Packaging Innovations & Empack names judges for Future Trailblazer Awards 2027

Senior figures from IOM3, Nestlé, Asda, Lavazza Coffee, and across the packaging industry will select the Future Trailblazer Class of 2027, alongside a dedicated panel that recognises the mentors helping emerging talent thrive.

Packaging Innovations & Empack has unveiled the judging panels for the Future Trailblazer Awards 2027 and the inaugural Packaging Mentor of the Year Award, bringing together industry leaders and emerging professionals to recognise both the people making their mark on packaging and those helping others build successful careers within it.

The seven-strong Future Trailblazer panel will be chaired by Jude Allan of IOM3 and includes Joanna Stephenson, Managing Director at Think B2B Marketing; Martin Kersh, Co-CEO of The Packaging Federation; Peter Macqueen, Associate Head of the Creative Industries Apprenticeship Portfolio at Sheffield Hallam University; Alison Bramfitt, Head of Packaging at Nestlé; Olumide Ojo Oratokhai, Packaging Engineer at Lavazza Coffee; and Fiona Dobson, Senior Manager Packaging Development and Print at Asda.

Together, the judges bring experience spanning global brands, retail, packaging development, engineering, education, skills and industry leadership, giving the panel a broad view of what meaningful early-career impact looks like across the packaging value chain.

Now entering its fourth year, the Future Trailblazer Awards recognise professionals within the first 10 years of their packaging careers who are already making a measurable difference across design, production, sustainability, operations, branding and circularity. Rather than rewarding seniority or job titles, judges will look at what entrants have changed, improved or influenced, the thinking behind their work and the practical impact they have delivered.

What makes these awards so exciting is that meaningful change can come from anywhere in packaging. It might be a smarter production process, a more sustainable solution, a technical breakthrough, or simply finding a better way of doing something that others had accepted as the norm.

We want to hear from people who can show what they have contributed and why it mattered. You don't need the biggest project or the longest CV to be a Trailblazer. If you're making a difference early in your career, that deserves to be recognised.

Jude Allan, Chair of the Future Trailblazer Awards judging panel.

For 2027, that recognition is being extended to the people who help emerging professionals fulfil their potential through the launch of Packaging Mentor of the Year.

The inaugural award will be judged by Josephine Shaw, Packaging Technologist at Unilever; Aden Newbury, Packaging Sustainability Analyst at Kingfisher; and Jess Morgan-Butler, Senior Technical Designer at Carlton Packaging. The dedicated panel reflects the different perspectives required to recognise outstanding mentorship, focusing on the individuals who share their knowledge, create opportunities, build confidence and consistently invest in the development of others.

The panel also brings the Trailblazer story full circle. Josephine Shaw was recognised with the Design for the Future Award in 2025; Aden joined the Class of 2025 through winning the Production Delivery category; and Jess was named the Design for the Future winner in the Class of 2026. Together, they bring first-hand experience of building careers in packaging and of the difference that encouragement, opportunity and recognition can make during those formative years.

Mentor of the Year will recognise people making that difference in all its forms, whether through structured development programmes or simply being the manager, colleague or industry peer who consistently makes time to guide someone, share experience and open doors. Judges will consider the impact of that support, commitment to knowledge sharing and inclusion, and evidence of how a mentor has helped others develop and progress.

Bringing Mentor of the Year into the programme allows us to recognise both sides of that story: the emerging professionals already making an impact and the people helping them become everything they can be.

Josephine Shaw, Packaging Technologist at Unilever.

Entries for the Future Trailblazer Awards 2027 are free and open to professionals within the first 10 years of their packaging careers, while nominations are open for Packaging Mentor of the Year. Entries and nominations close on 6 November 2026, with the Class of 2027 and the inaugural Packaging Mentor of the Year announced live at Packaging Innovations & Empack on 24 February 2027.