Recovered Carbon Black Europe Conference is returning in 2026, with over 350 rCB representatives expected to join us in November. As Europe's leading rCB industry event, the conference provides a unique opportunity for delegates to get the latest industry information and network face-to-face with global experts.
2025 highlights included:
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Laia Perez Simbor holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. She worked for more than 16 years in Brussels as an expert in chemical regulation, supporting various industrial sectors, including metals, mining, and pneumatics. Laia later joined the European Commission’s DG GROW as a Policy Officer, where she addresses the socio-economic aspects of regulation and initiatives related to chemicals legislation.
Jorge Almeida is heading the sustainability department at Continental Tires . In this role, he is responsible for the strategic direction and global management of all sustainability and ESSH (Environmental, Safety, Security and Health) activities of the premium tire manufacturer. Almeida has been with Continental for more than 30 years in various functions and regions. He has extensive experience in Finance, Human Relations, and Purchasing. Most recently, the 56-year-old led the business activities of the Tires business in the Andina region (covering Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela). Prior to that, he served as Head of Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing for rubber as well as indirect materials.
Biography:
2010 PhD in Physical Chemistry, University of Mainz
2010 -2014 PostDocs at MPI-DS, University of Goettingen, and UC San Diego
2015-2023 Group leader at MPI-DS
2022-to date Material Developer at Material Technology Solutions/Material Development & Industrialisation, Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH
Mark Pender is the Sr. R&D Manager for New Product Development at Cabot Corporation. Prior to Cabot, he served in various roles at Michelin North America, including Senior Materials Engineer and Manager for Advanced Materials Research. Mark also served as a Materials Chemist with the US Air Force Research Laboratory. A chemist by training, he holds a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his undergraduate education at the University of South Carolina.
Gianmarco Di Rienzo is a Process Chemist at TEC srl, focusing primarily on the optimization of chemical processes on a laboratory scale and providing support for the process scale-up to an industrial scale. He worked in R&D, specializing in waste recycling and reuse. As part of this work, he earned a Ph.D. in Energy Science and Engineering at the University of Naples Parthenope, focusing on the alkaline activation of bottom ash derived from the woody biomass combustion to produce eco-sustainable thermal insulation materials; he spent six months at the University of Miskolc (Hungary) during his Ph.D. program to deepen his study of the mechanical activation of bottom ash and its effects on the alkaline activation process. He also received a research fellowship at the University of Naples Parthenope for a project on the alkaline activation of blast furnace slag to synthesize innovative and/or fiber-reinforced materials for hydraulic engineering projects. He holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Chemistry Sciences and Technologies (Products, Processes, and Environmental Protection Curricula) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Naples Federico II.
Celso Magri is Global Marketing and Sustainability Director at Orion, a global carbon black producer. He has 25 years of experience in the chemical industry, leading business and marketing organisations globally. He has lived and worked in South and North America and in 4 European countries and has extensive experience in Asia. He is passionate about sustainability and has led Life Cycle Analysis of different polymers for several applications while working for Dow Chemical, Styron, and Trinseo. He worked with the plastics value chain to design products to reduce the overall environmental impact.
His job at Orion is to develop and implement the sustainability strategy for the Rubber Business, working with the tire value chain on the transition to the tire circular economy.
Anil Nandakumar is the Marketing Head - Asia at Birla Carbon with over 22 years of experience in Marketing, Customer experience and new product introduction through the globe.
Holds a background in chemical engineering with experience in process design, automation, and technology development. Krzysztof joined Contec in 2016, became CEO at 26, and has since driven the company’s technological growth and client relations. Previously, he worked in R&D Team at Warsaw University of Technology and Grupa Azoty, and as an entrepreneur.
After achieving a summa cum laude M.Sc Degree in Chemical Engineering in Rome in 1994 on organic Materials, Mr Cialone devoted himself to the tire industry from 1995 until today. Over the last 29 years, Massimo has worked for international global companies in different roles in R&D, where he was able to gain expertise in both raw materials to compounding as well as processing. He joined Hankook - European Technical Center in 2015, where he serves a Material and Compounding Chief Specialist. Since 2019 his major focus is the development of innovative materials in the field of sustainability as well as coordinating research project in the EU area.
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.
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.
Raffaele di Ronza is the senior application and technical solutions manager for the
Reinforcement Materials business segment at Cabot Corporation. He currently leads the EMEA technical team, which is focused on reinforcing carbons and elastomer composite solutions for tire and industrial rubber applications. With over 20 years of experience in the chemical industry, specifically in rubber value chains, he has also held various roles in R&D, particularly in tires. Raffaele earned an Executive Master of Business Administration from Politecnico di Milano and a master's degree in Industrial Chemistry from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico.
