Packaging News Power 50 2009: 40-31

Each Wednesday until 1 July, when the July issue of Packaging News is published, we will reveal the next 10 people to have made the list. The top 10 will be unveiled on 1 July.

Click here to see numbers 50-41
Click here to see numbers 30-21
Click here to see numbers 20-11
Click here to see the top 10

40 Keith Damarell (NEW)
Managing director, Perseco Operations
As managing director of McDonald’s outsource packaging management company, it is surprising that Keith Damarell has not featured in the Power 50 before. Perseco serves McDonald’s global needs and Damarell is
faced with the challenge of making sure that packaging for the fast-food chain is produced using 100% renewable sources by 2010.

He should be well placed to do so, though, as one commentator pointed out: “He has bags of packaging experience and a vision to minimise packaging waste”, so meeting this target should not be a problem. Damarell spent 10 years at Stora Enso and previously had roles with Sappo and Arjo Wiggins Appleton.

39 Chris Buxton (34)
Chief executive, Processing and Packaging Machinery Association
Chris Buxton has overseen a growth in membership at the PPMA to more than 350 firms since taking up the reins as chief executive in 2005, not least via the organisation’s office in China and the recent amalgamation of the British Automation and Robotics Association.

A jazz enthusiast and a keen guitarist, Buxton has two trips to the NEC on the horizon with the PPMA Show in September and the three-yearly Total Processing and Packaging next May, leaving one colleague in no doubt about the role he plays. “Chris is a great ambassador for our industry,” he says.

38 Jerzy Laszcz (NEW)
Managing director, Can-Pack Group
If Jerzy Laszcz is new to the UK, so is his company. In fact, the Polish Can-Pack Group, one of the biggest canmakers in central and eastern Europe, this year chose the UK as the site for its first plant in western Europe, a £40m project. As the first can plant to be built in the UK for 20 years, Laszcz’s project has attracted the attention not only of competitors but also the national press; Laszcz featured in
a Times article about economic regeneration in Scunthorpe just last month.

37 Arno Melchior (41)
Global packaging director, Reckitt Benckiser
Step into Arno Melchior’s modern office at Reckitt Benckiser HQ in Slough and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Robert Opie’s museum – shelves, cupboards and boxes overflow with packs for both Reckitt Benckiser and competitor brands. The collection is testament to Melchior’s passion for packaging. It’s just as well – he oversees packaging and design for products that are sold in no fewer than 180 countries worldwide. As you might expect, he has an air miles account to make even the most seasoned traveller envious.

36 James Donaldson (NEW)
Managing director, Greenstar WES
The key to improving the public perception of plastic packaging is undoubtedly improving recycling rates and Greenstar WES is a leading light in this field. James Donaldson has been at the heart of efforts to turn HDPE and films that are heavily contaminated by print back into usable material. Most recently the firm won a contract to supply Nampak with food-grade HDPE for use in Marks & Spencer milk bottles. As a colleague Donaldson is described as “highly passionate” about what he does and a “good guy to work with”. “His enthusiasm is endless,” says one source.

35 John Durston (30)
Non-executive chairman, Britton Group
“The consummate professional” and “a solid supporter of packaging as an industry rather than a necessary evil” are just two descriptions of John Durston from people who voted for him to be in the Power 50.

Durston returned to the packaging industry in 2008, following his retirement from the post of deputy chief executive of Amcor Flexibles. He joined Britton Group after it was bought by HSBC’s private equity arm. As chairman of Britton Group he is at the head of the second largest supplier of flexible plastic packaging in the UK.

He is also a non-executive director of Plantic Technologies, the Australian bioplastics producer, and of Inbartec, a Portugal-based firm that specialises in protective membranes for wine closures.

34 Rodney Steel (44)
Chief executive, British Contract Manufacturers and Packers Association
“Professionalism, dedication and understanding of the industry. If ever there was the right guy in the right place for a specific task then it was Rodney Steel,” says one BCMPA member. He does a tremendous job of raising the profile of the contract-packing sector. Steel’s tireless work on behalf of contract packers can be seen in the resounding success of this year’s Easyfairs Contract Pack. Only in its second year, the event had to ask the organisers for extra space due to overwhelming demand.

Steel is enthusiastic and dedicated with an enormous wealth of knowledge. “His organisational skills are superb and the way he promotes our organisation to potential clients far outweighs the support resources he has available,” says another BCMPA member.

33 Nick Mullen (32)
Director, Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association
Now in his second year as MPMA director, Nick Mullen has continued to fight to ensure metal packaging is not undermined by insufficient recycling services and promote it as a material with a positive environmental impact.

The sector has received some respite in the past year with a change to the regulations allowing for greater discretion when assessing materials reprocessed abroad, but the next issue in Mullen’s in-tray would appear to be the recycling of paint cans and ensuring the material is reprocessed into new metal products.
Mullen joined the MPMA after retiring from Crown Holdings and has already made his mark on the association. Says an industry colleague: “Nick deserves his place on this list for his clever analysis of developments in the packaging sector.”

32 Karen Graley (33)
Packaging & Reprographics Manager, Waitrose
Karen Graley grew up around print, starting summer jobs in her father’s print factory in Liverpool as a teenager before moving to London – and to design – after school. So it’s no surprise that she has exacting standards when it comes to print; one observer comments that she “refuses to compromise on quality”. And it’s just as well, given that she oversees design-to-print for thousands of Waitrose products every year. She’s been kept busy too this year by implementing Courtauld and the BRC recycling logo – not to mention Waitrose’s new Essentials low-cost line.

31 Steve Kelsey (26)
Strategic innovations director, PI Global
Steve Kelsey’s day-to-day role within PI Global is to represent PI’s innovation and creative engineering divisions – D8 and Pi3. He is currently working on in-store refill systems for a consortium of brand owners. He is also handling two major new projects developing long-term sustainability roadmaps.

Kelsey is an active champion for the development of better design tools and metrics within sustainable design, through the Packaging Recycling Action Group, which will continue with the reformed PRAG 2.  
Kelsey is married with three children. In his spare moments, he likes nothing more than good company and good wine.

Kesley is and will always be a designer at heart. He is an amiable character, with an undiminished and tireless passion for all things design.

Next week: numbers 30-21

Click here to see numbers 50-41

Have you got a view on our rankings or any of the people in the list? Log in and have your say below.

Popular Articles