After graduating in 2000 from Virginia Tech, with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an initial five years in the automotive industry, Dave began his career in packaging with Printpacks Rigid Division in late 2004 as Maintenance Manager located in Williamsburg, VA. Over a five year period he held various operations roles of increasing responsibility, eventually serving as Plant Manager for two rigid facilities. Daves next move after Virginia was to Bloomington, IN for a short time as the site representative for Printpacks reinvestment in bread bag converting. Dave and his family then relocated to China, where he lived and worked for five years as the General Manager of Printpack Suzhou and Director of Printpack Thailand. As of January 2016, Dave is now based in Atlanta at Printpacks global headquarters. He spent several years in Marketing and Sales focused on Printpacks PE business and Sustainability. Dave has also served as a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalitions Executive Committee and the Plastics Industry Associations Sustainability Advisory Board. He now leads Printpacks efforts to help customers realize a more sustainable future. Dave and his wife Rebecca have four children. He enjoys spending his time with family traveling, cooking all sorts of food, and being outdoors roughing it with the Scouts.

Rob is the R&D Director for Foods Packaging Materials and Standards at PepsiCo. He leads a global team that is accountable for qualifying and specifying packaging materials for all Foods structures. Rob joined PepsiCo in 2009 after spending 18 years at The Dow Chemical Company in technical service and development for Plastics.

Rob’s responsibilities include material selection and film development for PepsiCo flexible packaging in addition to ensuring the packaging materials meet PepsiCo’s Global Snacks Group standards for quality and performance and sustainability.

Rob has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from New Mexico State University and holds four patents.

As a Senior Product Development Engineer, graduate of Clemson University, and 13-year veteran of the flexible packaging industry with Printpack, Hannah Smith has developed and commercialized packages across various markets including Salty Snacks, Fresh Produce, Ream Wrap, Bakery, Coffee, and Industrial applications. More recently, Hannah has brought her passion for innovative structure development to the forefront of today’s cutting edge sustainable packaging offerings. She has applied her extensive knowledge of multiple converting disciplines including flexo/roto printing, extrusion and adhesive lamination, metallization and pouching to the emerging world of sustainable inks, resins, films, and adhesives. Hannah was instrumental as Printpack’s primary converting developer of the recently commercialized Off The Eaten Path (OTEP) Industrial Compostable package for PepsiCo / Frito-Lay which led to a Flexible Packaging Association Gold Award for Sustainability. In her spare time she loves spending time outdoors with her husband, two girls, and two dogs.

Chris has more than 36 years of experience in the packaging industry and possess extensive product and process knowledge for oriented polypropylene and oriented polyethylene films. He has been working at Toray for seven years. His role is Senior Director New Business Development and responsibilities include product development, brand management, and leading Toray’s Sustainability Team.

Prior to joining Toray, He worked at ExxonMobil Chemical as a Senior Development Engineer, Product Manager, and Market Development Manager. During that 28-year tenure He was fortunate to have several European assignments.

Chris holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University and completed a double major in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. He enjoys running, skiing, and golf and is married with two adult children.

Jeff is the Marketing Director – Food at Charter Next Generation, Inc. (CNG), the leading independent extrusion manufacturer in North America. He is responsible for the sustainable film strategy and business growth within the Food Segment. Over the past 3 years at CNG, Jeff has been focused on positioning and growing the sustainable film platform at CNG through all-PE, PCR, and biopolymer technologies. Prior to CNG, Jeff has over 25 years of converting experience holding management positions in R&D, Sales, General Management, and Marketing at The Bemis Company (now Amcor). While at Bemis, Jeff was the GM for dry food products, including the salty snack market segment, where he managed the product portfolio and growth of the platform. Jeff has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Brad Rodgers is a veteran of the plastics and packaging industry, who has dedicated over 30 years to improving sustainable packaging. Prior to joining Danimer Scientific, Rodgers led innovative packaging initiatives at PepsiCo, completing his tenure as Global R&D Director – Foods Packaging Discovery. In his current role as VP of Technology for Danimer Scientific, his experience developing products and processes to meet ambitious sustainability goals will focus on their signature material, Nodax™ polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), insuring it is adaptable for a wide range of applications as the company scales production to meet global demand for compostable and biodegradable packaging.