Brendan Morris - Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Morris was appointed CEO in January 2008 having joined Plantic in 2004 as Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer. During his time at Plantic, Mr. Morris has played an instrumental role in Plantic's commercial and development agreements with Amcor, DuPont, National Starch and Bemis. He was also intimately involved in three capital raisings, including a successful listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.
Prior to joining Plantic, Mr. Morris spent seven years with Basell Polyolefins as CFO for their Flexible Film and Resin businesses in Australia and Thailand. Basell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and advanced polyolefins products, a leading supplier of polyethylene and catalysts, and a global leader in the development and licensing of polypropylene and polyethylene processes. During the same period, Mr. Morris was also a Board Director of PolyPacifc (a resin compounding business) with operations in Australia and Malaysia.
Prior to joining Basell Mr. Morris was CFO of APV's Global Contracting and Engineering business based in London and before that in strategy, commercial and financial management roles with APV Sales and Engineering business based in Australia and then in Denmark.
Prior to his management career in commerce, Mr. Morris was a senior Accountant with KPMG in Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Deakin University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
Norbert-Rainer Schmidt - General Manager, Europe
Mr. Schmidt joined Plantic in October 2007 as the General Manager of the European division. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversees the company's operations and developments while continuing to develop business opportunities in this market. Mr. Schmidt is also the Managing Director of Plantic's subsidiary in Germany, Plantic Technologies GmbH.
Before joining Plantic, Mr. Schmidt was the Managing Director of Pharmatec GmbH in Germany, Switzerland, Russia and the UK. Pharmatec provides the production, storage and distribution of pharmaceutical utilities. During his time at Pharmatec, the company's annual sales increased by €12 million.
Between 1997 and 2003, Mr. Schmidt was the Managing Director of Sales, Marketing and Technology for several companies including: Weiss Klimatechnik GmbH; Weiss GWE GmbH; OOO Weiss Technik; and Weiss Klimatechnik Spooz. During this period, he was also Chairman of BDK Luft und Reinraumtechnik GmbH.
Prior to this, Mr. Schmidt was the Managing Director of APV Engineering in Crawley, England. In this role, he supervised engineering, contracting, unit systems and service for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. The pharmaceutical business was established under Mr. Schmidt's direction.
Mr. Schmidt's previous roles also include: Managing Director of Anton Steinecker Maschinenfabrik GmbH; Technical Leader and Senior Project Manager at Fresenius; and Project and Sales Engineering roles at SMS Verfahrenstechnik GmbH and Colt International GmbH.
Mr. Schmidt graduated from his Engineering degree with honours. He completed his Master of Science in Process Engineering and Energy at the University of Applied Science Giessen.
