Arnaud Amouroux, 33
Key Account Director, Berry Global Group Inc.
Born in France, Arnaud Amouroux has a bachelor's degree in import/export business and a master's degree in international business.
Career highlights for Amouroux include roles as a key account manager for Europe and sustainability coordinator at Global Closure Systems/RPC Group from 2012-19 and international key account sales assistant at PSA Group from 2011-12. Amouroux is now the key account director for Berry Global Group Inc. in Barcelona.
"I joined the Global Closure Systems company in 2012 (then acquired by RPC group), as sales support for a global personal care KA, just after my graduation. This has been my first position in the plastics industry. Since my young age, I have always been attracted by industry, the ability of humans to develop machines whose goal is to improve our daily lives," he said. "The idea that by a succession of millimeter operations, we managed to produce complex objects has always impressed me."
As key account director, Amouroux is in charge of a large account in the cosmetics industry, supervises an international team of four people and coordinates the commercial strategy of the Europe, Asia, Africa and Latam zones. He works with more than 25 manufacturing sites around the world.
"Plastic is essential in our life; it protects us through different applications, helps extend the life of food and has a better LCA [life cycle analysis] than many other materials while being cheaper. However, our industry suffers from plastic waste. No one appreciates seeing plastic waste dumped in rivers or oceans, or littering our forests," he said. "I am fortunate to be in charge of a client whose sustainable development goals are ambitious. This gives me the daily opportunity to work on projects related to the transition to a more circular economy."
Amouroux's work includes reducing unnecessary plastic; making packaging recyclable via elimination of styrenic materials, metal components and nonrecyclable decoration; and making packaging reusable or returnable.
"I was fortunate to grow up in a united family, which like many others, had to learn to face adversity. My parents have always been a great support and pushed me to study and emancipate myself through work," he said. "These values are the key to my professional success today. I am now a happy father to a young boy of almost 3 years old and a little girl of 7 months. I am proud to be able to instill in them the values that have been transmitted to me."
Amouroux speaks French, English, Spanish, Catalan and Italian. He is involved with Litterati, picking up litter from the environment.
Q: What should the plastics industry do to expand its efforts in diversity and inclusion?
Amouroux: The industry in general attracts little or not enough women. It would be important to better communicate in schools on the diversity of jobs that the plastics industry offers. In addition, it is important to value the contribution of women working in this industry by offering them the opportunity to take key positions and sit on the board.
Q: What is your current challenge at work?
Amouroux: We are in a period of very strong transition linked to sustainable development, which will generate turbulence within our industry. This is a major challenge for all of us, for our jobs of course, but also as citizens to make our future better. My role as an employee is to support this transition by merging the company's profitability objectives with those of sustainable development and by doing so, demonstrate that sustainability is not a threat but our future.
Q: What emerging technology or market most interests you?
Amouroux: We are in the midst of an industrial revolution. All actors, governmental or private, have made strong commitments regarding the future of plastic in our society. The future will be written by those working on recycling technologies today.
I am particularly interested in the various recycling processes under development, such as the enzymatic recycling of PET on which Carbios is working or the advanced recycling of PP developed by PureCycle. These solutions, among others, will have a significant impact on our industry in the coming years.