Nirj Deva, DL, FRSA, MEP

Nirj is Chairman of the Board

A Member of the European Parliament and a former MP in the UK Parliament, Nirj has held a number of senior political appointments and has advised the boards of a number of public companies including International Leisure Group, Air Europe Plc, Tricentrol Oil Co Plc, EDS, Television South West, Thomas Howell Group, John Laing Plc, and Rothmans International Plc.

Michael Stephen

Michael Stephen is Commercial Director and Deputy Chairman of the Plc, and Chairman of its subsidiary companies.

Mr Stephen qualified as a Solicitor with Distinction in Company Law. He was later called to the Bar, and practised from chambers in London for many years, dealing with civil cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal. He was elected to Parliament in 1992 and was a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee and the Environment Select Committee of the House of Commons. He served in Government as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture.

He held a Harkness Fellowship in law at Stanford and Harvard Universities in the USA, and was Deputy Legal Adviser to the British Ambassador to the United Nations.

Michael Laurier

Michael is the Chief Executive of the Company

Michael's career began with his long established family packaging business, Brentwood Sack and Bag Co Limited. He took over responsibility for sales and production in the mid -1970s and changed the emphasis of the company's business from jute products to polythene packaging, introducing the then innovative high density and medium density polythene bags into the UK market in 1975. He was appointed Managing Director of Brentapac UK Plc, which formerly owned the Tuffy trademark, in 1985, with continuing responsibility for national and international sales. He co-founded Symphony Plastics in 1995.

Ian Bristow, FCCA

Finance Director (and Company Secretary)

Ian was in private practice for seven years, qualifying as a certified accountant in 1992. In 1994, he joined Brentapac UK Plc until it was sold in 1994. He went on to co-found Symphony Plastics in 1995.

Michael F Stephens

Technical Director

Michael began his career with Excelsior Plastics Limited, a division of Unigate, progressing over a period of ten years to sales director. Leaving in 1981, he worked for Sempol Products, Autobar Group and ACP Plastics (a subsidiary of S P Metal Group), all manufacturers of packaging films. In 1988, Michael founded Skymark Packaging International Limited, serving the snack food, bakery, mail wrap, paper disposable markets, which he left in November 1997 to join Symphony. Michael is a member of the British Standards Institute packaging committee and a member of the European Standards Committees for degradable agricultural and packaging films.

Nicolas Clavel

Nicolas Clavel (50) started his career in international banking in the mid seventies and his area of expertise has been structured trade finance and equity investments with a particular focus on Emerging Markets. He is Chief Investment Officer of Scipion Capital Ltd., (the Investment Manager of Scipion African Opportunities Fund SPC). Nicolas is Swiss, and is based in London and Geneva. He is fluent in English, French, Italian and German.