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Biography
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A
Swiss national, Manfred graduated in 1967 with a PhD in
physical-organic chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH) in Zürich.
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In
1968 he joined the R&D Department of The Dow Chemical Company in
the US, working in pesticide research and moved to Dow Europe in 1970.
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Until
1987 he held several R&D management positions in different
technologies and in various areas of Europe, including 4 years as
pesticide market development manager for Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union.
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Wirth
was named Business Director for Films and Coated Metals, Dow Europe in
1987. He also served as the Dow board member in a joint-venture
packaging company in Germany.
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In
1992 Wirth moved to Director of Environmental Programmes for Dow
Europe, where he developed the environmental strategy and introduced
it into the businesses. He also developed and implemented a crisis
management process for Dow Europe.
Later he co-developed Dow‘s Eco-efficiency model and spent
much time introducing it to the Dow businesses and moderating
Eco-innovation workshops with strategic Dow customers.
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He
speaks on Eco-Efficiency, Eco-Innovation and Environmental Reporting
at international conferences, universities and environmental
ministries.
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Wirth
has been a member of the European Conference Board on managing the
environment and was representing Dow Europe on the environmental
steering group and the environmental subcommittee of the American
Chamber of Commerce in Brussels.
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End
of July 1997 Wirth has taken early retirement from Dow and started his
own consulting business specialising in facilitation of
Business-Innovation workshops. Such workshops help companies develop
novel ideas for products and services that can lead to ecologically
sustainable new business opportunities with potential for value
creation and gaining competitive advantage.
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Dr.
Manfred Wirth