In memoriam: Stuart Hoggard and John Kalkowski

Stuart Hoggard
John Kalkowski

Former IPPO president, Stuart Hoggard, sadly passed away last week at his home in Bali, Indonesia.

Stuart was president of IPPO between 2011-14. He was passionate about IPPO during his many years as a member, and gained a lot from the organisation and its members. He experienced the significant benefits of IPPO membership, from both a business and a personal/friendship perspective. He was also still actively writing about the packaging industry in Asia. He leaves a wife, Ui Chin, and a daughter, Kayleigh.

IPPO member John Kalkowski also passed away late last year. IPPO vice president Lisa McTigue Pierce says,  “John was a big thinker, strong leader, and enthusiastic questioner – all the necessary traits to have a successful journalism career.”

It is always sad to bid farewell to colleagues and industry friends, and no matter how fleeting the encounters may have been over time at IPPO events or trade shows, their influence on our lives is still meaningful.

 

Member tributes:

Remembering John Kalkowski – by Lisa McTigue Pierce
(Please click link above)

 

I am saddened by the news of Stuart Hoggard’s passing – by Toshio Arita
I hadn’t heard from him since he retired from packaging several years ago, but I assumed he still enjoyed cruising the ASEAN islands and coasts in his boat of his own design.
Stuart and I, as fellow packaging journalists from Asia, worked together at Tokyo Pack to organise the Tokyo Pack Insight Seminar & Tour for overseas visitors. Not only did he stand out as a leader in revitalising the IPPO organisation, but he was also the chief editor of PackWebasia.com and a packaging journalist with a solid vision for the future.
At the 2008 Tokyo Pack Presentation, we reviewed packaging waste regulations in Asian countries, predicted the coming of Sustainability in Packaging, and proposed a Master Plan. He also had a special talent for capturing on camera the traditional beauty behind packaging.
His marketing research works helped several Japanese packaging companies and raw material suppliers to enter the Asean market..

 

An experienced and talented journalist – by Steven Pacitti
Based in Singapore, and more recently in Bali, Indonesia, Stuart has authored our Asiaphile (in Eco-plastics in Packaging) column for two decades.
He was an experienced and talented journalist, an explorer of packaging innovations, and a font of knowledge on Asia’s printing and packaging industries. He and I would often have very long exchanges about issues affecting the plastics packaging industry.
One of our last conversations was about podcasts and he told me he was looking into YouTube videos and becoming an influencer, although he added that he didn’t have the right tropical shirts. He was certainly never afraid to be an influencer, and you would often find him on the speaker circuit, helping Asian companies to network in new regions, or reviewing packaging waste regulations across Asian countries.
In recent years, he spent his spare time building a sailing vessel to cruise and lead tours around the ASEAN islands. It was during those regular expeditions that Stuart would send me photos of clean beaches, clear blue seas, and snorkelling adventures that showed no evidence of plastics pollution. As he would say to me, the proof is more often than not in the actual pudding.
Safe onward journey Stuart.