Sigrid Linher
Director Sustainability and Environment,
MedTech Europe

Sigrid Linher joined MedTech Europe, the European trade association for the medical technology industry, in June 2023. As Director Sustainability and Environment, she heads the association’s work in this area. 

Sigrid came to MedTech Europe from the Brussel’s office of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e.V. (BDI), where her professional activities centred around the EU Green Deal, Fit-for-55 and REPowerEU policies. Previously, she worked for 17 years at Orgalim, Europe’s Technology Industries, as Director in charge of energy, climate and environment, including chemicals, product and waste legislation.

A lawyer by training and an Austrian national, she is fluent in German, English and French and has a thorough understanding of Dutch. Sigrid holds an Executive Master in International Association Management of Solvay Business School, Belgium.

Sigrid is passionate for business with a purpose and shaping a sustainable future. Outside the office, Sigrid enjoys nature discovery together with her family and friends, gardening and arts.

Dr. Gerald Rebitzer
Director Sustainability
Amcor Flexibles

Gerald Rebitzer is Head of Sustainability at Amcor Flexibles. This role encompasses both environmental management and social responsibility from an operations perspective as well as working with customers and suppliers to enhance the performance of the packaging products Amcor provides to the food, home-, medical- and personal care, and pharmaceutical industries

In this role he focuses on design for recyclability efforts and standardization for all flexible packaging, ways to incorporate more post-consumer recycled content, significantly increasing actual recycling rates in Europe and across the globe, as well as driving decarbonization of the full value chain. This is complemented by advocacy engagement for effective and efficient policy measures driving sustainability and circularity for producers of packaging and packaged goods.

Gerald has track record of more than 25 years in embedding and driving sustainability in organizations and across value chains, from raw materials production, conversion/processing, distribution, packaging use, to waste management and recycling.

He holds a Ph.D. in Life Cycle Management from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University Berlin. In addition to his current roles as chairman of the steering committee of CEFLEX and vice chair of Europen, Gerald is active in 4evergreen, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Flexible Packaging Europe and EAFA, the Consumer Goods Forum, the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, and the CEN standardization process for flexible packaging.

Samantha Smith
Engineering Director, Sustainability Development Center
Medtronic

Samantha Smith is the Director at Medtronic’s Sustainability Development Center where she is shaping the future of sustainability in the medical device industry. She has over 20 years of experience in Packaging Design and Development. Before joining Medtronic she worked as a Packaging Engineer for such companies as Honeywell, Procter & Gamble, BIC Consumer Products and Energizer. Since she joined Medtronic 9 years ago, she has held different roles at the company that focused on Packaging Design Development and Global Supply Management. She also managed its Packaging Lab. Samantha holds a BS in Packaging Science from Michigan State University.

Sacha Tensen
Strategic Environmentalist,
UMC Utrecht

Sacha is an experienced environmental and sustainability consultant. She has been working at UMC Utrecht since 2016, where she spends a large part of her time advising on sustainability in large tenders. In addition, Sacha works for the Alliance EWUU, and initiative were Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and University Medical Centre Utrecht work together on education and scientific research in the fields of circularity and preventive health. In the working group Circular Society Sacha works to promote and support trans disciplinary scientific research focused on circular hospitals.

Thierry Wagner
Director Regulatory and Standards
DuPont

Thierry Wagner has spent over 30 years working for DuPont in its polyester films and nonwovens businesses and is currently the Global Director, Regulatory & Standards – Healthcare, DuPont – Safety & Construction. He is convenor of ISO/TC 198/WG7 “Sterilization of Health Care Products—Packaging” and CEN/ TC 102/WG4 “Sterilizers and associated equipment for processing of medical devices – Packaging”, past-chairman of the Sterile Barrier Association (SBA), member of the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) and actively involved in various ISO and CEN technical committees on medical and pharmaceutical packaging, sterilization and aseptic processing. Thierry is also a member of ISO/TC 210 in charge of ISO 13485 and medical device symbols (ISO 15223 series), ASTM Committee F02 and of the CEN Advisory Board for Healthcare Standards - Europe (CEN ABHS). He earned a master's degree in mechanical and process engineering from ETH Zürich in Switzerland. He is a featured speaker at international conferences and seminars on medical and pharmaceutical packaging regulatory aspects.