Advisory Board

Dirk Carrez is Bio-engineer and holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences. Between 1990 and 1999, he has worked at SOLVAY S.A. in the research department (genetics and industrial fermentation for the enzyme and the healthcare business). In 1999, he joined FEDICHEM (the Federation of the Belgian Chemical and Life Science Industries, now Essenscia) as Director, Innovation & Product Policy and as Secretary General of BELGOBIOTECH (the Belgian Biotech Industry Association). Between 2004 and 2011, he was Director, Industrial Biotechnology at EUROPABIO (The European Association for BioIndustries), where he coordinated the activities in the area of industrial biotechnology and the “bio-based economy”, as well as horizontal issues, such as research & innovation, SMEs & access to finance, IPR, etc.
Today, he is the Managing Director of Clever Consult, and the Executive Director of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC).
Dirk Carrez is Vice-Chair of BIAC’s Biotechnology Committee (Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD), and was Vice-Chair of OECD’s Task Force for Industrial Biotechnology, and a member of the European Commission’s Biobased Products Expert Group.

Prof. Ludo Diels, Dr. in chemistry & biotechnology, works at the University of Antwerp, and is research manager Sustainable Chemistry for the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) in Mol, Belgium.
During 15 year he managed the Environment and Process Technology Business Unit and is now responsible for the transition toward sustainable chemistry and clean technology. He is responsible for the organisation of collaboration with the academic and industrial World and for co-financing projects. He coordinated and is involved in many international research projects. Ludo Diels is strongly involved in the set up of a biobased economy in Flanders. He is also responsible for the collaboration between VITO and India and he is managing the creation of a road map and Strategic Research Agenda for R&D on biomass and biowaste between India and Europe. He is a founding father of the Shared Research Centre on Bio-aromatics (BIORIZON) between the Netherlands and Flanders. He is also founder and Flanders coordinator of the BIG-C trilateral alliance between Flanders, the Netherlands and NordRhein Westfalia (Germany), focusing on a border denying collaboration for the chemical industry with focus on waste gases and biomass as renewable resources . He is case leader for bio-aromatics in the Vanguard Initiative, pilot Bio-economy, leading to smart specialisation of interregional collaboration.
He is the chairman of the working group FEED in the Energy and Resources PPP-SPIRE between 8 industrial sectors and the European Commission) and member of the SPIRE-BBI working group.

Kaya Kaplancali has an MBA degree from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from Marmara University, Istanbul. He has over 20 years of track record in business development and entrepreneurship, 14 years of it primarily in China and Hong Kong. He has extensive international business experience working with multinational companies as well as academic research background in networked business models. Kaya has published conference papers in China, India and Japan in 2006 and 2007, in affiliation with Product Development and Management Association, based in New Jersey, USA. He regularly participates in bioplastics industry conferences as a speaker on durable consumer product applications of bioplastics. In 2009 Kaya founded Bioserie with three close friends, a Hong Kong based company focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing branded durable consumer goods made of bioplastics. His experience in managing design, product development and manufacturing processes and implications of these disciplines on branding has led him to study and understand the essence of working with geographically dispersed, multidisciplinary teams. By managing the R&D process, Kaya was able to develop an innovative manufacturing technology for injection molded bioplastic durable consumer products, which earned him and Bioserie worldwide industry recognition and innovation accolades in USA and Europe. Kaya is the bioplastics technologist in Bioserie, and he currently leads R&D, production and supply chain management efforts.

Filippo Giancarlo Martinelli (Executive MBA, PDEng, MSc), leads Global Industrial Partnerships Development at Abolis Biotechnologies since February 2020. Before joining Abolis, in 2019 he had the pleasure to serve as Chief Executive Officer for Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IBF), Ireland national bioeconomy association and innovation cluster. Prior to that he worked within PNO Consultants group of firms, the European leader in grant consulting and innovation processes management, moving from Consultant (2014-2016) to Pipeline Manager (2016-2017), Brussels-EU P&L unit Operations Manager (2017-2018) as well as International Sector Team Leader Agri-Food Bioeconomy. During his career, Filippo has gathered direct technical experience operating within the fields of biofuels (Agroils Technologies), biochemicals (Delft Advanced Biorenewables) and bio-actives (KtedoGEN/NAICONS), as well as management consulting and project development experience for innovative projects within several other sectors such as agri-food, forestry, marine, textile and critical raw materials, being deeply involved into enabling the implementation of cutting-edge sustainable innovation within society. His educational background include a BSc in Biotechnology (2009, Parma, IT), an MSc in Industrial Biotechnology (2011, Milan, IT), a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) in BioProduct Design (2014, Delft, NL) and an Executive MBA (2017, Rotterdam, NL).

Carsten Sieden was born in Hamm, Germany in 1966. He studied chemistry at the University of Münster. After obtaining his doctorate and conducting post-doctoral studies at Stanford University, Carsten started work in BASF’s Main Laboratory in 1994.