plays tennis and is a race driver.

João Reis

João Reis is the External Affairs Manager and Lubes Coordinator of EPCOL, the Portuguese Fuels and Lubricants Association.

With an academic background in Mechanical Engineering, and specializations in Management, Marketing and Sales, Leadership & Team Building, Media Relations and Crisis Management, in the UK and the US, João began his long professional career in the Industry as Lubrication Engineer at Mobil Oil, undertaking continuously roles of increasing responsibility across the Company. After de European BP/Mobil Join Venture in 1996, he became bp Portugal Communication and External Relations Director.

Aside from his corporate roles João was Vice President of AP2H2 – Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Hydrogen, Director of FPAK – Portuguese Automobile and Karting Federation, Vice President of PRP – Portuguese Road Prevention Association, and President of GRACE Responsible Companies, the biggest Portuguese Social Responsibility and Sustainability business association, of which he is currently an Honorary Member of the Advisory Board.

On EPCOL’s behalf, he is currently member of the Secretariat of the Portuguese Platform for the Promotion of Low Carbon Fuels.

João rides a motorcycle as his daily vehicle and is a fan of Motorsport and Sailing.

Gemma Stephenson

Gemma Stephenson is a Business Development Manager for Cargill Bioindustrial’s Energy Technologies sector. She obtained 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. She then moved over into a commercial role, where she now focusses on sustainability initiatives within Energy Technologies.  She is also a member of the Additive Technical Committee (ATC) and the UEIL Sustainability Committee.

Alexander Vorbau

Alexander Vorbau has been Head of Communications at UNITI Bundesverband EnergieMittelstand in Germany for around four years. His main tasks include providing communications support for UNITI’s commitment to creating a suitable regulatory framework for the ramp-up of renewable fuels such as e-fuels.

Prior to this, the political science and communications graduate worked for many years in press and public relations for an interest group in the automotive industry.

Yana Wilkinson

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.

David Wright

David Wright is Director General of the United Kingdom Lubricants Association, the representative trade body for the industry in the United Kingdom.  The UK Lubricants Association actively represents member company’s interests both at home and overseas and is actively on matters impacting the industry, through participation and consultation, representation and lobbying to UK and European Government and industry authorities.