Management Team

Adrian Binks is chairman, Chief Executive Officer and major shareholder of the Argus Media group of companies. He developed our company after buying a partnership in a small newsletter business following an earlier career in BP and a brief stint working as an oil industry analyst in the City of London. In 1984 he took management control, renamed the company and started the development of a global business under the Argus brand. Adrian grew up in Leeds where he attended the local grammar school before studying history at Cambridge University. Adrian appears regularly on television for the BBC, CNN and NBC and writes from time to time for The Financial Times, The Economist, The Observer and many other newspapers. He is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and won the prestigious EY International Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2017.

Matthew Burkley is Chief Operating Officer of the Argus Media group of companies. Prior to joining us in September 2017, he spent six years as Chief Executive Officer of Genscape, a company that provides real-time fundamental data and analytics on commodities and energy supply chains. Matthew held a variety of positions in the financial markets and trading divisions of Thomson Corporation and Thomson Reuters, where his talents were used in several key roles including Global Chief Strategy Officer Thomson Reuters, Markets; Chief Financial Officer of Sales and Trading; and acting President of the sales and trading division. Matthew holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Colorado College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Stuart Ashman is the Chief Financial Officer and also the Company Secretary for the Argus Media group of companies. He joined Argus in 1999 having previously worked in accounting and finance roles in practice and banking in Australia and retail in the UK. Stuart was educated at the University of Tasmania and has been a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants for over 30 years.

Gabriel Caillaux is Co-President, Managing Director and Head of General Atlantic’s business in EMEA. He is also a member of the firm’s Management, Investment, and Portfolio Committees. Since joining the firm in 2004, Gabriel has helped expand the firm’s investment focus across the greater European region to include Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He focuses on investments in the Financial Services and Technology sectors. Before joining General Atlantic, Gabriel worked in the telecoms, media & technology division at Merrill Lynch in London and New York. He holds a master's degree in finance from ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

Dod Fraser is President of Sackett Partners, a consulting company, and a member of several corporate boards. Dod is a board member of Subsea 7 S.A., OCI GP LLC, Rayonier Inc. and Fleet Topco Limited. Previously, he was a member of the board of Smith International, Inc., Terra Industries, Inc., Forest Oil Corporation and Acergy. In his professional career, Dod was an investment banker: a General Partner of Lazard Freres & Co. and until 2000 a Managing Director and Group Executive of Chase Manhattan Bank, now J. P. Morgan Chase, where he led the global oil and gas group. Dod serves as chairman of the audit committees of Subsea 7 and Rayonier; is a member of the audit and conflicts committees of OCI GP; and is a member of the compensation committee of Rayonier and audit committee of Fleet Topco Limited. Dod previously served as a member of the National Petroleum Council, trustee of Resources for the Future and trustee of The Lawrenceville School.

Denny Houston was Executive Vice-President of ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company before he retired in June 2010. He was Vice-President of Supply and Transportation of Exxon International from 1994 until the merger of Exxon and Mobil in 1999. Denny joined Exxon in 1974, working at the Baton Rouge refinery, and later undertook a variety of roles at the company in Houston and the Baytown refinery. He moved to Esso Singapore in 1988, where he was appointed Chairman and Managing Director from 1989, transferring to Exxon International at Florham Park in 1992 as General Manager of Supply. Denny is based in Houston and is married with two sons — one an investment banker in New York and the other a physician in Chicago.

Nic is the Senior Partner and Executive Chairman of Hg, major investors in Argus, and Head of their Saturn fund. He has ultimate responsibility for Hg’s strategy, management and governance. He focuses on larger software companies that provide daily-use mission critical applications for accountants, lawyers, tax/compliance professionals and designers/engineers/scientists. As well as Argus, Nic is currently a director on the boards of IRIS, Sovos and Visma. He has led or co-led more than 30 investments over the last 27 years, including Addison, CSG, e-conomic, Foundry, Geneva Technology, IRIS, NextGenTel, RAET, Rolfe & Nolan, Visma and Xyratex. Nic started his investing career in 1990. He has focused exclusively on technology and software since 1994 and joined Hg in 2001 as founder of the firm’s Technology Team. From 1990-2001 he was a director at Barclays Private Equity (now Equistone), Geocapital and 3i plc. He holds a first class degree in Electronic Engineering and was a IEEE and National Engineering Council scholar. He is a World Fellow of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and supporter of The Royal Foundation, Impetus and The Nature Conservancy.

Tom Hussey is a Vice President at General Atlantic and focuses on investments in the firm’s Technology sector in EMEA. He also serves on the board of directors of Hemnet, Property Finder and Zingat. Before joining General Atlantic in 2013, Tom worked in corporate development at 21st Century Fox where he covered media assets in EMEA. Previously, he was a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group in London where he concentrated on private equity and technology, media & telecommunications. Tom holds a first class MA in Economics & Management from the University of Oxford.

Tom Intrator has extensive leadership experience in complex global organisations. He has a deep understanding of trading, risk management, commodity supply chains and market analytics and has worked extensively with customers and business teams across Europe, Asia and North America. Tom held senior global roles in Cargill over a career spanning 32 years, most recently as CEO of Cargill International and President of the Energy, Transportation and Metals Trading businesses, and prior to that as President of Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business. He has also served on a number of Cargill’s corporate committees, providing oversight on capital allocations, financial risk, business strategy, process and technology as well as ethics and guiding principles.

Manuela is a principal of the Saturn team, focusing on larger companies in the software and services space. She joined Hg in 2018 with more than seven years of private equity investment experience at both Ares Management in London and EQT in Munich, where she worked across several transactions in the TMT, consumer and healthcare space.
Manuela started her career at McKinsey where she worked in the Corporate Finance practice and the financial institutions sector across Europe and the Middle East.
Manuela holds an MBA from Harvard Business School with High Distinction (Baker Scholar) and a masters degree in business & economics from the University of Witten/Herdecke.

Adrian Binks is chairman, Chief Executive Officer and major shareholder of the Argus Media group of companies. He developed our company after buying a partnership in a small newsletter business following an earlier career in BP and a brief stint working as an oil industry analyst in the City of London. In 1984 he took management control, renamed the company and started the development of a global business under the Argus brand. Adrian grew up in Leeds where he attended the local grammar school before studying history at Cambridge University. Adrian appears regularly on television for the BBC, CNN and NBC and writes from time to time for The Financial Times, The Economist, The Observer and many other newspapers. He is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and won the prestigious EY International Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2017.

Matthew Burkley is Chief Operating Officer of the Argus Media group of companies. Prior to joining us in September 2017, he spent six years as Chief Executive Officer of Genscape, a company that provides real-time fundamental data and analytics on commodities and energy supply chains. Matthew held a variety of positions in the financial markets and trading divisions of Thomson Corporation and Thomson Reuters, where his talents were used in several key roles including Global Chief Strategy Officer Thomson Reuters, Markets; Chief Financial Officer of Sales and Trading; and acting President of the sales and trading division. Matthew holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Colorado College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jeffrey Amos is Global Compliance Officer for the Argus Media group of companies. Jeffrey ensures that the company’s global price assessments are derived in strict conformity with its official methodologies and that all Argus staff are actively aware of their personal accountability to deliver compliance. From 1991 to 2008, Jeffrey worked at BP, fulfilling various roles in the UK and Russia, including financial and fiscal development, financial control, group operations assurance and as Commercial Director for BP’s UK ground fuels business.

Stuart Ashman is the Chief Financial Officer and also the Company Secretary for the Argus Media group of companies. He joined Argus in 1999 having previously worked in accounting and finance roles in practice and banking in Australia and retail in the UK. Stuart was educated at the University of Tasmania and has been a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants for over 30 years.

Jamie Balderston leads the Argus conference portfolio globally, working with the Argus conference teams in London, Houston, Moscow, Singapore, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro. Jamie works alongside the respective business development, editorial and consulting teams to ensure the group delivers a topical portfolio of thought-leading and relevant conferences. Prior to joining Argus in 2017, Jamie spent 15 years with Euromoney, where he initially developed content for commercial conferences serving the financial services sector before joining the commodity sector in 2009 to lead the metals, mining, minerals and grain trading conference business.

Euan Craik is Global Head of Crude Oil at Argus, based in Houston. Euan oversees Argus’ refined products and petrochemicals services, drawing on over 20 years’ experience at Argus. He has been Chief Executive Officer, Americas, since 2006 and has overseen the rapid growth in Argus’ western hemisphere business. During Euan’s time in Houston, Argus has become the standard for pricing physical crude oil in the US, and has a growing presence in the refined oil products markets. Prior to his move to the US, Euan held senior managerial roles in London and Moscow, giving him a uniquely global insight into the markets that Argus serves.

Meltem Dincer is Chief Technology Officer of the Argus Media group of companies. Prior to joining us in August 2018, she spent four years at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. as VP, Platform Capabilities where she focused on defining the digital first content strategy and building out the next generation publishing platform. Meltem held a variety positions in the financial markets and the corporate divisions of Thomson Corporation and Thomson Reuters, where she had senior technology leadership roles in product development, corporate wide strategic initiatives, core platform services, content technology, and master data management. Meltem holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Bosporus University in Turkey and a MS in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology.

Tania Ellery is Chief Human Resources Officer for Argus and is responsible for employee recruitment and selection, learning and development, and talent management across our 21 global offices. Before joining Argus, Tania held both regional and global senior human resources positions at Kroll, HSBC and Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. In these roles, she developed and deployed organisational planning, talent management, and learning and development programmes in support of key business strategies. Tania also led HR re-engineering programmes such as employee governance initiatives and compliance programmes to achieve business value. Tania attended Massey University in New Zealand, where she earned a bachelor of horticultural science degree, and Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Australia, where she earned a master of management in human resources degree.

Neil Fleming is Senior Vice President, Editorial, at Argus and manages our market- and news-reporting operations worldwide. His role involves the management of a global team of more than 400 reporters in 23 offices, formulation of editorial and market-reporting strategy and policy, and working in matrix with Argus’ sectoral and regional managers to help develop new content and products for the business. Neil joined Argus in January 2020. He has 35 years’ experience of commodities and energy markets, and has worked as a journalist, analyst, manager, consultant, and data architect. He is the former SVP Editorial and Information of Argus’ competitor S&P Platts, and has also served as Head of Content and latterly Strategic Advisor at energy and petrochemicals price-reporting agency ICIS. He is the 1995 winner of the International Association of Energy Economists’ award for Excellence in Written Journalism. Neil was previously Southern Africa bureau chief for US news agency United Press International at the time of the end of apartheid, and before that its East Africa correspondent. He holds a first class honours degree in Modern & Medieval Languages from Trinity College Cambridge, and was a post-graduate student at the University of Vienna.

Christopher Flook is Senior Vice-President and Head of Europe. He has regional responsibility for Argus’ European business, and oversees global services in LPG, petrochemicals, fertilizers and agriculture. Christopher joined the company in 2019. He previously worked at RELX, leading price reporting agency ICIS through a time of significant growth from 2005 to 2016, including two years based in Shanghai. Between 2016 and 2019 he served as Chief Executive of Cirium, a data analytics business for the global aviation and travel industries, and oversaw the commercial property data business EG. Christopher was educated at the London School of Economics.

David Fyfe is Chief Economist at Argus. He has more than 30 years’ experience of working in energy markets. Prior to joining Argus, David was most recently Chief Economist at commodity trading company Gunvor. Before this, he managed the oil industry and markets division of the International Energy Agency and edited its influential monthly Oil Market Report. David has a master’s degree in energy policy and economics from Imperial College London.

Karen Johnson is Chief Operating Officer of Argus Media Inc. based in Houston. Karen joined Argus in 1994 and has led the commercial efforts in the Americas since 2003, growing the sales and marketing teams. She has also led divisions including finance, customer support and global sales during her tenure at Argus. Karen has a BA from the University of Houston’s Honors College and graduated cum laude with majors in English literature and marketing.

Seana Lanigan is responsible for Argus’ relations with external media globally. Seana started her career in energy markets as a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she covered Brent crude trading, congestion charging, gas substitution and carbon emission abatement. She also taught energy policy at Green College, Oxford. Her first role at Argus was as a market reporter on the crude and products markets, which she began in 1990. She later edited the Argus European Products report. Seana also worked at the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) (now Ice futures) where she was responsible for press relations and corporate marketing. She left the IPE to run international operations at Applied Derivatives Trading, an online magazine covering financial and commodity derivatives. She subsequently became Senior Vice-President and ran European operations for the Global Association of Risk Professionals. She rejoined Argus as Strategic Marketing Manager in 2004 before starting her current role in 2019. Seana studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford.

Jo Loudiadis is Senior Vice-President Commercial, Europe and Africa, based in London. Jo joined Argus in 2008 and is responsible for commercial structure and direction. She manages key client and third-party relationships within the EMEA and Russia region. Jo works alongside the respective sales and marketing teams, developing commercial strategy and relationships. Before joining Argus, Jo worked for McGraw Hill companies including Standard & Poors and Platts, where she undertook a variety of roles in sales management and business development.

Jim Nicholson joined Argus in March 2004, having spent most of his career specialising in publishing and energy market price discovery. He is head of the Argus Group’s Benchmark Administration subsidiary, based in Amsterdam, controlling those Argus commodity price assessments which fall in scope of the EU Benchmark Regulation. In his previous position from 2017-2019, he was responsible for coordinating editorial activity globally across Argus, based out of the company’s London headquarters. Before that he worked in Singapore as the Senior VP, Asia-Pacific, looking after editorial and business development in the region, and earlier in London as Global Business Development Manager, responsible for developing Argus’ coverage and use in contracts, particularly for coal, natural gas, electricity and emissions markets. Before Argus, he held a variety of senior positions within Platts, the energy information business of S&P Global, and has worked in both Singapore and Washington DC. Jim began his career as a magazine journalist with Reed Business Publishing and holds an MA from Oxford University in Modern Languages.

Lucy Sladojevic is Head of Legal for the Argus Media group of companies, based in London. Lucy joined Argus in 2008. Prior to that, Lucy qualified and practised as a solicitor at London City law firm Slaughter and May before moving to West End firm Harbottle & Lewis, where she was made a Senior Associate. Lucy read law at Cambridge University.

Lloyd Thomas is Senior Vice-President, Consulting Services, based in our London office. He leads the global Argus Consulting Services team and provides oversight of Argus’ consulting activities within Europe. Lloyd joined Argus in 2011 as Head of European Consulting and has been instrumental in the development and expansion of the consulting division. He was promoted to Global Head of Consulting in 2017. Prior to joining Argus, Lloyd led the global research and advisory team at Energy Intelligence Group. Earlier in his career, he spent over 11 years as a management and strategy consultant in the energy practices at Deloitte and Ernst & Young. During this time he worked with a wide range of energy, utilities and infrastructure clients, helping to deliver strategy, performance improvement and large-scale capital programmes.

Vlasios joined Argus Media from Standard Chartered Bank where he was the head of the quantitative modelling and analytics team. At Argus, Vlasios is responsible for Argus global data, analytics and AI/ML strategy. Vlasios has expertise in data science for commodity markets and uses insights from data to illuminate trading, hedging and risk management. He is the co-author of two books — one on applied data science and one on energy markets. Vlasios holds a PhD from City, University of London.

Adrian Binks is chairman, Chief Executive Officer and major shareholder of the Argus Media group of companies. He developed our company after buying a partnership in a small newsletter business following an earlier career in BP and a brief stint working as an oil industry analyst in the City of London. In 1984 he took management control, renamed the company and started the development of a global business under the Argus brand. Adrian grew up in Leeds where he attended the local grammar school before studying history at Cambridge University. Adrian appears regularly on television for the BBC, CNN and NBC and writes from time to time for The Financial Times, The Economist, The Observer and many other newspapers. He is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and won the prestigious EY International Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2017.

Matthew Burkley is Chief Operating Officer of the Argus Media group of companies. Prior to joining us in September 2017, he spent six years as Chief Executive Officer of Genscape, a company that provides real-time fundamental data and analytics on commodities and energy supply chains. Matthew held a variety of positions in the financial markets and trading divisions of Thomson Corporation and Thomson Reuters, where his talents were used in several key roles including Global Chief Strategy Officer Thomson Reuters, Markets; Chief Financial Officer of Sales and Trading; and acting President of the sales and trading division. Matthew holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Colorado College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jeffrey Amos is Global Compliance Officer for the Argus Media group of companies. Jeffrey ensures that the company’s global price assessments are derived in strict conformity with its official methodologies and that all Argus staff are actively aware of their personal accountability to deliver compliance. From 1991 to 2008, Jeffrey worked at BP, fulfilling various roles in the UK and Russia, including financial and fiscal development, financial control, group operations assurance and as Commercial Director for BP’s UK ground fuels business.

Stuart Ashman is the Chief Financial Officer and also the Company Secretary for the Argus Media group of companies. He joined Argus in 1999 having previously worked in accounting and finance roles in practice and banking in Australia and retail in the UK. Stuart was educated at the University of Tasmania and has been a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants for over 30 years.

Jamie Balderston leads the Argus conference portfolio globally, working with the Argus conference teams in London, Houston, Moscow, Singapore, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro. Jamie works alongside the respective business development, editorial and consulting teams to ensure the group delivers a topical portfolio of thought-leading and relevant conferences. Prior to joining Argus in 2017, Jamie spent 15 years with Euromoney, where he initially developed content for commercial conferences serving the financial services sector before joining the commodity sector in 2009 to lead the metals, mining, minerals and grain trading conference business.

Andrew Bonnington is Managing Editor, Europe, based in the London office and is responsible for Argus news and market reporting across Europe and Africa. Andrew joined Argus in 2018 after spending the previous 18 years at S&P Global Platts. In his market reporting career, Andrew has covered all refined products, shipping and generating fuels markets. Andrew has travelled extensively across Europe and Africa, working with the industry and government regulators in providing market reporting solutions across a range of commodity markets. Andrew holds a BA (Hons) degree from the University of Leicester.

Euan Craik is Global Head of Crude Oil at Argus, based in Houston. Euan oversees Argus’ refined products and petrochemicals services, drawing on over 20 years’ experience at Argus. He has been Chief Executive Officer, Americas, since 2006 and has overseen the rapid growth in Argus’ western hemisphere business. During Euan’s time in Houston, Argus has become the standard for pricing physical crude oil in the US, and has a growing presence in the refined oil products markets. Prior to his move to the US, Euan held senior managerial roles in London and Moscow, giving him a uniquely global insight into the markets that Argus serves.

Tania Ellery is Chief Human Resources Officer for Argus and is responsible for employee recruitment and selection, learning and development, and talent management across our 21 global offices. Before joining Argus, Tania held both regional and global senior human resources positions at Kroll, HSBC and Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. In these roles, she developed and deployed organisational planning, talent management, and learning and development programmes in support of key business strategies. Tania also led HR re-engineering programmes such as employee governance initiatives and compliance programmes to achieve business value. Tania attended Massey University in New Zealand, where she earned a bachelor of horticultural science degree, and Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Australia, where she earned a master of management in human resources degree.

Neil Fleming is Senior Vice President, Editorial, at Argus and manages our market- and news-reporting operations worldwide. His role involves the management of a global team of more than 400 reporters in 23 offices, formulation of editorial and market-reporting strategy and policy, and working in matrix with Argus’ sectoral and regional managers to help develop new content and products for the business. Neil joined Argus in January 2020. He has 35 years’ experience of commodities and energy markets, and has worked as a journalist, analyst, manager, consultant, and data architect. He is the former SVP Editorial and Information of Argus’ competitor S&P Platts, and has also served as Head of Content and latterly Strategic Advisor at energy and petrochemicals price-reporting agency ICIS. He is the 1995 winner of the International Association of Energy Economists’ award for Excellence in Written Journalism. Neil was previously Southern Africa bureau chief for US news agency United Press International at the time of the end of apartheid, and before that its East Africa correspondent. He holds a first class honours degree in Modern & Medieval Languages from Trinity College Cambridge, and was a post-graduate student at the University of Vienna.

Christopher Flook is Senior Vice-President and Head of Europe. He has regional responsibility for Argus’ European business, and oversees global services in LPG, petrochemicals, fertilizers and agriculture. Christopher joined the company in 2019. He previously worked at RELX, leading price reporting agency ICIS through a time of significant growth from 2005 to 2016, including two years based in Shanghai. Between 2016 and 2019 he served as Chief Executive of Cirium, a data analytics business for the global aviation and travel industries, and oversaw the commercial property data business EG. Christopher was educated at the London School of Economics.

David Fyfe is Chief Economist at Argus. He has more than 30 years’ experience of working in energy markets. Prior to joining Argus, David was most recently Chief Economist at commodity trading company Gunvor. Before this, he managed the oil industry and markets division of the International Energy Agency and edited its influential monthly Oil Market Report. David has a master’s degree in energy policy and economics from Imperial College London.

Seana Lanigan is responsible for Argus’ relations with external media globally. Seana started her career in energy markets as a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she covered Brent crude trading, congestion charging, gas substitution and carbon emission abatement. She also taught energy policy at Green College, Oxford. Her first role at Argus was as a market reporter on the crude and products markets, which she began in 1990. She later edited the Argus European Products report. Seana also worked at the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) (now Ice futures) where she was responsible for press relations and corporate marketing. She left the IPE to run international operations at Applied Derivatives Trading, an online magazine covering financial and commodity derivatives. She subsequently became Senior Vice-President and ran European operations for the Global Association of Risk Professionals. She rejoined Argus as Strategic Marketing Manager in 2004 before starting her current role in 2019. Seana studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford.

Jo Loudiadis is Senior Vice-President Commercial, Europe and Africa, based in London. Jo joined Argus in 2008 and is responsible for commercial structure and direction. She manages key client and third-party relationships within the EMEA and Russia region. Jo works alongside the respective sales and marketing teams, developing commercial strategy and relationships. Before joining Argus, Jo worked for McGraw Hill companies including Standard & Poors and Platts, where she undertook a variety of roles in sales management and business development.

Jim Nicholson joined Argus in March 2004, having spent most of his career specialising in publishing and energy market price discovery. He is head of the Argus Group’s Benchmark Administration subsidiary, based in Amsterdam, controlling those Argus commodity price assessments which fall in scope of the EU Benchmark Regulation. In his previous position from 2017-2019, he was responsible for coordinating editorial activity globally across Argus, based out of the company’s London headquarters. Before that he worked in Singapore as the Senior VP, Asia-Pacific, looking after editorial and business development in the region, and earlier in London as Global Business Development Manager, responsible for developing Argus’ coverage and use in contracts, particularly for coal, natural gas, electricity and emissions markets. Before Argus, he held a variety of senior positions within Platts, the energy information business of S&P Global, and has worked in both Singapore and Washington DC. Jim began his career as a magazine journalist with Reed Business Publishing and holds an MA from Oxford University in Modern Languages.

Lucy Sladojevic is Head of Legal for the Argus Media group of companies, based in London. Lucy joined Argus in 2008. Prior to that, Lucy qualified and practised as a solicitor at London City law firm Slaughter and May before moving to West End firm Harbottle & Lewis, where she was made a Senior Associate. Lucy read law at Cambridge University.

Lloyd Thomas is Senior Vice-President, Consulting Services, based in our London office. He leads the global Argus Consulting Services team and provides oversight of Argus’ consulting activities within Europe. Lloyd joined Argus in 2011 as Head of European Consulting and has been instrumental in the development and expansion of the consulting division. He was promoted to Global Head of Consulting in 2017. Prior to joining Argus, Lloyd led the global research and advisory team at Energy Intelligence Group. Earlier in his career, he spent over 11 years as a management and strategy consultant in the energy practices at Deloitte and Ernst & Young. During this time he worked with a wide range of energy, utilities and infrastructure clients, helping to deliver strategy, performance improvement and large-scale capital programmes.

Lauren Williamson is Senior Vice-President, Business Development, for Argus’ global fertilizer portfolio. Lauren has been in information services since 2003 with additional in-industry experience in marketing and market development roles for Shell and Sabic, respectively. In her early career, she worked for ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates in a variety of roles and was a freelance writer in London, focusing on global politics, economics and security. Lauren received congressional recognition and won several Associated Press awards for her reporting and investigations. For Argus, she launched the Americas fertilizer portfolio in 2012 — winning the award for Best E-Newsletter from Trade Association Business Publications International and silver place for Newsletter Excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Lauren holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree from the University of London School for Oriental and African Studies.

Pierre Lever heads the Argus Asia business and is based in Singapore. He is responsible for all strategic, commercial and market activity across Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney. Pierre joined Argus in 2011 after his role as Managing Director for Planet Retail Ltd, a global information provider for the retail and consumer goods industry. At Planet Retail he led revenue and profit growth and expanded the reach of the business into new markets. He was a founding director of Fizzback Ltd, a venture capital-backed consumer insights business that was subsequently acquired by NICE Systems. Prior to this, Pierre was Sales Director and General Manager for the southern European operations of Forrester Research Inc., a Nasdaq-listed technology analyst firm. Pierre holds law degrees and an MBA from the IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Anu Agarwal is based in Singapore. She works closely with the petroleum product industry across Asia and the Mideast Gulf to develop the role of Argus in meeting the dynamic requirements of this huge market. Anu has spent 10 years working for global petrochemical companies in strategy and business development as well as sales and marketing roles across Asia. She also spent six years reporting and analysing pricing trends in the chemical, refined products and biofuel markets as well as examining the underlying factors that influence global trade in these markets. Anu shares a keen interest in new product development with a track record of developing pricing services for new and emerging markets.

Alan Bannister is based in Singapore and is responsible for corporate strategy for the further adoption of Argus assessments as industry benchmarks and determining the scope of market coverage in Argus reports. Prior to joining Argus in February 2018, Alan was head of Asia/Middle East energy and global LNG at Platts, Asia head of Nymex at CME and head of energy brokerage and clearing services at Newedge/Socgen in Singapore. In the UK, Alan was an emissions trader at Citibank, a broker at Tradition and Prebon, a power trader at ElPaso and a power trader and nuclear power station engineer at British Energy.

Gao Hua runs the Argus Beijing representative office and joined Argus in October 2004. Gao Hua started her career in energy by working at a PetroChina oil field in 1999. After a year, she left the oilfields to become a products reporter in ICIS C1Energy. She was quickly promoted to team leader. In her role at Argus, Gao Hua set up Beijing representative office and currently manages and builds key client relationships, seeks new business opportunities and develops the Beijing office’s commercial strategy.

Barbara Kalu set up and now heads the Argus Middle East office in Dubai. Barbara joined Argus in 2001 to oversee sales and marketing operations outside of the Americas as the company’s Commercial Manager, Europe, CIS, Africa, Middle East and Asia. Barbara previously worked at Platts, where she managed the company's key accounts. She started out at DRI/McGraw-Hill (now known as Global Insight) as an economic consultant, following receipt of her first degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Barbara also holds an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics.

Yeo Yu Kin heads Argus Consulting Services in Asia and is responsible for Argus’ advisory work in the region. Yu Kin started his career in 1990 with KBC Advanced Technology, a technical consulting company for the refining industry, before moving to market consulting with Purvin & Gertz in 2003. During his stay with Purvin & Gertz he was responsible for numerous studies in the oil and gas sectors and other energy related businesses, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic analysis, technical assessments, asset valuations, crude valuations and market assessments. Yu Kin joined Argus in 2014. He trained as a chemical engineer at the National University of Singapore and is recognised as a chartered engineer by the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Masaki Mita runs the Argus Japan office. He develops business strategy and advises Japanese market participants about the benefits of using independent price assessments. Masaki joined Argus in 2002 to open the Japan office in Tokyo. He previously worked as an energy market reporter at other international and local energy price reporting agencies, where he built his experience and knowledge in a variety of markets in Asia-Pacific.

Zulkharnain Noor is Senior Vice-President of Argus' Asia-Pacific commercial team. Zulkharnain joined Argus in 2006 as an account manager and has progressed to take leadership responsibilities within the Asia-Pacific commercial team. He is responsible for implementing successful commercial strategies and structures, while expanding sales across the region. Throughout his career at Argus, Zulkharnain has personally managed and eventually supervised the growth of Argus’ key customers within the region.

Mikhail Doubik heads the Argus Russia and FSU business and is based in Moscow. He is responsible for all strategic, commercial and market activity across Russia, former Soviet Union countries and Mongolia. Before joining Argus in April 2018, Mikhail worked in media and publishing, with over 20 years’ experience. He was the Chief Executive of Vedomosti, Russia’s first independent business newspaper, a joint project of the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. He also worked as a director of Independent Media publishing group, where he managed an extensive portfolio of products, including Russian editions of Harvard Business Review and Esquire. Mikhail has a degree in journalism from Moscow State University and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Ekaterina Derbilova heads editorial operations for Argus in Russia, CIS, and the Baltic, managing the editorial teams in Moscow, Nur-Sultan, Riga, and Kiev. She focuses on providing a clear strategic direction for local reports and ensuring productive collaboration between the editorial, commercial and business development teams to meet the needs of Argus’ customers. Before joining Argus, Ekaterina covered energy markets for Vedomosti, a Russian joint venture between the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, for over 10 years. She was promoted to manage Vedomosti Digital, and later become Editorial Director of the Vedomosti Group, which includes Harvard Business Review Russia. Ekaterina has a degree in governmental management.

Timur Ilyasov is responsible for Argus’ business development in central Asia and the Caspian region, supporting commercial, editorial, conference and marketing activities. He is based at the company's office in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Timur has been part of the Argus team for more than 10 years, starting his career as an analyst for the oil products markets in central Asia. In 2015, he was appointed vice-president for central Asia and the Caspian region. Timur has played a key role in the launch of a number of price assessments that have become regional benchmarks, and contributed to the creation of new products that are now widely used in the FSU energy markets. Timur holds a degree in political science and has been awarded a letter of thanks from the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Victor Parno heads the Argus business development department in Russia and the FSU. His responsibilities include launching and promoting price assessments, indexes and Argus products intended for trading companies and government agencies. After joining Argus in 2005, Victor held various positions in the editorial, consulting and business development departments. He launched the Argus Ukrainian Motor Fuels and Argus Russian Netbacks publications and helped set up and managed Argus’ Kiev office. Victor then joined leading Russian crude producer Bashneft, working in firm’s marketing department where he was engaged in pricing. In 2013 Victor returned to Argus, where he was responsible for crude and oil products in the business development department. He was promoted to Vice-President in 2015 and became head of the department in April 2018. Victor graduated from the International University in Moscow with a degree in linguistics.

Alexey Semenchuk is Senior Vice-President Commercial, of Argus Russia, based in Moscow. Since joining in 2011, Alexey has been responsible for commercial strategy, structure and expanding sales in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Prior to joining Argus, Alexey worked at Microsoft leading the enterprise and SMB accounts sales teams. In previous positions, he led sales and business development at large Russian IT companies. Alexey has an engineering degree from the Minsk Polytechnic University.

David Brooks is Senior Vice-President, Business Development for Argus’ global metals coverage. David joined Argus in April 2017 with 20 years’ experience in the metals publishing sector. David started his career as a metals reporter for industry publication Metal Bulletin in London in 1997, moving to the US a year later as North American Editor. After a spell working in the metals industry, he returned to editing before spending eight years as Publisher of American Metal Market with responsibility for all commercial and editorial operations. David is based in Pittsburgh and oversees a global metals team with hubs in Houston, London, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai.

Lori Ann Foertsch is Corporate Counsel of Argus Media, Inc. in Houston. Prior to joining Argus, she practised corporate and commercial law, with a focus on securities, mergers, acquisitions and dispositions. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, and received her Bachelor of Science with distinction from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Karen Johnson is Chief Operating Officer of Argus Media Inc. based in Houston. Karen joined Argus in 1994 and has led the commercial efforts in the Americas since 2003, growing the sales and marketing teams. She has also led divisions including finance, customer support and global sales during her tenure at Argus. Karen has a BA from the University of Houston’s Honors College and graduated cum laude with majors in English literature and marketing.

Stephen Jones is Global Head of Oil Products at Argus, and joined Argus in 2017 as Senior Vice President, Business Development, Petroleum, in Houston. With more than 30 years of experience, he is responsible for Argus pricing solutions that meet the rapidly changing trading requirements for the gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, marine fuels, base oils, asphalt, refinery feedstocks and biofuels markets. Prior to Argus, he was with Purvin & Gertz and IHS Market for 17 years, where he was Vice President of the Refining & Marketing team. He has been an instrumental leader for large international teams providing research and consulting services to the upstream, crude oil markets, refining, natural gas liquids, chemicals, automotive, maritime, and midstream industries. Stephen began his career with Exxon, where he advanced through roles in Baton Rouge and Houston, gaining expertise in crude oil trading, refinery optimization and market economics. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tulane University.

Jim Kennett is Managing Editor, Americas, based in Argus’ Houston office. Jim is a seasoned journalist with almost 30 years of newspaper, wire and online experience in the US and abroad, much of it covering the energy industry. Since 2008, he has overseen the production of proprietary data and related news and analysis for the North American operations of Argus Media. His dedicated team of journalists and analysts has nearly tripled to around 100 people during his tenure at Argus, where he monitors the content and quality of more than 40 publications. Jim has a strong history of news exposure, working a variety of roles from copy editor to correspondent for publications including Bloomberg, Houston Chronicle and The Moscow Times.

Matthew Oatway is Senior Vice-President of North America at Argus. Based in Houston, Matthew is responsible for leading Argus’ business in the United States and Canada. Prior to joining Argus in 2018, Matthew held various market analysis and corporate strategy roles at fundamental data provider Genscape and media company DMGT. Matthew holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Dartmouth College.

Chuck Venezia is Senior Vice-President, Global Petrochemicals, based in Houston. He is responsible for driving Argus’ global petrochemicals strategy and oversees petrochemical business development. Chuck has more than 30 years of experience in the petrochemical industry. He served as Area Manager, Latin America for Chevron Chemical Company, where he managed the company’s polymer export sales and other chemical sales to Mexico and South America. He then worked for CheMatch as Executive Director, Latin America, focusing on the online trading platform for bulk petrochemicals. Chuck joined DeWitt in 2002 as a Principal. DeWitt was acquired by Argus in 2012. Chuck holds an MBA and MA from Tulane University and a BA from Union College.

Vanessa Viola is the Senior Vice-President of Latin America at Argus. She rejoined Argus in 2011 as our Brazil Country Manager and is now working to expand the company’s business across Latin America. Vanessa initially joined Argus in 2001, working as Deputy Editor of the Argus European Products report and Editor of the Argus International LPG report before leaving in 2005 to work as an LPG broker with Gibson in London. Prior to her assignments in the UK, Vanessa worked as a political and financial correspondent for Reuters (Brasilia, Sao Paulo), as a financial reporter for Brazil’s leading news agency Agencia Estado and as a press relations officer with energy engineering company Asea Brown Boveri, also based in Sao Paulo. A graduate from Brazil’s Casper Libero University with a BA in social communications, Vanessa has a master’s degree in international journalism from London’s City University. In addition to Portuguese and English, she is fluent in Spanish.

Miles Weigel is Senior Vice-President of Argus in New York, responsible since 2002 for Argus’ global business with commodity exchanges and management of the US northeast region. Miles started his career in the energy industry 30 years ago as Managing Consultant with DRI, the former economic forecasting unit of McGraw-Hill, active in market analysis and trading strategy development for major energy and chemical companies. In 1988, he became Vice-President at Saladin, an energy pricing analysis software leader. In 2000, Miles became Chief Operating Officer of IPG, acquired by Argus for its electricity pricing services. Miles received an MS in policy analysis and econometrics, and a BA in biology from the University of Rochester.