2023 Advisory Board

I graduated in 1990 from the Polytechnics School in Mons, Belgium, as a chemical engineer completed with a License in Businees Administration at the Henley College of Management (UK).

I started my career in 1991 in the patent department of the Belgian glass producer Glaverbel (Asahi Glass) collaborating in patent infringement lawsuits. In 1995 I joined Fina Research as Lubricating Grease development engineer and took over the TotalFinaElf Development team in 2001. In 2004 I joined the newly created Grease Department at TOTAL Headquarters as Product engineer for Automotive industry and Key Account Manager for the bearing manufacturers.  

In 2008 I was appointed Products Technical Manager at Imperator, Total grease plant in France in charge of the laboratory and product development.

In 2017 I was back in the TotalEnergies Grease Team as Key Account Manager for the bearing manufacturers and awarded the title of Lubricating Grease Specialist for TotalEnergies.

In 2023 I will have served 28 years in the lubricating grease industry.

I participated to many ELGI’s (16) since the Berlin one and to the early days of the TMWG in the ELGI’s office from 1996 on.

Dr. Boris Zhmud holds a PhD in Surface Chemistry and is Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry at Lund University. Boris has over 25 years of experience in the field of engine tribology, lubricants and lubrication engineering documented by over 70 publications and several patents. Boris worked at the executive level with AB Nynas Petroleum, E-ION s.a., BIZOL and ANS, and is also a member of the professional institutions: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE). At Nuspec Oil, he focuses on pivoting the development of base oils and biodegradable lubricants.

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.

In his role as Executive Customer Centricity Manager, Kiko is accountable for the Customer Centricity Transition to put the customer at the heart of everything Infineum does. This is a key component of the broader Infineum strategic transformation initiatives to achieve our mission: create a sustainable future through innovative chemistry.

Kiko started his career with Fiat Lubrificanti, now Petronas Lubricants International, responsible for the technical services and OEM relationships. In his 23 years with Infineum, Kiko has covered many commercial leadership roles spanning from global business management to regional/segment marketing responsibilities. He has also had extensive experience in corporate positions such as enterprise and operational risk management, customer performance and corporate communications. He has been able to expand his professional experience through expatriate assignments in UK and Asia Pacific, returning from Singapore mid-2021.

Throughout his career, he has supported the Additives industry with roles on various industry bodies and associations as an advisor and senior member. He is passionate about golf, tennis and skiing and currently chairs a well know charity association in his home town of Genoa.

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 Vice President & Chief
Sustainability Officer at Fuchs SE for over 10 years.

Apu now acts as independent Sustainability Expert Adviser and Partner at Fokus Zukunft, providing sustainability consultancy to clients looking to achieve carbon reduction and
sustainability objectives across a wide array of applications.

He is also Senator at the Senate of Economy in Germany, where he chairs the Commission Sustainable Economy.

Damien Is Head of Metalworking Fluid Division in TotalEnergies Lubrifiants based in Paris France. He has 25 years of experience in the Lubricant & Specialties industry from R&D to technical, commercial and management positions. His main activity is to lead the worldwide commercial and technical developments of innovative metalworking fluid solutions for the industry.

Bio coming soon...

Inga Herrmann has been in the lubricant industry for about 25 years and has a unique perspective from professional and strategic selling, key account management and evaluating sustainability concepts for the lubricant industry.

Inga has a bachelor’s in business administration and holds a degree as certified professional for lubricants technology.

Inga is currently head of the lubricants department at VSI - German Lubricant Manufacturers Association. She worked as industrial key account manager at Shell Deutschland GmbH more than two decades. The last years at Shell she was responsible for evaluating and gaining new business with OEMs and key customers in different segments of industrial lubrication, e.g. Power Generation, General Manufacturing, Auto Components Cement and Steel, etc. with a focus of the grease business.

In 2020 Inga Herrmann joined VSI with a responsibility for establishing a European sustainability standard for the lubricant industry and other lubricant topics like standardization of highest importance for the member companies.

In 2018 Inga joined the Earthwatch Expedition “climate change in northern ecosystems” in Churchill Manitoba in the western Hudson Bay region of Canada as a volunteer where she supported the scientific research at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.
This is a long-term research programme to understand climate-related changes in northern ecosystems. Annual data provides deeper insight into these systems and evidences the signs of global environmental change. Participants help collect data on features of permafrost, soil, tree growth, plant phenology, mammals and birds.

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.

Christophe Lacroix is Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer at Motul; His focus now is to draw the pathway of a brand with a historical heritage towards the energy transition. Christophe was previously the Chief Operations Officer at Motul for the last five years.

Christophe has an extensive experience in the chemical industry, polymer businesses and white biotechnology where he held various technical and business positions.

Christophe holds a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris. He is also member of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance coaching startups in the blue economy space.

Jeffery has over 30 years Global Sales Management experience within these sectors, coupled with
extensive experience with Georgia-Pacific Pine Chemicals. He began his lubricant career as a Sales
Engineer for D. A. Stuart, selling finished metalworking fluids to the Big Three automakers in the
Detroit Metro area. Jeff then transitioned to Quaker Houghton, as a Process Engineer, with heavy
focus on drawing and stamping compounds for the Ford Motor Company. After Quaker, he went
on to selling vegetable-based metalworking fluid additives.

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.

Mike has worked in the lubricants industry for over 30 years and is currently Marketing Director at Valvoline, responsible for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He started his career at Castrol and worked at worked at Lubrizol for 23 years before moving to Valvoline in April 2021.

He has held a variety of roles spanning lubricant development, technical support, business management and marketing. From 2010 to 2014 Mike led Lubrizol's marketing group in Asia Pacific, initially based in Beijing, China and later in Singapore.

Mike has a degree in Physics from Reading University and a MBA from Nottingham University.

An experienced, dynamic commercial leader in the energy industry with a proven track record of delivering significant net earnings growth. Passionate about leading and developing high performing teams and creating an environment that enables extraordinary results. Particular strengths include developing and moving strategy into execution; mobilizing and delivering successful business transformations; systematic and structured way of performance management whilst engaging and motivating with an empathic leadership style.

Richard is the Director of TriboTonic Ltd which was established over 3 years ago to support tribology and petroleum companies across Europe through instrument sales, servicing and strategic industry expertise.

Prior to setting up TriboTonic Ltd, Rich worked for 16 years at PCS Instruments where he fulfilled a variety of roles covering sales, marketing and business development. He was instrumental in the company’s growth becoming a World Leading provider of Tribology Equipment.

TriboTonic sells and supports PCS Instruments, Falex Tribology, IQT and Metaspec specimens across Europe. Rich has a strong engineering and mathematical background with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. He additionally supports the industry in an advisory capacity sitting on various industry boards.

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...

Maria Sole Signorini is Head of Group Procurement at Petronas Lubricants International (PLI), based in Turin, Italy.

In her current role Maria Sole is responsible for the sourcing strategy and procurement of raw materials as well as procurement of indirect materials and services for PLI Group worldwide.

She has started her career in the lubricants industry in 2001 covering sales and procurement positions and she has joined PLI in 2008 from Petronas acquisition of FL Selenia.

Maria Sole holds a degree in Language and Communication from University of Languages and Communication in Milan (Italy).

Siddharth Sachdeva is the drive behind the advances in technology usage at Siddharth Grease & Lubes in India and Trinity Lubes & Greases, a new State-of-the-Art facility in the UAE.  From these two companies, lubricants and greases are manufactured, then exported around the world. The Technology Centre, built at their Indian plant; have developed new and exciting products and SGL holds many patents that are used by the world’s biggest lubricant brands.

The Technology Centre has had great success in producing and testing products not only in the lab, but also field trials, that work harder for longer. Helping to not only to reduce waste but also the cost of ownership. Focusing not just on environmental sustainability but economic as well. 

Valentina is a driven and strategic professional, with over twenty years’ experience in the oil and lubricant industry, boasting several senior technical and commercial roles.

She is passionate about building bridges between the technical and the commercial sides of businesses, and creating solution-based business approaches.

Valentina is the Vice President for Engineered Fluids at Perstorp, a world leader in sustainable building blocks for polyol esters. In her role Valentina holds the global responsibility for the lubricant industry segment.

Valentina also serves as President of UEIL (the Union of the European Lubricants Industry), an association which represents the interests of the lubricants industry in Europe, with a special focus on SMEs and independent companies that produce lubricants and metal processing fluids essential for the automotive and industrial sectors.

She is the author of numerous technical publications, patents, and international presentations in the field of specialty oils and lubricants.

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.