IISRP announces programme for Barcelona meeting

Houston, Texas -- The International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP) has announced the speakers' programme for its 47th annual general meeting in Barcelona, Spain 15-18 May 2005, according to James McGraw, IISRP Managing Director & CEO.

"Meeting the Challenge of Change" will be the theme of the meeting, consisting of two general sessions. The first general session on 17 May will feature a panel consisting of Dipak Chatterjee, Indian Ambassador to the European Union; Jean-Michel Coulon, Michelin's Vice President of Purchasing; and Professor Pedro Nueno of IESE (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa). The panel will focus on the migration of business to Asia and its global impact. Each speaker will offer his perspective followed by an interactive panel discussion moderated by David Zielasko, Publisher and Vice President of Crain Communications.

We have restructured our Speakers Program to provide more opportunity of speaker and audience interaction”, announced McGraw. The Asian business climate is extremely important to the IISRP members as they have seen the obvious shift in many sectors from Europe and the Americas to Asia” he added.

Session II on 18 May will focus on topics specifically germane in the IISRP regional areas. They include:

* Mathew Thoelke, Director, European C4's, Styrenics, and Elastomers at CMAI, speaking on monomer and energy,

* Michael Penman, Senior Toxicology Advisor of Exxon Mobil, speaking on REACH, the new European Union chemicals policy,

* Roger Morgan, of Roger Morgan Consulting speaking on elastomer business opportunities in Central Europe, and

* John Grayston, Partner at Eversheds, speaking on global trade barriers.