2019 Phoenix Award Committee Chairman confirmed

Sample from the latest issue

Sample from the latest issue

Jean-Luc Logel, Chief Executive Officer at IRIS Inspection machines, has been named Chairman of the Phoenix Award Committee for 2019. He spoke to Glass Worldwide about his pride at taking on this role, leading the committee’s selection process for this year’s Glass Person of the Year.

“I am honoured and truly grateful for the privilege to serve as Chairman but it was definitely unexpected” says the 2019 Phoenix Award Committee Chairman. Jean-Luc Logel had accepted an invitation to join the committee in 2014 and served as Publicity Committee Chairman for three years. “I am thrilled by this challenge and opportunity – I am following many leading entrepreneurs in the role of Chairman and hope to maintain their excellent work.”

The committee is made up of leading personalities from the international supplier community and their collective responsibility is to select, every year, a living person who has been active in and made noteworthy contributions to the glass industry. Once elected, every member serves for a period of four years, with six new members elected each year to replace those whose terms have expired.

When the committee was created in 1971, its membership was exclusively USA-based but today, it is a genuinely global institution, featuring key glass industry suppliers from Europe and Asia, as well as North America. Importantly, recent Phoenix Award recipients have also reflected the international nature of glass expertise. In the last decade alone, no fewer than nine different nationalities have been represented, the list featuring Oliver Wiegand (Germany), James O’Callaghan (UK), Cho Tak Wong (China), Surasak Decharin (Thailand), G Clinton Shay (USA), C K Somany (India), Lino Tagliapietra (Italy), Juan Raphael Silva Garcia (Mexico), Delbert E Day (USA) and Javier Gutierrez Martinez de Companon (Spain).

Career highlights

Having served as an officer in the French navy, Jean-Luc Logel has subsequently enjoyed a long and successful career associated with the international glassmaking industry. He spent two years working for a French equipment supplier to the glassfibre sector, before joining the BSN Group to participate in its development of specialist cold end glass container inspection equipment.

Developed first and foremost for the company’s own manufacturing facilities, it was subsequently decided to sell this technology to competitive glassmakers as well, as a means of covering some of the associated development costs. This decision turned the business into a highly successful profit centre, one that continues to the present day under different ownership and management. “It was a very important part of my life and a precious experience” Jean-Luc Logel recalls, introducing him to customers throughout Europe initially, before developing important business opportunities in Asia and the Americas.

In 1999, together with Philippe Volay and other former colleagues, Mr Logel acquired an existing business in Lyon, specialising in the design and manufacture of embedded electronics systems and software solutions for many global customers. Today, Centralp is an important part of the Wisetec Group, alongside IRIS Inspection machines, which brought the management team back into the glass container industry two years later.

“Our development of Evolution camera-based inspection machines at IRIS was strongly influenced by the knowledge and experience gained at Centralp” Jean-Luc Logel explains. “Serving many other industries provided different software solutions that we could also successfully integrate in our glass container inspection equipment. This included the use of advanced PC technology, as well as the latest cameras and electronics, so stepping away from the glass industry for two years with Centralp provided many benefits to the ultimate success of IRIS Inspection machines.”

Today, Mr Logel is Chairman of the Wisetec Group, while still maintaining close connections with glass industry customers as a hands-on Chief Executive Officer at IRIS Inspection machines. “Following the appointment of a Chief Executive Officer at Centralp, I am now able to devote 90% of my time to IRIS and the opportunities and challenges we face” he confirms.
Asia is recognised as the continent with the greatest growth potential for glass products in all forms, as wages and disposable incomes increase. Numerous greenfield projects have been built throughout the region in recent years, featuring advanced technologies that illustrate the improved productivity gains that can be achieved by glassmakers. These improved market conditions and the associated investment opportunities are expected to continue to the benefit of the glass industry and its suppliers.
Plans underway
As Chairman of the Phoenix Award Committee for 2019, Jean-Luc Logel looks forward to liaising with fellow members to determine this year’s winner, as well as presenting the award later in the year. There are many worthy contributions to consider, including those from role models who continue to innovate in the areas of glass science, production and education. “It is difficult to select just one candidate but I am confident we will agree on someone who embodies the forward-looking, passionate and innovative characteristics of previous recipients” Mr Logel concludes.

Glass Worldwide looks forward to announcing the 2019 Phoenix Award recipient in a future issue.

Further Information: 

web: www.phoenixawardcommittee.org