Dr. Ir. Dirk Torfs

Chief Executive Officer​, Flanders Make vzw, since 2014

Flanders Make is the strategic research centre for the manufacturing industry in Flanders, and the reference centre for Industry 4.0 demand-driven research. Dr. Tofts holds a Master in Applied Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering and a PhD in Applied Science from KU Leuven, and an MBA from Flanders Business School. He is a board member of VIL and OMC Turnhout.

Professor Geneviève Dion

Director, Center for Functional Fabrics and the Pennsylvania Fabric Discovery Center

Full Professor, Department of Design, Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, Drexel University

Professor Dion leads transdisciplinary teams to create textile devices through advanced manufacturing - new materials, tools, fabrication processes and products. Her research receives funding from private industry and US agencies. Prof. Dion holds a B.A. in Industrial Design from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Professor Jonas Larsson

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business, The Swedish School of Textiles

Professor Larsson, Associate Professor in Textile Management. His focus on creating resource efficient value chains for textile products. This includes developing tools and processes for transparency, on-demand manufacturing, reuse and recycling, and regeneration of natural systems.

Ms Claudia Van Bonn

Editor-in-Chief, DFV Media Group

Ms Bonn graduated from Engineer Textile Technology. Her areas of expertise include fibre production, fibres, spinning, weaving, knitting, textile finishing, nonwovens and technical textiles. Some of the publications she works on are Chemical Fibers International, melliand, Technical Textiles, nonwovensTrends and textiletechnology.net.

Dr. Amanda C. Mills

Research Assistant Professor, NC State University

Dr. Amanda C. Mills is a fusion designer and project coordinator in the Nano-EXtended Textiles (NEXT) research group within the College of Textiles at NC State University. Her focus is on developing innovative methods for electronics integration into textiles. She creates full system demonstration platforms to examine the impact of the textile on the device.

Mr Sébastien Paillet

President, Clubtex

Mr Paillet is the managing director and shareholder of BFG Group, a small group of companies in France specialising in recycling and manufacturing technical textiles aimed at thermal resistance for business to business applications. He is the president of Clubtex, the French association of technical textiles manufacturers with 80 members and 2.5 billion Euro turnover.

Mr Edwin Keh

Chief Executive Officer, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA)

Mr Edwin won the Medal of Honour in 2020 for his research work, one of the Top 50 Innovative Retail Leaders by Inside Retail Hong Kong. He holds multiple intellectual property rights which won global invention awards.

Ms Karla Magruder

Founder and President, Accelerating Circularity​

Ms Karla Magruder has 40 years of global experience from fibre to finished garments. Her current role at Accelerating Circularity leads the organisation’s work in enabling the industry’s transition to textile-to-textile circular systems. She is currently a Textile Exchange Governance Board member and Gr3n Advisory Board member.

Mr Matthijs Crietee

Secretary General, International Apparel Federation (IAF)

The IAF represents the interests of apparel industry associations for over 60 countries. Mr Crietee has a master’s degree in International Economics and Economic Geography. Before he joined IAF in 2012, he was the deputy director of the Dutch fashion industry association MODINT.