UTECH Europe and Urethanes Technology International launched the UTECH Europe Awards in 2021 to recognise and celebrate achievements and innovations from across the European polyurethanes industry.
During UTECH Europe 2021, held at the MECC Maastricht on 16-18 November, the winners of the following awards were revealed.
- Rising Star Awards
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- UTECH Hall of Fame
- UTECH Europe Automotive, CASE and Innovation Awards
RISING STARS
The Rising Star Award salutes emerging leaders who are making a difference in today's marketplace.
During UTECH Europe 2021, Luca Campi, Industrial Automation Engineer at Cannon Group and Zeynep Çetin, Research & Development Leader at Ravago were presented with Rising Star Awards.
Luca Campi joined Cannon in the R&D Lab and in nine years has developed polyurethane technologies that have introduced innovation and solved multiple technical issues. His work has resulted in no less than four patents that Cannon has filed in recent years.
Zeynep Çetin joined Ravago Group in 2018 and recently became Research and Development Leader for all polyurethane activities. She has been working in the field of polymer chemistry, polymer structure and characterisation, polyester synthesis and process for 10 years, most recently working on bio-based, water-based and recycling environmentally friendly polyurethane systems.
From left: Brennan Lafferty (Urethanes Technology International), Luca Campi (Cannon Group), Zeynep Çetin (Ravago) and Simon Robinson (Urethanes Technology International)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Cannon Group's CEO Marco Volpato was honoured with the UTECH Lifetime Achievement Award during UTECH Europe 2021. Volpato took over the ownership and management of Cannon in 1974, giving him close to 50 years’ experience as a leader in the sector. He oversaw Cannon’s growth to become a premier global supplier of machinery for polyurethane foam manufacture before expanding into wider industrial automation. In addition to receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, Volpato was inducted into the UTECH Europe Hall of Fame alongside four other distinguished industry colleagues.
Marco Volpato, CEO of Cannon Group, receives the UTECH Lifetime Achievement Award from Simon Robinson, Editor, Urethanes Technology International.
HALL OF FAME
The UTECH Hall of Fame recognises leaders who have made a significant contribution to the global polyurethane industry and have spent at least 25 years working within the industry.
UTECH Europe 2021 Hall of Fame inductees:
- Marco Volpato, CEO, Cannon Group
- Grazyna Mitchener, Director, Polychemtech
- Tony Hankins, CEO Asia Pacific & Division President, Polyurethanes, Huntsman
- Olivier Chapelle, CEO, Recticel (accepted award virtually)
- Gene Murtagh, CEO, Kingspan (accepted award virtually)
Previous inductees to the UTECH Hall of Fame include Patrick Thomas, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Covestro (awarded at UTECH Europe 2018) and John Televantos, Senior Partner at Arsenal Capital Partners (awarded at UTECH North America 2018).
From left: Brennan Lafferty (Urethanes Technology International), Harald Dialer (Haltermann Carless - Awards Sponsor), Grazyna Mitchener (Polychemtech), Marco Volpato (Cannon Group), Simon Robinson (Urethanes Technology International) and Tony Hankins (Huntsman).
2021 UTECH EurOPE AWARD winners
The UTECH Europe Awards showcase the best polyurethane application and materials/processing developments in recent years.
Automotive Category Winner: Recticel, Belgium for OBoNature: a product family of flexible foam systems with a large renewable component
CASE Category Winner: Covestro, Germany for its Bend restrictor powered by CO2-technology for offshore wind farms
Innovation Category Winner: Vita Group for two innovations: Orbis a commercially available foam made using raw materials from the Renuva mattress recycling programme and Vita Rest Origin made with castor-oil derived polyols
All winners of the UTECH Europe Awards 2021, held at MECC Maastricht, the Netherlands, on Tuesday 16th November 2021.
Congratulations to all winners and finalists
awards platinum SPONSOr
