SPEAKERS

ADAM O'CONNOR

Manager of Package Engineering, Mattel Inc.

Adam O’Connor manages package engineering at Mattel, guiding strategy as the company shifts toward increasing sustainability and IP-driven consumer engagement. Balancing playful creativity with the technical requirements of modern retail distribution, Adam leads a team of talented engineers creating purposeful packaging for action figures, plush products, and games. A ten-year veteran of the toy industry, Adam previously worked at Hasbro developing doll packaging that lives on as reusable playsets. His focus on paperboard design began at Packaging Corporation of America, partnering with manufacturing teams to craft origami-inspired POP displays. A graduate of RIT with a dual bachelor’s in Packaging Science and Sign Language Interpreting, Adam remains committed to education through his work with Mattel’s internship program.

The Future of Packaging is FUN

As public interest in sustainability continues to grow, so does consumer guilt – with packaging often cast as the villain. We can rewrite this story by designing packaging with a purpose, creating a positive experience for consumers, and inviting them to join us on our quest for a sustainable future.

CAITLIN SALAVERRIA

President, International Corrugated Packaging Foundation, ICPF

Caitlin is the President of ICPF, an independent, non-profit 501 (c) 3 corporation dedicated to growing the labor force of the corrugated packaging industry now and into the future. In her role, she focuses on building partnerships with the education community, establishing relationships with existing national workforce programs, increasing industry exposure and improving connectivity with stakeholders. Prior to joining ICPF, Caitlin worked for 12 years in the marketing department at Fibre Box Association (FBA), a corrugated packaging industry trade association.

Prioritizing Sustainability: The Corrugated Packaging Industry

The corrugated packaging industry continues to prioritize sustainability through science-based goals and innovation. Learn more about the industry’s circular approach to sustainability in this session. Caitlin will talk about the corrugated packaging industry’s sustainability story, share progress results from a newly released life cycle assessment (LCA), and discuss the benefits of working for an industry committed to making positive change for our world.

PAUL MARCHETTI

Sr Mgr of Engineering and Sustainability, Amazon

Paul manages the Engineering and Sustainability team within the Product Experience Org at Ring/Amazon. He is responsible for supporting development of the Packaging Sustainability Roadmap and other initiatives within the organization. Paul has spent most of his time working on engineering and designing packaging that meets supply chain requirements, while providing a great customer experience. He has worked with suppliers and contract manufacturers globally, learning to balance trade-offs that often come up between design and operational goals. He is experienced with various testing and qualification methodology. Paul also graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 2012, go Mustangs!

Road to Recyclability

In 2019, with Amazon's commitment to Climate Pledge, the Devices organization committed to making packaging 100% recyclable by 2023. Paul Marchetti will share what Ring is doing in sustainability and our journey to make our packaging recyclable. This includes evaluating recyclability, as well as the definition of recyclable based on country, city, municipality, etc.

MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE

Sustainability Analyst, Trayak

Mary Ellen is a sustainability analyst at Trayak, a sustainability software solutions and consulting company recognized for its pioneering EcoImpact platform dedicated to advancing product and packaging sustainability. In her role, Mary Ellen works directly with packaging engineers, designers, and sustainability professionals in different industries to help them meet their sustainability goals. By leveraging advanced data analytics, she uncovers areas for improvement within a company's product and packaging portfolio.

Beyond Traditional Testing: A Holistic Framework to Assess Packaging Performance

t is time to reexamine and broaden the assessment criteria for package performance beyond physical testing standards. Acknowledging sustainability's rising prominence as a standard rather than an exception, there's a pressing need to augment the traditional physical testing to become a more holistic approach. This evolution involves integrating environmental impacts and a methodology by which companies can customize scorecards based on their priorities and perform tradeoffs while assessing packaging and product designs. This approach not only aligns with the contemporary landscape, but also ensures a comprehensive and informed assessment of the overall performance of the package and product.

SARAH MARCHETTI

Packaging Sales, Transpak

Sarah Marchetti currently works in Packaging Sales focusing on industrial packaging. A 2015 graduate of Cal Poly SLO in Agribusiness and Packaging, Sarah began her career as a Packaging Engineer, specializing in designing protective packaging solutions as well as validating them through ISTA test methods. After four years as an engineer, Sarah transitioned to the consumer goods side of the business as a Program Manager. Her work in this capacity allowed her to bridge the gap between product development and packaging. In her current role at Transpak, Sarah is committed to helping companies find solutions that not only protect their product but also optimize their supply chain. Although she is based in the Bay Area, she manages accounts that span across the globe. She is an active member of the Cal Poly Packaging Alumni Group, Cal Poly Consortium, IOPP Golden Gate chapter. Outside of her professional endeavors, Sarah enjoys yoga, sewing, and taking long walks with her pup Lily.

LORRAINE TANG

Senior Product Design Manager at Apple, Packaging Product Design

Lorraine is a Cal Poly alumni with 10+ years of industry experience at Apple. She is currently a senior manager leading Apple’s global Packaging Product Design team. She is directly responsible for driving Apple's environmental strategy forward and committed to removing all single use plastics from Apple's packaging by 2025 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2030. Lorraine is passionate about engineering, development of new materials and technologies, and bringing them into the packaging industry. Outside of Apple, Lorraine enjoys mentoring women and under-represented minorities through careers in STEM.

KATIE WORLAND

Senior Manager Packaging Engineering and Labeling, Boston Scientific

Katie is currently the Packaging and Labeling Manager for Boston Scientific's Neuromodulation business and global initiatives. Katie brings a decade of expertise in the field of Medical Device Packaging and Labeling supporting both new product development and post commercial activities. Throughout her tenure at Boston Scientific, Katie has continually advanced in her roles, navigating increasing levels of complexity and taking on heightened responsibilities as a dedicated advocate for Packaging and Labeling team development. A graduate of Cal Poly's Packaging program, Katie maintains a connection with her Alma Mater by actively participating in the Alumni association, contributing to the ongoing success of the institution.

JULIA WILLSIE

Senior Sales Executive, Mill Rock Packaging

Bio of the speaker: Julia graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 2005. Since then, she’s been a consultant and helped influence the design and manufacturing of millions of boxes. Her clients include Fortune 50 companies as well as small start-ups, throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Julia is Senior Sales Executive with Mill Rock Packaging and helps lead a new company-wide group, the Women of MRP. In her free time, Julia is a mentor for Cal Poly, a Coach for Odyssey of the mind, a Spartan Racer, creates glass art in her home studio and spends time with her family including her husband, two boys ages 10 and 7 and their new puppy Max.

Core Challenges in a Packaging Circular Economy

A Packaging Circular Economy includes all aspects: raw material, manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life recyclability. In this session we will explore the life cycle of packaging and how to choose materials regionally to maximize sustainability without increasing costs. Join us and test your knowledge: are you recycling correctly?

KEVIN MARCHETTI

Packaging Design Engineer II, TransPak

Kevin is a packaging design engineer based in Penang, Malaysia with TransPak. Kevin is responsible for supporting packaging initiatives with Asia-based NPI as well as product transfer into Asia. Kevin has focused on developing suppliers in the region, as well as accessing local and regional capabilities in order to best understand how to support operations in the region. Prior to working with TransPak, Kevin was a packaging engineer at Amazon Lab 126 in Sunnyvale, as well as a regional packaging engineer with L&E International, Ltd., in Bangkok, Thailand. Kevin graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 2018.

Carbon Point System

TransPak is developing a system to capture environmental data at the start of design by incorporating a carbon point system. This carbon point system will allow TransPak to drill-down at a granular level with respect to our commitment to sustainability without sacrificing quality or manufacturability. Carbon point calculations enable our design engineers to baseline an initial environmental impact “score” and quickly identify those key CO2 outliers and take steps to reduce the use in the design or replace it with a lower impact equivalent. By reducing the carbon footprint of the product, we ensure our sustainability goals are met and the integrity of the TransPak product is retained.

CASEY NAKAMURA

Staff Package Engineer, Johnson & Johnson MedTech

Casey Nakamura is a Staff Package Engineer for Johnson & Johnson MedTech supporting the Vision portfolio of products, which include contact lenses, cataract surgical equipment and intraocular lens implants. His role includes serving as the Specright system administrator for the package engineering team, managing packaging changes in manufacturing, qualifying new packaging materials, and recruiting for the J&J Vision CO-OP Program. Casey is a Cal Poly Packaging Alumni who started out as a packaging designer in the CPG/Food industries before diving into MedTech for the past 7 years. Casey is from San Diego, California and outside of work is founder and president of the Orange County Octopush Underwater Hockey (UWH) team, the USA UWH Southwest Regional Director and recently served as a member of the USA UWH National Team at the world championships this past summer. He now lives in Oceanside, CA with his wife and their dog, Lemon.

Sustainable Packaging in MedTech

This presentation will review how MedTech, the Medical Device Industry, is evolving to incorporate more and more sustainable packaging practices and concepts and the reasons driving those changes. From regulations to materials and automation, I will explore a few opportunities that are driving the industry toward the creation of the Medical Device Package for the future.

LAURA SHIMMIN

Director of Packaging, Impossible Foods

Laura is currently Director of Packaging Engineering at Impossible Foods, a company on a mission to positively impact people and the planet by making delicious, nutritious meat from plants with a fraction of the environmental footprint of meat from animals. Before Impossible Foods, Laura held multiple R&D roles in the consumer products industry, focused on the development of new products with a consumer relevant sustainability message. Laura has been granted 2 patents and holds BS and MS Chemical Engineering degrees from MIT.

LCA 101: Why our Mission-Driven Company Wraps Our Food in Plastic

Packaging engineers today face an increasing number of challenges related to climate change and environmental impact. With so many different considerations, how do you focus on the most important levers to drive the greatest impact? I will draw parallels between this challenge and the Impossible Foods mission, which is focused on what we eat and how that food is produced, which affects the environment more than most people would expect.

RYAN STOLENZENBACH

Program Manager, Sustainability, Global Packaging

I am the architect and current manager of the global packaging sustainability program at Abbvie, a $58bn bio-pharmaceutical company with more than 50,000 employees across 70 countries. An MSU School of Packaging grad, I have 17 years of product and packaging design and testing experience split between the consumer goods and bio-pharma industries. Over the course of my career I have developed product and packaging solutions for everything from pens and pencils, wrenches and pliers, pharmaceuticals and luxury aesthetics. I now leverage all of that experience on my current mission of building a culture of sustainable package design in the biopharma industry.

Sustainability – A Part of Everything We Do

As packaging professionals, design is central to everything we do. By being mindful and purposeful in our design choices we can set a precedent, and an expectation for sustainability that takes it from something we have to do, and instead integrates it into everything we do.

MARIBEL MORALES

R&D Package Scientist

Maribel Morales, a recent ITP graduate, eagerly joins this year's symposium as an alumni. Her enthusiasm for sustainability has been a guiding force in her packaging education, and now leads her in her current role as an R&D Package Scientist at Clorox within their Food Business. She feels fortunate to start her career with a team whom share the same passion for change. In her daily role, Maribel works on projects where she finds solutions to meet Clorox’s aggressive sustainability initiatives. In her career journey, she looks flawed to spearheading transformative changes to contribute to a brighter and more sustainable future.