19/06/2020

At its virtual session on 29 May 2020, the General Assembly of the WEEE Forum elected the new Board for the next four years. Joe Attard (WEEE Malta), Heidi Luck (SENS eRecycling, Switzerland), Pedro Nazareth (Electrão, Portugal), Valentin Negoita (Ecotic, Romania) and Jan Vlak (Wecycle, The Netherlands) had their mandate extended for another four years. Two new directors joined them: Nathalie Yserd (ecosystem, France) and Andreu Vilà (Ecotic, Spain). Jan Vlak was re-elected President of the association. The newly elected Board subsequently appointed Heidi Luck and Nathalie Yserd as Vice Chair of the Board and Treasurer respectively.
Read more below about the experience and skills they bring to the WEEE Forum.

Joe Attard is the Board member of the WEEE Forum since October 2017. Previously he worked for IML Electric Controls Limited: a manufacturing company mainly involved in the production of low voltage switchgear for Libya and Malta. Through IML Holding Limited, he established the Electrical Importers Association in Malta in 1995 and was Chairman of this Association from 1998 to 2007. In 2004, The Electrical Importers Association became a member of the European Union of Electrical Wholesalers and he was elected as Member to the Board of EUEW in March 2004 until end of 2007. The experience gained during the period included discussion held prior to the introduction of the WEEE Directive with other stakeholders in Europe. Joe became chief executive of Green mt in July 2009 and of WEEE Malta in August 2015. He is Member of the Waste Management Stakeholders Group from 2013 and member of a the WEEE Stakeholders Group from July 2015.

Heidi Luck has been working in the environmental sector for more than 10 years and is Managing Director of the SENS Foundation since September 2014. She moved into the envi-ronmental sector following a successful career in the private sector and a sabbatical leave taken to complete her master’s degree and further qualifications in the area of sociology. She is a member of the öbu – Forum for Sustainable Development, where she actively promotes sustainable business practices. She acts as a lecturer for Swiss Recycling at the Institute of Knowledge, Energy and Raw Materials in Zug – WERZ, where she oversees and teaches vocational education and training courses in the waste management industry. She is also on the borad of Swiss Recycling, the Swiss Association of PROs.

Pedro Nazareth is, since 2014, the General Manager of Electrão, the Portuguese producer responsibility organisation for the waste of electric and electronic equipment, industrial and portable batteries and packaging. Apart from his role in the WEEE Forum’s board, he is also the President of Fluxos, the Portuguese association of extended producer responsibility organisations actively engaged in the institutional representation of several different waste management systems. Pedro has worked during the past 20 years in the environmental and waste sector, in diverse work positions ranging from being plant manager of a major recycling company to being the business development manager of a self founded environmental and waste consultancy coordinating projects in several European countries and overseas. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering and has a master’s degree in science in Engineering Policy and Management of Technology.

Valentin Negoita has been working in the WEEE management since 2005 when he played an active role in the WEEE regulation implementation in Romania. He is currently President of ECOTIC, the first WEEE PRO in Romania (2006) and Administrator of ECOTIC BAT (2011). He has been a member of the Board of Directors of WEEE Forum as of 2016. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology of Iasi (1976) and of the Business Journalism School of Bucharest (1981) and an alumnus of the Salzburg Seminar of American Studies (1991). He worked first as a Senior Editor with Tribuna economica (1980-1992) and continued as Executive Director of Capital business magazine (1992-2000). He later moved to the ICT sector where he acts as President of APDETIC Romania (2003-), a member of DIGITALEUROPE.

Andreu Vilà is the Managing Director of Fundación ECOTIC (Spain) since September 2016. ECOTIC is a not-for-profit foundation. With authorisation to manage the 10 categories of WEEE at national level, and working with a wide network of authorised recyclers, and with more than 7700 collection points spread around Spain, ECOTIC has today consolidated its position as the leading organisation in Spain for e-waste disposal. Apart from being the WEEE Forum’s board member, he is also Member of the Supervisory Board of WEEE Europe AG and Chairman and CEO of UsualQ Smart SL. Previously he worked as Executive Manager of BASF (Spain), Chairman and CEO of Ciba (Italy and Spain).

Jan Vlak has been working in the world of waste and the environment for over 25 years. After graduating in Political Science and Environmental Studies at the University of Amsterdam, Jan worked as a policy advisor in the field of waste and energy at the Interprovincial Forum. He subsequently joined the Waste Management Council as Programme Manager for the National Landfill Plan and the privatisation of this sector. In 2005, he became the Managing Director of ICT Milieu, which promotes the environmental interests of over 300 companies working in the IT, Telecommunications and Office sector. Since December 2008, Vlak is Managing Director of Wecycle. In February 2020 Jan Vlak has been appointed as project-Director of a new foundation OPEN. In 2020 this foundation will set up a new structure and management body to ensure that the collection target of 65% and other legal objectives are effectively and efficiently achieved on behalf of all producers.

Nathalie Yserd is the Deputy Managing Director of ecosystem, France’s leading compliance scheme organising the management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Nathalie has more than 15 years retail experience mainly in appliances and electronics and over nearly 8 years at ecosystem where she has been in various management roles covering a wide range of missions including PRO accreditations, producer’s compliance and relationships, collection development, communication, eco-design initiatives and research, circular economy, relations with public authorities and stakeholders in France and on a European basis.

Read more about WEEE Forum’s structure here.