Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Boris Zhmud is an industry insider with over 20 years of experience in engine tribology, lubricants and lubrication engineering. Boris has authored or coauthored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and has several patents. He is a member of the British Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE).

I’m a chemical engineer and I have a PhD in tribology and materials science. My career started as researcher at SKF and then I moved to TotalEnergies as a R&D project leader on Heavy Duty and Marine engine lubricants – Expertise in engine oil formulation and adequation with engine requirements. I also have several years of experience in low carbon energy for mobility applications, emissions and formulation in internal combustion engines.

Thomas Fröst is President of SKF Industrial Technologies and member of SKF Group Management. He has over 20 years of management experience in SKF within different business areas, e.g. heading up SKF’s Asian Seals unit based in Shanghai between 2004-2007 and various senior positions within industrial marketing, product development and sales.

The Industrial Technologies unit consists of different business area, including lubrication management, seals, special bearing (magnetic & split bearings) and others. Next to being strong businesses with leading positions in their respective fields, SKF’s strategic reason to develop these business is to leverage their contribution to creating “a world of reliable rotation”.

SKF is committed to ambitious climate goals and zero net greenhouse gas emissions throughout the full supply chain. Industrial Technologies offers many solutions to support these goals and contribute to a circular economy including offers such as SKF RecondOil. Thomas is enthusiastic to lead this change and together with all SKF people, motivated to make it happen.

Apu has been responsible for pioneering work in this area and held the position of Chief Sustainability Officer at Fuchs Petrolub SE for over 10 years. Apu is now Senator of Sustainability at the Senate of Economy in Germany and Partner at Fokus Zukunft GmbH & Co. KG,  providing sustainability consultancy to clients looking to achieve carbon reduction and sustainability objectives across a wide array of applications.

Bio coming soon...

Tanja is the Managing Director for the scale up company Nanol Technologies; sustainable lubricant additive company based out of Sweden and Finland. Nanol is part of the #beyond1000solutions focusing on a sustainable future for lubricants and circular economy. Her focus is working with customer in the lubricants industry and associated industries.

Tanja has a broad background from different industries and her roles have been in in turn around and change missions, the positions she has held were global and international positions as the Managing director and/or sales responsible. She has also worked as a management consultant in the Middle East as well as in the USA.

She is used to work in a true global network from different industries. Her work is with numerous global, national, and independent companies within her earlier industries. She has a unique global network.
Earlier in her career Tanja worked as a sales director within the Energy Exchange, to mention the Nordic Power exchange; Nord Pool and she also held a position as a board member of the German European Energy Exchange AG.
Tanja has an MBA from Stockholm School of Economics.

Annie is Director of Global Business Development for Kline’s Energy Management Consulting business, based out of Kline’s London office. Her focus is working with clients involved in the lubricants value chain and associated industries. She also is a key member of Kline’s lubricant value chain advisory and due diligence team.

Prior to joining Kline, Annie ran a global lubricants and greases performance benchmarking and analysis project. This saw her work with numerous global, national and independent lubricant companies advising on operational improvement and cost reduction through advanced data analytics.

Earlier in her career Annie worked as a process engineer primarily working to optimize biogas and energy production from wastewater treatment facilities.

Annie has a BEng (honors) in Chemical and Process Engineering, and a B.Sc (Chemistry), both from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Dr. Jim Puckace is the co-founder and CEO of Round-Cat Technologies, a developer of novel metathesis/macrocyclic polymerization catalysts and founder of Bluetigre Corporation, an innovation and technology scouting consultancy firm. He recently retired from the Lubrizol Corporation, as a Sr Director of Corporate Ventures holding positions in Business Development, Sales and Marketing. Prior to this, he worked for Exxon, Mobil, and ExxonMobil in downstream Chemical and Lubricants and Petroleum Specialties in Technology, Product/Business Management and Global Marketing.

Dr. Puckace has a PhD in physical organic chemistry from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.   His passion is the development of low carbon and sustainable chemistry and transformational business growth through levering innovation practices.   Dr. Puckace is based in Tampa, Florida USA.

Bio coming soon...

In his 31 years with Shell Gunnar has had assignments in engineering projects, process technology, economics, supply chain and production management, primarily in lubes and base oil refining. In his current role he is heading a global expert team and steers the technical support for base oil manufacturing and acts as technical authority for base oil and wax process technology. He manages key base oil R&D activities for process, catalyst and simulation development. He manages base oil process licensing and catalyst activities.

Working for over 20 years in the field of tribology, Thomas started his career as a Project Manager Nanotechnology/Tribology for the Freudenberg Group. He then joined Lanxess as a Product Group Manager for Lubricant Additives.

In 2011 he transitioned to BASF SE as a Senior Technical Manager for lubricant components. Thomas has a PhD in physical

Bio coming soon...

Bhupinder Singh (B.Sc., MBA.) is a senior business development professional in lubricant and base oil industry with a proven track record of achieving results and turnarounds in highly competitive environments.

He has successful stints in reputed organizations like British Petroleum, Castrol, Universal Lubricants, Pidilite Industries and Bahrain Petroleum Company.

He has 26 years of experience, covering roles in Sale, marketing, intellectual property in lubricants industry in India , Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Currently he is Director Sales with an Vanol FZE Dubai.

Bhupinder has sound experience of handling large geographies, multicultural teams, P& L management, turnovers.

His forte is managing startup operations, creating, and managing teams as well management of large distribution network.

Bhupinder has won many awards during his professional career.

He a regular speaker in various lubricants industries conferences across globe including ICIS world Base oil conference, UEIL, and Petrosil AMEA conferences.

He is Co-chairing Petrosil Asia Middle East and Africa Lubes and base oil conference from last 3 years.

Juergen Ulmer is the Country Manager for Chevron Deutschland GmbH. Born in Hamburg in 1960, he studied Engineering Studies and has downstream experience since 1992. Juergen has worked with TEXACO/CHEVRON since 1998.

David is Director-General of the United Kingdom Lubricants Association, a position he has held since November 2014. His connection with the industry and the role he plays through the activities of the UKLA will offer a valuable perspective on the development of key areas of the event, including important issues of discussion within the conference agenda.

The UK Lubricants Association is the trade association for the lubricants industry in the United Kingdom, covering the automotive, transportation, industrial and metalworking sectors.

 Representing the majority of the lubricants Industry, the UKLA is actively engaged with other trade associations, such as UEIL, ORA, UKPIA on matters impacting the industry, through participation in consultation, representation and lobbying to UK and European Government and industry authorities.

It also provides its membership with industry networking events and knowledge sharing, through training and communications on industry developments and legislation.