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.
In April 2022 Frank joined Bolder Industries as Technical Sales Manager, BolderBlack Europe where is responsible for sourcing clients and selling BolderBlack to the EU market.
Frank’s career started in a lab for Melchert Electronik (electroplating), Degussa, Evonik and Orion Engineered Carbons. He then moved on to sales with Azelis, Black Bear and Philips Carbon Black Ltd (now PCBL Ltd.).
Frank has a chemical and technical background and work in the Carbon Black industries since 1994.
His Carbon Black journey started at Degussa AG in the QC lab (Carbon Black and Carbon Black oil) and moved then to QM and R&D (CB production). In 2011 he moved to the R&D and application department and trained customers and employees in using and producing Carbon Black. At this stage he was the deputy head of the application department (Rubber, Specialties and R&D).
Frank has also an education as a firefighter and was the deputy head of the Kalscheuren plant fire department from Orion Engineered Carbons in Cologne.
Frank lives in Germany, speaks German, English and French. He enjoys time with his family, music, cooking and hiking in his spare time.
Until 2019 he was involved in the volunteer fire brigade as Fire Chief Inspector in his home town.
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.
Prof. Dr. Jorge Lacayo-Pineda is Head of the Expert Field for Materials Evaluation at Continental, Tires, and has hold different executive positions in the Materials Labs of Continental since 1998. He is Honorary Professor at the Leibniz University of Hanover and Visiting Professor at the Qingdao University of Science & Technology. He is Chairman of Sub-Committee D11.20 Rubber Compounding Materials & Processes of ASTM International, member of the US Delegation to ISO TC 45 – Rubber & Rubber Products, Convener of the ISO Working Group TC45/SC2/WG5 Chemical Tests of Rubber, and member of the Board Council of the German Rubber Society.
Pieter ter Haar is an expert in recovered carbon black (rCB), pyrolysis, and is a former rubber compounder. He has extensive expertise managing R&D for rCB companies in Europe and North America. After obtaining his Chemistry degree from the Hanze University (Groningen, the Netherlands) he worked as a Rubber Compounder for Fenner Dunlop Conveyor Belting in the Netherlands, where he was in charge of sustainability development of rubber compounds. Pieter joined Pyrolyx/cct Stegelitz in 2015 to develop, build, and manage the first R&D competence center fully dedicated to rCB research. He is one of the founding members of ASTM committee D36 on recovered carbon black, and in his current role as Vice Chair, he leads various task groups within the committee. Pieter is currently president of Terhaar Consulting Inc. in Ontario Canada and consults internationally on various topics related to sustainability, pyrolysis and recovered Carbon Black and is part of the advisory committee for “Recovered Carbon Black World”.
Martin von Wolfersdorff is an independent strategic consultant specialising in carbon materials such as carbon black, recovered carbon black, graphene and carbon nanotubes. With Smithers, he founded the recovered Carbon Black Conference Series in 2019. Martin is also documenting about the circular economy with tires on popular social media like Linkedin, Youtube and Instagram. Prior to his consulting business, Martin had leadership roles in the carbon black, plastic colour concentrates and titanium dioxide industries. He is a chemical engineer (Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) and certified coach (EASC).
