Meta Resnik holds a university degree in Microbiology and has been working in Quality at Lek for nearly 20 years in the field of pharmaceutical microbiology. Over the past 10 years, she has been deeply involved in the contamination control strategy in aseptic manufacturing. With deep knowledge on management of aseptic environment, product sterility assurance, aseptic process design, personnel training for aseptic operations, and microbiological quality control of sterile and non‑sterile products, she has contributed to the implementation of the new EU GMP Annex 1 requirements. She currently serves as the Global Aseptic Expert for all Sandoz aseptic sites.

Noël Long is a Contamination Control and Sterility Assurance Professional with a deep understanding of global regulatory requirements across the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Noël’s experience has focused on aseptic drug product manufacturing and contamination control and reaches across API, cell banking, cell culture, purification, formulation, filtration, aseptic filling, lyophilization, and drug product inspection activities. In her career, which includes validation, manufacturing, and quality roles. Noël has held positions of increasing responsibility at Wyeth, GSK, Morphotek, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, GE Healthcare and Cytiva. Cytiva projects include the airflow visualization studies and biofluorescent particle counter studies for a gloveless robotic aseptic filling isolator.

Katie Hay is a mechanical engineer with experience in product development and sustainment across multiple industries, including medical devices and biotechnology. Katie has experience applying computational simulation techniques to understand design behaviour across structural, thermal, vibration, and airflow visualization domains. Katie has been working at Cytiva for the past year; one project being involved in the airflow visualization and particle dynamics study.

Agnes Krmelj is an experienced production manager with over 15 years in the food and pharmaceutical industries. She began in development and laboratory control, then advanced to technologist and head of production, and now she works as a Production Manager in a pharmaceutical environment. She is distinguished by her strong analytical skills, strategic planning, people management, process improvement implementation, and ensuring compliance with quality standards. She actively promotes a culture of improvement, open communication, and employee development.

Dražana Radonjić is an experienced pharmaceutical microbiologist with a strong background in managing microbiology laboratories within GMP-regulated environments. Proven expertise in GMP Annex 1 implementation, including environmental monitoring programs, sterility assurance, contamination control strategy (CCS), deviation handling, and CAPA management. Dražena is a detail-oriented and quality-driven leader with a proactive approach to regulatory compliance, continuous improvement, and team development. Experienced in supporting audits and inspections.

John Chewins is an expert in the application and use of peroxygen-based automated airborne disinfection systems. He is the Scientific and Regulatory Director and has worked for Bioquell/Ecolab for over 20 years. John is the Deputy Chairman of the British Standards Institute (BSI) CH 216 disinfectants and antiseptics standards writing committee, as well as the Chair of the European Airborne Disinfection Task Force under CEN TC216, also chairing the European UV Disinfection Task Force. He is a member of ISO/TC 198 (sterilization of healthcare products) and actively participates in a number of working groups, including aseptic processing, biological indicators and chemical indicators. John is an expert in the application of the European Biocidal Products Regulation to automated airborne disinfection systems and often presents on this subject.

Vincent Sakraida is Lead Mechanical Engineer for Olsson in Denver, CO USA. He is the chairman of ASHRAE TC9.11 Clean Space, a former member of the NEBB Cleanroom Performance Testing Standard committee, and a member of the ISO 14644 Standard committee. He has over 35 years of experience in the design, construction, and commissioning of cleanrooms. Vincent has completed projects in the wafer fab manufacturing, API pharmaceutical manufacturing, pharmaceutical sterile fill, electronics manufacturing, R&D laboratories, aeronautical and aerospace manufacturing, compounding facilities, and medical centres. He has managed and executed the design of many multi-billion-dollar projects.

Primož Vrtačnik is a mechanical engineer by profession, and he has been working at Novartis for 20 years, where he has been heavily involved in system design from the very beginning. He specialises in HVAC, energy, and GMP systems, covering the entire process from the initial design phase to implementation, qualification, and final handover to the end user. Primož has worked on pharmaceutical projects across various divisions, including solid dosage forms, sterile products, biopharmaceuticals, RLT, and laboratory construction.

David Rausch joined Phoenix Controls in 2006 and is currently the Sr. Business Development Manager for the Healthcare and Research Markets. He has been involved in many aspects of product and portfolio management, product design and project design of speciality mechanical devices and controls within the Healthcare, Research and High Purity Manufacturing industry for over 20 years. As an active member of ASHRAE, he has held executive positions in TC 9.10 (Lab Systems) Vice Chair, voting member and was a past Chair for TC 2.2 (Plant and Animal). He is now an associate member of TC 9.6 (Healthcare) and TC 9.11 (Clean Rooms) and speaks at numerous ASHRAE events and other National and International Critical Environment conferences throughout the year.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Old Dominion University and an Associate’s degree in Applied Science / Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Morrisville, NY.

40 years of experience in the research and development of instruments for metrology applications, including optical particles counters. 40 years of experience in metrology applications, including the use of optical particle counters for contamination control in cleanrooms and process fluids for multiple industries. Extensive expertise in the development and application of Tracer Particle Generators utilized for visualizing critical airflows in Cleanrooms.

Rok Prešeren is Head of Data Science at Metronik, working with production companies to stabilize and optimize manufacturing processes, reduce material and energy consumption, and detect defects using machine learning. His current focus is generative AI, particularly relational foundation models for extracting, predicting, and classifying enterprise data.
He has over 30 years of experience delivering technology solutions in industrial digitalization, AI, and communications for large industrial and infrastructure organizations. He has led organizations of 500+ people, managed budgets over €30M, and delivered mission-critical systems with high requirements for availability and safety.
Previously Director of ICT & Network Services at Telekom Slovenije, he led SDN adoption and 5G launch, achieving major quality improvements and NPS 91 for business customers. PhD in Physics, author/co-author of several patents in AI, Industry 4.0, and telecommunications.

Boštjan Kmet is deputy head of Sterile and non-sterile liquid products in Pharmaceutical production at Krka, d.d., Novo mesto and has experience as a technologist and later as a deputy head of the Sterile products department for over 19 years. He participated in the implementation of preparation lines for solutions, sterile filtration and filling lines for ampoules and sterile nasal sprays. In addition, he was actively involved in the qualification of IPC equipment and other machinery for ensuring the production of sterile products, such as cleaning systems, transfer chambers for clean rooms and sterilizers. Recently, he has been focused on the field of optical inspection and leak testing of sterile products.

Hasim Solmaz is the Vice President of Innovation at Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions (LWS) and General Manager of its EMEA operations based in Turkiye. He leads global innovation strategy while overseeing regional execution for LWS, a leading manufacturer of contamination monitoring systems.

Hasim specializes in cleanroom design, environmental monitoring, pharmaceutical production and regulatory compliance. He is the founding chair of the Cleanroom Technologies Society of Turkiye (CTS) and represents Turkiye in the ISO/TC209, where he also contributes to several working groups. He chairs the TSE Mirror Committee on Cleanroom Technologies.

He currently serves as Chair of the International Confederation of Contamination Control Societies (ICCCS), representing over 20 national cleanroom associations.

As a faculty member at IEST’s Contamination Control Institute (CCI), he lectures on cleanroom classification and monitoring. For 2024–2026, he also serves as Vice President of Planning on the IEST Executive Board.
He is an active member of CTS, IEST, ISPE, and PDA.

Betül Solmaz is the Chair of the ICCCS Young Professionals Committee and an active leader within the international cleanroom community. She leads the ICCCS Young Professionals Programme, focusing on mentorship, international collaboration, and the professional development of early-career cleanroom specialists.

In parallel, she has over 10 years of experience at Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions EMEA, working closely with a multicultural distributor network across different regions. This background has strengthened her ability to connect professionals from diverse cultures and create a shared working language. She brings this cross-cultural, people-focused approach to the Young Professionals Programme, supporting alignment, collaboration, and meaningful contributions to the future of cleanroom technology.