Utech Europe: Marco Volpato honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award

At Utech Europe in Maastricht (16-18 November) Cannon Group’s CEO Marco Volpato was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Utech Hall of Fame. Volpato delivered this year’s conference’s keynote address.

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 industry colleagues:

• Olivier Chapelle, CEO of Recticel
• Grazyna Mitchener, Director, Polychemtech
• Tony Hankins, CEO Asia Pacific & Division President, Polyurethanes, Huntsman
• Gene Murtagh, CEO, Kingspan

They join existing Hall of Fame inductees Patrick Thomas, former Chairman and CEO of Covestro; John Televantos Senior Partner at Arsenal Capital Partners. The Hall of Fame recognises leaders who have made a significant contribution to the polyurethane industry and have spent at least 25 years in the polyurethane industry.

Utech Europe Rising Star Awards

Two individuals were presented with Utech Europe Rising Star Awards, which salute emerging leaders making a difference in today’s polyurethane marketplace. They were Luca Campi, Industrial Automation Engineer at Cannon Group and Zeynep Çetin, Research & Development Leader at Ravago.

Industrial Automation Engineer 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.

“Congratulations to all our winners in our inaugural Utech Europe polyurethane awards. We celebrate the achievements of the European polyurethane industry during some of the toughest times that the industry has faced, and we honour the achievements of our individual Hall of Fame inductees and Rising Stars,” said Brennan Lafferty, Vice President at Crain Communications which organises UTECH Europe. “The winning products and projects are a testament to the industry's commitment to develop the use of polyurethane materials to meet the demands of the industry's downstream clients and to rise to the challenge posed by the environment.”

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