Argus Biomass Asia Conference

Masayoshi Takezaki

Manager, Itochu

Masayoshi is the manager of Biomass Fuel Business Section at ITOCHU. ITOCHU, been in biomass business since 2014, is one of the leading distributor of biomass fuels throughout Asia. Since 2015, Masayoshi has been involved in biomass fuel sourcing business along with biomass power plant development. Prior to biomass, he was in charge of solar project development, another form of renewable energy, for more than 6 years at ITOCHU.

Avila Ananda

Executive Advisor, PT PRIMA

Avila is the Executive Advisor at Prima Khatulistiwa Sinergi, a fast-growing Indonesian biomass trading company established in 2019. Since joining in 2022, he has played a pivotal role in diversifying biomass products and markets for both domestic and international power plants and industrial sectors, enhancing the company's business development and strategic planning efforts. Avila has been an active participant in the biomass industry since 2017 and concurrently holds the position of Deputy Head of Local Market Development at the Indonesian Biomass Energy Society.

Kelvin Hong

Chairman, Resources

Hong Hao is the founder and chairman of Great Resources New Energy, a company provides comprehensive solution to the need of bioenergy with business range covering biomass fuel trading, biomass boiler design and manufacture, and bioheat plant operation. Over the past 17 years, Hong has contributed significantly to the wider use of bioenergy in China by supplying carbon neutral bioheat to industrial, commercial and residential customers. His pioneering work by supplying bioheat to biopharma cluster and constructing CHP plant has helped emission reduction greatly. He also played an important role in setting biomass boiler emission standard at local and national level.

Hannu Ikavalko

Supply Chain Director – Bioenergy, BECIS

Samuel Setiawan

Corporate Business Development, Sinarmas Agri

William Tao

Head of Energy & Iron Ore, Thyssenkrupp

William Tao was Deputy General Manager (Commercial) of CFPC Singapore Pte. Ltd., overseas subsidiary of China central government-owned China Forestry Group, and is currently Head of Energy and Iron Ore in thyssenkrupp Materials Trading Asia Pte. Ltd. He is a senior energy trader with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Highly respected for his strategic insights in coal trading, he also boasts extensive knowledge in various biomass and wood products. Known for adaptability, he navigates both traditional fossil fuels and emerging renewable energy. William excels in market analysis and is committed to ethical business practices and sustainability. His influence extends to industry discussions and mentorship, solidifying his reputation in energy trading.

Naruaki Matsumi

Country Manager, CellMark

In previous company, I started biomass business in Apr 2019.
My responsibility was procurement and sales of both of WP and PKS including negotiation of long term contracts such as 15 years.
Customers are mainly Japanese customers under Japanese FIT.
Supply sources were Canada, USA, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.
I joined CellMark in Dec 2023 and work as country manager to develop more CellMark’s biomass business in Japan.
Before I joined biomass business, I was PIC of trading of petroleum product such as Gasoil, Fuel oil in Tokyo and Singapore.

Daowei Lin

Head of BD Industry, ENGIE Southeast Asia

Daowei LIN is currently Head of Business Development for Industry at ENGIE South East Asia, part of ENGIE Group, a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. ENGIE partners with large corporations, businesses, and local governments to assist them in meeting their energy needs with affordable, reliable, and sustainable solutions as-aservice. Daowei oversees energy and utilities business development activities for the industry sector across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia. Working with customers across the region, he helps industrial players strategically outsource their utilities to accelerate their transition toward carbon neutrality. Daowei joined ENGIE in 2020 and since then has strengthened ENGIE's presence in the industrial sector across the APAC region. His many successes have resulted in more than EUR 50M of CAPEX investment in industrial utility projects. Prior to ENGIE, Daowei held both technical and business development roles in the oil and gas and later energy sectors. During this time, he also gained regional and international experience, working in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the UK.

Geoffrey Seeto

Head of Emerging Markets, New Forests

Geoffrey Seeto oversees New Forests’ forestry investment program in Southeast Asia and Africa, with 20 years’ experience in financial services, principally in private equity in the infrastructure, natural resources, and energy sectors. He is an experienced investor in the Asian region, having led, originated, and executed a wide range of transactions in various regulatory regimes.

Akarin Vongapirat

Chairman, Wood processing club, Federation of Thai Industries

Loic Brachet

Head of Biofuels APAC, Hartree Partners

Loic Brachet’s extensive experience in the biofuels industry spans over 15 years and three continents. He has covered all the aspects of the industry, from operations to middle-office and risk management to trading. Constantly looking for new pockets of growth, and exploring routes less travelled, Loic has developed many new outlets in Europe and set up two businesses from scratch in Asia. He has successfully structured, negotiated, and closed business opportunities both on feedstock supply and finished product trading.

Thareq Ariffin

Manager - Market Transformation, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

Thareq is a Manager in RSPO, involved in Market Transformation strategies and planning to increase the production and uptake of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil and supporting the growth of biomass, biochemicals, bioenergy and advanced biofuels industries globally. In his past experience, he has worked with PETRONAS and multiple government agencies overseeing the biomass and waste-to-wealth policy implementation such as the National Biomass Strategy (NBS) and Biomass Industry Development Plan in 2016-2020 during his attachment with the National Innovation Agency. He was then transferred to Malaysian Investment Development Authority, involved in the strategic investment of high impact biomass and circular projects attracting sustainable high-quality investment into Malaysia. He has helped multiple industries to transition towards circular and sustainable businesses throughout his career.

Santeri Rantala

Chief Executive Officer, Solcofin

Robert Hardin

Chief Executive, SEDC Energy Sdn Bhd

Robert Hardin is the Chief Executive Officer of SEDC Energy Sdn Bhd. With more than 20 years’ experience in the oil & gas industry and held responsibilities with various divisions during his time with PETRONAS, he led the company since its was established in 2019. SEDC Energy Sdn Bhd is part of the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) group of companies, that plays a key part in driving the Sarawak’s hydrogen agenda, new energy, e-mobility and downstream oil & gas businesses.

Phil Jarratt

Managing Director, Jarratt Group

Phil has been the Managing Director of the Jarratt Group of Companies for over 30 years; with a strong background and extensive experience in Supply Chain Logistics, Multi Modal Transport and The Agri Sector. Based in Brisbane, Australia; The Jarratt Group includes Jarratt Transport Solutions Pty Ltd and SEFAAS Pty Ltd. Jarratt Transport Solutions has a national footprint across Australia servicing all sectors of the freight task. SEFAAS is a woody biomass pellet production business with many large feedstock supply agreements in place to support multiple offtake pellet supply contracts.

Erisa Senerdem

Editor, Biomass, Argus

Erisa Senerdem is editor for the Argus Biomass Report. She has previously covered Petroleum Coke and contributed to the Argus Coal Daily International report as well as covering gas and power markets at Argus. Prior to Argus, she has worked as a researcher, university lecturer, journalist and a consultant. She has a Ph.D. in economics, with a special focus on the energy field.

Oliver Mauss

Chief Executive, UPC Renewables

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.

Richard Laity

Director of APAC, PEFC

Richard is a 3rd generation forester with more than 15yrs of experience facilitating technical and managerial solutions in commercial agroforestry in Australia and Laos. Advocating for smallholders in Asia Pacific, he’s passionately focus on supporting the community’s efforts to adopt sustainable forestry and fostering trade integrations in the Natural Rubber sector. For the last 9 years he has managed PEFC Southeast Asia program in close collaboration with FAO’s UNREDD program.

Ralph Dixon

Executive Director of Sustainability, YTL Corporation Berhard

Ralph Dixon is the Executive Director of Sustainability at YTL Corporation Berhad and CEO of YTL’s carbon consulting subsidiary, YTL-SV Carbon. YTL Group’s core businesses are ownership and management of regulated utilities and other infrastructure assets, serving more than 12 million customers on three continents. Ralph has been with YTL for 17 years, managing the environmental investment, carbon strategy and sustainability divisions for the Group. Ralph has also served as a Trustee of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, Chairman of the Pediatric AIDS Fund, and is an alternate Trustee of Reef Check Malaysia, and Chairman of Save Wild Tigers (M) LLP. Previously, Ralph worked in investment banking for 15 years with Hoare Govett, Hong Leong and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Following that, he moved into manufacturing in 2001 as the Chief Executive Officer of the paper converting factories of Detpak in Indonesia and South Africa supplying to McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC and other major quick service restaurants, hotels and bakeries. He then worked with Hong Leong Asia in Singapore as Chief Executive Officer for their recycled wood packaging subsidiary, GPac Technology before joining YTL Corporation Berhad in Malaysia in 2007. Ralph Dixon graduated from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Management Sciences. He also has a Diploma in Mandarin from the National Taiwan Normal University.

Hiroaki Goto

General Manager, Erex

Mr. Goto joined Erex in December 2016 and has been doing procurement & sales activity of biomass fuel. From October 2019, he changed its activity base from Japan to Singapore where is more accessible to suppliers in Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Erex, he worked for a Japanese trade house based in Tokyo, Osaka, Australia and Singapore in the fields of minerals & resources business and business development for over 20 years.

Naoki Kawamoto

Senior (Black Pellets), Coal & Energy Solutions Dept, Idemitsu Kosan

Naoki Kawamoto graduated from the Faculty of Engineering Kyushu University in 1984. For the first 7 years, he was engaged in fuel conversion activities from oil to coal and coal sales, followed by 6 years at the head office and 10 years in China for coal purchase and sales.In 2008, he became Sales Manager of the Coal and Energy Solution Business Department, responsible for coal and oil sales to Japanese power and steel companies and then Deputy General Manager,responsible for overseas mine development. He then served as Chairman of IAR, which owns and operates three coal mines in Australia, for three years. After 35 years in coal business field, he was promoted as DGM of Black Pellet Business Development from 2019 to June 2022. He played a main role in setting up the Black Pellet Forum in Japan and is currently leading the Japan Black Pellet Forum as Group Secretariat.

Jean-Jacques Lavigne

Chief Executive, Binex

Jean-Jacques (JJ) Lavigne spearheads sales,business and corporate development at Binex, a pioneering Japanese technology and alternative renewable fuels company that is part of the 3DOM Alliance Group. Binex was established with the aim of cultivating sorghum, which serves three strategic objectives: producing bio-methanol, an eco-friendly fuel for the shipping industry; creating biomass utility pellets as a greener alternative for coal plants, boilers, and cement companies; and enhancing food security through sorghum cultivation. Binex Singapore Pte Ltd is responsible for commercializing the innovative technology, managing a comprehensive process that includes seed procurement, production, sales, and delivery of renewable bio-methanol and biomass pellets. JJ began his career in Japan working in the market research sector before returning to France for a few years, where he held various roles in research-focused and information-based startups. This experience led him to relocate to Singapore in the late 1990s, where he has been based ever since. In Singapore, JJ founded or co-founded multiple businesses in the information and leisure/yachting industries, while also taking on regional business development and top management roles for large companies such as the SUTL Group and Akzo Nobel. With a keen interest in the yachting industry and extensive general knowledge, JJ has worked on several cutting-edge fuel and energy storage projects, including collaborations with the 3DOM Alliance Group of Japan. As a result of his multinational expertise and diverse experience, JJ was asked to join Binex in order to establish the business development and commercial aspects of the company, including the development of cultivation sites and fostering relationships with customers, while contributing to global food security through sorghum production.

Dato Leong Kin Mun

President, Malaysia Biomass Industries Confederation

Chris Markey

Deputy Regional Director, Southeast Asia & Oceania, U.S. Grains Council

Chris Markey serves as the Deputy Regional Director of Southeast Asia & Oceania for the U.S. Grains Council, a non-profit organization promoting the global use of bioethanol and coarse grain products, where he executes policy advisory, trade servicing, and capacity building programs with biofuel stakeholders across the region. Prior to joining the Council in 2022, he spent six years as a management consultant across Southeast Asia. Chris graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in International Studies and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics.

David Wong

Marketing Director, Rainbow Pellet

David Wong is the marketing director of Rainbow Pellet, which has been producing pellets since 2014 together with its associated group of companies. The family-owned company has been supplying the Asian market actively and more recently, it has also been selling into the Europe market. The wood pellet business is a subsidiary of another family business which focuses on international sawed lumber trade since 1985. Rainbow Pellet holds PEFC certification and aims to be SBP certified by January 2020. The company is currently the leading wood pellet manufacturer in Malaysia.

Junichi Tobisawa

General Manager Biomass Fuel Department, Renova

Jerome Debuc

Regional Director, Amandus Kahl

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.

Carsten Huljus

Chief Executive Officer, Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP)

Carsten Huljus is Chief Executive of the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), a not-for-profit multi-stakeholder organisation that has developed an independent third-party certification system to provide assurance that woody biomass is sourced from legal and sustainable sources. Over the past 20 years Carsten has been involved in forest sustainability and chain of custody certification (FSC, PEFC), consulting and related activities and projects globally on behalf of private clients, GIZ, the World Bank, WWF, FAO and EBRD.

Prateek Tiwari

Managing Director, Alcom

Michael Wild

President, International Biomass Torrefaction and Carbonization Council IBTC

hael Wild, President of the International Biomass Torrefaction and Carbonization Council IBTC and Managing Director of W&P LLC, has pioneered many applications in the bioenergy sector and successfully developed and implemented novel technologies and supply systems, such as the introduction of the PKS market with the first shipments from Indonesia in 2003 and thereafter or the development of torrefaction technology and its implementation from 2007 onwards. He represents the torrefaction industry at international level, contributes to the development of standards and the removal of trade barriers and supports the development of biomass projects and the establishment of supply chains around the globe.

John Teal

Vice President, TSI

Pavan Kumar Pawar

General Manager Sales , South APAC, Andritz

Presently working with Andritz – General Manager , Sales – South Asia Managing Capital Sales and Plant Solutions. Previously with GEA Westafalia Separator GmbH – Country Manager for India , SriLanka and Maldives. Spent a decade in Managing Machinery Sales , Service & Commissioning, Projects, Spares and wears sales. Started My Career with Denso Kirloskar in 2001 as Maintenance Engineer and PLC Programmer.

Andrew Jones

Editor, Solid Fuels, Asia-Pacific, Argus

Andrew Jones is the Deputy Editor for Argus Asia Coal. He joined Argus in 2009, based in the company’s Singapore office. His initial focus was on the Asia-Pacific dry bulk and tanker markets before switching to the coal desk, where he now focuses on price discovery, news and analysis of regional thermal coal and petroleum coke markets. Having previously worked at sea, Andrew started his journalism career in the UK before moving to Asia in 2006 as a correspondent with Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal, where he covered various regional commodities markets.

Freddie Staermose

Vice President, Generating Fuels and Dry Bulks, Argus

Freddie started work as a price reporter with ICIS Heren, covering commodities from power to gas to coal, before moving into the sharper end of the business with Noble Group, becoming their senior market analyst for thermal and coking coal. From there he moved to EdF where he worked as a fuel originator, working as part of a team that sourced 10mn t/yr of coal and 250,000 t/yr of biomass for UK power plants. Freddie joined Argus as business development manager in January 2014, focusing on growing the company’s coal, iron ore, petroleum coke and biomass indexation and coverage.

Muhamad Fadhil

SVP Strategy and Business Development, Argus

Muhamad Fadhil is Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Argus, focusing on Asia expansion sectors and strategic initiatives. Before joining Argus, Fadhil was Head of Middle East Markets for ICIS in Dubai, where he led market engagement and strategy. He also previously worked for Channel NewsAsia, Hill & Associates and the O&S Group of Companies. Fadhil holds master degrees from IE Business School and the National University of Singapore. He is currently a doctoral student at Warwick Business School, specialising in energy transition.