Board Chair

Laura Buen Abad, Vice President of Technology and Marketing, Thermoformed and Flexible Packaging, Sonoco

Laura Buen Abad is a business leader with more than 20 years of multinational experience leading product development and innovation. She is currently a Vice President of Technology and Marketing at Sonoco, a global packaging solutions leader, where she is responsible for leading R&D, new product development, new business development, marketing communications, and acquisitions. During her tenure at Sonoco, she has held regional and global leadership roles in two core business units, Rigid Paper, and Flexible Packaging, where she drove growth and the development of sustainable packaging solutions in multiple regions. In addition to her role, she currently chairs Sonoco’s Corporate Technology Council.

Laura has been an active member of IRI since 2016, including as a member of the Research-On-Research team Brilliant Failures, which learnings were published in RTM in 2021, and as a board member since 2021. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and an MBA in International Business from the University of South Carolina.

Vice Chair

Florian Schattenmann, Chief Technology Officer and VP, Innovation and R&D, Cargill

Florian Schattenmann is Cargill’s Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for Innovation and Research & Development (R&D). He oversees a global team driven by the vision of relentlessly creating value for Cargill and its customers via research, application and product development, and technical service support across agriculture, food, animal feed, and bio-industrial markets. He also leads the Strategic Growth Business Accelerator, designed to accelerate and scale cross-enterprise innovation- and science-driven strategic growth businesses. Current focus areas include alternative protein and human health technologies.

Prior to joining Cargill in November 2018, Florian spent eight years at The Dow Chemical Company. His most recent role was Vice President for Performance Materials & Coatings R&D, where he led innovation across a diverse set of specialty businesses. Florian has also held leadership roles at SulphCo Inc. and GE-Bayer Silicones. Earlier in his career, Florian managed several research laboratories at GE’s Global Research Center.

Florian is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt with seven U.S. patents and numerous publications. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for Texas A&M AgriLife and College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and his Diplom Chemiker degree from the Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. Florian and his family live in Golden Valley, MN.  Besides spending time with his family, he loves playing the bass, road cycling, and working out.

Immediate Past Chair

Craig Slavtcheff, Chief R&D Officer, Kimberly-Clark

Craig Slavtcheff joined Kimberly-Clark as Chief R&D Officer in July 2024. At Kimberly-Clark, Craig leads an R&D team of scientists focusing on proprietary, right-to-win spaces that build differentiated consumer preference and durable brand equity. This will enable Kimberly-Clark to further elevate and expand its categories by providing invaluable benefits to its consumers, including greater absorbency, more comfort, better skin health, and sustainable solutions.

Throughout his more than 30-year career in consumer package goods, Craig has held several leadership positions in North America and Asia, responsible for driving the span of upstream research to divisional market focused innovation as well as quality assurance. He holds more than 80 patents, covering a wide range of product categories, many of which protected key innovations that generated growth platforms for the businesses he supported.  

Board Member

Stéphane Bazzana, Global Technical Director Auto OEM, PPG

Dr. Stéphane Bazzana is the Global Technical Director of Customer Development, Automotive OEM at PPG, a leading global manufacturer of high-performance coatings. In his current role, Stéphane is responsible for driving innovation and growth in PPG’s Automotive OEM business unit, leveraging PPG R&D technology platforms to accelerate and heighten the delivery of PPG’s sustainable Automotive portfolio.

Prior to joining PPG, Stephane was a global director of innovation in DuPont. Over 17 years, he drove end to end innovation from R&D to commercialization across multiple product lines and segments for Nylon, Tyvek®, Kevlar® and Nomex®, delivering essential solutions to protect people and processes in critical situations.

Born in France, Dr. Bazzana graduated with a B.S. in Physical Chemistry and holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston MA.

Board Member

Nici Bush, Vice President, Innovation, Science & Technology, Mars

Nici Bush is a global member of the Mars Leadership Team and in her role as Chief Innovation, Science and Technology Officer for Mars, she has oversight of R&D, Supply, and Commercial. She is Secretary of Mars’ Technology Committee – a committee of the Mars Board driving evidence-based and scientific conversations on key areas such as health & wellbeing, nutrition, supply chain resilience and sustainability. Nici’s career at Mars spans three decades, multiple business disciplines and numerous regions and countries. She has deep expertise in manufacturing operations and supply chain, R&D and General Management across Mars Snacking, Petcare and Food & Nutrition. She also spearheaded the enterprise “Future of Work” program embedding lessons from the pandemic to create a set of flexible work practices positively impacting the Associate experience and business results for years to come. Nici is an active champion of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda, specifically supporting people with disabilities and women in leadership. 

Board Member

Julie Edgar, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, The Lubrizol Corporation

Dr. Julie Edgar is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. In this capacity, she spearheads continuous innovation, ensuring Lubrizol and its customers stay at the cutting edge of their industries, helping the world move cleaner, create smarter, and live better. Since joining Lubrizol in 1995 as a research chemist in the U.K., Julie has ascended through a variety of leadership roles, including Director of R&D for Lubrizol Advanced Materials in Asia Chief Sustainability Officer, and Vice President of Corporate R&D. She most recently served as Vice President, LZA Transportation, where she led efforts in the transportation lubricant additive and future mobility markets. Julie earned both her B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Surrey.

Board Member

Robert E. Fast, Chief Technology Officer

Rob Fast is Chief Technology Officer for Hess Corporation. Fast, who has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of technical and executive management roles, oversees Hess’ technology strategy and applications.

Prior to assuming his current position in 2018, Fast was Vice President for Deepwater – leading the company’s deep-water development and producing assets in Guyana, the Gulf of Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana. In 2012-14, Fast led Onshore Unconventional New Ventures – identifying, capturing and appraising unconventional resources including the Utica. He joined Hess in New York in 2009 as Vice President, E&P Planning, Strategy & Value Processes, leading E&P strategy development and asset portfolio optimization for the worldwide E&P business.

Prior to joining Hess, Fast was Joint Venture Technical Manager for Exxon Mobil’s LNG operations in Qatar; Operations Technical Manager for North Sea Production in the UK and Norway; and Regional Planning Manager at ExxonMobil International Limited in London for Europe, Africa and Caspian. He was seconded to Aera Energy as Manager of Technology, leading strategy development, exploitation, and enhanced recovery for multiple large assets in California. Fast began his career at Mobil Oil Corporation as an operations engineer and served in various engineering, operations, project leadership, and management positions. Fast holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa and is a registered Professional Engineer in California.

Board Member

Jerry Grunewald, Vice President of R&D/Technology at INVISTA

Jerry is currently the Vice President of R&D/Technology at INVISTA which is part of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.  Jerry’s team leads transformational process and product development in Intermediates, Polymer, and Fiber applications in the Nylon and Polypropylene value chains. 

Over the course of his 35 year career, Jerry has had leadership roles in both R&D and Operations.  He has led teams at all of INVISTA’s 13 global operating sites.  Prior to moving back into R&D in 2023, Jerry led INVISTA’s efforts in Digital Transformation focused on bringing the promise of the plant of the future into reality. 

Jerry is a chemist by training – received his B.A. in Chemistry from La Salle University, and Ph.D. in Organometallic Chemistry from the University of Florida.  He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt. 

Jerry and his wife Cindy are proud parents of Chris, who is an investment banker, and Jon, who is a battery/energy storage engineer. Jerry remains active in the Boy Scouts of America (once a leader, you can never get out) and like all native Philadelphians, is a frustrated fan of the Eagles, Sixers, Phillies, and Flyers. 

Board Member

Ami Gupta, Chief Technology Officer, Linde Gases and Vice President

Dr. Ami Gupta is the Chief Technology Officer at Linde Gases and Vice President. Dr. Gupta spearheads Linde’s global applications R&D portfolio for all end markets served by the company, including chemicals & energy, food & beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing, metals & glass, as well as Clean Energy. His teams are focused on providing innovative solutions that enable customers to achieve cost reduction, productivity, and sustainable development.

Dr. Gupta joined Linde in 1993 and has held several management positions of increasing responsibility over the years, including leading the formation of the R&D centers in Shanghai and in Bangalore while being based in China from 2009 to 2014. Dr. Gupta has made significant contributions to the industrial gases field and holds 12 patents and 8 publications in peer-reviewed journals on a broad range of technologies and innovations.

Dr. Gupta has a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University.

Board Member

Pam Henderson, CEO, NewEdge

Dr. Pam Henderson is an author, entrepreneur, former professor, and international speaker. She founded NewEdge in 2002, a business and innovation strategy firm that anchors growth in opportunity. She served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon and later at Washington State University, where she worked with the National Lab system to commercialize over 100 early-stage technologies. This inspired her approach to Opportunity Thinking, which is described in her book “You Can Kill an Idea, but You Can’t Kill an Opportunity,” which is now being revised for Fast Company. NewEdge leads clients in future-proofing through a robust trends practice, driving growth from company DNA, setting North Star Visions for businesses and innovation, identifying opportunities, and translating them into platforms and roadmaps. Her team of consultants, with their ecosystem of over 4000 experts, have driven growth for over 75 Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller family-owned firms and start-ups, including transformational work for John Deere, Harley-Davidson, P&G, PepsiCo, Eastman Chemical, DSM, and The North Face.

Board Member

Arthur Martin, Vice President for Research and Development in North America, Arkema

Dr. Arthur Martin joined Arkema as the Vice President for Research and Development in North America in February 2024. Based in King of Prussia, Dr. Martin has more than 25 years of experience leading R&D teams for regional and global organizations. He previously worked at DuPont as Global R&D Director for CMP Technologies, and before that worked at Daikin America, Inc. and Corning Incorporated. He has a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Board Member

Manuel Natal, Discovery & Innovation Director, Trystar

Dr. Manuel Natal is the Discovery &Innovation Director at Trystar, joining the company in September 2023. He previously held the position of Chief Technology Officer at Granite Falls Energy LLC, where he spearheaded pioneering strategies for bio-based ethanol production targeting net zero carbon emissions. Manuel’s robust expertise in chemical engineering is backed by a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his research focused on the selective reduction of esters and carboxylic acids over heterogeneous copper-based catalysts. His undergraduate studies were completed at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Board Member

Joel Schall, Director, Innovation Process, Henkel

Joel joined Henkel in 2001 as a polymer scientist in their Adhesives Research team. After 13 years of developing rapid-cure adhesive technology in the laboratories, he was assigned to a global team responsible for reshaping the innovation process for Henkel’s Adhesives business. His team’s mandate was to develop a process that is aligned across all Adhesives business units, and that helps Henkel „do the right projects“ and „do projects right.“ Their new „Adhesives Development Process“ was launched globally in October 2014. The team won Henkel’s Lion Award for Collaboration in 2015, and their process transformation helped Henkel Adhesives win PDMA’s Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award in 2017. Joel is currently the Innovation Process Director for General Manufacturing and Maintenance and Industrial Adhesives.

Board Member

Mike Wahl, Vice President, Innovation & Insights, Wahl Clipper Corporation

Mike Wahl currently serves as the Vice President of Innovation & Insights at Wahl Clipper Corporation, having taken on the role in October 2021. His extensive career at Wahl spans over a decade, including significant positions such as Vice President of Global Market Strategy and Market Research. Mike’s deep understanding of market dynamics and consumer insights has been pivotal in steering Wahl’s product innovations and competitive strategies, enhancing its global presence in the grooming industry.