JAMES ROMHANY (CONFOIL NZ LTD)
James Romhany is the current New Zealand sales manager for Confoil NZ Ltd.
Romhany has a strong mechanical engineering background and has been been involved in the food
packaging business for just over 30 years in various aspects from product development, design to
sales. “I’ve worked for various food packaging manufacturers covering everything from most aspects
of plastics (injection, blow moulding, thermoforming), paper, board, printing, flexibles and foil.”
www.confoil.co.nz
SHANE SIPTHORP
(SELPAK):
Shane Sipthorp is the owner and
managing director of Selpak Automation
Pty. Ltd.
‘Born into the industry’, Shane was
helping his father (who joined Selpak
in 1962) install machines at eight
years of age.
After completing his studies, he
spent six years working in Selpak’s
partner factories in Europe, before
building on his technical knowledge
and expertise installing equipment
throughout Asia and Oceania.
His thought leadership and passion
for improving productivity and
growth for his customers has lead
Selpak to be one of the leading suppliers
of processing and packaging
equipment in Australia and New
Zealand.
When he isn’t deeply immersed in
CAD designs, he spends his time
preparing culinary delights for his
close friends and family. He is currently
working on a baking project
which will bring local NZ products to
the world.
www.selpak.co.nz
DR MAREN
WELLENREUTHER
(PLANT & FOOD RESEARCH)
Young senior scientist Wellenreuther has won a significant award for her endeavours to
develop new genomics technologies to breed native marine species in captivity. Based
at the Nelson Research Centre, she won the 2018 Hamilton Award - the Royal Society Te
Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Science. Wellenreuther completed
her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in her home country of Germany, but journeyed to
the University of Auckland to gain her PhD. Prior to joining Plant & Food Research in
2014, she was a postdoctoral researcher and academic at Lund University in Sweden.
Wellenreuther is the lead researcher on a MBIE-funded project that is investigating the
use of genomic technologies in the selective breeding of native fish, primarily snapper and
trevally.
www.plantandfood.co.nz
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