Argus Clean Ammonia Europe Conference

Before joining the Port Authority in January 2017, Jacques was active at Elia, the Brussels network operator and listed company, where he held various management positions since joining it in 2001, and became chief executive in 2012. He has occupied various directorships with companies such as Febeg (Federation of Belgian Energy Companies) and the Federation of Belgian Enterprises. He is currently an active board member of the data platform NxtPort, Kunsthuis Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Royal Antwerp Football Club and the Belgian coffee brand Vascobelo. He is also co-founder, and chairman of the Belgian sustainability platform The Shift, as well as co-investor in Qpinch, which generates energy from waste heat. Jacques, who currently lives in Antwerp, graduated with a Master of Laws, a qualification which he later supplemented with a masters in European Studies, a middle management course with Vlerick Business School and an “advanced management programme INSEAD”. He is married to Barbara Baeckelmans, with whom he has three children. Read less

Tom graduated as a master industrial engineer – option in construction at the KIHO in Ghent, Belgium. Subsequently, he attended additional management training courses in Fontainebleau, France: INSEAD and CEDEP. He started his professional career in 1993 as project manager of industrial projects at Lafaut NV. As a job site manager, he supervised new industrial projects and concepts. In 1998, he joined the West Flemish multinational Bekaert and became a general manager with strong international experience. At Bekaert, he rose to senior vice-president within the building products division, which consists of 700 people all over the world. He also negotiated various partnerships across several continents. Since October 2020, he took up the role of chief executive at the Port of Zeebrugge. After the merger with the Port of Antwerp in April 2022, he was appointed chief commercial officer. Tom is a very strong team leader. He also transfers this positive quality to his whole team. Not only because of his strategic thinking and operational experience, but also because of his track record in highly internationalised environments. Read less

Tim is Senior Vice President for the fertilizer sector at Argus. Tim worked a process manager at an ammonia/urea plant in South Africa before moving to the UK to join KBR (then M.W. Kellogg) as a process engineer in the ammonia technology team. More recently Tim has covered fertilizer and industrial nitrogen as a market analyst. Read less

Ruth has been editor of the Argus Ammonia report since 2017, most recently overseeing the report’s expansion into the green ammonia space. She joined Argus in 2009 and covered the coal, biomass and freight markets in the UK and US, before moving into fertilizers in 2016. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Brunel University London. Read less

Andrea Valentini has 15 years of experience as a commodities market analysis. He is now leading Argus’ research and consulting in blue/green ammonia and carbon markets. Prior to joining Argus, he was the head of consulting for Integer Research. He is a regular speaker and industry events and has over 10 years of experience in APAC markets. Andrea is a graduate in Economics from the University of Padua in Italy and holds an MBA from McGill University, Canada. Read less