With a working title of “Sustainability throughout the leather supply chain”, Fernando Bellese will address a range of topical subject areas around sustainability which have a direct impact on the automotive leather supply chain. JBS Couros is a division of JBS SA, the largest beef processor and bovine leather processor in the world, headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

Fernando works as Marketing and Sustainability Manager for JBS Couros and studied at King´s College – London 2007-09 (MA Tourism, Environment and Development). He is actively engaged across different national and international initiatives such as the Leather Working Group (LWG), Leather Naturally, the Brazilian Roundtable of Sustainable Livestock and the Brazilian Special Commission for the Research of Sustainable Leather Production Processes. Fernando has participated directly in important discussions about innovation, supply-chain, traceability, carbon footprint, environment, transparency and animal welfare involving the worldwide leather industry.

More than one reason to visit Stuttgart

The half-day (afternoon) conference will take place at the five-star, Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin luxury hotel in the centre of the city on Monday, June 4. The reason for this date and this location is to ally the conference with the Automotive Interiors Show which is taking place in the city in the same week, June 5-8 at the Stuttgart Messe. The idea is to allow attendees of the ILM conference an opportunity to visit the interiors show also on the same trip and maximise time away from the office or factory.

Speakers will include representatives from the whole automotive leather supply chain including leading tanners, tier suppliers and OEMs. There will also be opportunities for networking.

The conference is aimed at anyone connected with the global automotive leather supply chain from hide/skin suppliers, chemicals and machinery suppliers, research and academic institutes, traders, tanners, tier-1 suppliers and automotive OEMs.

All presentations will be in English. The conference is lead sponsored by global leather chemical makers, Stahl, Zschimmer & Schwarz and Lectra. It is also sponsored by JBS Couros and Erretre/Fratelli Carlessi and supported by Zünd and the raw materials pricing and analysis website, theSauerReport.com

Announcements on further speakers and topics will be announced on this website in the coming weeks. Confirmed speakers and topics so far:

  • Daimler AG – Update on the DRIVE Sustainability initiative. Speaker TBC.
  • Lectra – Customer Focus and Operational Excellence in the Age of Industry 4.0, Holger Max-Lang, Managing Director for Central & Eastern Europe, Russia.
  • JBS Couros – Sustainability throughout the leather supply chain, Fernando Bellese, Marketing and Sustainability Manager. 
  • Erretre/Fratelli Carlessi – Speaker and topic TBC.
  • Stahl – Speaker and topic TBC.

To register to attend this event click here and follow the link to the registration page or email Maria Wallace, maria@edifydigitalmedia.com