Quentin de Hults
Executive Chair
Modern Building Alliance

Established in 2018, the Modern Building Alliance is an alliance of trade associations and companies representing the plastics industry in the construction sector. It aims to support the EU in ensuring safe and sustainable construction.
Mr de Hults is engaged in the European Fire Information Exchange Platform and the European Fire Safety Alliance. He has more than 10 years of experience in energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings with the whole value chain, and 5 years of experience in related EU standards and policies as expert and public affairs professional for BASF.
He holds a master degree in mechanical engineering from the Louvain School of Engineering in Belgium.

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René de Feijter

Project Leader Fire Investigation

Efectis Nederland

René De Feijter started his career in 1989 as a volunteer fire fighter at the Vlissingen Fire Department and was a professional fire fighter and fire prevention officer from 1992 – 2007.

He represented the Dutch Fire departments in the standardization committee for fire safety in buildings and worked on fire safety in large scale projects like the railway tunnels for the Highspeed line and Betuweroute.

As an International Certified Fire Investigator, he investigates fires to determine the cause, the fire development, the impact on constructions and materials and the response of Emergency response teams and Fire departments to the fire.  He is hired as a Court expert in civil and criminal cases and as an expert for the Police and Dutch Safety Board. He also was involved in the investigation of several major fires like the TU-Delft, Chemie Pack Moerdijk and Psychiatric Hospital Rivierduinen Oegstgeest and fires in Qatar, Germany, Belgium and Curaçao. He is also a guest lecturer at the Amsterdam University of applied science and the Delft University.

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Emmanuelle Causse

Director

International Union of Property Owners (UIPI)

Emmanuelle Causse is the Director of the International Union of Property Owners (UIPI), a pan-European not-for-profit umbrella association bringing together 29 national property owners’ organisations in 28 countries across Europe.

As representative toward EU institutions, Emmanuelle’s task is to ensure that European landlords and homeowners’ interests are given weight in the development of EU policies. Throughout her years at UIPI, Emmanuelle gained a strong expertise in housing, financial and built environment related matters. She is the voice of final investors and end users in numerous EU expert groups on these issues. Emmanuelle is also part of the Board of Trustees of the International Property Measurement Standards coalition and co-chair of the European Housing Forum.

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Antonio Caballero González

General Secretary

European Mortar Industry Organization

Antonio holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Aachen University in Germany.

He worked between 2002-2007 for the Bundersverband Kalksandsteininudstrie respectively as Head of the Standardisation Department, Head of Products & System Development Department and Deputy Head of the Qualitätsgemeinschaft Maueurwerksprodukte. Since July 2007 he is Secretary General of The European Calcium Silicate Producers Association and has also been appointed as Secretary General of the European Mortar Industry Organisation since January 2004.

Antonio is aslo an active Member of the Executive Board of Construction Products Europe (CPE).

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Alan Brinson

Executive Director

European Fire Sprinkler Network (EFSN)

On graduating from Cambridge University he joined Shell as a Research Process Engineer, moving to Procter & Gamble before joining Tyco in 1992. With Tyco he held a series of European fire protection business and product management roles, culminating in responsibility for the European sprinkler components business. In 2003 Alan left Tyco and set up the EFSN. For the past 16 years he has led and participated in successful sprinkler campaigns in many European countries, working with EFSN members, fire chiefs and officials to ensure that new buildings are fitted with sprinklers. Alan is an active participant in research to establish the safety, economic and environmental benefits of sprinklers to society. He is also a member of fire safety standards and regulatory committees for BSI, CEN and NFPA. He is a chartered chemical engineer.

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Gonçalo Ascensăo

Project Manager

CEN CENELEC

Graduated in Environmental Engineering in Coimbra in 2007, Mr Ascensăo joined Reciascensão – Reciclagem de Sucatas, Lda in 2004 as Environmental Manager until 2008. From 2008, he has been working in European organisations such as the European Chemical Regions Network and European Water Partnership.

Mr Ascensăo joined the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre (CCMC) in April 2011 and has since then worked as Project Manager responsible for the coordination and management of European Standardization in the construction sector.  He is in charge of about 80 CEN and CENELEC Technical Committees, including the European Standardization on horizontal matters such ‘Sustainability of Construction Works’, 'Assessment of release of dangerous substances’ and Fire Safety in Buildings.

Gonçalo has an extensive amount of experience in European Standardization and in European Legislation with focus on the Construction Products Regulation and the development of harmonized standards under the CPR.

Furthermore, since 2018 he is the Customer Service Specialist – Manufacturing, leading a team of Project Managers supporting the standardization activities in the areas of Construction, Mechanical Engineering, Chemicals, and Mining and Metals.

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