IMFA’s 23rd Annual Conference

 Gary Sowden, Vice President – Kiefel Packaging Division at Brueckner Group USA

Gary is a 35 year veteran of the packaging industry having held a variety of positions in Engineering, Operations, and Sales.  He has worked in both converting and capital machinery over the course of his career. He holds a Bachelors degree in Management Systems from Kettering University. Gary currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky and splits his time between there and Brueckner Group USA Headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Thomas Dardis, Southeast Regional Sales Manager, Gardner Denver Nash LLC

During his 32 year tenure at Nash, Tom Dardis has held several positions in R&D Engineering, ‎Sales Applications Engineering. Sales Management and Marketing. He has led several product ‎development teams and is the owner of four patents on the design of liquid ring vacuum pumps ‎for improved efficiency.‎

Tom is currently the Southeast Regional Sales Manager and is responsible for vacuum & compressed gas sales and aftermarket activities in the Paper, Power, Chemical, Oil & Gas, and General Industrial markets.

Tom holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Connecticut.

Tom currently resides in Charlotte, NC.

Leona Neill, Director of Marketing & Packaging, Red Sun Farms

Leona Neill, Director of Marketing and Packaging of Red Sun Farms, one of the largest vertically integrated high-tech greenhouse vegetable growers with ownership of each stage of the process; seed selection, to plant growth, to harvesting, packaging and distribution. Red Sun Farms has over 600 acres throughout Mexico, USA and Canada.

Leona brings over 17 years of Packaging design, project management and CPG Managerial experience to her role in the Marketing & Packaging team. Leona joined Red Sun farms in 2015 to develop the packaging team and spearhead innovation within the organization.

She joined the RSF team from Kraft Heinz Company, an international CPG organization, providing a range condiments, canned foods, frozen foods, infant, dairy and dried foods. Leona performed a number of positions, including Packaging Manager, Technical Brand Manager for Infant & Condiments category, and QA Manager Canada, which included QA responsibility for all Canadian co-packed items and Kraft Canada facilities.

Prior to joining Heinz, Leona was Packaging Manager at Unilever Canada where she oversaw the structural designs and commercialization of new product in facilities across Canada.

Leona was born and raised just outside of Hamilton Ontario, and completed her Packaging Management Design course at Mohawk College. After 10 years of work experience in the Toronto area, she relocated to the Leamington – Kingsville area to focus on her family & career in a rural setting.
Leona is married to John, her husband of 24 years and together they have a daughter Cora Lee and son Jacob. As a family they enjoy travel, cooking, and enjoy their two dashhunds.

Larry Hutchinson, Global Market Development Manager – Consumer Packaging, Solenis LLC

Larry Hutchinson, Global Market Development Manager-Consumer Packaging, began ‎his career in the paper industry in 1979 and holds degrees in Chemical Engineering ‎and Pulp & Paper Science from the University of Maine. He has a diverse ‎background in manufacturing, technical consulting, market & technology ‎development across a broad range of packaging grades including molded fiber.‎

Mariona Company, Head of HP Advanced Molded Fiber Tooling Solution, HP Inc.

Mariona is the Head of the HP Advanced Molded Fiber Tooling business, focused on ‎driving the adoption of HP’s Advanced tooling solution in the Molded Fiber Industry ‎opening entirely new packaging possibilities for manufactures and molders around ‎the world. In her role, Mariona leads market & solution development, customer ‎growth and the creation of end-to-end solutions for this industry.‎

Prior to her current role, Mariona was the Business Development & Applications ‎Director for HP 3D printing and digital manufacturing business, where she was ‎responsible for the applications and materials business development of the ‎organization. ‎

Mariona joined HP in 1999. Since then she has held different positions in Finance, ‎Marketing and Business function both in Europe and North America, and across ‎several HP businesses.‎

Mariona is a native of Barcelona and holds an Economics Degree and a master’s in ‎business administration from ESADE as well as a master’s in finance & Marketing ‎from the University of Illinois.‎

John Briden, HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution Architect, HP Inc.

John is an 18 year HP engineering veteran who has spent a career developing innovative products at HP, Apple and other top tier companies.  For the last few years John has been helping HP and others take advantage of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing technology to solve problems for and bring new value to a variety of industries.  During that time John identified a unique opportunity to solve problems for the molded fiber industry from which HP’s Molded Fiber End-to-End solution was spawned.

John holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in history, both from Stanford University

Bryan Toich, Sr. Software Engineer, RoviSys

Bryan Toich is a Sr. Software Engineer at RoviSys, an independent Automation and ‎Information Integrator. He spends his days helping clients get more value out of manufacturing ‎historians. This includes architecting solutions for Overall Operational Efficiency, predictive ‎maintenance, tracking downtime, and tracking production metrics to name a few. He’ll be ‎sharing his experiences with how companies are using historians to make data driven decisions ‎at all levels of their organization and the benefits they’ve gained.‎

Click Here for our Sponsor & Exhibitor Brochure

Conference Partner

HP Inc.

Conference Partner & Platform Sponsor

V.I.P. Sponsor ($2,500+)

Kiefel Packaging represented by Brueckner Group USA

The choice is more important than ever, as consumers tend towards sustainable packaging. The market needs green packaging. At KIEFEL, we’ve accepted and are encouraged by the challenge. We’ve expanded our material competence and machine capabilities to offer you the solutions of tomorrow – thermoforming of natural fiber called Kiefel Fiber Thermoforming. Click here to learn more.

Solenis

Solenis is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals for water-intensive industries, including the pulp, paper, oil and gas, petroleum refining, chemical processing, mining, biorefining, power and municipal markets. The company’s product portfolio includes a broad array of process, functional and water treatment chemistries as well as state-of-the-art monitoring and control systems. These technologies are used by customers to improve operational efficiencies, enhance product quality, protect plant assets and minimize environmental impact. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company has 39 manufacturing facilities strategically located around the globe and employs a team of approximately 5,200 professionals in 120 countries across five continents. For additional information about Solenis, please visit www.solenis.com or follow us on social media.

Friend Sponsor ($1,000+)

ECO-SQ

ECO-SQ, is an environmentally friendly pulp-molded tableware, cups, bowels, and straw company that is 100% non-toxic, harmless, and naturally degradable fast-moving consumer goods.

Our whole product line uses “Intelligent Manufacturing” method which is a new process utilizing modern science and technology. The process is called Biomass with results in low pollution, low carbon emission and carbon footprint. We use non-wood material for sustainability to our planet.

With increasing harmful impacts the plastic products contributes to the environment, ECO-SQ wanted to take the lead in banning, decreasing or restricting the production of plastic products.

ECO-SQ will always be devoted to make the world a better environment for our future generations to grow up by changing the food industry to pulp-molded tableware, and all-around environmental friendly and bio-degradable tableware industry company.

HP Inc.

Kiefel Packaging represented by Brueckner Group USA

The choice is more important than ever, as consumers tend towards sustainable packaging. The market needs green packaging. At KIEFEL, we’ve accepted and are encouraged by the challenge. We’ve expanded our material competence and machine capabilities to offer you the solutions of tomorrow – thermoforming of natural fiber called Kiefel Fiber Thermoforming. Click here to learn more.

Solenis

Solenis is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals for water-intensive industries, including the pulp, paper, oil and gas, petroleum refining, chemical processing, mining, biorefining, power and municipal markets. The company’s product portfolio includes a broad array of process, functional and water treatment chemistries as well as state-of-the-art monitoring and control systems. These technologies are used by customers to improve operational efficiencies, enhance product quality, protect plant assets and minimize environmental impact. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company has 39 manufacturing facilities strategically located around the globe and employs a team of approximately 5,200 professionals in 120 countries across five continents. For additional information about Solenis, please visit www.solenis.com or follow us on social media.