The 70 most influential people in the UK plastics industry were unveiled today at the Plastics Design & Moulding Event (PDM Event) taking place at the Telford International Centre today and tomorrow (14-15th June).
The list of 70 top influencers includes representatives from across the plastics industry from machinery and materials sectors and distribution through to processing, with many of those named on the list actually present at the event. It also includes high-profile national figures such as the prime minister, David Cameron, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England.
Of the 70, nine women have broken through the “plastic ceiling” including Jane Bickerstaffe, director of packaging industry organisation of Incpen, Julia Moore, the long-serving chief executive of the Gauge and Toolmakers Association (GTMA), Karen Drinkwater, director of JSC Rotational Moulding and professor Marianne Gilbert, of the PVC Centre, Loughborough University.
Buyers for the large companies who use plastic in their products figure prominently including representatives of Britain’s biggest automotive manufacturers Jaguar Land Rover, Ford Europe, General Motors, Honda UK, Nissan Europe and Toyota UK. Prominent product designer and entrepreneur James Dyson also makes the list.
Packaging experts from some of Britain’s biggest retailers feature including Paul Earnshaw, packaging management director at Tesco; Kevin Vyse, packaging technologist and innovation lead at Marks & Spencer and Jane Skelton, head of packaging at Sainsbury’s.
Among the many advocates of the plastics industry in the UK perhaps the most prominent is Philip Law, director-general of the British Plastics Federation. As awareness grows of the impact of plastics in the marine environment, Samantha Fanshawe, chief executive of the Marine Conservation Society is also included.
The list was drawn up using the results of a readers’ poll in PRW, trade magazine for the UK polymer industry, and the findings of a specially-convened panel of PRW staff and long-standing industry figures. It comprises individuals of UK citizenship or working in the UK and has been ordered alphabetically, not by degree of influence.
Click here for the full list
