Speakers

Mr Gian Luca Salerio has been Manager of International Area of the Italian Standardization Organization (UNI) since 2011. He joined UNI in 1995, holding the position of Head of Material and Consumer goods Department between 2000 and 2010, Head of International Standardization Department until 2014 and Manager of Standardization Area until 2017. Mr Salerio represents UNI in many European and International Committees and in CEN Technical Board. Mr Salerio has completed studies in Electrotechnics and Electronics.

Jonas Evaldsson is a “Product Requirement & Compliance specialist” at IKEA of Sweden. After graduating as a mechanical engineer he worked with construction and safety of machinery for about 10 years before starting at IKEA in 2001. Since mid-1990 he has been active in several CEN, ISO and ASTM standards committees in various areas such as machinery, furniture and for the past 15 years the standards for candles and candle accessories. Today he is also the chairman of the Swedish standardization committee for candle safety.

After a long career as an ice hockey player he now also spends many hours coaching in the hockey team from the home town in southern Sweden where he lives with his wife and two children.

Rob Harrington is the Director of Regulatory Affairs with Arylessence, a fragrance supplier located in the Atlanta, Georgia area, in the USA. He worked in several industries including pesticides, industrial chemicals and consumer products before coming to the candle industry in 2002 as the Worldwide Director of Regulatory for Blyth Inc. Rob is a member of NCA’s Board of Directors and served on many NCA committees. At the moment he is also the co-chair of the Issues management Committee. He has participated on several ASTM committees including fire safety, accessory safety and has also chaired the labeling committee. Rob received his Bachelor of Science in biology from the State University of New York at Albany and a Ph.D. in Toxicology from the University of Cincinnati. He is Board Certified toxicologist.

Stephan Ryll is a Business Development Manager at Kaiser Lacke since 2018.In his role he is entrusted with processing and monitoring of projects, both internally and externally. He also focuses strongly on the expansion and development of the sales structure.

Before joining Kaiser Lacke he worked for REGUM as Technical Sales, Project Management & Marketing. He started his career at GEKA as sales and customer office. Stephan studied economy and foreign trade in Nuremberg.

Bruce is the original founder and current Director at Wicks Unlimited (a division of the Stimpson Company). He has 20 years’ experience in the candle industry and is specialized in candle combustion. Previously, Bruce held positions at Savanna Industries, Koster Kunen Waxes & Paramold Manufacturing and Lanco Corporation.

Krof. Dr. Kurt Matzler belongs to the top 20 strategy researchers in Europe and to the top 50 in the world!. He is a professor at the Free University of Bozen, Italy, guest professor at the University of Innsbruck and academic director of the Executive MBA at MCI in Innsbruck. His research interests are in the fields of strategy and innovation, disruptive innovation, digital disruption and co-creation. Kurt Matzler is co-author of the German edition of “Innovator’s Dilemma” published in 2011 which is considered one of the 100 best business books. He is the author and editor of many books and articles in peer-reviewed journals. Kurt is a partner of IMP (www.imp.at), an international consulting company, in Innsbruck, Austria. He is also a passionate cyclist and a team finisher of the Race Across America 2016, 2017, and 2018. With his participation in RAAM, his Rotary team raised more than USD 1,850,000 in donations to eradicate Polio.

Thomas Herbrich is a photographer and specialist for spectacular stories. He started in the movie industry, where he made the special effects for Roland Emmerich’s first movie.

He became a famous photographer for magazines and advertising agencies worldwide. He’s a very entertaining storyteller, and he does it best on stage – always with his high-class photography.

Steven is responsible for wick sales worldwide at Wedo, a German wick manufacturer. Born in the UK, Steven moved to Germany in 1985 upon completing University. After two other positions in the field of international sales, he joined the Wedo in 1998.