Argus Biomass Live - Virtual Conference

Peter has 18 years’ experience of global timber supply chain due diligence and forest policy. He has worked for Ørsted for six years, during which time he has been involved in development and implementation of the Sustainable Biomass Programme and regulatory activities related to the RED II development process in the European Commission and the European Parliament. At Ørsted, he leads the biomass sustainability stakeholder dialogue with NGOs, politicians, academia, regulators and other stakeholders. Read less

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Since 1995, Markus has developed biomass and biogas plants, including biomass sourcing. Danpower operates a number of biomass CHP plants, woodchip boiler houses and about 40 biogas plants across Germany. Markus oversees Danpower Eesti in Estonia and represents the group in various professional associations for the purpose of promoting German bioenergy. Markus graduated from the University of Energy Engineering in Zittau. Read less

Yoshinobu Kusano joined Renova as an Executive Adviser in 2017. From January 2018 he has been head of Renova’s Fuel Procurement Group, Biomass Energy. Prior to that, he worked for Sumitomo head office as well as offices in Saudi Arabia and in Johannesburg as its representatives. He has been involved in the start-up of overseas plantation forest management and operation joint venture as Director. From 2003, he has been intensively focusing on biomass fuel development and sourcing as a head of Sumitomo Biomass Group. He holds a BA in Law from Waseda university in Tokyo. Read less

Timo Gerlagh is a senior biomass and bioenergy adviser at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). He is a specialist in the sustainability of biomass and is involved in the implementation of the sustainability framework for the Netherlands SDE subsidy for biomass, the new EU Renewable Energy Directive — the CA-RES-project — and ICAO. Timo was also involved in the development of the register for renewable energy by the Netherlands Emission Authority (NEa), the development of CEN-standards for solid biofuels and development of the Dutch monitoring protocol for renewable energy. Read less

Søren joined Orsted in 2017, having worked at Swedish utility for Vattenfall 11 years, the last five of which he spent as Head of Global Commodities, based in Amsterdam. He was previously Head of Fuel at Energy E2, a former utility in eastern Denmark. Soren has also held various positions in the energy sector and EU Commission. Read less

Takanobu Aikawa is a Senior Researcher at the Renewable Energy Institute in Tokyo, since June 2016. Takanobu was appointed a member of the Biomass Sustainability Working Group organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in April 2018, and he is a board member of the Japan Woody Bioenergy Association. Takanobu was previously employed in a senior research consulting position for Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, from 2004 to 2016, where he was involved in investigations and consulting activities in the forestry sector. Takanobu obtained his master’s degree in forest ecology from the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. In March 2016, he completed his doctorate in agricultural studies on the theme of human resources development policy in the area of forest management. Read less

A forester by profession, Simon has worked in Europe, South America and southeast Asia on public sector research and development projects, in commercial operations and with investors. He completed his first accreditation audit in 2000, and since then has worked in assurance and standards development covering forestry, palm oil, social accountability and biomass sustainability. He has developed the standards and processes of a number of schemes, and evaluated sustainability programmes for NGOs, companies and government agencies. Simon has also been instrumental in the development of the Sustainable Biomass Program, from conceptualisation of its standards and processes, through consultation, piloting, rollout and to full operational implementation. Read less

Azman has been the chief executive of Northport (Malaysia) since February 2016. Azman began his career with the Central Bank of Malaysia in 1992 and subsequently worked for companies involved in property development, real estate investment trust, hotel management, media/radio broadcasting, information technology and port management. He is currently the President of the London School of Economics (LSE) Alumni Association, Honorary Auditor of the Harvard Club of Malaysia, Executive Council member of the Malaysian Biomass Industries Confederation (MBIC) and General Committee member of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI). Azman holds a Bachelor of Economics from LSE in the UK, and attended the "Macroeconomic Policy and Management" Executive Program at Harvard University in the US. Read less

Richard has been Solvay’s head of energy transition in Europe since January 2019. Solvay is a global leader in advanced materials and specialty chemicals, and Richard is responsible for structuring energy transition roadmaps and projects for all Solvay business units and industrial sites in Europe, with a view to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Among other renewable energy options, Richard and his team oversee sustainable biomass solutions as a substitute for fossil fuels in process heat generation. Richard spent 20 years in the polyamide industry in various business development roles. In his previous position, he was founder and business manager of a plastics recycling unit within Solvay. Read less

Ralf worked for Swedish-Finnish pulp and paper company Stora Enso for more than 12 years as Director for Commodity and Energy Risk Management in Helsinki and London before joining French energy firm Engie in 2008. He held various managerial positions in oil, power and coal trading and is now responsible for Engie’s Global Biomass and Shipping activity. He is based in London. Read less

Neil serves as the Executive Chairman of IncubEx, a company that specialises in the development of environmental commodity markets. He was also co-founder and CEO of Climate Exchange until the sale of the company to Intercontinental Exchange in July 2010 for approximately $400 million. Climate Exchange owned Chicago Climate Exchange and European Climate Exchange, which hosted over 90% of Global Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme volumes. Neil was previously founding Chairman of Trading Emissions, an Aim-listed company that invested in emissions reduction permits. He founded Brit Insurance in 1995 and served as CEO until 2005. He was founder and Chairman of Aggregated Micropower, an Aim-listed renewable developer, until its sale in January 2020. Neil is also a Director of Ebix, a $1.2bn Nasdaq-listed company that provides electric exchange services to the insurance industry. Read less

Gilles Gauthier, Director of Business Development and Membership, Bioenergy Europe As well as being the contact person for any members, Gilles works mainly on pellet issues ‒ market data, pellet sector quality and safety and communication. His background is in industrial engineering, specialising in environment. Before joining Bioenergy Europe, he worked as research and development engineer and then a sales engineer for a Belgian agropellets producer. Later, he worked at the Belgian Biomass Association as pellet expert and co-ordinator. Read less

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. Read less

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Andy has worked in the UK’s organics and alternative fuels sectors for more than 14 years, including nine years at SUEZ UK. Andy’s focus is on the commercial development of alternative fuels for the wood, RDF and SRF markets requiring the development of their fuel production facilities and associated supply chains. Under his leadership, SUEZ UK became the largest exporter of alternative fuels and the first company to successfully supply SRF to non-EU markets for the cement industry. Subsequently, Andy set up his own consultancy business for companies involved in the alternative fuels markets, with a focus on emerging markets. It is in this role that he serves as senior adviser to N+P. Andy is also chairman of the Wood Recyclers’ Association in the UK, which represents UK producers and European energy and panel board consumers. Read less

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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

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Ted Kim is the manager of trading and investment group of Samsung C&T Corporation, covering and developing biomass fuels business such as wood pellet in Asian regions since 2010. Ted's main role is to optimize the global biomass fuels trading operations, as well as to develop the biomass power plant project in S.Korea and Japan. Read less

Lauma joined SUEZ Trading Europe in 2018 and heads market analysis activities for all trading streams – alternative fuels, wood, paper, plastics and non-ferrous metals. She has been working with biomass energy and EfW sectors for nearly 15 years, with previous professional experiences in due diligence work, market assessments and competitive analysis. Read less

Paal studies the interactions between plants, insects and microbes, and particularly how conifer trees defend themselves against bark beetles and their associated fungi. His work is interdisciplinary and he collaborates with chemists, molecular biologists and ecologists at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) and abroad. The methods used span from field experiments to chemical ecology and molecular biology. He studied biology at the University of Oslo, graduating with an MSc in ecology/entomology in 1992 and a PhD in forest entomology in 1996. He has worked at NIBIO since 1992. Since 2004, he has also been an adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, teaching forest entomology. Read less

Jean-Marc Jossart MSc. Agronomic Engineer. Since 1997, he is the General Secretary of Bioenergy Europe. Jean-Marc is an agronomist and started his career in the field of bioenergy in 1992 at the University of Louvain, Belgium. Bioenergy Europe’s mission is to develop the market for sustainable bioenergy, and ensure favorable business conditions for this sector. It also follows up the EU legislation and its implementation, communicates on bioenergy and organizes several sub-groups on pellets and torrefaction. Read less

Takeshi Maruo is the manager of the coal and biomass team at bulk carrier group no 1 at NYK Bulk and Projects Carriers. He joined Nippon Yusen Kaisha in 2002 and has spent 18 years at NYK Group, in charge of Asia-Pacific for conventional vessels, the corporate planning group, PCC and the regional headquarters for containers in London. He joined NYK Bulk Project in October 2018, and takes great pleasure in supporting customers in the biomass business field Read less

Oliver is a Managing Director and Partner of Boreal Bioenergy Corp (BBC). BBC is a Canadian black pellet producer with several project sites in Canada and Asia, looking to supply the global power market, with a special focus on helping Japan reach it’s ambitious renewable energy targets. He owns a biomass and logistics business, Asia Resource Partners Pte Ltd (ARP), with offices in Singapore and Tokyo. ARP has been a pioneer in opening up the Japanese market for Palm Kernel Shells (PKS) since 2008, a major source of biomass energy for the Japanese power sector. Oliver formerly worked at Morgan Stanley , Credit Suisse, and A.C. Nielsen in Singapore and Tokyo. Read less

Mark joined Drax in 2017 from a power market background concentrated on data and intra-day power trading. Since then he has focused primarily on spot trading in the biomass market and is responsible for managing near-term fuel requirements at Drax. Read less

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Francois has worked in commodity markets since 2010. From trading at ArcelorMittal via global strategy at Schneider Electric, Francois has worked within the environmental and energy markets, with a specific focus on international biomass and renewables markets. Joining Tradition Green in 2015 to provide physical commodities origination and new sourcing opportunities for plants and placement for producers, he is also actively working to develop the financial business for wood pellets, and to implement biomass hedging solutions for trading houses, producers and end users. Read less

Johan Mertens is currently biomass trader at Engie Energy Management in Brussels. He has been working in commercial roles in the biomass sector since 2006 when he joined the fuel procurement team of Electrabel (Engie). Before joining Engie, he was a technical buyer at Hydrogenics, a Canadian electrolyser and fuel cell manufacturer. He started his career in the petrochemical sector as a refinery planner at Nynas, a Swedish specialty oils producer. Johan holds a master’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in information technology from KU Leuven university, Belgium. Read less

Cordula Mock-Knoblauch is Director of Renewables and Sustainability in the global New Business Development unit of the Intermediates division of BASF. Together with her team she identifies, evaluates and develops new intermediates based on renewable raw materials as well as initiating and co-ordinating sustainability projects within the Intermediates division. She also represents BASF in the European Bio-based Industries Consortium. Cordula joined BASF in 2000 as a laboratory manager in the central R&D department. She then moved on to a new business development position in the electronic materials unit in Asia and to leadership positions in the Competence Centre Environment, Health and Safety, where she was particularly engaged in air quality and climate protection. She studied chemistry in Bonn, Dublin, Wurzburg and Tokyo and holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Wurzburg, Germany. Read less

Olaf is biomass engineering firm Amandus Kahl’s Senior Area Manager in charge of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. He joined Amandus Kahl’s sales division in 1996 and has been active in various positions and industries. Olaf brings a wealth of experience of wood and biomass pelleting machinery and plants and raw materials including rubber wood, acacia, eucalyptus, empty fruit bunches, oil palm fronds, bagasse, rice husk and straw. Olaf graduated from Nordakademie Hamburg with a combined degree in business administration and industrial engineering. Read less

Stefan Ortner is Chief Executive of OkoFEN’s global headquarters in Austria. Stefan has 10 years of experience in product management, R&D, marketing, developing and managing export markets for pellet heating systems. He has an Engineering degree from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in Austria. Read less

Henry Pease is a member of RWE Supply & Trading’s biofuels trading team, which buys and sells biomass for internal and external customers. Henry has extensive experience of sourcing biomass, particularly from North America and Europe. He has worked closely on the conversion of the UK-based Tilbury power plant from coal to biomass, and with the RWE Essent team on the co-fired biomass Amer power plant in the Netherlands. Prior to joining RWE, Henry developed and raised funding for a biomass combined heat and power and wood pellet plant in Belgium. He has an MBA from the University of Virginia. Read less

Claire Pickard-Cambridge has been with Argus Media for over 16 years, covering a range of energy markets. She began working for the company in London as Africa editor, followed by nine years in the company’s Washington DC office. She joined the Argus Singapore office in January 2016 as the company’s Asia solid fuels manager, responsible for coverage of the thermal coal, petroleum coke and biomass markets. Prior to Argus, she worked at oil consultancy Global Pacific and Partners in Johannesburg, South Africa and previously Africa editor at Business Day newspaper in Johannesburg. Read less

April has been editor of Argus Biomass Markets since 2018, following several years of reporting on global biofuels and biomass markets. She is contact with the industry daily and regularly provides key market insights at conferences and other events. Read less

Christian Rakos has been President of the World Bioenergy Association since May 2020. He is Chief Executive of Save Energy Austria, a company producing and trading energy efficiency certificates. Christian was President of the European Pellet Council in 2010-16 and since mid-2005 has been an Executive Director for Austrian pellet industry association ProPellets Austria. In 2004-05 he worked at the Irish Renewable Energy Information Office as European Projects Manager. Christian joined the Austrian Energy Agency in 1998 where he was responsible for renewable energies with a special focus on bioenergy. Between 1988 and 1998 he worked at the Institute for Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Read less

The renewable energy/energy transition advisor specialises in energy storage, electric mobility and biomass. He is also the co-founder of GF Energy, a producer and wholesaler of wood pellets, which was acquired by Verdo in 2015. Roeland is the advisor to — and agent for — Nova Bioenergy Sia for a number of European countries. Read less

Cleantek Trade is a biomass and harvesting services trading platform and forestry specialist, serving the pulp and energy sectors in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, the Benelux countries, France and the US. Before founding Cleantek, Krister was Head of Sales and Marketing at Aylesford Newsprint in 2012-15, a co-founder of the Arbaro Fund, where he worked in 2007-10, and Managing Director for Emerging Markets at fine paper manufacturer Stora Enso in 2005-08, where he was involved in installing paper production facilities in emerging markets. He is a board member of industry association Bioenergy Europe. Read less

Robert is a Senior Business Developer at European Energy Exchange (EEX), the leading energy exchange in Europe which develops, operates and connects markets for energy and commodity products. He is responsible for identifying business opportunities, developing and implementing exchange products fitting market needs and enriching the exchange’s product portfolio. Robert is dedicated to global markets and has a record of developing environmental products. Prior to joining EEX, Robert worked as portfolio manager and fixed income trader for commodity companies and investment banks in London, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. He has a diploma degree in economics and a diploma degree in business administration from the University of Leipzig. Read less

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Alexander Smotrov is Global Counsel’s practice lead on Russia, Eurasia, and central and eastern Europe. He advises international clients on Russian market entry, the impact of sanctions on Russia and navigating Russian policymaking. He also supports the Global Counsel Europe team with his expertise in CEE politics and policymaking. Before joining Global Counsel, Alexander was chief UK correspondent at the leading Russian news agency RIA Novosti, covering UK and international politics, and Russian businesses globally. And before that he worked for RIA Novosti in Moscow and Prague. 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

Nicole is responsible for the dry bulk market and electricity generation, including renewable energy such as power plants and biomass. For the past 10 years, Nicole has worked in energy and sustainability, including carbon capture and storage and CO2 emissions trading, for the Dutch government, the Rijnmond environmental protection agency and the Port of Rotterdam Authority. Nicole is also a member of the board of the Rotterdam Biomass Commodities Network. 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

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