Industry Committee

Kyriakos Maniatis till his retirement was Principal Administrator in Unit C2 – Directorate General for Energy, European Commission. In that role he was responsible for technical issues related to biofuels and managed the DG ENER demonstration component on advanced biofuels in the Commission’s the 7th Framework Programme. He contributed accordingly to the legislative actions of the EC and to the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative of the SET Plan and he was involved in the CEN standardisation work on liquid and gaseous biofuels. He coordinated the team that launched in June 2011 the Biofuels FlightPath for Aviation in close cooperation with the aviation and biofuels sectors. Kyriakos also represented the European Commission in the Executive Committee of IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement and served as the ExCo Chairman in 2002, 2005-2007. He regularly organized workshops and conferences on these subjects.

Philippe Mengal is the Executive Director of the Circular Biobased Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) since 1st of October 2015. His mission is to further consolidate the role and responsibilities of the CBE JU.
The Executive Director is the legal representative of the CBE JU. He is the chief executive responsible for the day-to-day management of the CBE JU in accordance with the decisions of the Governing Board.
Mr. Mengal trained as an engineer in Chemistry and Bio-industry at the Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech University and later on in Strategic Innovation Management at INSEAD – Fontainebleau in France.
He started his career in 1990 in France as R&D engineer in the field of biomass fractionation and purification. In 1995 he became Technical Director of a research centre dedicated to biomass valorisation and between 1990 and 1997 he taught in a Master programme on chemical engineering in Rennes, France.
He has published a number of scientific papers and awarded 5 patented license agreements. In his 25 years of professional experience before joining BBI JU, Mr. Mengal held strategic managerial positions in France and Belgium such as CEO of three companies, Global R&D Director of a multinational and Senior Consultant in food ingredient, engineering and life science industries.

Dirk Carrez is the Executive Director of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). BIC brings together actors from different sectors and disciplines to establish a pan-European bio-based industry. As such, BIC represents the private sector in a public-private partnership (PPP) with the European Commission, the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU). BIC’s mission is ‘to connect industry, academia, regions and citizens to transform bio-based feedstocks into novel sustainable products and applications, and to create circular bioeconomy ecosystems through investments, innovation and know-how’.

Dirk Carrez is Bioengineer and holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences. He has worked at SOLVAY in the research department, at the Belgian Federation for the Life Sciences and Chemical Industry as Director Innovation & Product Policy and as Secretary-general of the Belgian Biotechnology Industry Association, and has been Director Industrial Biotechnology at EuropaBio.

Dirk Carrez is also Vice-Chair of BIAC’s (Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD) Biotechnology Committee, a member of several European and national advisory bodies in the area of the biobased economy, and Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne.