Philippe Dewez, Director General
Philippe graduated in organic chemistry at the University of Louvain in Belgium and started his early career in South Africa, where he worked in both the steel and chemical industries before joining BP in Cape Town, in 1981. Subsequent positions with BP, took him to the UK, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and France before returning to the UK in 2006. His career has spanned refining, trading and marketing including retail, liquid petroleum gas and bitumen. He joined the bitumen world in 1998 with responsibility for France and Spain before taking a new challenge at head office with responsibilities for strategy and business development. He left BP in 2008.
Throughout his career he has taken an active role in the industry associations, joining Eurobitume in 1999 and taking the Presidency in 2003. He was also President of GPB, the French association of bitumen producers.
He assumed his new role, as Director General of Eurobitume, on the 1st of September 2008.
Mike Southern, Technical Director
Mike Southern is a chemistry graduate of the Royal Holloway College, London University, who has dedicated over 20 years to the technical support of bitumen and its downstream products.
Following seven years with Colas Roads, working on polymer modified binder rheology, emulsion development and ISO 9000 Quality Assurance Systems, Mike joined Shell Bitumen UK as Senior Development Engineer. Here he provided technical support for the UK bitumen business, binder quality and R&D project management.
In 1994 he moved to the Bitumen Marketing Division at Shell International Oil Products, where for over nine years his main responsibilities included manufacturing liaison, R&D project management and product HSE support. During this time he also chaired the Eurobitume HSE Committee. He joined Eurobitume as Technical Director in 2005, where his main focus is HSE and, among other activities, he acts as Secretary of the HSE Committee and Chairman of the Technical Committee.
Photography available for download in the Press Centre /Image Gallery