2023 Speakers

Dr. Adam Read, Chief External Affairs & Sustainability Officer, Suez UK

Adam is a member of the Suez UK Management Team with responsibility for external affairs, communications and sustainability. He has been with Suez for 6 years after a successful career in academia, local government and environmental consultancy spanning over 30 years, whilst his PhD focussed on UK waste policy failures. 

For the last 5 years he has led the company's work with UK Government on the development of the new Resources & Waste Strategy and associated consultations around EPR. DRS, Plastic Tax and consistent collections, hosting numerous workshops, webinars and conferences on behalf of CIWM and other industry bodies to discuss the policy proposals and develop feedback to the relevant Government departments. 

Adam is also the Chair of the ESA Resource Strategy & Policy working group, where the sector's critical thinking about potential policy impacts happen. He is also CIWM's immediate past president, where during his tenure he championed the green skills demands of a sector transitioning to a circular economy. Adam sits on numerous industry technical working groups and enjoys nothing more than mentoring the resource managers of the future. He is a CIWM Trustee, member of CIWM's Policy & Innovation Forum and was recently voted the 7th most influential person in the Resource Hot 100.

Judith Kelly, HMRC

Judith leads the Excise & Environmental Taxes Policy team in HMRC with responsibility for plastic packaging tax, aggregates levy and climate change levy (environmental taxes); fuel duties and air passenger duty (transport taxes) and gambling duties. 

Judith began her career in HM Customs & Excise as an Anti-smuggling Officer in 1984. She has worked in a range of technical, compliance and policy roles. These include time on a rummage team at NW airports, leading EU and international negotiations, and introducing a tobacco track and trace system. In the last few years, she has delivered a major programme of reform to excise systems post Brexit and introduced a world-first plastic packaging tax. In 2011, Judith was awarded an OBE for outstanding service to HMRC.

Outside of work, Judith is a long-suffering Everton fan who enjoys sweating it out in hot yoga classes and wiling away the hours in her garden.

John Redmayne, Managing Director, ERP

John leads ERP UK - Landbell Group's business in the UK - supporting companies with circular economy services including product data, product take-back, recycling and EPR compliance. John joined the environmental industry in 1985 and has been working in waste management for over 25 years. He has cross-sector experience from roles in the third sector (Chief Executive of white goods refurbishment social enterprise, CREATE UK), private sector (Senior Consultant with environmental consultancy, Eunomia) and local government (Executive Director of the Project Integra waste partnership in Hampshire).

John is a member of the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (MCIWM) and represents WEEE Schemes Forum on the BSI GEL/111 Electrotechnical Environment Committee. 

Dr Claire Cutforth, Operational Manager for Business, Policy and Performance (Waste Management), Cardiff Council 

Currently Operational Manager for Business, Policy and Performance in the Waste Management Department at Cardiff Council, Claire is responsible for developing and delivering the Waste Strategy for Cardiff.

Claire has over 20 years experience in the waste industry in both operational and strategic roles, delivering a wide range of services including weekly food waste collections and fortnightly residual waste collections. 

Kirstin is an experienced commercial lawyer with Freeths LLP, who has worked with businesses in the Waste and Renewables sector for almost 20 years. Increasingly, Kirstin advises businesses implementing their ESG or Sustainability Plans, assisting in all contractual requirements around waste reduction, waste re-use and End of Waste. She also advises on packaging issues and net zero provisions in supply chain contracts. 

Kirstin is a Chartered Waste Manager with CIWM and Chair of CIWM's Midlands Centre Council. Kirstin and other members of Freeths waste team are currently updating the CIWM template waste management contract - the standard waste management contract for the waste industry.

Outraged by the dumping of nuclear waste at sea in the '80s and motivated to do something about it, Howard embarked on an Environmental Science degree at Plymouth University in 1988. Post-graduation he began working on the investigation and remediation of contaminated land and brownfield sites across the UK, initially as a contractor and consultant and later in a regulatory role. 

In the early 2000s, Howard became involved in the design and improvement of internal business processes at the Environment Agency improving customer service and freeing up capacity within teams across the organisation and eventually qualifying as a LEAN Six Sigma Black Belt practitioner. 

Feeling the need to get back to a more environmentally focussed role he joined Welsh Government on a secondment from Natural Resources Wales to lead on policy associated with the impacts and management of packaging waste. 

Working in the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy Division, Howard leads on the development - and soon implementation - of the deposit return scheme and extended producer responsibility for packaging. Ensuring these schemes meet the needs of Wales and can integrate into our specific waste collection and collection infrastructure. He also leads the project to implement the collection of flexible plastics from Welsh households and businesses. 

Paul became Chief Executive of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) in May 2017.  This followed 26 years in central government and local government, and 16 years of that within the resources sector.

A particular current focus for INCPEN is working with all four governments to design and implement a set of packaging reforms that are cost-efficient and deliver environmental benefits. This includes Extended Producer Responsibility, Deposit Return Systems and 'consistency' of the range of packaging materials collected from all 27 million UK households. 

Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is also a member of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management; a member of the UK Government's Resources and Waste Advisory Group; a founding member of the UK Plastics Pact; and a member of the Green Alliance.

George Atkinson, Head of Policy, Valpak

As the UK’s largest packaging producer responsibility compliance scheme, Valpak is positioned at centre of ensuring business are prepared for the challenges posed by reforms to the UK’s packaging waste regulations, assisting over 2000 businesses in complying with their responsibilities.

George, Valpak’s Head of Policy, is responsible for keeping Valpak and its membership up to date with all of the latest developments in producer responsibility policy at this crucial time of change for the sector. In addition to speaking to a variety of audiences on the changes afoot, he represents the views of the business and its membership during both formal policy consultations and in meetings with industry representatives and government, with the aim of promoting effective producer responsibility policymaking in the UK.

Paul Sanderson, CEO, Recycling Association

Paul Sanderson joined The Recycling Association as chief executive on 1 March 2023. Prior to that he operated his own business and acted as a consultant for The Recycling Association as part of this. He joined the recycling industry in 2004 when he became editor of MRW magazine – a position he held until 2012.

Mark Brill, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, TOMRA

Mark joined TOMRA in September 2018 and has now seen DRS in action across a number of European markets. His background is in consumer goods with Jacob's Biscuits, Wella Haircare and Procter & Gamble, including eight years with P&G Asia. He returned to the United Kingdom in 2012 as Sales Director for P&G's Salon Professional business. Mark has a Business Studies degree from Plymouth University.