Dr. Holger Bengs

Keynote Speaker "Networking is your new life insurance"
Managing Partner BCNP

Chemistry makes the world go around.

I grew up with Sesame Street.
 
This is probably the reason why I was always curious to ask my questions, why I started studying chemistry and why I am interested in people and what they do. Today, many see me as the prototype of a networker.
 
Networking is part of my life, from a professional point of view: as founder and managing partner of BCNP, as initiator of the Industry Speed Dating Event known as ECP, or e.g. the regulars' tables of the Association for Chemistry and Business in the Society of German Chemists.
 
A hybrid character characterises my strengths today: Chemistry studies - industry experience - business.

My work in the Bundestag mainly takes place in the committees, which are organised according to different subject areas. I am a member of the Budget Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee for my Green parliamentary group. In the Budget Committee, we decide what our government is authorised to spend money on. Among my Green colleagues, we have divided up the budgets of the ministries: I am responsible for the budgets of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs.

The Foreign Affairs Committee deals with German and European foreign policy. This is where we decide, for example, on foreign deployments of the German Armed Forces or on Germany's relations with other countries. Within the Green parliamentary group, I am responsible in this committee for the United Nations (and therefore also sit on the subcommittee "United Nations, International Organisations and Civilian Crisis Prevention"), for Western Europe and for Central and Southern Africa. I am a deputy member of the newly established Committee of Inquiry into the end of the Afghanistan mission.

I also have a deputy seat on the Europe Committee, which deals with all issues relating to our neighbouring countries and the European Union as a whole. Here I am responsible for all issues relating to euro finances.

Michael Brandkamp is one of the three founders and General Partners of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). Michael and his team’s goal is to speed up the transformation from a fossil-based to a bio-based circular economy in Europe. The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.

About ECBF
The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is the first venture fund exclusively dedicated to backing up businesses, driving the shift from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. ECBF aims to catalyse the transition towards a sustainable future by investing in biobased and circular growth-stage companies with high potential for innovation, favourable returns, and sustainable impact. As a growth-stage venture capital fund, the ECBF offers project funding and venture capital investments. ECBF shares its industry expertise to raise awareness among private and public investors to increase their financial participation in bioeconomy companies.

Dennis V. Carmen
Senior IP Counsel
Eastman Chemical Company
Kingsport, TN, USA

Gina Dunlevy holds a PhD in environmental microbiology with a focus on metal-microbe interactions. She joined BRAIN Biotech as a scientific project manager in 2020 and moved in 2021 into the Business Development team, where she is responsible for its cleantech business solutions. She is currently complementing her role by doing an MBA at ESMT Berlin. Gina’s focus at BRAIN is the development of various cleantech applications mainly focusing on the recovery of metals from waste streams, saving carbon emissions and the upcycling of other side streams.

BRAIN Biotech Group, leading European provider of bio-based products and solutions for industry, develops and provides specialised enzymes and microbial strains used in many industrial sectors. The Group´s customers benefit from its first-class R&D work, specialized production expertise, access to attractive markets and manufacturing capabilities.

Gina says: “I look forward to showcasing our current, extensive technical portfolio and how we offer it to industrial cooperation partners to help them achieve their goals.

Viktoria Rothleitner
Initiator, founder

Professional career

since 2020
Polytives GmbH Managing Director

2018 - 2020 Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Research assistant at the Institute of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
EXIST research transfer project "Polytives"

Education

2015 - 2018  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Business Administration for Engineers and Natural Scientists Degree: Master of Science

2011 - 2015  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Nutritional Sciences Degree: Bachelor of Science

Three questions for Viktoria Rothleitner

What is your motivation as Managing Director of Polytives GmbH?
Plastics make our everyday lives possible and easier and can no longer be replaced. That's why, in my opinion, we should refrain from perceiving plastic as good or bad. Instead of always emphasising the environmentally harmful aspects of plastics, we should move on to "making": Simply make plastic better! As Polytives, we have the tools to do this with our expertise. I want to use that and that's what drives me.

What do you associate with your role as Managing Director?
It's incredibly fulfilling when you see what you've achieved. We all know that. When I think of management, I don't just think of a lot of work and responsibility, but also of how much you can achieve directly. Setting up structures yourself is sometimes very demanding, but at some point you realise that you can make a difference.

What are your next goals?
We want to deliver many tonnes of our energy-saving flow improver. As banal as it sounds, there is so much work involved in finalising a product and actually getting it to the customer in the end. I'm looking forward to getting there.

Lucas Fuhrmann
Managing Director, Co-Founder
Revoltech GmbH, Darmstadt

About the Start-up

Revoltech was founded in 2021 after six years of R&D by Julian Mushövel, Montgomery Wagner and Lucas Fuhrmann. Based in Darmstadt, Germany, Revoltech consists of a team of 15 people with a broad range of expertise in science, engineering and business. The company is a spin-off of the Technical University of Darmstadt and still has a close R&D cooperation with the university. Revoltech has raised a seven-figure amount of venture capital and public funding in 2022. The start-up has won the Green Product Award, the Science4Life Award and the Techtextil Innovation Award.

Lucas, born in 1991 in Cologne, Germany, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Revoltech. He studied Economics, Philosophy, and Psychology in Bayreuth, Paris, and London. Since 2016, he has been researching agricultural residues and circular material design, founding Revoltech in 2021 to commercialize his ideas.

Dr. Özgül Agbaba, Founder
Christian Bürger, Co-Founder
MechSyn, Mühlheim an der der Ruhr

MechSyn
MechSyn is a start-up specialising in the production of unique high-performance materials using purely electrically driven mechanochemical processes. The aim is to replace conventional fossil fuel-based processes by synthesising materials at room temperature, ambient pressure and without the use of solvents. MechSyn aims to bring novel materials with improved properties to the market, which should enable new applications for high-performance materials. With the patented grinding processes and materials, companies from a wide range of industries should be able to significantly reduce their costs, environmental impact and dependence on raw materials. MechSyn is a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and is funded as part of the EXIST research transfer programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

Dr Özgül Agbaba
Dr Özgül Agbaba is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (MPI KOFO) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, in the Department of Heterogeneous Catalysis headed by Professor Ferdi Schüth. Since 2023 she is the founder of MechSyn. Özgül has a broad academic background in materials synthesis, chemical engineering and design of complex reaction systems with stations in Turkey, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. With more than six years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she is very familiar with the industrial requirements and daily challenges in the industry. She has also been running a wine bar in Essen-Kettwig as a hobby for three years.

Christian Bürger
Christian Bürger has been a co-founder of MechSyn since 2023 and has many years of experience as an entrepreneur and as a consultant for setting up companies and developing business models for industrial companies. From 2016 to 2020, he was Managing Director of the chemical platform Chembid. Earlier in his career, he worked in business development for Mitsubishi Electric and ThyssenKrupp. He studied Sales Engineering and Product Management at the Ruhr University Bochum with a focus on materials technology and in the Executive Management Programme at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Emmy Schumacher, Co-Founder
Anna Hadzelek, Co-Founder
RE-SHIRT GbR, Munich

About the Start-up

Emmy Schumacher, Co-Founder RE-SHIRT, Business Development/Sales/Marketing
Before RE-SHIRT: Strategy consulting, team responsibility, problem solving, e.g. at
Different - strategy consulting for new growth
BECC Agency - brand and design agency
A Kind of Guise - fashion brand with the highest standards of design and quality

Anna Hadzelek, Co-Founder RE-SHIRT, Innovation/Technology, Partner Network
Before RE-SHIRT: Journalism, inventiveness, ecology, among others at
Bergfreundinnen Podcast - Podcast host for BR
A Kind of Guise - fashion brand with the highest standards of design and quality

Innovation RE-SHIRT:
RE-SHIRT has developed the world's first temporary colour for textile printing that can be washed out.

Mission RE-SHIRT:
RE-SHIRT wants to show that real sustainability happens as a matter of course, is not restrictive and does not mean sacrificing comfort or quality at any time.
RE-SHIRT wants to help people to be part of the green revolution without any effort and to feel the comfort of the circular economy on their own skin.
RE-SHIRT avoids textile waste and feels responsible for minimising the negative impact of the textile industry on our planet.
20% of industrial water consumption is generated in the textile industry. A single cotton shirt costs 3000 litres of fresh water to produce. This is mainly used in cotton cultivation - and this takes place exclusively in the Global South, where there is already a shortage of water.
RE-SHIRT's solution is based on the idea of the circular economy, which RE-SHIRT applies to clothing. Borrow and reuse whenever it makes sense.

The RE-SHIRT success story:
2015     Idea
2019     Start of research
2020     Technical breakthrough
2021     DBU funding
2022     Foundation go to market
2023     Patenting of Magic Ink (ongoing patenting of ‘Magic Ink’ - the first reversible textile printing ink for screen printing - supervised by Dr Christiane Maxien, Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann Patent- und Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB)
2024     Convert 2 Green EU funding

Awards for RE-SHIRT and others:
2024                 Convert to Green / Horizon Europe (EU funding for research and development)
2023                 GLS Bank ideas competition / For a better future
2022 - 2024    Green StartUp funding / German Federal Environmental Foundation
2022                 Culture & Creative Pilots / Federal Ministry of Economics
2022                 Neumarkter Lammsbräu Sustainability Award / 2nd place in the category ‘Drivers of the circular economy’
2022                 Marketing for Future / Alliance for climate-positive behaviour e.V.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer
Leuphana University, Lüneburg
EDC Evaluation and Design of Chemicals, Kenzingen

Person, research, successes

Prof. Dr Klaus Kümmerer is Professor of Sustainable Chemistry and Material Resources and Head of the Institute of Sustainable Chemistry at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. His research and teaching focus on sustainable chemistry, sustainable pharmacy, material resources, aquatic environmental chemistry and the role of tenses in environmental and sustainability research. He leads an interdisciplinary research team and is Director of the Research & Education Hub of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3).
 
He was one of the first to research pharmaceuticals in the environment in the 1990s. He received the international Recipharm Environmental Award (Sweden, 2007) for his research. His outstanding work on the benign-by-design concept of green and sustainable chemistry for the protection of water resources was honoured in 2015 with the ‘Water Resource Prize’ of the Rüdiger Kurt Bode Foundation of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. In 2023, he received the Wöhler Prize for Sustainable Chemistry from the German Chemical Society for his work on Benign by Design and sustainable chemistry as a whole. In the same year, he received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (awarded in January 2024).
 
He has published extensively on the above topics in peer-reviewed scientific journals (cited more than 20,000 times), is (co-)editor of 10 books and a large number of book contributions, founding editor of the scientific journals ‘Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy’ and ‘Current Opinion in Sustainable Chemistry’ as well as co-editor of ‘Chemosphere’ and ‘Environmental Pollution’ and various journals. In 2021, he was ranked 18th out of a total of 66,925 scientists worldwide in the field of environmental sciences according to the Stanford University Ranking. In terms of citations, he was ranked 1st in Germany in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
 
Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer was and is a member of various international commissions and committees and acts in an advisory capacity in international organisations, e.g.

•     High Level Roundtable on the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability of the European Commission,
•     Advisory Board on Sustainable Materials,
•     Commission Global Chemical Outlook of the UNEP,
•     EU technology platform SusChem Europe,
•     DFG Senate Commission for Water Research,
•     Board of the Sustainable Chemistry Division of the German Chemical Society (GdCh),
•     advisory activities at WHO and OPWC,
•     International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC),
•     Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD),
•     Active Voting Member of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).

In addition, he is scientifically responsible for the annual Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference and the Summer School Sustainable Chemistry for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University.