On International Women's Day, PKN is delighted to announce we'll be hosting a Women in Packaging keynote session at the upcoming AIP Australian Packaging Conference. Three accomplished packaging professionals, Maria Becerril Roman, Azadeh Yousefi and Anhely Millan, will share their insights and perspectives on future pathways to sustainability with panel moderator Lindy Hughson.
The PKN Women in Packaging keynote session will run in the morning of Day Two, 29 March, of the AIP conference.
The panellists, all active AIP members, were selected for their diverse backgrounds and career paths that have led them to making a meaningful contribution to the Australian packaging industry.
All three women play active roles in mentoring and sharing their knowledge with others, and the panel discussion will explore, among other topics, what this industry involvement entails and how it can benefit the next generation of leaders in Australia's packaging industry.
Anhely Millan, who is a finalist for the 2023 Industry Professional of the Year Award, is the founder of Sustainability for Kids and author of the children's educational book The World Behind Recycling, which was written, she says, "with the purpose to invest in future generations and educate children on how to bring sustainability into their day-to-day activities".
Anhely has a bachelor's degree in Chemistry, and various post-graduate qualifications in Marketing, Environmental Management and Sustainability. She started her working life as a secondary school teacher, later moving into industry where she’s held different positions in Quality, R&D and Innovation within the food, cosmetics, personal care, and packaging sectors, delivering new-to-market products and sustainable packaging solutions.
With the founding of Sustainability for Kids in 2022, Anhely combines her teaching vocation with her packaging knowledge and passion for innovation.
Azadeh Yousefi, the 2022 winner of the Australian Institute of Packaging's President Award and a finalist in the 2021 Young packaging professional of the year, is a highly accomplished structural packaging designer working at Production Packaging Innovations (PPI) since 2020. Her designs have been recognised in the Austarlasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards, with her first nomination as a finalist in 2021 and two Gold wins acheived in 2022.
Azadeh qualified with a bachelor's and master's degree in industrial design from The University of Art in Tehran and UNSW respectively, followed by a Master of Food and Packaging Innovation from The University of Melbourne
She says, "I chose packaging as the field of my interest and continued my studies in this area because the packaging is ubiquitous in our daily lives and almost all products need packaging to be introduced in the market or travel through the supply chain process. Moreover, packaging has a significant impact on our environment and the education of waste and carbon footprint."
Maria Becerril Roman, a strong advocate for packaging sustainability and fitness of purpose, is a recent winner of the Australian Bioplastics Association scholarship which is funding her current enrolment in the Certificate in Packaging with the AIP.
Like her fellow panellists, Maria is highly qualified. She graduated with Honours from the Master of Food and Packaging Innovation at the University of Melbourne in 2019, and previously completed the Bachelor of Food Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
After graduating, Maria worked as a Sustainable Packaging Technologist lead for Coles Supermarkets, helping the organisation build frameworks to align their packaging strategy to APCO’s 2025 targets. She then moved on to a packaging innovation role at Mondelez International, where she currently works for the Australia and New Zealand Chocolate team, based at the Cadbury factory in Ringwood, VIC.
Maria’s Cadbury Roses packaging innovation, developed in conjunction with Opal cartons, won silver in the 2022 Packaging Innovation Design Awards.
Fine out more about the Australian Packaging Conference here. Registration is now open.
PKN Women in Packaging is a sub-brand incorporated under the PKN Packaging News media brand, which hosts events in partnership with the Australian Institute of Packaging and other industry partners.
