Paris Grain Conference

Dr. Mark Jekanowski is Chairman of USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), where he is responsible for the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report and the work of the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility. Dr. Jekanowski also serves as Program Chair for USDA’s largest annual conference, the Agricultural Outlook Forum. Dr. Jekanowski joined the WAOB in 2018 as Deputy Chairman. Previous positions with USDA include Deputy Director for Outlook at the Economic Research Service, and Chief of the Crops Branch at the Economic Research Service. Prior to his service at USDA, Dr. Jekanowski was a Senior Vice President at Informa Economics and Head of the Washington, DC office. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, and a B.S. degree in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was raised on a commercial, family-owned vegetable and tobacco farm in Hadley, Massachusetts. Read less

Nikolay Gorbachov has more than 30 years of experience in the agricultural market of Ukraine. In February 2017, he was elected as the President of Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) and in 2021 was re-elected for a second term. He previously co-chaired the Grains and Oilseeds Committee of the European Business Association (EBA). He also holds the position of Director in the trading company in Ukraine. Read less

Isabelle Job-Bazille began her career at Paribas in 1997 as a country risk analyst in charge of the Middle East-Africa zone. She joined Crédit Agricole S.A. in September 2000 as an economist specialising in Japan and Asia before taking over responsibility for the Macroeconomics Division in May 2005. Between 2007 and 2011, she joined Crédit Agricole CIB's Market Research teams in Paris and London while continuing her assignments at Crédit Agricole S.A. Diplomas Read less

Mac Marshall: Mac Marshall serves as the Vice President, Market Intelligence for the United Soybean Board (USB). In this capacity, Mac works with USB leadership to evaluate and establish long-term strategic initiatives in support of advancing domestic and international market opportunities for the U.S. soybean industry while serving as an industry source of market information and analysis. Prior to joining USB, Mac served as global market analysis and trade lead at Bayer Crop Science, where he worked on international market access issues as part of a global agricultural policy team. Mac has also held roles in Monsanto’s Corporate Strategy group and within the federal government as both a staff and supervisory economist at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. He holds a B.A. in economics from Vassar College and an M.A. in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University. Read less

Thomas-Olivier Léautier is Chief Economist of TotalEnergies. He was previously Chief Economist and director of the Corporate University for Management of EDF and associate researcher at the Toulouse School of Economics. He has accumulated more than 25 years of experience in the electric power industry, both as an academic (MIT and Toulouse School of Economics), and a practitioner (McKinsey and Company, Alcan Inc., EDF and TotalEnergies). He has published numerous academic articles, and a book “Imperfect markets and imperfect regulation: an introduction to the microeconomics and political economy of power markets”, published by MIT Press in 2018. Thomas-Olivier holds a PhD in Economics and a Master in Transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, a Master of Science from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France, and a Bachelor of Science from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. Read less

Guy Hindley is Managing Partner of the Dry Cargo Division of leading Shipbrokers Howe Robinson Partners. Formed in London in 1883 Howe Robinson was grown to become one of the largest fully integrated international Shipbroking Houses, with a global network of 14 offices and over 300 staff. Guy has spent his career specialising in Dry Cargo transportation and has an in-depth knowledge of chartering as well as other project related business. He directs the Dry Cargo Research Team who produce regular bespoke reports covering all aspects of the Dry Bulk Commodity and Freight Market as well as a specialist set of in-house indices including a number covering the freight rates on the principal grain shipment routes. Guy is also Chairman of Maritime Strategies International (MSI), the Research and Consulting specialist and is a Member of the Baltic Exchange Governing Council. Guy read History and Law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Read less

With a dual background in Agriculture and Business Administration, Nicolas Ferenczi is in charge of economics and international affairs at AGPB, the organization representing 100,000 French professional cereal growers. He began his career focusing on rural development in Africa, and then served in several agronomy and business development positions with fertilizer and plant protection companies in Europe. His areas of expertise include agricultural production, farm inputs, farm economics, cereal markets as well as agricultural policies. Read less

I was born in 1977 Kirsehir/Turkiye. I graduated from Gazi University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics. In 2006, I started to work for Turkish Grain Board (TMO). I have been Market Research Section Manager between 2011 and 2017 in Trade Department. I have been assigned as director of Trade Department and working in that poisition since 2017. Read less

Analysing and forecasting the impact of macro / microeconomic trends on a broad range of asset classes, where necessary challenging market psychology and consensus views. The joy of working as a market economist is a constant need to research and learn about the changing landscape of the way that the world works, well beyond the limited scope of economics and financial markets. The desire is to enable and facilitate critical & lateral thinking perspectives on global economic, political and asset market trends; to convey these ideas enthusiastically in terms that are accessible and thought provoking. Having spent much of his childhood in Libya and Iran, Marc has a particular interest in the Middle East, is passionate about music of all genres, and a regular guest on TV & Radio, and widely quoted in the media. Read less

Malak Al Akiely is Founder and Managing Director of Golden Wheat for Grain Trading, Ltd., represents first class international Grain Trading companies for supplying Grains to Jordan with over 13 years of experience in agricultural commodities trading with focus on food security. Golden Wheat works to meet the regional expanded demand of grains commodities in MENA; Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, &Saudi Arabia. Portfolio of commodities includes Wheat & feedstuff. Malak is co-Partner in Golden Kayan for Marketing Consulting Co. for Oil, Energy & Renewable Energy. Member of Board of Trusses in the German- Jordanian University, Jordan. Read less

Lydia is a Senior Lead at the VCMI and Climate Manager at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. She joined from UK government, where she led Voluntary Carbon Markets policy and programmes in the International Climate & Energy team, including UK government’s support to establish VCMI in the run-up to the COP26. Previously she managed c.£250 million of UK climate finance in World Bank carbon funds, and represented the UK in UN and other international negotiations on REDD+, climate and land-use, and international trade. Her government positions followed roles at sustainability consultancy Verco and non-profit The Forest Trust. She has degrees from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. Read less

After the Diploma of Horticultural Science at the University Hannover, Germany in 1989, Anke Kwast has been working at Yara for 31 years in Crop Nutrition and Environmental R&D. Managing Product Development and Horticulture and Fertigation Research. Leading an international and interdisciplinary research team of 80 employees and a budget around 10 million USD at different locations in Europe, Brazil and Africa to develop profitable and sustainable solutions for nutrient and water management in agriculture (4/2013 – 8/2020). Since 2020 supporting the decarbonization of the Food Chain, providing strategic and technical support for Yara’s Climate Neutral Roadmap and the transformation to nature positive practices. Responsible for the development of science based targets for Yara's scope 3 downstream (fertilizer use by farmers) and supporting Yara’s Corporate & Global Initiatives. Being engaged in the framework development and implementation of regenerative agriculture. Read less

Will has almost 20 years of experience in researching and modelling the shipping markets, having been MSI’s principal dry bulk analyst for most of his 15 years at the company, following four years as a container trade specialist for OOCL. His expertise extends beyond fundamental dry bulk market analysis into stochastic methods of forecasting; he also oversees the development of MSI’s online data and modelling platform, and the utilisation of AIS data to estimate shipping emissions and regulations compliance. Will is often involved in MSI’s bespoke consultancy projects, from market scoping, competitor benchmarking and investment risk analysis to building bespoke credit risk models and the pricing of options. Read less

Bachelor of Economics and Political Science (Department of Economics)/Cairo University, with Grade very good with honor in 2010, Master degree in Economics dept. at Suez Canal University, PHD Researcher in Economics, worked as Economic Journalist and director of financial services dept. at Egyptian newspaper, I am working at suez canal authority from dec. 2012, so about 10 years of extensive experience in Maritime transportation economics, mainly on the Dry Bulk Shipping Market; I am working on developing marketing and pricing policies to attract dry bulk vessels on different routes to transit the Suez Canal. Read less

Environmental Manager with a master’s degree in Applied Ecology from the School of Agriculture of the University of Sao Paulo (ESALQ/USP), in Brazil. With more than 12 years of experience coordinating the development of forest carbon projects and sustainable rural production initiatives in Brazil, I’m currently working as Carbon Portfolio Manager at Hartree Partners. Read less

Andrea leads biofeedstocks and biofuels activities at Eni. He became the head of biofuels trading at Eni Trading and Shipping in 2019, with responsibility for redesigning and enlarging biofeedstocks and biofuels trading activities. In 2020 he took over the role of head of supply for Eni. Since 2021, he has been a member of the board of directors of Eni Trading and Shipping. With more than 17 years’ experience within the group, he has held roles in several countries, including as German and Austrian branch manager, head of gas and power sales in France, Italy and the Benelux, and lead originator for gas, power and emissions. Read less

Florian Siebert is responsible for the international production and procurement activities of bmp greengas. In this function, he is in charge of the relationship with bmp’s production partners across Europe. Bmp greengas is Europe's leading marketer of biomethane and the expert for green gases. The company has been developing efficient solutions for tomorrow's energy supply since 2007. Prior to his current role, he worked in the gas turbine business at Siemens from 2012 to 2016. Since then, he has been working in different functions in the EnBW group. His focus has always been green gas production, trading, legislation and use cases. He holds a degree in Business Administration from HWR Berlin and a degree in mechatronics from DHBW Mannheim. Read less

Laura Cross is Director of Market Intelligence at IFA, and oversees the activities of the Market Intelligence Service, which provides authoritative information on supply, demand and trade of fertilizers and fertilizer raw materials, and monitors developments that may impact the outlook for fertilizer markets. Ms Cross joined IFA in March 2021, and previously spent 10 years analyzing and forecasting fertilizer markets at CRU Group and Integer Research. She has an active interest in environmental protection, sustainability and ESG pressures facing the fertilizer industry, with a recent focus on emissions reduction policies and green ammonia. Read less

Luiz Carlos dos Santos Jr, is Associate Director of SA Commodities, an independent and private Brazilian company operating as a shipping agency, brokerage and research provider in the sugar and grains markets. Luiz Carlos started in sugar in early 90s developing services based on commercial support, strategic consultancy and projects for shipping agencies willing to attend sugar and grains vessels across various Brazilian ports. In 2007 he was head of operations for Kingsman Brazil, broking around 1.5 million tonnes in physicals as a sugar broker for raws and whites. In 2009 he joined Unimar Shipping Agency, a private Brazilian-owned group of shipping agencies with offices at main ports and leading regions of Brazil, as the head of the commercial department for sugar and grains. Read less

Xavier Noyon is the EBB Secretary-General since 2020. A French citizen, Xavier holds masters in both law and public affairs from France and Germany. Prior to joining the EBB, Xavier held the position of Secretary General in another organisation in the renewable energy field. Most recently, he has created the EU office of PEFC International the global certification for sustainable forest management and traceability. Read less

Ilya has joined ETG in 2020. Having spent 10 years trading agricultural commodities at LDC and Cofco, he is now helping ETG to deploy carbon abatement solutions across the Group’s footprint, driving cost efficient quality abatement at scale with the ultimate mission of uplifting African farming communities. Read less

Dr Thierry Bros’ expertise is in energy markets, policy, climate and geopolitics. Thierry is a Professor at SciencesPo Paris and a contributor to Natural Gas World website. In his 30+ years long career, Thierry was Senior Policy Manager & Lead Analyst for an oil&gas organisation, Vice President Research of a US LNG company, Senior European Gas and LNG Analyst as well as Senior Financial Equity Analyst. Previously, Thierry was in charge of Security of Supply at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance where he liberalised the French gas market and supervised the European Contingency Gas Plan. On the academic side, Thierry has been a Senior Research Fellow of The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and, in his first book, published in 2012, he rightly forecasted that the surge in US oil and gas production was going to deeply alter the energy and geopolitical landscapes. Read less

Franco joined Control Union (UK) in 2016 as Managing Director. He has worked for about 15 years in the sustainability area, across a range of industries including agri-food, consumer products, industrial. Before then he carried out research work in Aeronautics and Aerospace. Franco holds a Master of Business Administration MBA, a post-grad Research Master (M.Res) in Fluid Dynamics and a Master of Engineering (M.Eng) in Mechanical Engineering. Read less

For more than 15 years in the energy sector in various positions related to business development, assets management and strategy, Jean-Marie Gauthey has joined GRDF, the largest European gas Distribution System Operator, as Head of European Affairs. Previously, he developed gas projects in Brazil, especially infrastructure and biogas/biomethane plants. GRDF delivers gas to 11 million clients thanks to a network long of 200,000 km. Today, more than 400 biomethane plants are injecting in GRDF distribution grid. Read less

Mr. Pacheco has held multiple top- level positions in the European Commission till he retired in 2013. In the period 2011-2013 he was a Deputy-Director General in the Directorate General for Agriculture of the European Commission, in charge of policy management for the European Union agricultural direct payments and agricultural markets. He was a lead European Commission negotiator in 2013 with the co- legislators - European Parliament and European Council - for the reform of the European Union Common Agriculture Policy. As the representative of the European Commission in the reform negotiations for agriculture markets and domestic support, he was instrumental in achieving a political deal with the other two EU Institutions in June 2013. Before this assignment, Mr. Pacheco served as the European Union Ambassador to Brazil from 2005 to 2011. In that position he played a key role in promoting the establishment of the European Union-Brazil Strategic Partnership, which established bilateral consultations on many important fields. He is currently a Senior Fellow in the think-tank Farm Europe and a private consultant. Read less

My name is Manon Vibert, I am 22 and based in Lyon, France. Through my studies, I became well aware of the urgency of the worldwide climate crisis we are facing. My working experience as an Environment Project Manager with TotalEnergies Renewables reinforced this belief. In addition, my travels in South Africa and Argentina taught me to consider the societal and economic aspects when trying to understand practices. This year, I am finishing my engineering master's in agriculture and starting my “working” journey with TerraTerre as a Carbon Project Manager. This smooth transition is a way for me to bring the environment into agriculture. As much as I love the farming world, it is bound to change and evolve, and I am glad to be participating in that transition. Read less

Nathan Cordier is chief analyst at Argus’ agriculture analytics arm Agritel, having joined the company in 2017. He is an agricultural and agronomy engineer, and graduated from the Engineering school UniLaSalle Beauvais. Originally from Normandy, Nathan comes from an agricultural background. His dissertation focused on farmers' risk needs to mitigate their price risk in volatile markets. Read less

Fiona Poynter joined Argus in 2006, having begun her commodities career in the energy industry at Italian oil and natural gas producer Eni. Fiona leads Argus’ business development across agricultural commodities. Fiona spent 8 years working for Argus in Australia where she was responsible for the firm’s business development activities across a range of different commodities, with a particular focus on LNG and natural gas. She previously worked at Argus’ London headquarters as editor of Argus LNG Daily and Argus European Emissions. During her time at Eni, Fiona was responsible for gas sales to the company's UK-based industrial and commercial customers 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

Thomas Hughes is a senior reporter for Argus Media covering prompt physical and forward biodiesel trade in Europe. This includes coverage of key European benchmark prices that are widely used in contracts along the biofuels supply chain. Thomas has more than six years of experience covering commodity markets as diverse as minor metals, bulk agriculture and shipping. Read less

David has more than 30 years’ experience of working in energy markets. Prior to joining Argus, David was most recently chief economist at commodity trading company Gunvor. Before this, he managed the oil industry and markets division of the International Energy Agency and edited its influential monthly Oil Market Report. David has a master’s degree in energy policy and economics from Imperial College London. Read less