O-I European chief becomes FEVE president

11-Jun-2014 - Last updated on 12-Jun-2014 at 09:39 GMT

Erik Bouts

Erik Bouts who was appointed president of the European operations of Owens-Illinois last year has been announced as the head of FEVE (the European Container Glass federation) at its Annual General Assembly in Venice last week.

The glass manufacturing industry employs about 50,000 people in Europe across 160 plants and FEVE members have factories in 23 European Member States. Container glass is one of Europe’s best recycled products. In 2012 the average glass recycling rate was 71%.

Prior to joining O-I Bouts was CEO of the Glidden Company, part of AkzoNobel Architectural Paints Division in the US. He also previously served as president and CEO of Phillips Lighting North America and global CEO of Phillips Electronics Razors Division.

“FEVE members have been a key driving force behind the European circular economy agenda, and I firmly believe that container glass is uniquely positioned to bring solutions to the big challenges of Resource Efficiency,” he said.

“Glass is a material that has unique properties: we need to play our winning cards and continue to be the reference packaging material.”

Bouts succeeds Stefan Jaenecke, CEO of Verallia Deutschland, who led the association for the previous two years.