Dipl. Ing. (FH) Jutta Knels joined the staff of PFI’s certification office as expert for the new Leather Standard by OEKO-TEX® on 1 April 2017. A textile engineer with a proven track record as OEKO-TEX® specialist, she introduces herself in this issue of the Newsletter.
In April of this year I took up my new position at PFI in the area of auditing and certification with an air of enthusiasm and anticipation. My professional life so far:
After successfully completing my diploma studies in textile technology at the Lower Rhine University of Applied Sciences at Mönchengladbach with a focus on textile finishing I spent 11 years working in the textile sector at Chemische Fabrik Kreussler GmbH & Co.KG, Wiesbaden, and also serving as a textiles expert at the Frankfurt Consumer Advice Centre.
There followed 20 years of intense and successful activity for the OEKO-TEX® certification body, Frankfurt, where I held the post of department head and subsequently managing director with responsibility for the development and expansion of various OEKO-TEX® service offerings. My major areas of interest were the product-specific certification system and the OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 label for textiles tested for harmful substances. The tasks involved ranged from customer support via certificate management all the way to international marketing. To this day I remain particularly interested in the impact of globalisation on individual industrial sectors. My working philosophy is to establish stable and reliable supply chains on the basis of common quality concepts and fair working conditions.
I now hope to apply my extensive OEKO-TEX® experience to work relating to the new Leather Standard by OEKO-TEX® at PFI in order to collaborate with clients in developing an optimal approach to greater sustainability.