Keynote Speakers

Johanna Nylander has a PhD in product development and a focus on circular economy and sustainable product development. With over a decade of experience in the aerospace industry, her work has been focused on sustainability since 2015. As a sustainability specialist at GKN Aerospace Engines, she has developed several methods and tools to assess products from a sustainability perspective across various phases of the development process. She is involved in several research projects related to sustainable product development, as well as national and international networks for sustainable transition within the aerospace and defence sector. Focusing on sustainability from a strategic perspective she is guiding GKN Aerospace to become the most sustainable partner in the sky.

Matthias Asplund – Trafikverket

Matthias Asplund holds a PhD in the field of condition monitoring, with a focus on efficient measurement of railway wheels and utilizing data to improve maintenance decision-making for infrastructure managers. He currently works as a Senior Specialist and leads both national and international research initiatives at Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration. In addition, Matthias serves part-time as a researcher at Luleå University of Technology. Over the past years, he has authored more than 30 research articles published in conferences and scientific journals.

Josef-Peter Schöggl, University of Graz

Josef-Peter Schöggl is an Assistant Professor of Sustainability Assessment and Management at the University of Graz, where he focuses on data-driven sustainability assessment and management. He holds a PhD in Environmental Systems Sciences from the University of Graz and has worked as a Full Professor of Sustainability Analytics at Modul University Vienna and as a postdoctoral researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the University of Graz. His research focuses on sustainability assessment, circular economy, sustainable product development, inter- and intra-organizational collaboration, and the utilization of digital technologies to advance sustainability-related decision-support methods.

Beatriz Ildefonso – European Commission, DG Research & Innovation

Beatriz Ildefonso is a Policy Officer at the European Commission’s DG Research & Innovation (Unit C3 – Clean Transport Transitions), where she works on the 2ZERO partnership and contributes to advancing circular economy initiatives in the mobility sector. With a background in energy and environmental engineering, Beatriz has built her career at the intersection of sustainability, research, and industry policy. Prior to joining the Commission, she served as Circularity & Materials Manager at CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, where she led regulatory and innovation work on materials circularity, sustainable batteries, and product carbon footprint methodologies. She also worked as a researcher in the Laboratory of Energy Policy of Ljubljana.

Rupert J. Baumgartner, University of Graz

Rupert J. Baumgartner is professor of sustainability management at the Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, University of Graz, Austria. Since November 2018 he is the director of the Christian-Doppler-Research Laboratory for Sustainable Product Management enabling a Circular Economy. He published more than 90 journal papers in leading academic journals, 3 books and more than 25 book chapters. His main research interests are corporate sustainability management, sustainability assessment, lifecycle assessment, and circular economy. His research achievements include the development of an integrated model for corporate sustainability management combining maturity levels of sustainability strategies with organizational culture and operative implementation, the joint development of a framework for sustainable business excellence based on Hoshin Kanri, the definition of second-order sustainability performance, the joint development of a checklist and implementation framework for sustainable product development and the publication (together with colleagues) of the first scientific concept for a digital product passport from a sustainability perspective.

Hanno Bachler-Udier, AVL List GmbH

Hanno Bachler-Udier received his diploma in mechanical engineering and economics from Technical University, Graz, Austria (1995). Between 1989 – 1995, he worked at the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines & Thermodynamics, Prof.Dr. Rudolf Pischinger, TU Graz as scientist and project manager. In 2000 he joined AVL List, and headed the Diesel Calibration for 10 years. For 8 years he was responsible for the monitoring of the global R&D activities in the business unit ‘Powertrain Engineering’ of AVL List, since 2016 he is responsible for the program ‘Life Cycle Engineering’. He is involved in, coordinating and leading research projects on ‘sustainability and circularity’ on national and EU level. He has a record of more than 20 publications as author or co-author. He participates as Expert Group Member in initiatives on national and EU level on topics sustainability, circular economy, LCA.

Andreas Schiffleitner, iPoint-systems GmbH

Andreas Schiffleitner is Product Manager for Sustainability Solutions at iPoint-systems, a leading provider of digital solutions for sustainable product development and compliance.
Since joining iPoint-Austria in 2004, he has held key roles including Head of R&D Sustainable Product Development, Product Manager for various sustainability solutions, and Director of iPoint-Austria. He brings deep expertise in ecodesign, life cycle assessment, and regulatory requirements such as conflict minerals. Andreas contributed to international projects like the EU-funded SustainHub and led the innovation project Live LCA, which laid the foundation for today’s “Product Sustainability” solution. He studied Electronics at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien.