Archives: Speakers

Catherine is UK Representative & Member of the Board of Advisors of the European Industrial Hemp Association. EIHA was formed 19 years ago and is the only pan-European membership organization in the industrial hemp sector. Our secretariat offices in Brussels and the UK representation protect and support our membership of 200+, primarily farmers, processors and manufacturers; representing the entire chain from seed to shelf. Our primary objective is to monitor EU/UK hemp related policies and to provide the decision makers with accurate and reliable information across different spheres of competencies. Currently we monitor the following policies: CAP reform, Hemp extracts/Novel Food regulation, THC limits in feed and food, Life Cycle Assessment of hemp materials, CO2 impacts, environmental concerns and cosmetics. In addition, EIHA formed the largest novel food consortium and pending a successful outcome, EIHA consortium member company’s products will be allowed to be marketed in the UK/EU with an exclusivity on the study that will last 5 years.

Bruce Nicol is an Architect based in Berlin. He is the Head of Global Design at Merck Window Technologies.

Having qualified at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, Bruce was immediately immersed in glass technology and innovations. Having an extended sabbatical in the glass industry, where he supported the glass design on major projects worldwide, he is now once again at the cutting edge of glass innovation engaging with the all sides of the construction process bringing eyrise dynamic glass solutions to the forward thinkers in the global community. Eyrise is here to help establish a well being and comfort level which respects everyone. Lightwellness for all.

Enno Zuidema (Kampen, 1968) studied at the Delft University of Technology where he graduated in 1992 with an honorable mention. In 1993 he founded his firm, Enno Zuidema Stedebouw. His strengths are in social and spatial strategies, he focuses on finding sustainable and suitable solutions by social participation and stakeholder cooperation. The emphasis of his work lies on regional and municipal visions, structural plans, landscape assignments, re-structuring of urban areas in need and infrastructure. Enno is an active urban planner and leader for the developments and challenges in the northern areas of the Netherlands. He is also often invited as a guest lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Tilburg, and at the University of Delft. He was also the Chief of Urbanism at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam. Since the 1st of September of 2018, Enno is the head of urban development studio at MVRDV.

Dr Paul Smith is the Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). BGCI is the largest plant conservation network in the world, comprising 600 member institutions in 100 countries. Paul joined BGCI as Secretary General in March 2015. Prior to this, Paul was Head of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB). During his nine years at the helm there, seeds from >25,000 plant species were conserved in the MSB and, in 2009, the MSB achieved its first significant milestone, securing seed from 10% of the world’s plant species, prioritising rare, threatened and useful plants. Paul trained as a plant ecologist, and is a specialist in the plants and vegetation of southern Africa. He is the author of two field guides to the flora of south-central Africa and the Vegetation Atlas of Madagascar. He is a Trustee of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and is the recipient of the New England Wildflower Society’s Medal for Services to International Plant Conservation and the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration.