Béatrice Moureaux, Managing Director, Austrian Fibers Institute, Organizer of Dornbirn GFC
About the Austrian Fibers Institute
The Austrian Fibers Institute, based in Dornbirn, Austria, is the organisation behind the Dornbirn Global Fiber Congress (Dornbirn GFC). Its mission is to strengthen the global fiber ecosystem by connecting generations, convening partners and catalysing innovation across industry, academia, research, finance, policy and civil society.
About Dornbirn GFC
Founded in 1961 by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Albrecht and Kommerzialrat Seidl of Lenzing AG, Dornbirn GFC has grown into much more than an international fiber congress. For 65 years, it has created a trusted place where people share knowledge, challenge established thinking and build relationships that often last well beyond the conference itself.
From 16 to 18 September 2026, the 65th edition will welcome the global fiber community to Dornbirn: researchers, R&D experts, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and decision-makers from across the value chain. They are united by a shared ambition to turn scientific progress into practical solutions, bring research and business closer together and exchange ideas that can shape a more innovative and sustainable future.
The strength of Dornbirn GFC lies in its combination of expertise, openness and personal connection. It creates space for unexpected encounters, cross-industry learning and new collaborations, from the laboratory to the boardroom, and from early-stage innovation to industrial implementation.
Through Dornbirn GFC ASIA in India, Dornbirn GFC Korea and growing collaboration in China, this spirit of knowledge-sharing is connecting regional fiber ecosystems and strengthening the international fiber community.
| CONNECT GENERATIONS Curiosity, energy, experience and wisdom | CONVENE PARTNERS The full ecosystem around the right conversation | CATALYSE INNOVATION From research and ideas to partnerships and impact |
TextilesResources.com: How did the opportunity to become Managing Director evolve?
Béatrice Moureaux: I would love to tell you it was part of a grand plan, but the truth is simpler: it felt like a homecoming.
After more than 20 years in technical textiles, nonwovens and specialty materials, mainly with DuPont Protective Technologies and later Glatfelter/Magnera, I joined ReHubs as a Board Advisor at the end of 2025. My work focused on partnerships in workwear and nonwovens, and on accelerating textile-to-textile recycling in Europe.
Suddenly, I found myself at the heart of the fiber ecosystem that Dornbirn GFC has been bringing together for more than six decades. I felt something I had not felt in years: everything I had learned throughout my career was finally pointing in one direction.
In early 2026, I began supporting Dornbirn GFC’s work in China and the international expansion of Dornbirn GFC ASIA. Through ReHubs, I also joined the Programme Committee and gained a close view of the congress, its community and its potential.
When the Managing Director role became vacant and President Robert van de Kerkhof asked me to take it on, the pieces of my professional journey fell into place. I did not hesitate. Some opportunities you evaluate; this one chose me.
TextilesResources.com: Tell us about your journey through the textile industry.
Béatrice Moureaux: I completed a Master of Science in Textile Engineering and Chemistry at ENSAIT in France, before spending nearly a year studying Mandarin in Nanning, China.
I then spent more than two decades at DuPont, working with Kevlar®, Nomex® and Tyvek® in applications ranging from ballistic and thermal protection to protective apparel, materials that protect the people who protect us. Early in my career, I helped develop a patented ballistic protection solution. I still remember the feeling: what we make matters. Lives can depend on it.
From there, my career took me through application development, marketing leadership, global key account management and qualification as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. It taught me that innovation is not only about having good ideas, but about turning them into solutions that work in the real world.
From 2020 to 2025, at Jacob Holm, Glatfelter and later Magnera, I led business development in nonwovens for healthcare, skincare and hygiene, with a strong focus on more sustainable fiber solutions.
With ReHubs, textile-to-textile recycling brought another dimension into focus. The science, the business experience and the commitment to sustainability now come together at Dornbirn GFC, where I can bring everything I have learned to one shared purpose: shaping the future of fibers.
Click here to register at Dornbirn GFC 2026
TextilesResources.com: Who is Beatrice Moureaux, professionally and personally?
Béatrice Moureaux: My outlook has been shaped by growing up between France and Austria in a bilingual and multicultural family. From an early age, I learned how important it is to connect people who may speak different languages, come from different backgrounds or see a problem or opportunity from different perspectives.
That lesson still guides me today. I believe innovation happens when people truly listen to one another and when science, industry and business work together rather than in isolation.
My parents ran a restaurant, where I saw the importance of constant renewal, attention to detail, deep knowledge of the entire value chain and respect for customers and competitors. From my grandmother’s farm in Austria, I learned an equally important principle: nature provides the foundation for everything we do, and progress must never come at its expense.
These experiences shaped the principles that guide me in business and in life: remain curious, connect different worlds, understand the full value chain and turn knowledge into practical solutions.
My motto is simple: innovate with purpose, bring people together and never lose sight of our responsibility to the planet.
TextilesResources.com: What are your observations about Dornbirn GFC, its legacy and how you would like to take it forward?
Béatrice Moureaux: When you step into the Kulturhaus during Dornbirn GFC, you are stepping into a 65-year legacy of knowledge, exchange and collaboration, rooted in the conviction that the fiber industry moves forward when its people talk to one another.
That principle goes back to 1961, when Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Albrecht and Kommerzialrat Seidl of Lenzing AG created a platform that brought experts from Eastern and Western Europe together during the Cold War. Fibers helped build bridges across political and cultural divides. That legacy is both an inspiration and a responsibility.
Since then, Dornbirn GFC has developed from a regional gathering into an international meeting point for the fiber industry, connecting researchers, technical experts, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Sustainability, recycling and circularity have become central to that exchange because they are fundamental to the future of our industry.
I am fortunate to build from a position of strength, shaped by my predecessor Matthias Gluth, the lasting contribution of Fritz Weninger and Sonja Spoecker, and the continuing support and fresh thinking of creative students.
From this foundation, my ambition is to work with our sponsors, partners and the wider fiber community to strengthen international collaboration, welcome more young talent and policymakers, and deepen our links with Asia and other regions.
Most importantly, Dornbirn GFC should be the place where ideas move beyond discussion, where innovation, sustainability and circularity are translated into partnerships, investment and industrial reality. It is where the fiber industry comes together to shape its future.
TextilesResources.com: What are your future plans for Dornbirn GFC, including new strategies, innovation and globalisation?
Béatrice Moureaux: Every September, something remarkable happens in a small Austrian town: the global fiber ecosystem comes together in Dornbirn. Students meet CEOs, start-ups exchange ideas with established industry leaders, and researchers connect with the partners who can bring discoveries to market. Four generations, many disciplines and regions, one shared purpose: shaping the future of fibers.
Our new positioning is captured in what we call the Fiber Journey DNA. The congress is the mechanism that continuously connects, convenes and catalyses the global fiber ecosystem: we connect generations, convene partners and catalyse innovation.
We connect generations because progress depends on combining curiosity, energy, practical experience and accumulated wisdom. Students bring curiosity, young professionals bring energy and new ideas, mid-career experts turn knowledge into impact, and senior leaders share experience and wisdom. Innovation accelerates when these generations learn from one another.
We convene partners from across the ecosystem: universities, industry, start-ups, business angels, banks, brands, associations, NGOs and policymakers. Dornbirn should be the place where the right people come together around the right questions, sharing knowledge and developing solutions across traditional boundaries.
We catalyse innovation by helping ideas move beyond presentations. Through the Innovation Day & Forum, the Thinkathon, start-up activities, the Paul Schlack Prize and the Lenzing Young Scientist Award, we create opportunities for research to gain visibility, promising talent to be recognised, partnerships to emerge, funding conversations to begin and concepts to move towards industrial reality.
Our international development follows the same philosophy. We are not simply taking a European conference format abroad; we are connecting strong regional fiber ecosystems and enabling knowledge, people and solutions to flow between them. Dornbirn GFC Korea welcomed more than 250 participants in Seoul in May 2026, and Korean experts will join us in Dornbirn in September. Our collaboration with China will continue in Keqiao on 5 November 2026, while India remains central to the continued development of Dornbirn GFC ASIA.
Each region brings different expertise, perspectives and capabilities. Our ambition is to connect them through one global community, locally relevant, internationally connected and united by the determination to turn fiber innovation into reality.
TextilesResources.com: How do you view the global textile industry, and the fiber sector in particular: past, present and future?
Béatrice Moureaux: The past was defined above all by performance. I experienced this first-hand through more than 20 years working with aramid fibers and advanced materials that protect firefighters, industrial workers and people in dangerous environments. These innovations demonstrated the extraordinary power of science and transformed what fibers could achieve.
At the same time, sustainability was not always among the first questions our industry asked. Today, we understand that performance must be considered together with environmental and societal impact.
The present is a period of responsibility and transformation. Our industry is confronting its waste, emissions and linear production models and is actively working to change them. Sustainability and circularity now influence innovation, investment, regulation and customer expectations. As global demand for fibers continues to grow, the need to accelerate this transition becomes even more urgent.
This transformation is also truly global. Different regions bring different scientific expertise, industrial capabilities, resources and market needs. No country or continent has all the answers. Progress will depend on our ability to exchange knowledge across borders, learn from different approaches and build solutions that reflect local realities while serving a shared global ambition.
I am deeply grateful to the industry leaders and companies that sponsor Dornbirn GFC. Their commitment goes beyond the success of their own organisations: they invest in the progress of the sector as a whole. By supporting a shared platform for knowledge, connection and innovation, they help create the conditions in which the entire ecosystem can advance. Their leadership is critical to making our mission a success.
The future belongs to high-performing fibers within circular systems: textile-to-textile recycling at scale, fibers and products designed from the outset for recovery, and production technologies with a significantly lower environmental impact.
Much of the science already exists, and new solutions are emerging rapidly. The greatest challenge is to align researchers, fiber producers, manufacturers, brands, recyclers, policymakers and investors across regions and across the value chain. That is fundamentally a human challenge, and therefore one we can solve.
Nature has always worked in cycles. Our task is to learn from that principle and apply it industrially. I have believed since childhood that where there is a will, there is a way, and I see more determination in our industry today than ever before.
TextilesResources.com: What role do start-ups and innovative ideas play in textiles, and what can industry events do to support them?
Béatrice Moureaux: Start-ups and young innovators are essential to the future of our industry. They bring fresh thinking, challenge established assumptions and often see possibilities that more experienced organisations have learned to dismiss too quickly.
From my experience, innovation succeeds or fails at three levels. The first is mindset. Without curiosity and a genuine willingness to make innovation part of everyday work, even the strongest ideas will remain ideas.
The second is the ecosystem. Innovation rarely happens in isolation. Some of the most successful solutions I have worked on emerged by connecting people from different functions, technologies and parts of the value chain. Silos and rigid hierarchies can suppress creativity; exchange and cross-fertilisation allow it to grow.
The third is scale. A technically excellent product will not succeed unless the wider value chain is aligned. Fiber and yarn producers, fabric manufacturers, finishers, garment makers, brands and customers must all recognise the opportunity and be prepared to move together. That requires persistence, trust and a shared purpose.
This is also the role of an industry platform such as Dornbirn GFC: not merely to put innovation on a stage, but to create the conditions in which it can progress. We must connect innovators with the expertise, partners, markets and capital needed to challenge, refine and scale their ideas.
Young talent is particularly important because it brings confidence, openness and fewer assumptions about what cannot be done. This is why the Innovation Day & Forum, the Paul Schlack Prize for man-made fiber research, the Lenzing Young Scientist Award, the Thinkathon and our start-up activities are so valuable. They help research gain visibility, spot talent early, form partnerships and move ideas closer to reality.
My advice is simple: bring fresh thinkers together with experienced practitioners. Listen to the young innovators who see new possibilities, but also involve the people who understand the technologies, processes and practical realities. Innovation succeeds when imagination and experience work together.
TextilesResources.com: What is your message to the readers and viewers of TextilesResources.com and to fellow industry professionals?
Béatrice Moureaux: My message comes from the heart: the future of fibers will be built together, or not at all.
Whether you are a fiber producer, manufacturer, researcher, entrepreneur or student, in India, elsewhere in Asia or anywhere in the world, we share both the challenge and the opportunity to transform our industry. India’s textile and fiber community, with its scale, engineering strength and entrepreneurial energy, has an essential role to play. Dornbirn GFC ASIA connects that expertise with the wider global community.
My invitation is simple: join us for the 65th Dornbirn GFC, from 16 to 18 September 2026 in Dornbirn. The presentations, technical discussions and Innovation Day & Forum will bring new knowledge and ideas. Just as important are the conversations between sessions, where partnerships begin.
To companies ready to lead visibly, I would add: come forward as sponsors and place your name behind a mission that serves the whole ecosystem.
Growing up in my parents’ restaurant, I learned that progress begins when people gather and share. Dornbirn GFC has proved the same for 65 years. So come, take your place at the table and help shape the future of fibers.
Connecting generations. Convening partners. Catalysing innovation.
