Prizes & Judges
The Prizes
First Prize
- The winner will present their submission at K-Fair, the world’s largest plastics convention, in October 2016 in Dusseldorf, Germany; entrance fee, travel and accommodation to be paid by Perstorp
- A personal senior Perstorp mentor for one year
- Cash prize 40 000 SEK (approx. 4 300 Euro)
3 Finalist Prizes
- Three finalists will present their concepts to the jury and to Perstorp senior management, in February 2016; travel and accommodation to be paid by Perstorp
- All three finalists will receive Capa™ material for prototyping
- Support from Perstorp senior experts until a winner is chosen
Note: All cash prize awards are paid gross/before income tax. No prize alternatives or cash equivalents are offered. Prizes are non-transferable. The winner is solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to the acceptance of the prize(s).
The Judges
Lars Bengtsson
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University
Lars is a professor in industrial engineering and management, with a focus on technology strategies and business models at LTH, Lund University. He has 25 years of experience in research and teaching within strategy, entrepreneurship and innovation. He has published roughly 100 books, book chapters, conference publications and journal articles. At the moment he is doing research within open innovation, user innovation and collaboration between industry and the university.
Björn Ekelund
Research Director, Ericsson
In additional to research director at Ericsson, Björn is on a number of company boards and serves as an ICT innovation advisor to organizations like the European Commission, Vinnova and Region Skåne. Björn has close to 30 years experience from the mobile sector and deep insights in what Ericsson calls the Networked Society, our future where everything that benefits from being connected, will be connected. He has held management positions ranging from research and product development to marketing. During this time he also founded companies and worked with startups, and is currently the vice chairman of the south Swedish innovation cluster Mobile Heights. Björn holds Masters and Licentiate degrees in engineering from Lund University.
Karin André
Director Corporate Innovation Office, Volvo Cars
Karin has worked most of the last 30 years within the automotive industry. She has held roles such as Department and research leader at a corporate Research and Development unit, various Business strategy roles and since a number of years leads the corporate innovation process within Volvo Cars. A common factor in all positions is the passion for future-directed thinking, new ideas and inventions and the creation of new businesses.
In her current role as the director of Corporate Innovation Office, she is responsible for activities which build innovation capabilities within the company as well as the corporate process of going from idea to integration.
Marie Grönborg
Executive Vice President for Business Area Specialties & Solutions, Perstorp
Business Area Specialties & Solutions is a global business serving customers globally in the Coatings, Materials and Feed segments. Prior to her current role, Marie held various global managerial positions at Perstorp, both in the technical and the commercial domain. Marie holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Chalmers Technical University of Gothenburg and Imperial College in London.
Håkan Björnberg
Vice President Innovation, Perstorp
Håkan is responsible for Innovations in Plastics and Feed at Perstorp. He has vast experience in innovation and bringing Innovative products to the market. He is looking for relevance, value and need in new products and concepts; the ability to implement an Innovation is also important to him. Håkan holds a master’s degree in polymers & chemistry engineering from Lunds Technical University (LTH) in Lund, Sweden.
Eric Appelman
Executive Vice President for Innovation & Strategy, Perstorp
Eric is a trained chemical engineer from the Netherlands. Prior to joining Perstorp in 2008, he worked in a variety of roles at Unilever, ICI and Sigma Kalon. Common to all those roles, however, was the interface of technology and business, as well as significant customer interaction to learn about real customer needs. A need to understand these real needs remains an obsession still today!
Jesper Fahlén
Regional Business Manager EMEA & Global Product Manager, Caprolactones, Perstorp
Jesper is Perstorp’s Regional Business Manager EMEA and Global Product Manager, Caprolactones. He previously worked as Product Manager at Gycerine (with sales into alkyd resins and pharmaceuticals) at Perstorp Bioproducts AB. Jesper holds a PhD in Fibre and Polymer Technology, as well as a master’s degree in chemical engineering, both from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden.