Effectively Assessing & Managing PFAS 2025 (Tuesday 2 December)

Hosted by

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  Erik Olson Senior Strategic Director for Health & Senior Attorney @ Natural Resources Defense Council

  Erik has over 40 years of experience and helps to lead NRDC’s strategy on toxic chemicals and on drinking water. Previously, Erik oversaw key health projects at The Pew Charitable Trusts, including campaigns to address toxic chemicals in food and to enact the first overhaul of FDA’s food safety law in 70 years. Prior to Pew, he was General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, focusing on addressing environmental health threats and on climate change. Prior to his Senate stint, he led NRDC’s health program, advocacy center, and campaigns to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act and national pesticide laws. He has litigated precedent-setting federal cases on drinking water, Superfund, pesticides, toxics and other issues at NRDC, the National Wildlife Federation and EPA. His law degree is from the University of Virginia and his Batchelor’s is from Columbia University in New York.

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  Clare Llowarch Technical Director @ Normec i2 Analytical

  Clare has over 20 years of analytical chemistry experience across the environmental, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries, with the last 10 years focused specifically on the environmental sector. She has provided technical support and led method development and validation to ISO17025/MCerts standards, with a particular emphasis on PFAS analysis. Clare is an active participant in several industry organisations, including NICOLE (PFAS Laboratory Working Group), as well as AGS, EIC, and others.

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  Shalene Thomas EC Program Mgr @ Battelle Memorial Institute

  Shalene Thomas is the Senior Global Emerging Contaminant Program Manager for Battelle. She has more than 26 years of experience in environmental consulting that includes nearly 18 years of experience supporting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) evaluations. She has supported State, Federal and industrial clients in 32 different states in nine of the 10 USEPA regions as well as in Europe, Australia and Canada.

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  Wendy Linck Sr. Engineering Geologist, Groundwater Quality Branch @ California State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Water Quality

  Wendy Linck is a Senior Engineering Geologist at the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) within the Division of Water Quality (DWQ). She is managing the State Water Board's response to the PFAS effort within DWQ and is a liaison with the Division of Drinking Water and the Regional Water Quality Control Boards on the subject.

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  Christopher Snelling Policy Director @ AirportsUK

  Christopher joined AirportsUK in May 2020. He leads on all policy work for the association, including issues such as airspace modernisation, planning, taxation, and general government policy. He takes a particular interest in sustainability issues, such as airport decarbonisation, sustainable flight, noise, air quality and waste issues. He previously chaired the Sustainable Aviation coalition’s Quieter Working Group. Previously he was at the Freight Transport Association for 14 years. Through his time there, Christopher led on policy issues across road, rail sea and air, with special focuses on environmental, fiscal and infrastructure issues. Prior to FTA, he worked for almost 10 years in public affairs - for RAC and a leading consultancy. He started his career as a researcher in the House of Commons.

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  Daniel Newton Assistant Deputy Director @ California State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water

  Dan Newton is an Assistant Deputy Director at the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water and oversees the Northern California Field Operations Branch. The Branch permits and regulates over 4,000 drinking water systems from Monterey to the Oregon border. Prior to Drinking Water, Dan worked in the Waterboard’s Division of Water Quality and Division of Financial Assistance.

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  Thijs de Kort Coordinator REACH Restrictions (incl. UPFAS) and deputy head of Bureau REACH @ RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

  Thijs studied ecotoxicology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and works as the coordinator of REACH restrictions and as deputy head of Bureau REACH at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). He has been managing the REACH UPFAS restriction dossier for the Netherlands since 2022.

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  Anne-Sofie Bäckar Executive Director @ ChemSec

  Anne-Sofie has worked with chemical management for 23 years and for the past 19 years as the Executive Director of ChemSec. She was among the people that originally started ChemSec in 2002 in a small office. Under her tenure as Executive Director, ChemSec has grown into a well-respected player and developed world-class chemicals management tools such as the SIN List and ChemScore. Anne-Sofie holds a M.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Before joining ChemSec, she worked for consumer organisations in the Nordic countries, monitoring chemical issues from a consumer perspective. As a scientist, she started her career with biotechnology research on diseases. She has been a member of the Executive Committee of IPEN (2008 -2020), a board member of the Centre for Chemical Substitution (2018-2021) and a Member of the Supervisory Board at the Swedish Chemical Inspectorate (2020 ongoing).