Argus Biomass Asia Conference

Anita Puspita Sari

VP Pengembangan Bisnis, Pemasaran & Perencanaan Biomassa, PLN Energi Primer Indonesia

Anita Puspita Sari is the Vice President of Business Development Biomass at PLN Energi Primer Indonesia, a role she has held since January 2023. She previously served as Vice President of Bio Energy at PT PLN (Persero) from 2021 to 2022, following four years as Manager and six years as Engineer within the same organization. Beginning her career as a SCADA Engineer from 2003 to 2010. She brings over 20 years of experience in the energy sector, with a strong focus on bioenergy, biomass commercialization, and sustainable energy planning. Throughout her tenure at PLN, she has driven initiatives to integrate renewable biomass solutions into Indonesia’s energy portfolio, combining technical expertise with strategic planning to support scalable and sustainable energy projects.

Kazuyuki Nakamura

Marketing & Resource Trading Manager, Kobelco Trading Australia

Kazuyuki is the Marketing & Resource Trading Manager at Kobelco Trading Australia, based in Sydney. He has over 10 years of experience in international logistics and energy markets and currently leads Kobelco Trading’s biomass energy initiatives across Australia and New Zealand. He trades and develops projects for sustainable fuels, such as white and black wood pellets and other renewable resources, to support the region’s transition to low-carbon energy. Kazuyuki handles sourcing, logistics, and strategic partnerships to enhance biomass supply chains and market access. He specializes in procurement, contract and supplier management, performance forecasting, and international marketing. Kazuyuki focuses on the Japanese market and cross-cultural communication to drive innovation and growth in the renewable energy and resource trading sectors.

Wee Khoon Oh

Founder/Managing Director, Sobono

Kyung Hyun (Max) Min

Senior Manager of Fuel Development Team (Procurement Dept), Korea South-East Power Co., Ltd (KOEN)

MR. Kyunghyun (Max) Min is a fuel procurement specialist with deep experience across coal and biomass supply chains. From 2012–2020 at KOEN, he led coal purchasing, logistics coordination, and supply‑and‑demand planning for four thermal power plants. In 2021–2025, he served in Vietnam as GA & Fuel General Manager for KEPCO’s Vung Ang II thermal power project (1.2 GW, Ha Tinh), a joint venture with Mitsubishi, Chugoku and Shikoku power companies. Since 2025, he has returned to KOEN to spearhead wood pellet procurement, securing around one million tons annually to support reliable generation and Korea’s energy transition.

Jayendu Krishna

Director - Head Maritime Advisors, Drewry

David Hiel

Chief Commercial Officer, Wilhelmina

Cai Rong Lim

Senior Manager Biomass Balance Solutions Asia Pacific, BASF

As Senior Manager - Biomass Balance Solutions for Asia-Pacific at BASF, she leads the region’s sustainable transformation by sourcing renewable feedstocks for chemical processing and overseeing audit and certification of Asian sites manufacturing biomass-balanced products, enabling customers to transit toward lower carbon emissions while ensuring traceability, compliance and robust sustainability claims.
Before joining BASF, she was the Head of Functional Materials at tesa in Germany, where she led R&D in Adhesive Technology across applications including electronics, automotive and paper manufacturing.
Throughout her career, she has consistently advanced material sustainability and innovation, combining technical leadership, regulatory and certification expertise, and a pragmatic focus on scalable implementation across global supply chains.

Akito Usami

General Manager, RENOVA

Akito Usami is the General Manager of the Biomass Fuel Business Development Department at RENOVA, one of the largest biomass fuel consumers in Japan. With 30 years of experience at a major Japanese oil company, he has been deeply involved in the fuel business, including LNG, jet and marine fuels, as well as renewable energy and SAF. Leveraging his extensive knowledge and experience, he now leads the Biomass Fuel Trading Division at RENOVA.

Ir. Ts. Dr. Gideon Tan

Head - Group Transformation Division, FGV Holdings Berhad

Ir. Ts. Dr. Gideon Tan, an MEng graduate from Imperial College London and a Doctorate in Business Administration, began his career as a Technical Executive in FGV's Downstream Division, mastering technical operations at oil and fats refineries and manufacturing plants. He later transitioned to a strategic role in FGV Holdings Berhad's Group CEO office, where he spearheaded group-level technical initiatives and executed improvement projects across the supply chain, including research and development, estate management, and production processes. In 2020, he was appointed Head of the Transformation Management Office at FGVHB, where he leads business efficiency enhancements and drives Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives integral to FGV’s Net Zero Agenda. A prominent advocate for sustainability, he has championed the integration of solar, biomass, and energy efficiency measures, representing FGV at international platforms.

Simon Yim

Chief Executive Officer, Sky Renewables

Simon has 30 years of experience in banking (legal), power project development, corporate M&A and private equity. Simon is an Industry Advisor of Solaris Fund, a Japanese hedge fund. Simon is also a Senior Consultant of Lockton Companies, a global top 10 insurance broker. Prior to joining LDC, Simon was a Partner of The Longreach Group from 2007 to 2011. Simon sat on the Executive Board of EnTie Commercial Bank in Taiwan for the turnaround of the bank. Between LDC and Longreach, Simon spent 16 months in Dalian, China to set up a government- sponsored Renminbi private equity fund. Before joining Longreach, Simon was General Manager of Asia-Pacific Business Development (M&A) for GE’s industrial businesses (Energy, Oil & Gas, Aviation, Healthcare, Transportation, Water Technologies and general industrial). Simon was based in Beijing from 2000 to April 2012. Prior to joining GE in 2001, Simon specialized in power project investment in Greater China and held positions as Business Development Director and China Regional Director for Southern Company in the US (Fortune #153); and Project Counsel for China Light & Power in Hong Kong. Simon sat on the Boards of Huadian Power International (a big 5 genco in China with 56,000MW installed capacity) and the 1,980MW Shajiao C Power Plant JV in Guangdong, China.

Michael Cook

Business Development Director, POWERWOOD CANADA

Michael Cook is currently based in London and has enjoyed a 40‑year business career that combines 20 years of C‑suite experience in international logistics with a 20‑year commercial consulting business that has seen him work extensively worldwide and with clients across Europe, the US, GCC and Asia.

Karan Khinchi

Director, Energy Transition, Standard Chartered Bank

Jens Price Wolf

Founder, Voksigrene

Jens Price Wolf is an independent advisor and founder of Voksigrene, where he works across the biomass supply chain with agricultural products, wood chips and wood pellets. He previously held roles with Enviva, Drax, Orsted and McKinsey. His latest role was general manager for Enviva Europe, where he led the company's European operations, regulatory engagement and market development. As commercial director at Drax Power, Wolf managed biomass and other fuel procurement, logistics and power trading. As director of asset management and development at Dong Energy Thermal Power, now Orsted, Wolf managed the development of biomass conversions for the company's coal-fired power fleet.

Tamio Ida

Director/Professor/Doctor, Kindai University, Bio-coke Research  Institute

Dato Leong Kin Mun

President, Malaysia Biomass Industries Confederation

Simon Suzan

Principal Analyst - Energy, Transport Energy Brussels (EU)

Simon Suzan is a Principal energy analyst at Transport & Environment (T&E), Europe’s leading advocates for clean transport & energy. He joined T&E in 2020 and now leads the organization's research on biofuels, hydrogen-based fuels and electricity, assessing the uptake of alternative fuels within transport energy policies and evaluating their true environmental impacts. He holds an M.S. in Electrical Energy for Sustainable Development from École Centrale de Lille, France

Michael Wild

President, International Biomass Torrefaction and Carbonization Council IBTC

Michael Wild is an economist and engineer with over 35 years of leadership in renewable energy, dedicated entirely to advancing global bioenergy markets. A pioneer in biomass innovation, he helped develop Europe’s early district-heating projects, led major coal‑to‑biomass conversions, and launched ABEX, the world’s first internet‑based biomass trading platform. He initiated the first intercontinental biomass supply chains, including the earliest PKS exports from Indonesia to Europe and later Japan. Michael co‑developed torrefaction technology for Andritz/Polytechnik and founded the International Biomass Torrefaction and Carbonisation Council (IBTC), where he serves as president. He currently advises international companies and drives projects in advanced biomass upgrading, high‑value biocarbon applications, and sustainable energy systems across Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.

David McGregor

Director, Carbona

David McGregor is the Co‑Founder and Director of Carbona, leading the development of torrefaction and carbonisation facilities across Australasia. With more than 40 years’ experience in the industrial energy sector, David is passionate about renewable fuels and decarbonising energy systems. Through Carbona, he is focused on converting biomass residues into high‑value renewable products, helping drive New Zealand’s transition to net‑zero emissions by 2050.

Michael Spivey

Director, Low Carbon Energy, Honeywell UOP

Mike Spivey is the Director of Project Sales for Honeywell UOP. Mike leads the Asia Pacific Region and is responsible for championing UOP’s drive to deploy flexible, future-forward and carbon efficient solutions that address the challenges of our ever changing world.

Nicolas Viart

Technical Director, SBP

Nicolas joined SBP in January 2022 as Technical Director. A senior sustainability professional with extensive agriculture and international supply chain experience, Nicolas has proven technical and strategic competencies in advancing sustainability agendas. Key amongst his responsibilities is overseeing the maintenance of SBP’s certification systems, obtaining recognition of the SBP standards by the European Commission, the Japanese and the Netherlands’ regulatory bodies, and growing SBP’s presence in Asia. Prior to joining SBP, Nicolas spent ten years at Bonsucro, a global membership organisation promoting sustainable sugarcane production globally. Nicolas started his career in the dairy industry, with field experience in quality management, technical specifications and compliance audits, before moving on to the seafood industry, including two years at the Marine Stewardship Council, a leading global certification scheme for sustainable seafood.

Liu Hongrong

Executive Deputy Secretary-General, Biomass Energy Industry Promotion Association (BEIPA)

Senior Engineer Liu Hongrong is the Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the Biomass Energy Industry Promotion Association (BEIPA) under the CHINA ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT (CAPID) and President of the Beijing Songshan Low-Carbon Technology Research Institute. He is also a Senior Expert of the Green and Low-Carbon Technology Professional Committee of the China Energy Research Society and a Distinguished Expert of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). He has long researched biomass energy industry policies, development planning, standards and specifications, low-carbon technologies, and dual-carbon strategies. As an expert on the energy utilization of organic solid waste, he advises government authorities on policy formulation, industry development planning, and enterprise investment decision-making. He has helped formulate multiple national, industrial, and group standards and is a founder of China's "Zero Carbon Energy Certificates."

Chester Tan

General Manager, Sobono

Naoki Kawamoto

Vice Representative Director, Japan Biomass Fuel Standardization Association (JBSA)

Naoki Kawamoto graduated from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering and spent over 35 years at Idemitsu, working across coal procurement, sales, mine development, and later black pellet business development. He served in China and Australia for more than a decade, ultimately becoming Chairman of Idemitsu Australia Resources, overseeing three operating coal mines. From 2019, he led Idemitsu’s black pellet development initiatives and played a central role in establishing the Japan Black Pellet Forum, a forum of coal users who view black pellets as a practical and effective pathway away from coal, where he continues to serve as Secretariat. In December 2025, he retired from Idemitsu and founded BioCoal Solution Japan Inc., a biocoal sales and consulting company, to accelerate the deployment of biomass and biocarbon solutions. Since 2024 he has served as Vice Representative Director of JBSA (Japan Biomass Fuel Standardization Association).

Lionel Goiset

Business Development & Sales Manager, John Cockerill

Lionel Goiset is Business Development & Sales Manager within John Cockerill Energy’s Solids & Waste. With over two decades of experience in various roles—including commissioning, research and development, and sales management—in the steel industry, he transitioned to the "biomass to product" sector one year ago. Lionel helps industrials on their project to convert diverse feedstocks into high valuable product. Focusing on providing high‑efficiency thermal treatment solutions, from torrefaction to carbonization, that convert diverse biomass feedstocks into solid fuels or reducers, such as bio‑coal / bio‑char or bio-coke / bio-carbon respectively for applications like co‑firing, gasification, or production of sustainable aviation fuel value chains.

Jerome Dubuc

Regional Director, Amandus Kahl

Harald Fuchs

Director BU Carbonisation & Torrefaction, Polytechnik

Harald Fuchs, Director of the Torrefaction & Carbonisation Business Unit at Polytechnik, is a distinguished senior executive with over thirty years of experience in international project business. He demonstrates consistent success across the software, engineering & assembly, plant construction, and energy sectors.

Harald’s career is highlighted by a ten-year tenure as the CFO of a stock-listed company, combining financial stewardship with strategic operational leadership.

Harald possesses a proven track record in managing complex M&A transactions and leading seamless post-merger integrations. Driven by a focus on sustainable value creation, he has achieved extensive success in delivering significant profit and sales growth in competitive global markets.

John Teal

Vice President, TSI

Hector Ingram

Co-Founder and Group Strategy Director at RAW Energy, RAW Energy Ventures Pte Ltd.

A 23-year career with BP Chemicals until 2007, including a period as the company's Synthetic Ethanol Product Manager in the mid-1990s, provided an initial exposure to biofuels and sparked an interest in sustainable development. Family ties to farming kick-started an interest in how farming can change the world. Work with partners on high-yielding energy grasses in Asia and southern America since 2010 led to the founding of RAW Energy and its subsidiary companies in February 2021. The company's initial project, RAW Solid Fuels, comprises a Napier Grass farm (termed 'HTG' or Hybrid Tropical Grass) and associated pelletization facilities in Sarawak. The facilities produce high-calorie, carbon-negative pellets for sustainable power generation, with additional operations to open in Suriname in 2026. The company later established RAW Biofuels to assess sustainable biofuels from HTG and recently developed RAW Power, its self-build power generation entity that uses its carbon-negative HTG feedstock.

Yovindra Kanezin

CEO & Co-Founder , Reclimate Pte Ltd

Yovindra is a climate entrepreneur working at the intersection of biochar, bioenergy, and carbon removal in Southeast Asia. He is the co-founder of Reclimate, a pioneer climate technology company backed by global VC and institutions, developing commercially viable, carbon-negative solutions that convert wastes into biochar, energy, carbon capture pathways, and durable carbon credits across Southeast Asia. With experience spanning finance, risk, public policy, and technology startups, Yovindra holds a degree in Finance from the University of Reading and has worked across government, multinational corporations, and high-growth startups prior to co-founding Reclimate. Today, his work focuses on scaling industrial biochar and biomass-to-energy systems that are financeable, MRV-ready, and designed for real-world deployment ensuring carbon removal delivers value for industry, farmers, and emerging markets. His work at Reclimate has been recognised globally by organisations including Microsoft, Shell, and Grow Asia, and in 2025 he was named a Food Systems Impact Changemaker.

Mohit Verma

Founder, Biomass Energeons India

Mohit Verma brings over 17 years of experience, including 6 years in the biomass industry as the founder of Biomass Energeons India. His work focuses on sustainable energy solutions such as CBG, torrefaction, MSW, biochar, and biomass pellets, with an aim to drive rural development and global carbon reduction. Mohit has held roles in Trade Marketing at Sony India Pvt Ltd., as Marketing Manager at Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd., and as Trade Promotion Manager at CERA Sanitaryware Ltd., establishing a strong track record in strategic, profitability-focused marketing. Biomass Energeons India aims to unify the biomass sector in India, streamlining procurement and enhancing accessibility to support a sustainable future through training, development programs, and consultancy services.

Rajesh Chaudhary

Director, Cogo Eco-tech Solutions Private Limited 

Mr. Rajesh Chaudhary is a veteran industry leader with over 24 years of rich experience in waste management, biomass thermal conversion, and renewable energy innovation. A passionate technologist and patent holder in Integrating
Thermolyzing & Calcination Technology, he has pioneered sustainable solutions that transform agricultural residues and municipal solid waste into high-energy biofuels. As Director at Cogo Ecotech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Lead Technologist at RS Waste Care Technology Pvt. Ltd., he drives the development and commercialization of cutting-edge waste-to-energy systems designed for circular economy impact and carbon reduction.

Steve Tan

Editorial Manager, Argus Media

Takeshi Maeda

Senior Reporter – Japan Biomass Markets, Argus

Takeshi Maeda is a senior reporter in charge of Japan biomass markets, at global price-reporting agency Argus Media. He currently contributes to the Argus Biomass Markets (ABM) report, a weekly that publishes global spot price assessments for industrial wood pellets, residential pellets, chips and palm kernel shells (PKS) and provides in-depth market commentaries, analysis, stories and related data. Before joining Argus in April 2024, Takeshi had fifteen years of experience in Journalism as a newspaper reporter in Japan. He received the Sakata Memorial Journalism Award in the international category as a member of the reporting team in 2016.

Jeff Kuntz

Editor - Biomass, Argus

Andrew Jones

Editor, Solid Fuels, Asia-Pacific, Argus

Andrew Jones: Editor, Solid Fuels – Asia-Pacific. Andrew first joined Argus Media in 2009 and is based in the company’s Singapore office. With a background in shipping, his initial focus was to set up the Asian freight desk where he covered dry bulk and tanker markets, before switching to the solid fuels desk. Andrew now leads a team of commodities journalists and analysts across Asia who specialise in price discovery and benchmark indexation, market analysis, news and commentary for the regional thermal coal, biomass and petroleum coke markets. He is a regular speaker and moderator at conferences and industry events throughout Asia. Originally from the UK, Andrew moved to Singapore in 2006 where he initially covered commodities markets for Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal.

Nadhir Mokhtar

Senior Market Reporter, Argus

Nadhir Mokhtar is a senior market reporter at Argus Media, under the solid fuels team in Asia. With a focus on thermal coal and biomass pricing, he provides in-depth analysis and news coverage of the Asia Pacific markets. His expertise spans Australian thermal coal prices, palm kernel shells from Malaysia and Indonesia, and wood pellet prices from Vietnam. He has a background in journalism with previous roles as a deputy editor for a regional trade publication covering Middle East and North African insurance markets and as a news broadcast journalist for CNA in Singapore.