Argus Global Coke & Carbon Conference

Michael Cohen is Chief US Economist and Head of Oil and Refining in bp’s Economic and Energy Insights team. In this role, he is responsible for short, medium, and long term oil market analysis and North American energy policy related analysis in bp’s Statistical Review of World Energy and Energy Outlook. The team helps inform decision making for bp’s board and executive team as well as for the Upstream, Downstream, Government Affairs, Trading, and Fuels/Marketing businesses. Prior to joining bp in May 2019, Mr. Cohen was Barclays’ Global Head of Commodities Research and was responsible for preparing and delivering differentiated research on commodities markets to Barclays’ global corporate and institutional investor client base. He worked for a decade in the public sector as an Economist with the US Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy’s Office of Policy and International Affairs, as well as two years in Paris as a senior member of the Oil Markets Division at the International Energy Agency. Prior to government service, Mr. Cohen worked on electricity market design for LECG (now Navigant) and as a trading desk analyst for American Electric Power. Michael also serves as a non-resident fellow at the Colorado School of Mines and frequently lectures on energy, oil markets, and geopolitics at several universities. He graduated with a BSBA in Business Economics and a BA in Political Science from The Ohio State University and a Masters in International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Read less

Alex is an Industry Economist on the Petroleum and Liquid Fuels Markets team at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). His work focuses on forecasting petroleum product consumption for the EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook and financial topics related to petroleum markets. Prior to the EIA, Alex was a research analyst at the International Monetary Fund in the Middle East and Central Asia Department. He holds an MA in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Read less

Originally from California, Kelle graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in History and made her home in the Seattle area with her husband and two boys. Kelle joined Pacific Rim Shipbrokers in 2001 as a Post Fixture Manager and then joined San Juan Navigation as a vessel operator of dry bulk carriers from 2006 until 2011. She returned to Pacific Rim Shipbrokers in 2014 after working as the Director of Operations for a travel company that specialized in small vessel charters around the globe. Having worked both as an operator and a charterer gives Kelle the perspective to identify potential risks and benefits for our clients. While Kelle has worked in various industries, what she enjoys most about maritime is that no week, voyage, or vessel is like another, and with that comes continuous lessons, challenges, and rewards. Kelle spends her free time playing tennis, hiking, camping with her family, and working with charitable organizations in her community. Read less

Les Edwards is Vice President of Production Control and Technical Services at Rain Carbon Inc. and has been with the company since 1998. He is responsible for production planning and control and technical support activities including customer technical support, R&D activities, and laboratory operations. He has authored or co-authored over 30 technical papers and is a regular presenter at industry conferences. Prior to joining Rain Carbon, Les worked in the Australian aluminum industry for 11 yrs. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Australia and an MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans. Read less

M. Erkam Kocakerim was born in 1979 and graduated from Chemical Engineering Department of Kocaeli University in 2004. He continued his studies at US Washington University about gas hold-up in bubble column reactor designs for petrochemical companies. He completed his Executive MBA program at Bilkent University in 2019. He started his cement career in 2005 as Production Engineer and continued his career in Limak Cement Group as Production Chief and Production Manager. In 2011, he promoted to establish Technical Center in the new headquarter and was appointed as the company's first R&D and Business Development Director. In addition, during 2012-2015, he led the growth of the company as the project coordinator for the plants and led contract management, project financing and site works during investments of Limak Cement Group. Also responsible for establishment of growth strategy in overseas countries and responsible of investments and operations of greenfield projects in Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire and Overseas Sales, Marketing & Trading Company in Dubai. He carried out the position of CEO of Limak Cimentos Mozambique during ramp-up period. He is currently the Global CEO of Limak Cement Group since January 2021. Read less

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Arda has been with the Çimsa group for four years and in his current position since February. He began his career in 2010 as a purchasing engineer. He has an MSc in mechanical engineering from İstanbul Technical University. Read less

Yao Zhao is the Managing Director at Vantage Point Group Holding since 2014. He has been heavily involved in the Aluminum Industry for the last 15 years and the Petroleum Coke Industry for the last 6 years. Read less

Robert has offered consulting services to the primary aluminium and calcined petroleum coke industries since 2009. He was Director and Vice-President of Sales at Oxbow Carbon and at Great Lakes Carbon (GLC) from 1992 until its sale to Oxbow in 2007, and Plant Manager at GLC's Oklahoma calciner from 1989 to 1992. Before joining GLC, Robert spent 16 years with Alumax, holding various positions at their smelters in Maryland and South Carolina. He has a BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a master’s in business management at Frostburg State University, Maryland. He has presented at Argus conferences and visited around 90 smelters worldwide. Read less

Lauren Masterson has been the editor of Energy Argus Petroleum Coke since the end of 2012, helping to relaunch it as a weekly publication and adding anode-grade market coverage. She started out at Argus covering the US coal markets. Prior to joining Argus, Lauren was the editor of an ocean technology magazine, and she had previously written for political and lifestyle publications. A native of New York, Lauren has lived in Washington, DC, since 2006. Read less

Hayden leads the forecasting and analytics for the coal and petroleum coke markets, including the monthly publication of Argus Seaborne Thermal Coal Outlook and Argus Petroleum Coke Outlook. Prior to joining Argus, he was a senior commodities analyst working for Macquarie Group where he was responsible for price forecasting, demand and supply of thermal coal, precious metals and uranium markets. Hayden holds two BAs from University of Melbourne, one in commerce and the other in information systems. Read less

Fırat joined Argus in 2017 as a market reporter in the Coal Daily International report. He follows developments in the Turkish coal market. Read less

Ross joined Argus in 2021 as a market reporter in the Argus Dry Freight report, helping to expand the publication from weekly to daily assessments for US-loading coal, petroleum coke, and grain freight prices. In 2023, Ross became the deputy editor for the Argus Dry Freight Report. Read less