After graduating in Chemistry & Economics from Birmingham University, Reg Adams began his career at Amalgamated Metal and was later seconded to English China Clays (now Imerys), where he wrote his MBA thesis on company growth. At British Sulphur (now CRU) during the 1970s, he edited a range of publications on industrial chemicals and fertiliser raw materials. His first book Titanium & Titanium Dioxide (ISBN 0903199793) was published by Financial Times Business Books in May 1984. His seventh and most recent book Titanium Minerals: Global Industry, Market & Outlook (ISBN 9781910922088) was published by Roskill in August 2016. Reg Adams has also been retained as an expert witness in matters of commercial litigation or investment scrutiny and he has been commissioned as a speaker at more than 60 international conferences, including each of the TiO2 conferences hosted by Smithers (and predecessor companies) since 1992. He has also chaired a number of conference sessions. His company - Artikol (founded in 1977) - specialises in market intelligence and publishing on mining and chemicals. Drawing on Artikol’s extensive information database, Reg Adams compiles and edits the monthly bulletin Focus on Pigments and the quarterly TiO2 Worldwide Update. For further details, see http://www.artikol.com.
Frank J. Mitsch serves as President of Fermium Research, having co-founded the company in 2018 following 7+ years at Wells Fargo Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Senior Chemicals Equity Research Analyst. He has covered the chemicals industry as an equity analyst for more than 20 years, beginning his Wall Street career with Merrill Lynch.
He’s a member of the 2017 and 2018 Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Team and received the Top Gun designation from Brendan Wood Intl in 2020. In its World’s Top Analysts survey, the Financial Times/StarMine twice ranked him No. 1 for estimate accuracy, and he has been named a top three earnings estimator in his industry in seven out of the last ten years. Frank has also been named in The Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street analyst survey for stock selection four times.
Prior to WFS, Frank followed the chemicals sector on Wall Street for 15 years, most recently with BB&T Capital Markets. Earlier in his career, he worked for 11 years in the chemicals industry with consultancy Kline & Company, and Betz Laboratories, including two years in Europe. Frank received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he was a midfielder on the record-setting lacrosse team. He holds an MBA with a concentration in finance from MSU, and a Ph.D in the New York Jets.
Steve Hollins is a Chair, Chemical Strategy for Sustainability Task ForceSenior Product and also a Steward at Tronox, the world’s largest vertically integrated producer of titanium dioxide. His career as a chemical regulatory professional has been with various sectors of industry (Non-Ferrous metals, water, transport), and also working as a Senior Scientific Officer at the European Chemical Agency, as well as preparing legislation in chemical policy at the European Commission. At Tronox, Steve leads compliance with global REACH and REACH-like legislation. He is Vice-Chair of the Titanium Dioxide Industry Consortium (TDIC) for the EU REACH Registration and chairs the Titanium Dioxide Manufacturer’s Association (TDMA) Chemical Strategy for Sustainability Task Force. Steve holds a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Kings College London and a MSc in Environmental Technology with an emphasis on chemical regulation from Imperial College London. Steve lives in Nottingham, UK.
Manage the newly formed company focused on the European market for the sale of titanium dioxide and iron oxide product lines. Responsibilities include shaping and implementing Kuncai's strategic vision, ensuring compliance with regional regulations and spearheading market entry and growth initiatives. Building strategic partnerships to achieve sustainable growth and success
Franz studied Chemistry at the TU Chemnitz and at the TU Graz and then did his PhD in the Atmospheric Physic group at ETH Zürich. His research field was the investigation atmospheric aging process on soot particles and how this contributes to the formation of clouds. During that time Franz used a broad range of aerosol-based instrumentation to observe changes in the morphology and chemistry of isolated soot particles. Based on this work, he was granted with 195 kCHF by the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation) and Innosuisse over 18-months to develop a new method for the online-characterisation of the structure and surface of Carbon Black and similar materials. He is now commercialising this new analytical approach via his own company, FemtoG.
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Sophie Lingier is research leader formulation chemistry and chemical sourcing manager at Agfa-Gevaert nv. With industrial experience in raw materials for polymer processing as well as formulation chemistry, she drives her team with a passion for innovation and collaboration. Dr. Lingier's journey into the world of chemistry began with a strong academic foundation. She earned her Master’s degree an PhD in Chemistry from Gent University (Belgium), where she developed a keen interest in the world of biobased materials. At the end of her academic career, she won the Vasiliy Korshak award for young scientists, who have made a special contribution to the polycondensation world. Driven by a desire to translate her research into real-world applications, Dr. Lingier transitioned to the corporate sector, where she assumed roles of increasing responsibility but with a focus on raw material properties and sustainability. In addition to her professional achievements, Dr. Lingier is deeply committed to fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing within the scientific community. She has presented her work at international conferences, and actively participates in industry associations and technical committees dedicated to advancing the field of formulation chemistry.
Renana Krebs is the co-founder and CEO of Algaeing, the clean color company. Krebs is an award-winning entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience in the fashion and textile industry. Krebs completed her undergraduate degree in fashion design and worked at elite fashion houses, where she first handedly saw the industry's detrimental effects on people and the planet. Renana then embarked on a mission to detoxify the textile industry - starting with receiving an MA in sustainability and founding Algaeing in 2016 with Dr Oded Krebs. Today, Algaeing's algae-powered colors can be purchased by manufacturers at a mass scale, and by consumers through a brand collection.
Renana is a keynote speaker, and mentor. She has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, CNN, and leading publications.
Eldon has been with PPG since 1999 and currently is a Senior Research Associate in the Optical Physics Group at the Coatings Innovation Center in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, USA. Some of the areas in which he has worked at PPG include: Andaro® nano-pigment dispersions, leading to commercialization of highly chromatic and transparent solventborne, waterborne, powder, and electro-deposition coatings; more efficient use of TiO2 through computational and experimental studies; solar heat management coatings; structural color pigments; and coatings to enable proper function of advanced driver-assistance systems, including lidar and radar compatible color technologies.
Eldon received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Physics from Brigham Young University, where he did research in characterizing fullerene materials at high pressures. He also received a Master of Science degree in Colloids, Polymers, and Surfaces, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he researched the wetting characteristics of heterogeneous surfaces. Previous to starting at PPG, Eldon conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh, where he analyzed pattern formation in anisotropic fluid flow.
Thomas Rentschler studied chemistry at the university of Tübingen, Germany and at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, USA. After a post-doctoral position at the university of Hamburg, he was employed at a producer of titania and fillers for 11 years with leading positions in R&D, application techniques and technical sales. Since 2007 he has joined Merck KGaA in Germany responsible for interdisciplinary projects and technical customer consultancy for pearlescent pigments in coatings.
Tom Mestdag holds a Master’s Degree of Chemical Engineer and started his career in 1990 at Campine NV, Beerse (Belgium) as a Regional Sales Manager for Antimony Trioxide and Fire Retardant Masterbatches in Europe & Asia.
In 1997, he became Business Unit Manager for the FR Masterbatch division.
In January 2000, Tom joined The Shepherd Color Company as Regional Sales Manager.
The Shepherd Color Company is a leading producer of Complex Inorganic Color Pigments (CICP’s), headquartered in Cincinnati (USA) & offices in Belgium, Japan, China & Australia. Since 2002, he held the position of European Sales Manager, with responsibility over the EMEA region.
In 2020, Tom joined Cathay Industries to become the Managing Director for Europe. Cathay Industries, now known as Oxerra, is globally the second largest producer of iron oxides with headquarters in Singapore. Manufacturing sites & sales offices located in China, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, USA, UK & Belgium.
Since October 2023, Tom is back at Shepherd Color as Sales & Business Development Manager for the EMEA region
Ink Invent BV is an Effect Pigment Manufacturer based in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. We developed RheoLight™: the first member of a new class of Effect Pigments of Crystal Glass Pigments.
Dr. Vitaly Talyansky has been a Partner/Founder of Stardust Materials, LLC since its inception in 1998. Stardust has focused on anti-counterfeiting solutions for documents and consumer products in a variety of industries ranging from government to pharmaceutical to luxury goods. Vitaly was a Sr. Process Engineer at the Logic Technology Development of Intel Corp. from 1998 to 2001 developing and transferring to manufacturing two newest processor technologies. He was recognized with an Intel Achievement Award. Vitaly attained his Ph.D. in Physics and M.S. in EE from the University of Maryland at College Park and B.S. in Physics from the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY. He has authored and co-authored over 30 publications and patents.
I graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University in 2006 and later completed my Master's degree in Chemical Engineering at Ege University. My career began in 2007 at Akzo Nobel Kemipol, where I worked in the Wood R&D Laboratory. In 2009, I joined the Color R&D Laboratory at Kansai Altan as a color specialist and have been serving as a manager since 2018. Additionally, I am one of the founders of the Color Office, an initiative where active color designs are combined with new pigment and color technologies to reach designers worldwide.
I have over 17 years of professional experience in the paint and color industry, working across various fields including Automotive Coatings, General Industry Metal and Plastic Coatings, Wood Coatings, Coil Coatings, and Car Refinish. My expertise includes pigments, color formulation practices, visual and instrumental color evaluation, and color problem-solving. Additionally, I have gained advanced knowledge in the mathematical theory of color and texture differences, color measurement techniques comprising of different equipment and software. I am skilled in scouting color trends, creating concepts, and designing new colors with innovative materials and processes. My work in color marketing involves creating color tools such as prototypes, catalogues, posters, digital twins, and presentations, as well as organizing workshops to introduce new colors to customers.
Kai Krauss support customers in the field of paints and coatings at Orion Engineered Carbons GmbH in Eschborn as Senior Technical Market Manager. This includes technical customer service on the selection and incorporation of carbon black in all application areas of the paints and coatings market in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Middle East and Africa and the global support of three key accounts. In 2000, Kai joined the former Degussa-Hüls AG in the Carbon Black Research & Development department in Cologne. In 2005, he moved to Hanau-Wolfgang as laboratory manager for carbon black in paints and coatings in application technology for pigments and fillers. With the spin-off of Evonik Carbon Black GmbH in 2010, he took over the position of head of application technology for carbon black pigments before taking up his current position in 2012.
Dr. Kjersta Larson-Smith is a Technical Fellow in Boeing Research & Technology’s Chemical Technology organization with expertise in the area of coating materials and processes. Since joining Boeing in 2006, she has focused on developing next generation coating technologies that improve aircraft performance, manufacturability and sustainability. Kjersta earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, a B.A. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University.
