An internationally recognised expert with almost 40 years’ experience of setting quality standards for sports surfaces and sports facilities. During my career I have participated in the development of all leading international and UK standards including the FIFA Quality Programme for Football Turf, IRB Performance Standard for Synthetic Turf Rugby Surfaces, Rugby Football League Performance and Construction Standards for Synthetic Turf Pitches, European and British Standards, World Bowls Board Performance Standard for Artificial Flat Green Bowls Surfaces, The International Tennis Federation Initial Study on Performance Standards for Tennis Surfaces, The All England Netball Association Performance Requirements for Netball Courts, UEFA Requirements for Artificial Football Surfaces (2004), GAA Performance and Construction Standards for Synthetic Turf Pitches and the ECB Performance Standard for Non-turf Cricket Surfaces.

I am currently Facilities and Quality Programme Manager at the International Hockey Federation (FIH), advising on all aspects of facilities infra-structure and hockey equipment. I also provide technical support to the England Netball, European Synthetic Turf Organisation (ESTO) and the UK's Sport and Play Construction Association (SAPCA). I also chair the European Standards working groups dealing with standards for outdoor sports surfaces and test methods for sports surfaces.

During my career I have provided consultancy services to FIFA, UEFA, The Football Association, Football Association of Wales, Football Association of Ireland and Rugby Football Union (RFU), Lawn Tennis Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). I am privileged to been elected to serve two terms on the Synthetic Turf Council (USA) executive board.

My mission is to support organizations in their transition towards sustainable business. For that, I strongly believe that sustainability can only the achieved on basis of solid metrics and if this becomes an important aspect of a company’s business strategy. Life cycle assessment and environmental footprinting are my core expertise.

The greatest reward is seeing when I succeeded in helping an organization take a step forward in their sustainability journey. I hope to continue to do this with many organizations because there is still plenty improvement opportunities out there.

He joined FIFA in 2019 as Quality Programme Manager for the Playing Surfaces. Prior to joining FIFA, he spent ten years at Labosport in France, Canada, and Colombia.

His current position at FIFA is to manage and develop the playing surfaces programmes (Futsal, Football Turf and Natural) taking into consideration the needs of the football players, the needs of the member associations and the possibilities of the industry. He graduated a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Physics Measurements from the University of Maine-Le Mans-Laval in France.

Marc Douglas is the Game Research and Development Manager at World Rugby. With responsibility for managing the regulations for artificial turf and players equipment as well as overseeing non-medical research projects Marc has worked for World Rugby since 2012. Marc has a degree in mechanical engineering an accounting qualification and a masters in sports administration.

Marc has led many projects at World Rugby including the development of Regulation 22 in 2016, updating of Regulation 12 for padded clothing, goggles and player monitoring devices and writing two international test methods for HIC. Current projects include the 2023 version of Regulation 22, the roll out of an app used to record replacements and scoring during rugby matches and promoting and supporting a global roll out of injury surveillance across the sport.

Carsten has his roots in classic environmental engineering starting 35 years back and has been associated to the artificial turf industry the last 9 years with a special focus on environmental issues.

• Year of birth: 1966
• Training as a gardener, focus on tree nursery,
• Studied at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Department of Landscape Maintenance
• Professional Activities:
  • 1993 to 2002 managing partner of a garden, landscape and sports field construction company near Hamburg
  • Since 1993 co-owner of a planning office
  • Since summer semester 2002 at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences
  • Since 2009, publicly appointed and sworn expert for gardening and landscaping, sports field construction - production and maintenance by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, responsible: IHK Osnabrück - Emsland - Grafschaft Bentheim
  • Since 2009 member of the supervisory board of a stock corporation and advisory board member in various companies
  • Since 2008 member of the executive committee of the research association landscape development landscape construction e. V. (FLL)

Nicole is the event and stakeholder-manager at the ITA - Textile Research Institute at the RWTH Aachen - and, together with adidas, the project lead of the BioTexFuture innovation space. In addtion, she is the founder of the consultancy „GreenAixChange“ in Aachen / Germany with focus on Compliance and Sustainability Management. Beforehand, Nicle worked for 8 years as CEO of the Federation of the German Sporting Goods Industry in Bonn / Germany.

Nicole studied History, French and Political Science in Hamburg and Paris with main emphasis on European history.

Christoph Katz has broad global experience in a business-to-business environment with small, medium and large business in the areas of chemicals, energy and resources, Engineering Plastics, composites as well as food & beverage ingredients - plus a broad array of customer industries and applications in all these fields – be it more industrial or more consumer-oriented.

Before partnering with EPPA, Christoph held international leadership positions in producing industries for more than 20 years.

Through actively managing public policy interfaces to the business (e.g., regulation of products, trade agreements and defense), Christoph has developed a deep understanding of the interdependency of these two areas - and the importance of managing these processes and interfaces well in order to have a good position in innovation and competitiveness, and ultimately business success.

Overseeing innovation management and new business development several times has helped Christoph to understand that it is essential for innovation and commercial success to manage international trade, its supply chain and its regulations well – especially when dealing with cross-border business and market access as well as meeting customer needs and expectations.

Christoph studied business administration at the universities of Berlin and Nuremberg, Germany. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and wrote his thesis in Montréal, Canada. ​

He operates in German, English, and French, and has working knowledge in Spanish.

Ludwig Cardon (1966) obtained his PhD in engineering in 2006 at Birmingham City University, UK. Currently, he is full professor and head of the Centre for Polymer and Material Technologies (CPMT) within the department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering (MaTCh) at Ghent University. He is specialized in advanced polymer processing and additive manufacturing. He studies the selection and development of new polymer-based materials for additive manufacturing, including the development of printing heads. Additionally, he focuses on the use of conventional processing techniques (injection, blow/film/plate/yarn extrusion, thermoforming) for advanced materials and/or applications such as artificial turf. Current topics include (3D) experimental and numerical simulation of advanced injection and extrusion processing and characterization of materials and their applications in scope of sustainability and circularity.

Easigrass is owned by its founders, Anthony Gallagher and Jonathan Gallagher. The business has 50+ employees, operating from London, England, Dubai, Japan and South Africa. Easigrass boasts an entrepreneurial leadership team, with over 30 years experience within the artificial grass sector. Anthony has over 15 years experience within the construction industry both in the UK and overseas followed by 10 years in high end retail and marketing.