Conference Speakers

Propak East Africa 2017 Speakers 

Below you will find the profiles of the different speakers that will be talking at Proapk East Africa 2017. For more information on the conference, please click here.

 

Alex Murage

Senior Manager
Deloitte East Africa

Alex Murage is a Senior Manager at Deloitte East Africa. He is also the East Africa Supply Chain Leader. Alex has over 10 years of experience in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda and Uganda.  He’s specialization centers on Strategy and Operational excellence in various sectors such as Consumer and Industry Products, Manufacturing, Automotive, and Public Service.   

Alex spoke on "Consumer and economic trends: ramifications for Kenya's packaging & printing industry" at 11:00 on Tuesday 7th March

 

Chirag Tak

Chief Commercial Officer
General Printers Limited

A wealth of experience in Sales & Marketing and Supply Chain in Global Flexible Packaging with expertise in the African market.

Over 11 years of extensive knowledge in Technical and Innovation  aspects of Flexible Packaging.

Overseeing markets and procurement in over 15 countries.

Chirag spoke on "Rethinking flexibles plastics & films: New product development opportunities & challenges" at 12:00 on Tuesday 7th March

 

Duncan Kimani

Director of Manufacturing Operations
Coco-Cola Beverages Africa

Director of Manufacturing Operations for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) an Anchor Bottler in Africa for The Coca-Cola Company. I have been in the FMCG Supply Chain profession for the last 11 years and 8 years in mainstream Engineering profession. Professional education is both BSC. Engineering and MSC Engineering.

Duncan spoke on "Solutions for improving  FMCG packaging recyclability" at 13:00 on Wednesday 8th March

 

Hasit Patel

Chief Exeuctive Officer
Ramco Group Ltd

Hasit Patel is shareholder and executive director of the Ramco Group of companies in Nairobi, Kenya. The Ramco Group was established in 1948 and currently comprises of 39 companies spread across 5 countries in Africa.

He received his BEng degree from Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine in London and joined the business in 1997.

During the past 17 years he has helped to grow and develop the Printing and Packaging sector of the group. This sector, of which he is the CEO, now comprises 10 companies in the group across 2 countries.

He also serves on the group board and leads the group IT and HCM Strategies.

Hasit spoke on "The changing face of printing: insights into new growth opportunities" at 11:00 on Thursday 9th March

 

Helen Too

Operational Marketing Director
Tetra Pak East Africa

• Over 22yrs work experience. Currently Marketing Director for Tetra Pak, the world’s leading food processing and packaging multinational, in charge of 12 countries in Eastern Africa.
• Experience in the development and implementation of business strategy, annual and long-term plans and annual budgets preparations, in conjunction with the regional team and global input.
• Possess a deep understanding and knowledge of the dairy sector in Eastern Africa, that is, value chain insights and dynamics, pricing models, consumer trends, consumption and shopping habits, retail environment. and distribution models and macroeconomic indicators
• Provide strategic support for new business through existing and potential customers. This is through market insights analysis, concept development and business plan input
• International exposure with 12 yrs experience in a multinational setting working with cross functional and multi-cultural teams
• Company representative and spokesperson in various industry organizations such as Farmer Cooperatives, Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Kenya Dairy Board (KDB), member of the school milk committee and technical committee for East and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA). This includes regional organizations too.

Helen spoke on "Unlocking growth for food & beverage sustainability" at 12:00 on Thursday 9th March

 

Jeff Say

GM: Middle East and Africa
Ishida Europe Ltd, UK

Jeff Say is Ishida’s General Manager for the Middle East and Africa

Mr Say heads up Ishida’s specialist teams, based in Dubai and Johannesburg, which provide full sales, service and technical back-up for Ishida equipment and installations.

Jeff has widespread experience of the packaging industry.  Prior to joining Ishida as Sales Manager, Middle East in 2012, he spent 10 years in a number of international sales roles with Longford International.

Jeff spoke on "Automation solutions for food manufacturers and packers in East Africa" at 15:00 on Tuesday 7th March

 

Joseph Nyongesa

Secretary General / CEO
IOPPK

Joseph Nyongesa-Graduate of Industrial Engineering Missouri USA, Worked in Unilever Kenya for 20 years in Packaging, Factory Management, Product development, Engineering. Carried out major packaging transformations and innovations in Unilever. Has worked as a consultant in U-chumi Supermarkets on own label brands and strategy, operations optimizations and introduction of Barcode systems. Has been in-volved in setting up GS1 Bar-coding systems in East Africa for 10 years ending up as CEO of GS1 Kenya. Has been awarded Fellowship of the Institute of Packaging UK .Is an International and National Packaging Consultant for many UN agencies. He consults and trains many SMEs in East Africa to better their packaging and enter the formal retail chains.

He is currently President Africa Packaging Organization, Board Member WPO, Secretary General Institute of Packaging Professionals Kenya and Managing Director Global Packaging Technologies Ltd. He also consults organizations on operations and strategy. He sits at KEBS on Packaging Standards committee. He has travelled all over the world in pursuit of the best packaging benchmark for Africa. 

Joseph spoke on "Developing globally competitive packaging personnel: assisting with Africa's rapid industrialisation" at 15:00 on Thursday 9th March

 

Marta Rutynowska-Eising

Regional Sales Director: Packaging Division
Robert Bosch East Africa

Graduated from the University of Warmia and Mazuria in Poland with M.Sc. Degree in Engineering, Food Technology and Human Nutrition.

Joined Robert Bosch Packaging Technology in January 2016 as Regional Sales Director East Africa. Based in Kenya, Nairobi. Polish citizen living in Africa for the last 17 years.

Expertise: food product innovation, packaging, marketing and technical sales.  15 years of professional experience in project management and coordination in emerging markets of East Africa.

Since 2007 in charge of East Africa operations, incl. building partnership with the local food processors (e.g. beverages, confectionary, dairy, savoury and snack, cooking oils industries).

Marta spoke on "Trends and innovations in a competitive packaging industry?" at 14:00 on Tuesday 7th March

 

Mary Muthoni

National Director
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Mary Muthoni is an enthusiastic business leader and an Investor.  She owns and runs a number of businesses and consults for various private entities. 

On a more active role, she runs the St Petroc Premier School as the Executive Director/Proprietor, which is a private school that she founded in 2012.  Outside her daily businesses, she made history by recently being elected as the first female director at the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and industry and doubles up as the Chairperson of Women in Business and vice chairperson Kirinyaga County Chamber of Commerce. 

The roles have earned Mary the opportunity to participate on numerous fora as a discussant/speaker on various topics touching on gender and leadership in business. 

The most recent one being UNCTADS Expert  Meeting on Gender and Trade, Geneva, Switzerland, Inclusive trade and digital economy ; ITC and Barclays partnership launch and the 1st Kenya International Investment Conference (KIICO) that was presided over by the President of Kenya as well as key Investors in the country. 

With a Master’s degree in Management and Marketing(ongoing) from Baraton University and a degree in Education from the Catholic University, Mary is regarded by others as an innovative and creative person and with a proven ability of foresight. Her philosophy is guided by Maya Angelou in her quote “When you know better you do better.”  

Mary spoke on "Operating your business effectively - Tips & Advice for Packaging & Print SME's" at 13:00 on Thursday 9th March

 

Micah Wanyama 

National Director
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Michah has over 10 years of FMCG new products development and Supply Chain management experience, in Coca-Cola/Unilever/Sotik tea

He has been responsible for stewardship of the innovation agenda for Central East and West Africa Business Unit, with the following key responsibilities :

• Innovation Strategy development
• PMO for the Innovation Council and Stage& Gate process, 
• Leading Product commercialization across the sparkling and stills categories
• Leading Packaging graphics design across the sparkling and stills categories
• Stewarding best practice in Innovation process & Project Management

Micah spoke on "Design thinking for innovation" at 15:00 on Wednesday 8th March

 

Nagesh Karaturi

District Manager
East and West Africa HP Inc

HP Indigo District Manager for English Africa and is based at Nairobi and has extensive experience of 14 plus years in the Digital printing sector. In his earlier assignments, he was the Country Manager for HP Indigo - South Asia (covering India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & Pakistan) and also the Regional Solutions Manager - South India at Xerox Corp.

He has been closely involved in market scoping, market & customer business development, strategy planning & execution for General Commercial Printers, Label converters, Flexible Packaging, Photography & other industry players in East Africa & South Asia. In addition, he has engaged with  top corporates in sectors covering Education, Manufacturing, Retail, Financial services, Graphic Arts, Utilities, Telecom, FMCG, etc in creating digital print awareness and developing market opportunities for applications involving print on demand, variable data printing & short print runs.

Nagesh spoke on "Business benefits of digital printing" at 14:00 on Thursday 9th March

 

Peter Namutala

Principal Standards Officer
Kenya Bureau of Standards

Below you will find Peter's roles and responsibilities.

• Conducting need assessment for standards within specific fields of standardization.
• Preparing and implementing work plans, work programs and work schedules.
• Assisting in preparation and implementation of budgets.
• Ensuring development and maintenance of Kenya standards and other deliverables such as Publicly Available Specifications(PAS), Technical Reports(TR), Company standards and National workshop agreements(NWA), based on market/customer needs within specific fields of standardization.
• Supervising technical work of specific Technical Committees (TC’s), their sub-committees and working groups.
• Convening TC/SC meetings (preparation of agenda and documentation, co-ordination of meeting date, preparation of minutes and resolutions).
• Evaluating the conformity of the technical work program of the specific technical committees to their strategic policy statements, established priorities and monitoring target dates for the various stages of development of documents and taking appropriate action.
• Coordinating between specific TC’s/SC’s and resolving individual co-ordination problems.
• Constituting and maintenance of specific technical committees.
• Promote awareness campaigns for standards/projects developed through seminars, conference and exhibitions as required
• Participating in the standardization activities of other standards bodies e.g. ISO, ARSO etc with a view to gathering data which can assist in preparing standards which are internationally acceptable.
• Assisting in handling technical enquiries and complaints from internal and external customers

Peter spoke on "Quality, compliance and packaging iso standards" at 12:00 on Wednesday 8th March

 

Peter Plonner

Senior Key Account Manager
Sojitz Europe plc, Dusseldorf

Peter Plonner achieved his Master of Technical Management in 2003 and worked since then as Senior Key Account Manager for two Japanese trading houses. He is in charge of technical sales of speciality resins and films mainly related to the food packaging industry.

He is further focused in developing barrier packaging markets in emerging countries. Besides countries in Western and Eastern Europe he is also active in Middle East and African regions.

Before his activities in the barrier packaging industry, from 1984 to 2002 he was educated in plastic and rubber processing and collected practical experience and know-how in the field of rubber compounds, injection moulding, blown and cast film and plastic recycling. 

Peter spoke on "The impact of barrier packaging on the food & beverage industry" at 13:00 on Tuesday 7th March

 

Rishi Khubchandani

Investment Executive
Grofin

Rishi serves as Investment Executive for GroFin Kenya, a Pan-African Investor in Small and Growing Businesses. With GroFin, he has invested in over 40 businesses in Kenya providing them with customized medium term financing products that support their particular needs of ‘patient capital’ for Working Capital, CAPEX and Operational expansion. Prior to becoming an Investor, Rishi worked as an entrepreneur in the Consumer Healthcare and Food and Beverage manufacturing sectors, he is passionate about Small and Growing Businesses and enjoys working with Entrepreneurs and their teams to manage risk and create opportunities in their businesses.

Rishi spoke on "Access to finance and business support for growing business in the packaging and processing industry" at 14:00 on Wednesday 8th March

 

Sachen Gudka

Chief Executive Officer
Skanem Interlables Nairobi

Sachen Gudka holds a BSc Econ degree from the London School of Economics and is a Chartered Accountant by profession, having worked for 5 years with Price Waterhouse in the London office.  Sachen is the Managing Director of Skanem Nairobi, based in Nairobi, Kenya.  He has worked with Skanem for 5 years, has over 11 years of experience in labels, and over 20 years of experience in printing.  Sachen is currently the Vice-Chairman for the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.  

Sachen spoke on "The East African packaging & labelling market: today, tomorrow and beyond" at 11:00 on Wednesday 8th March

 

Samuel Matonda 

KAM Sectors Manager
Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)

Kenya Manufacturing Sectors Management: Currently at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, I have spearheaded a proactive solution based advocacy across 14 KAM Sectors. Government engagement and policy monitoring to ensure ease of doing business across all counties, Responsible Care, Industrial Waste Exchange, Waste Management, Job Creation through Innovative approaches, taxation and investment incentives, are some of the initiatives that I have championed. The plastics Sector advocacy stands out. I have been actively involved in resource mobilization from Trade Mark East Africa, County Governments, National Government, World Bank, the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), and Responsible Care®, ILO/UNIDO, UN-FAO and individual members in Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Samuel spoke on "Plastics and Packaging, the after use" at 10:30 on Wednesday 8th March

Keep up to date with the conference agenda

Propak East Africa will be running a Free to attend conference alongside the exhibition. This will consist of three days of talks that run periodically throughout the day. Both local and international speakers will be talking on various topics that surround the industry.

If you are interested in attending the conference, or even speaking at the conference, then please click below.

Register for the conference