Argus Biomass Conference

Tunde is the senior policy advisor responsible for the Non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He has been in this role for over 3 years. In his time, he has overseen various consultations to ensure the scheme is fit-for-purpose, including the introduction of the new annual maintenance checks and the new fuel quality requirement. He successfully tendered the Biomass Suppliers’ List administration, supervising its handover to a new administrator in 2021. More recently Tunde has worked with the industry to reduce the impact of the scarcity of wood pellets in the UK by promptly amending legislation to ensure non ENPlus A1 pellets could be legally used for RHI purposes. Outside work, Tunde is a volunteer chair of his local community sports centre. He is married, with 2 children. Read less

John-Paul Taylor has been Enviva’s Chief Commercial Officer since January 2023, ensuring the company’s growth trajectory. He joined Enviva in 2014, initially as Vice President, Optimization, and served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Fulfillment. John-Paul has been an integral part of the sales and marketing team, developing new markets in Asia and leading Enviva’s Asia Pacific team. Prior to joining Enviva, John-Paul served as Vice President of Biomass Brokerage at Evolution Markets, where he developed and grew the company’s biomass business. He holds a B.A. in Commerce and an M.A. in International Economics and Finance from Ryerson University in Toronto and graduated from the Carbon Finance & Analytics Programme at the London Business School. Read less

Steve started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Sanofi followed by 2 years at Total in La Defense, Paris. Steve has been working at Arcelor Mittal since 2015 and has been responsible for sourcing liquid fuels for Arcelor Mittal's sites across Europe. Steve has recently moved towards decarbonised sources of alternate fuels such as biomass for the the use in greener steelmaking. Read less

Arjan Geveke is Director of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), an umbrella organisation that represents the interests of energy intensive industries in the UK. Its objective is to achieve fair and competitive energy prices and security of energy supply for British manufacturing industries. Prior, he worked for almost 15 years in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on energy and climate change policies. He holds a MSc in European Policy & Management, Birkbeck College, and a MA in Public Policy and Administration, University of Twente, The Netherlands. Read less

Angela’s role at Drax is focussed on helping the company deliver its world-leading to be carbon negative by 2030, as well as demonstrating how Drax will be play a major role in the energy transition. She is focusing on the development of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Drax Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire, as well as internationally, and the sale of high integrity carbon removal credits to enable corporates to meet their net zero goals. She has over 20 years’ experience in policy development and implementation, starting her career working at the heart of Government, advising Ministers on energy policy issues. During her time at EDF, she led the development of plans to build a new nuclear power station at Sizewell, before taking up the role of Policy Director, providing strategic advice on the energy policy agenda, including retail and power generation issues. She is a Powerful Women Ambassador, with a real commitment to supporting other women in the energy industry. Read less

Jonathan Scott is Commercial and Fuel Director at Lynemouth Power Limited (LPL), responsible for fuel supply and commercial optimisation of the 420MW Lynemouth Power Station, which was converted from coal to biomass in 2018. Jonathan is also a member of the LPL Board, and is responsible for regulatory and policy developments both under the current Contract for Difference and the potential for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). Jonathan has been at LPL since its formation in 2012, and prior to then held a number of commercial energy roles for Rio Tinto Alcan in the UK. Read less

William Strauss is the President and founder of FutureMetrics,. Bill and FutureMetrics are recognized as leading experts in the wood pellet sector. Bill continues to be a thought leader in the sector and has published numerous papers on a variety of subjects relevant to the wood pellet sector. He is also a co-founder and a Director of Maine Energy Systems, the largest manufacturer of European style automatic pellet fueled central heating systems in North America. Bill has been named as one of the most influential leaders in the biomass sector in 2016 and again in 2017 by Argus Media, and is the 2012 recipient of the International Excellence in Bioenergy award. Bill has an MBA (specializing in finance) and a PhD (economics, earth systems science) both from the University of New Hampshire. Read less

Since joining CM Biomass in 2017, Michael can be credited for CM Biomass’ exponential growth and increased global influence as a key market player. Michael has previously worked for shipping conglomerate Maersk and the Royal Danish Theatre. Michael studied his bachelors at Copenhagen Business school and has a Masters in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics. Read less

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Mark Lyra was born in Kansas, USA but was raised in São Paulo, Brazil. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami and a MBA from HEC Paris. Mark began his career at AT&T in Hong Kong where he lived from 1994 to 1998 and helped develop the company’s Internet strategy. In 1999 Mark moved to Seattle, Washington to lead the expansion of VoIP services for AT&T in the US. In 2000 Mark joined Razorfish in New York City where he worked on strategy consulting projects for clients in various industries. In 2002, he began his MBA at HEC Paris and in 2004 was hired by Nissan Motors to lead a major restructuring project at the company's European HQ in Paris. Mark joined Cosan S.A. in 2008 as the company's Commercial Director for BioEthanol. He was part of the team that negotiated with Shell for the creation of Raízen and in 2012 founded Cosan Biomassa. In 2016 Sumitomo Corporation took a minority stake in Cosan Biomassa and in 2018 Mark joined Sumitomo in New York to promote the use of sugarcane biomass and other residues in the global energy mix. Read less

Goizeder is currently implementing and developing growth opportunities within the biomass area of Cener and its BIO2C Biorefinery, by the establishment of long-term value from the point of view of markets, customers, partners and their interrelationships in biomass and bio-based products sector. Read less

Tiago Andrade is the founder and Director of Wood Pellet Services (WPS), a brokerage, agency and consultancy firm with a large portfolio of wood pellet supply under management, as well as co-founder and Director of 3nergy (3N), a sister firm focused on chips and logs for the energy, MDF and pulp markets. His early career in Portuguese multinationals gave him access to knowledge and contacts, particularly in the renewable sector. In 2004, Tiago identified the opportunity to create a wood pellet industry in Portugal, replicating this work in many other regions worldwide. Tiago holds a BBM honours degree in management and business administration, and an MBA in business information from the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto. Read less

Irene has a background and hands-on experience in EU public affairs and advocacy. Her professional career started in the EU sustainability field, first from a regional and industrial perspective and then with a specific focus on the energy sector and renewable heat. In her role of Policy Director of Bioenergy Europe, she coordinates all activities relate to the bioenergy sector at European and international level. Read less

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. Read less

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. Read less

Amparo Arellano is Senior Expert Sustainability Certification at Sustainable Resources Verification Scheme (SURE), a non for profit certification scheme promoting the use of sustainable biomass for the production of bioenergy recognized by the European Commission for the certification of compliance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED II). Over the past 10 years Amparo has been involved in various roles focusing on stakeholder engagement, mainly with regards to the development of sustainable forest management (FSC) certification, as well as in the implementation of projects about cooperation for international development . Read less

In 2010, Helen began working for Westwoods Woodfuel helping suppliers in the South West to improve the quality of woodchip and at the same time, took on the role of Accreditation Manager for the fledging Woodsure scheme. Helen has since played a key role in the growth of Woodsure as an organisation and became a Director in 2018. She continues to work closely with all sizes of suppliers and producers across the UK, raising awareness of the need for good quality wood and biomass fuel to reduce its impact on air quality and the environment, and helping them to meet legislative requirements in a way that is appropriate and applicable to their business. Read less

Christian Joore is a senior commodity trading professional with over 20 years of extensive financial and physical trading experience in the global energy markets. He is currently heading commercial and business development activities in Vattenfall’s merchant Biomass & Freight trading department. His role includes the optimisation of sustainable biomass flows from suppliers to internal and external customers, and increasing value creation through the development of upstream and downstream partnerships. Prior to joining Vattenfall, Christian worked as an energy trader for Essent Trading in the Netherlands and later for RWE Supply and Trading in Switzerland, managing various cross-commodity proprietary positions and asset-backed energy portfolios. Christian holds an MBA degree from the University of Groningen. Read less

A business developer with over 10 years of experience in growing hardware startups from new vegan proteins to space tech. Ilkka leads Carbo Culture's business development, working with partners, customers, and suppliers across the carbon removal project spectrum, from energy companies to biomass operators. Read less

Jens Price Wolf is General Manager for Enviva Europe where he is responsible for regulatory engagement, customer fulfillment and market development. Prior to joining Enviva Jens has been the Commercial Director for Drax Power Ltd. and Director of Asset Management and Development at Dong Energy Thermal Power (Now Ørsted). Jens started out his career as Management consultant with ICF International and McKinsey and Co and holds a M.Sc. in Economics from Copenhagen University Read less

Pietro Di Sarno founded Interwest Srl in 2012, a division of the integrated logistics group Intergroup®, dedicated to trading and distribution of wood biomass with the brand MyFire®, with offices in Italy and London. From the beginning he believed in the importance of a controlled and quality supply chain, and with great commitment and involvement of the whole company, he managed to make Interwest the first Italian distributor company ENplus A1 certified in Italy. In 2020 the group also becomes a pellet producer and obtains the additional ENplus A1 certification for producers. Read less

As Oberon’s Vice President of Commercial Development, Cinch is leveraging Oberon’s 10+ years of foundational innovation to move Oberon’s DME production technology to global, commercial deployment. Cinch has overall responsibility for developing and managing both the feedstock supply required to produce Oberon’s renewable DME as well as securing offtake agreements and fostering DME market development. Cinch has more than 20 years in the energy and agribusiness sectors. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Development, for the Propane Education Research Council (PERC), a trade association that promotes the safe and efficient use of propane. Read less

Lizzie has a background in Chemistry and sustainable energy technologies and experience in renewable fuels policy; technical and economic assessment of emerging technologies; and sustainability assessment. Lizzie currently works as Investment and Technology Manager at Dimeta, a JV between SHV Energy and UGI International, two of the biggest off-grid energy players in the world. She has previously worked as rDME Product Manager for SHV Energy, and as Senior Consultant for E4tech. She has specialized knowledge in renewable DME covering supply, policy and market dynamics and is passionate about supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Lizzie has a masters in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a masters in Sustainable Energy from Imperial College, London. Read less

Greg Dolan has held a variety of senior management positions with the Methanol Institute over the past 23 years. In June 2014, he was appointed as permanent CEO of the global methanol industry trade association, after serving as Acting CEO for four years. Mr. Dolan manages MI’s offices in Washington, Singapore, Brussels and Beijing, while directing international governmental relations, media relations, public education and outreach efforts. He has presented papers on methanol-related topics at over 100 international conferences, authored magazine articles, and written book chapters on the methanol industry. Mr. Dolan came to MI after spending a decade in a variety of public information positions in New York State, including the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Transportation, and the Energy Research and Development Authority. Mr. Dolan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Boston University, and did extensive post graduate work in Political Communication at the State University of New York-Albany. Read less

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Matt has been a director of the European Pellet Council since 2019, and General Secretary & Quality Standards Manager of the UK Pellet Council since 2017. Matt is also Managing Director of a consultancy and trading company called Commercial Energy Ltd, specialising in specification and trade of fuel pellets – both Solid Recovered Fuel from waste and premium wood pellets. Matt has a doctorate from the University of Bristol in Quaternary climate change. Read less

Manolis Karampinis is Director of Business Development and Membership in Bioenergy Europe since October 2022, responsible for the growth of the association’s network and activities. His duties in Bioenergy Europe also include the management of the European Pellet Council (EPC), the network of national pellet and biomass associations and the coordination of the Working Groups on Pellets and Agrobiomass. Manolis is a Chemical Engineer and holds a MSc. in Energy Generation and Management from the National Technical University of Athens. He has been involved in the bioenergy sector since 2006, focusing – among others – in large-scale and industrial bioenergy applications and mobilization of under-utilized biomass feedstocks, such as agrobiomass. Manolis worked for 16 years as research associate at Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), involved in numerous EU funded projects related to technical developments and market uptake of the bioenergy sector. Since 2017, he has served as a board member of Hellabiom – the Greek Biomass Association – and from 2019 to 2022 in the Board of Directors of Bioenergy Europe. Read less

Thor Emil Brandrud is a senior shipbroker with over 20 years of extensive consulting & trading experience in the global bioenergy and forestry markets. He is the founding partner and managing director of Affinity Shipbrokers (Canada) Ltd. His role includes developing a logistical solution for sustainable biomass flows from suppliers to internal customers. Prior to starting in Affinity, Thor Emil worked as a shipbroker for SSY in Oslo and Vancouver, BC. Read less

Didzis Palejs has worked in the wood energy industry for almost 20 years. He has mostly dealt with producing wood energy products such as wood chips, pellets and firewood, as well as handling and managing sales/logistics. He has worked for national and international companies of various sizes. Mr Palejs was one of the founders and is chairman of Latvian biomass association Latbio. He is also a Board director of EPC (European pellet council) and Board director of Bioenergy Europe. Read less

Dennis Werner, Sales Director, started his career at Amandus Kahl in 2001. After his graduation as inhouse student for industrial engineering and business administration, he took over the responsibility for Latin American and Hispanic business. Started as wood pelleting pioneers in Latin America to become the market leader in the region. In 2010, in the time of US wood pelleting boom he moved to the USA as COO and VP Sales to give a helping hand and breaking ground establishing the sales and service structures that his companies US customers still benefit from. In a market leader position he returned to Europe to become the sales director for Latin America and Western Europe. With his experience in pioneer merging market in Latin America, the largest wood pellet producers market in the USA and the settled markets in Western Europe he is carrying a tremendous know-how and bringing a lot of knowledge of the different markets and its aspects to the table. Read less

Michael Wild, economist and engineer by education, is active in renewable energies for practically his entire 26 years professional career. He has pioneered Biomass fired district heating systems in Austria and conversion of coal fired systems to biomass in former socialist countries. The first internet based biomass trading platform (ABEX) was started by him in 1999. Until 2010 he led the international biomass trading company EBES creating numerous intercontinental supply chains for palm kernel shell, pellets and wood chips. From 2007 he took a leading position in torrefaction technology development forming also a consortium with Andritz AG. In 2012 he helped setting up within AEBIOM the International Biomass Torrefaction Council IBTC whose members elected him president. Also from 2012 on he has been supporting Bridgewell Resources Ltd in developing their Biomass desk acting as their European Sales Manger. Read less

Adam joined the Argus Media business development team in April 2022 to lead the development of a pricing & reporting product for the voluntary carbon markets. After spending the earlier part of his career with Enron and Williams Energy in physical oil trading & distribution, Adam spent 10 years in the commodities group at Morgan Stanley working with corporate clients in the energy derivatives space. Helping clients navigate the early years of the ETS started his journey in carbon and later, as Head of EMEA Energy Origination at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, he worked with clients wanting to start to engage with the voluntary carbon markets. Adam has an academic background as a chemist having completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology and has a bilingual MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona. Read less

Giulia produces weekly assessments for hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), after having focused on the coverage of the European biodiesel market for two years, producing prices for benchmark and non-benchmark grades. As part of her role, she works on the analysis of the European biofuels market, including regulatory changes and data management. Prior to joining Argus, Giulia worked with international organisations in Geneva for a year and completed a master’s degree in International Affairs at Middle Tennessee State University. Read less

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. Read less

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. Read less