26-28 April 2027
Berlin, Germany
Paul Ita runs Notch Consulting, a Massachusetts-based research company dedicated to the market research needs of the global specialty chemicals industry. Mr. Ita focuses on raw materials for the global tire and rubber industries, with a particular focus on carbon black, silica, and rubber chemicals. Through Notch, he publishes the Carbon Black World Data Book and the Carbon Black Quarterly Newsletter.
Alex finished his PhD at Imperial College London last year, where he published six papers related to tyre recycling, recovered carbon materials, and waste treatment in internationally recognised journals. Alex undertook numerous consultancy projects alongside his PhD and was awarded the departmental prize for the best thesis submitted in 2023. Alex now works as a Process Engineer at Orion Engineered Carbons, a major manufacturer of carbon black, where he contributes to a range of Innovation projects.
Dr. Hubert Hirschlag
Chemist
*20.06.1966
2017 – today: Head of Raw Material Introduction, Continental Tires
Responsible for approval, release and industrialization of all compounding materials in Continental Tires
2007 – 2016: Global Manager Supplier Development, Continental AG
Responsible for development and improvement of Suppliers for Chemicals and Fillers
1999 – 2006: Plant Manager with Clariant AG at locations in Germany and Spain
Responsible for the production of various chemicals in batch and continuous processes
Martin von Wolfersdorff, trading as "Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin”, is an expert advisor and business partner of Smithers specialising in sustainable carbon blacks. Martin works with Smithers on carbon black consulting projects, writes Smithers reports and is the founder and business partner of the recovered Carbon Black Conference. Martin's corporate assignments were in carbon black, plastic packaging, plastic masterbatch and titanium dioxide. Martin has a Dipl. Ing. (Univ.) degree in chemical engineering from the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.
Theo is Global Director, Strategic Projects for the Reinforcement Materials business at Cabot corporation. He has 33 year of service at Cabot and held various positions in Cabot’s reinforcement materials organization, including Global Technical Service Director, Business Segment Manager, Applications Development Manager and Facility Manager at Cabot Technical Center. Theo has received 6 Cabot Awards of Excellence and played an important role in the development and market introduction of Cabot’s SPHERON® and, more recently, the PROPEL® carbon black series. His educational background is in Analytical and Polymer Chemistry. Theo is highly interested in “Sustainability”, his main hobbies are soccer, sports fishing, tennis and reading. Theo and his wife Carla have two children and live in The Netherlands.
