FT Commodities Global Summit 2019

Mr Michael Barton is a Portfolio Manager at Orion, a mining-focused investment business with approximately US$4.7 billion under management (as at June 30, 2018), which provides flexible capital investment solutions to mining companies in the base and precious metals sector.

Prior to Orion, Mr Barton was Chief Executive Officer of Pala Investments, a mining‐focused investment company based in Zug, Switzerland, and prior to that, was Vice President at Hatch Corporate Finance (now HCF International Advisers), a mining and
metals‐focused corporate finance boutique.

Mr Barton holds a First Class Honours degree in Geography from the University of Leicester and is a qualified chartered accountant (ICAEW).

Alex Beard joined Glencore in May 1995 working in the oil commodity department as a crude oil trader, responsible primarily for the former Soviet Union region and gaining expertise in high-sulphur crudes. 

Mr Beard was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the oil and gas business in February 2007, overseeing all of Glencore’s crude oil and oil products marketing, shipping, exploration and production and other oil-related investments, as well as being a director of various other Glencore Group companies.

Mr Beard holds an MA in biochemistry from the University of Oxford. Before Glencore, he worked for five years for BP in its crude oil department.

Mr Bensaude is in charge of LNG Commercial Operations and Portfolio Management for Cheniere and sits on the Sabine Pass Liquefaction board of directors.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the energy, oil and natural gas trading and marketing business. Prior to joining Cheniere, Mr Bensaude served as Head of Global LNG at EDF Trading where he set up and ran the LNG trading and marketing department. Previous assignments include: General Manager for natural gas and LNG origination.

Prior to EDF Trading, Mr Bensaude was an Associate at Booz Allen & Hamilton in the Energy Practice, working on a variety of gas & power assignments. He started his career in energy as a trader of middle distillates for Total and previously served as the representative for the French bank, Société Générale, in Canton, PR of China. Mr Bensaude held the position of Vice-Chairman of the European Federation of Energy Traders Gas Committee while at EDF Trading.

Mr Bensaude holds an MBA from ESSEC, business school in France, and studied Mandarin at Paris 7 Jussieu.

Kingsmill Bond, CFA is the Energy Strategist for Carbon Tracker. He believes that the energy transition is the most important driver of financial markets and geopolitics in the modern era. Kingsmill has worked as a sell-side City equity analyst and strategist for 25 years, including for Deutsche Bank, Sberbank and Citibank in London, Hong Kong and Moscow. He has written research on emerging market and global themes, including the wider significance of the shale revolution and the impact of US energy independence. 

At Carbon Tracker he has written about the impact of the energy transition on financial markets, domestic politics and geopolitics, and authored a series of reports on the myths of the energy transition, looking at the many arguments made by incumbents to deny the reality of change.

He has an MA in history from Cambridge University, qualified as an accountant (CIMA), and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification.

Meg Brown heads up marketing across Impax and leads the London-based sales team covering UK, continental Europe and Asia. Meg also co-heads our impact investing work.

She has extensive experience in sustainable investing and research, having begun her career in 2002. As head of Citi's top ranked Climate and Sustainable Investment Research team she worked with institutional and private clients across Europe on impact and responsible investment. Ms Brown joined Impax in 2014 following a period as a consultant to private sector and not for profit clients in designing responsible investment strategies, including acting as the UK Liaison for the Global Impact Investing Network. 

Ms Brown has a MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and is a non-executive director on the board of the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

Matthew Chamberlain is the CEO of the London Metal Exchange and a member of the Management Committee of HKEX Group.  He was previously the COO and Head of Strategy of the LME and co-Head of Business Development across the LME and LME Clear.

During his time at the LME, Mr Chamberlain has led the LME's warehousing reform process, the deployment of the new London platinum and palladium prices and the LMEprecious initiative.

Mr Chamberlain joined the LME in November 2012 having advised HKEX on the acquisition of the LME while heading European financial technology coverage at UBS.  Previously, he was a founding member of the financial institutions coverage team at Perella Weinberg.  He started his career at Citibank.  Mr Chamberlain holds an MA from Cambridge University

Jingtao (Johnny) Chi is Executive Vice-President of COFCO Corporation and Chairman of COFCO International. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of COFCO International in 2017 and in 2018 became Chairman of COFCO International. Mr Chi joined COFCO Corporation in 2003 and was appointed Head of the Human Resources department in 2004. From 2010 to 2016, he served as Vice-President of COFCO Corporation, while holding the positions of Chairman of China Agri-Industries Holdings Ltd., China Food Ltd. and CEO of China Grains & Logistics Corp and COFCO Trading Ltd.

Mr Chi has bachelor’s degrees in both Engineering from Armored Engineering Institute and Enterprise Management from Fudan University in Shanghai. Johnny holds an EMBA from Beijing University of International Business and Economics.

Pat Crepeault has more than 25 years’ experience across the financial, commodity, and trading sectors having worked for Gerald Group since 1994, when she joined the Group’s Treasury Department. In 2007, she was appointed Treasurer and is responsible for overseeing the Group’s liquidity and cash flow management. In 2016, she became Senior Vice President, Head of Operations and Liquidity and is a member of the Management committee. In 2017, Ms Crepeault was appointed to the Board of Directors of Gerald Group. Ms Crepeault also oversees the US office as General Manager US.

Mark Cutifani (61) has been Chief Executive of Anglo American since April 2013. He is a member of the Board and Group Management Committee (GMC), is a non-executive director of Anglo American Platinum, chairman of Anglo American South Africa (AASA) and chairman of De Beers. He was appointed as an independent director of Total S.A. on 26 May 2017 and The Power of Nutrition on 12 February 2018.

Having begun his career in 1976 as a trainee engineer in the Australian coal mines, Mark has since worked across six continents, 25 countries and with more than 20 commodities. 

He has built a reputation based on his broad industry, technical and commercial knowledge, and is recognised as an industry innovator with a track record of building high performance teams and delivering improvements across all facets of the business. 

Mark was previously CEO of AngloGold Ashanti Limited, a position he held from 2007-2013. Before joining AngloGold Ashanti, Mark was COO at Vale Inco where he was responsible for Vale’s global nickel business. Prior to this he held senior executive positions with the Normandy Group, Sons of Gwalia, Western Mining Corporation, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and CRA (Rio Tinto).

With a leadership style that puts its focus on people development, accountability and the delivery of sustainable value, Mark has placed an emphasis on developing strong shareholder, employee and stakeholder relationships.

Mark graduated from Wollongong University, New South Wales, with a BSc in Engineering and holds two honorary doctorates awarded by Wollongong and the Laurentian University in Canada.

Jeffrey Dellapina is a member of the Vitol Executive Committee. Mr Dellapina joined Vitol in January 2005 from JPMorgan Chase, where he was a Managing Director in the Investment Banking/Sales and Trading division. Mr Dellapina holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Marco Dunand is Group Chief Executive for Mercuria Energy Group, one of the world's largest independent energy and commodity groups. Previous to his current post, Mr Dunand successfully spearheaded the launch of Sempra Energy in Europe and Asia. He left the company in 2004 to found Mercuria together with Daniel Jaeggi.

From 1994 to 1999 he was appointed Managing Director of the European and Asian operations at Phibro, Salomon Brothers in London. Mr Dunand previously joined the J.Aron division at Goldman Sachs, based in London, where he was Managing Director of the European crude oil business. At the beginning of his trading career, he worked with Cargill International SA. Mr Dunand graduated from the University of Geneva, where he earned a degree in Economics and Management.

Kristen Eshak Weldon is Head of Food Innovation & Downstream Strategy at Louis Dreyfus Company. An American and British national, Kristen joined the Group in 2019 after 13 years at Blackstone, where she held several positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Senior Managing Director (Partner) and Co-Head of the London office, with oversight of the London investment team and supervising legal, compliance, investor relations and business development activities.

Prior to Blackstone, she worked in commodity derivatives at JPMorgan in London and New York. Ms Eshak Weldon also served as Founding Board Member of 100 Women in Finance Ltd. between 2007 and 2017. In addition to pursuing a Sloan Fellowship Master’s degree in Leadership and Strategy at London Business School, she holds a degree in Finance & International Business from Georgetown University (US), UK and US securities regulatory FCA qualifications, and received several awards over the years recognising leading women in finance.

Jessica Fung is head of Pala’s in-house macro and commodities research.  Her work contributes to Pala’s long-term and liquid investment strategies, with a focus on emerging technologies such as the impact of electric vehicles, renewables and blockchain on commodities markets.  Prior to joining the investment team at Pala, Ms Fung was a Commodities Strategist at BMO Capital Markets, a member of their top-ranked Metals & Mining global research team.

Pablo Galante Escobar is Head of LNG at Vitol.  Mr Galante Escobar has over 20 years’ experience in the energy sector.  He began his career at BP Venezuela in 1996, before moving to London in 1999 where he became head of West Africa crude trading in BP.  He joined Vitol in January 2006.  During his time with Vitol Pablo has traded crude across multiple regions, before becoming head of LNG in 2016.

Mr Galante Escobar has an Honours degree in Economics from UCAB in Caracas.

Tim Glenn serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team and is Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer of Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont.

Based in Johnston, Iowa, Mr Glenn leads the global commercial organisation, which has six commercial regions – Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa & Middle East, Europe, U.S. and Canada – and the Global Commercial Effectiveness function. Most recently, he was Vice President, Global Seed Business Platform for Corteva Agriscience. Mr Glenn joined Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1991, and held a variety of marketing roles working in seed markets around the world. In 1997, he joined Dow AgroSciences as Corn Product Manager, Mycogen Seeds, and served in key sales and business leadership roles in the Crop Protection and Seeds businesses of Dow AgroSciences. He rejoined Pioneer in 2006 as Director, North America Marketing. He held other leadership positions including Regional Business Director, Latin America and Canada; Vice President, Integrated Operations and Commercial Effectiveness for the DuPont Pioneer business. In 2015 he was appointed President, DuPont Crop Protection.

Mr Glenn is a member of the Iowa Business Council and has previously served on the Board of Directors of Brazil-U.S. Business Council. He earned his Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University, College of Agriculture, and a Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business.

Paul Graves is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Livent. Before joining Livent, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of FMC. 

Mr Graves previously served as a Managing Director and Partner in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs Group in Hong Kong and was the co-head of Natural Resources for Asia. He also served as the Global Head of Agricultural Investment Banking and Global Head of Chemical Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs.

Mr Graves earned his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Finance from Nottingham Trent University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA).

Andrew Hall was the head of commodities-trading firm Phibro LLC for over 20 years and the founder and CEO of Astenbeck Capital Management LLC., a $3 billion commodities-focused hedge fund manager.

Mr Hall has an MA in chemistry from Oxford University and an MBA from France’s INSEAD business school where, in 1980, he won the Henry Ford prize for top graduate.

After graduating from Oxford in 1973, Mr Hall joined British Petroleum where he served in various posts, the last as Vice President of BP North America Trading in New York. He left BP to join Phibro Energy in 1982. Mr Hall joined the Board of Directors of Salomon Inc., the parent company of Phibro, in 1991 and became CEO of Phibro in 1992.

Mr Hall is an internationally renowned art collector. In 2007, he and his wife Christine Hall founded the Hall Art Foundation whose mission is to make available art works from its own collection and that of the Halls for the enjoyment and education of the public.

Mr Hall currently serves on the advisory boards of Orbital Insight and Enerjen Capital.

Mark Hankins is director, enterprise architecture within Archer Daniels Midland Company’s global IT organisation. In that position, he is a leader in the company’s efforts to align and embed the business strategy within the IT strategy.  Mr Hankins has a specific focus on leveraging both traditional and emerging technologies to drive the Enterprise Strategy.  Recently this has included identifying and delivering initiatives to support the use of robotics, Blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning into the organisation.

Mr Hankins has served in a variety of positions since joining ADM in 2010 as director, strategic projects. In previous roles, he has taken responsibility for master data management, project and portfolio management, and supported the integration of joint ventures and acquisitions. Before coming to ADM, he worked in the consulting industry mainly focused on large scale transformation programs in which technology played a leading or disruptive role.

Mr Hankins holds a bachelor’s of science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Bristol and is also a certified professional Enterprise Architect and Management Accountant.

Russell Hardy is Group CEO Vitol, a leading physical trading company for energy with a turnover of $181 billion in 2017. Russell has 30 years’ experience in the oil industry.  He joined Vitol in 1993 from BP and has held a number of trading and management roles in Singapore and London.  He has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2007 and most recently was CEO EMEA with oversight of the company’s regional trading activity. 

Russell holds a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London.

Tony is Chairman of Glencore, a Managing Partner of St James’s Asset Management LLP, Chairman of Andes Holding and Chairman of Compact GtL. He was Group Chief Executive of BP from 2007 to 2010 having joined BP in 1982 as a rig geologist in the North Sea. Following a series of roles overseas he joined the Upstream Executive Committee in 1997. He became Group Treasurer in 2000, Chief Executive for BP’s upstream activities and member of the Main Board of BP in 2003.
In June 2011 Tony founded Vallares plc, a $2.2bn acquisition company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Following the merger of Vallares plc and Genel Energy International, the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, he became Chief Executive of Genel Energy plc in November 2011. He was appointed Chairman of Genel Energy in August 2015 and retired from this position in June 2017.

Tony is a member of the British Museum’s Chairman’s Advisory Board, chairs Aston University Development Board and is Advisor to the European Institute of Bioenergy at Aston University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a visiting Professor in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh.
Tony studied geology at Aston University in Birmingham and completed a PhD at Edinburgh University. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, Aston University, the University of Birmingham and Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.

In January 2017 Alan Haywood was appointed Chief Executive Officer of BP’s global energy trading business. He serves on a number of Group company boards.

Mr Haywood joined BP in London in 1988 and has held a wide variety of leadership roles in the Trading business in Europe and the US over more than 25 years. He has also worked in Merrill Lynch and Bankers Trust in 1992-1997, trading oil and precious metal financial derivatives.  

After being Head of the Group CFO’s Executive Office in 2005-7, Mr Haywood became Head of Supply and Trading for BP’s European Oil business, managing trading and supply for Oil as well as global currency trading and interest rate management. In April 2010, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer Global Gas. In this role, he was responsible for sales of all gas produced by BP and for procuring all gas for BP’s marketing businesses, including LNG.

From 2011-14, Mr Haywood was President of Downstream Gas and Head of Commercial Development, with responsibility for the monetisation of gas and the development of strategy and long-term commercial ventures across the supply and trading portfolio. In November 2014, Mr Haywood took the role of Group Treasurer for BP plc. He was responsible for the central financing of the BP Group, providing liquidity to its businesses and optimising value through the management of financial risks at the group level.

Mr Haywood holds a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford.

Daniel F. Hines is Chief Financial Officer at Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI). Prior to joining CCI, Mr Hines worked at. J.P. Morgan since 1989, where he held a variety of senior level finance positions within the investment bank. From 2007 to 2011, he was Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Management for J.P. Morgan’s global commodities business where he played a key role in the expansion of the commodities franchise. He received his BS in accounting from St. John’s University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Richard has over 25 years’ experience as a corporate finance adviser to companies in the Metals & Mining sector.  Before joining Standard Chartered in August 2018, Richard was Regional Head of RBC Capital Markets Metals & Mining Group based in London where he spent 13 years advising clients on M&A and capital markets transactions.  Prior to RBC, Richard worked for 8 years at Flemings/JPMorgan in London, Johannesburg and Hong Kong.  Richard was also one of the founders of Hatch Corporate Finance in 2003.   Richard has extensive advisory experience with large to mid-cap clients including Glencore, ArcelorMittal, Barrick, First Quantum and Orion Mine Finance.

Peter Keavey serves as Managing Director, Global Head of Energy Products at CME Group. He is responsible for managing CME Group’s existing suite of energy products, including crude oil, refined products, natural gas, power, natural gas liquids, coal and renewables. In his current role, Mr Keavey also works closely with customers to lead development and execution of new risk management tools for the energy industry.

Mr Keavey has more than 27 years of experience in the futures and options industry, including 15 years as a trader of physical and financial Energy products across the natural gas and crude oil and refined product markets. Prior to joining CME Group in 2013, Mr Keavey was a Portfolio Manager at Graham Capital Management focusing on energy markets. He served as Managing Director and Head of Energy Trading at Scotia Capital from 2008-2011, and has held various commodity trading positions for Enron Corporation, Societe Generale and Lehman Brothers. He earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business.

Karin Kersten is Head of Trade & Commodity Finance and member of the Management Team of Corporate & Institutional Banking.

Before joining ABN AMRO in 2003, Ms Kersten worked for McKinsey & Company and Mees Pierson. During her career within ABN AMRO, Ms Kersten worked as a Managing Director in various roles like Strategic Risk Management and Transaction Banking.

Ms Kersten has very broad experience in amongst others Strategy, Corporate Banking, Corporate Finance and Risk Management.

Philip Lambert is CEO of Lambert Energy Advisory Ltd (LEA), which is one of London’s leading M&A and Strategic Advisory firms, having been advisors on over $110 billion of Energy M&A transactions in the last few years. Milestone transactions, on which LEA has advised, include BASF/Wintershall’s merger with DEA in 2018, Total’s acquisition of Maersk Oil in 2017 and BP’s alliance with Rosneft in 2013.
Prior to 1999, Mr Lambert was head of Dresdner Kleinwort’s Global Energy Investment Banking team.

George Magnus is an independent economist and commentator, and Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. George was the Chief Economist, and then Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank from 1995-2016. He served for four years as the Chair of the Investment Committee of the pension and life assurance fund. He had previously worked as the Chief Economist at SG Warburg (1987-1995), and before that in a senior capacity before ‘Big Bang’ at Laurie Milbank/Chase Securities, and prior to that with Bank of America in London and San Francisco. George is closely followed nowadays for his insights and observations about the global economy in general, but with a specific focus on China and demographics. His China focus derives from a long period of observation and study that goes back to his first visit in 1994. He is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, Prospect Magazine, BBC TV and radio, Bloomberg TV and other outlets. George’s current book, Red Flags: why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy was published in 2018 by Yale University Press, and then in paperback with newly commissioned material. It examines China’s contemporary economic and commercial challenges and aspirations to modernity in the light of the governance system of President Xi. His earlier books are The Age of Aging (2008), which investigated the effects of the unique experience of demographic change on the global economy; and Uprising: will emerging markets shape or shake the world economy? (2011) which examined the rise of China and other major emerging markets.

Chris Mahoney joined Glencore in September 1998. From September 1998 until November 2002, he was responsible for Glencore’s agricultural product activities in the CIS, South Africa and South America. In November 2002, he became director of the Agricultural Products business segment, overseeing all global farming, logistics, processing and marketing businesses, responsible for both strategy and operations. In December 2016 following the acquisition of 50% of Glencore Agricultural Products by CPPIB and BCIMC and the formation of Glencore Agriculture Ltd he became Chief Executive Officer. Before joining Glencore, he spent 17 years with Cargill, being based in the UK, the U.S., Singapore and Switzerland, and held various management positions in sugar and grain, gaining expertise in the agricultural products industry and marketing operations. He graduated from Oxford University.

Ian McIntosh is Chief Executive Officer for Louis Dreyfus Company. A British national, he joined the Group in 1986 as a Junior Trader in London. Mr McIntosh led the UK Grains desk from 1989 to 1991, when he moved to Paris to trade
global Feedgrains, and then to Melbourne to lead Australasian Grain activities. Returning to London in 1993 as a Sugar Trader, he was appointed Global Head of Sugar in 1996 to lead the platform’s global integration and expansion. Between 1999 and 2006, Mr McIntosh also managed our global Coffee, Cocoa, Rice, Ethanol and Grains activities, supervised the Group’s integration of a Metals business, and contributed to the re-organisation that led to the creation of LDC’s current structure. In 2008 he left LDC to set up Edesia Asset Management as part of the Louis Dreyfus Group, serving as CEO and CIO until its closure in 2018, when he was appointed to his most recent role as Chief Strategy Officer. Mr McIntosh holds a degree in Biological Sciences from Leeds University, UK.

Dr Andreas Missbach heads the Commodities, Trade and Finance Department and is Joint Managing Director of Public Eye. He is a social scientist with a Ph.D on the North-South conflict in the UN Climate Change negotiations. Before joining Public Eye (formerly Berne Declaration) he was Environmental and Foreign Policy editor of a Swiss weekly newspaper. At Public Eye he initially focused on the development and human rights related aspects of Swiss banks and of Switzerland’s role as a tax haven.

In 2011 together with a team of co-authors Dr Missbach published “Commodities – Switzerland’s most dangerous business”, the first book about the commodity trading business in Switzerland. The book triggered a debate in Switzerland and beyond about Switzerland’s role and its responsibilities as a global trading hub. His team has published a series of investigative reports on the questionable practices of Swiss commodity trading companies as well as issuing policy proposals to regulate this sector for the common good. Dr Missbach is also a member of the committee that launched the Responsible Business Initiative, a referendum to be voted by the Swiss population in 2020. 

In 2018, Wendy Moss was appointed Head of Trafigura’s Strategic Management and Development Group, a team of senior traders responsible for key strategic commercial relationships across the oil trading department globally. Ms Moss also takes an interest in Trafigura’s rapidly growing US businesses, specifically looking at the Permian and Corpus Christi development projects and how they will impact the global oil flows for the Group.

Prior to this role Ms Moss spent several years looking after Trafigura’s European crude oil business, including managing key refinery processing contracts and significant tankage positions throughout the region. Ms Moss also co-ordinated multi-year Russian crude oil and products offtake contracts. 

Prior to joining Trafigura in 2004, Ms Moss spent 10 years at Shell as a crude oil trader, working across a broad range of regions including the Middle East, Asia and West Africa. She holds a M.Eng degree in Chemical Engineering and joined Shell as a graduate in downstream marketing.

James Nicholson is Head of Corporate Responsibility at Trafigura, having joined the company in 2010 to help establish a Corporate Affairs team.  

Responsible for driving the Group’s responsibility agenda worldwide, Mr Nicholson's focus has included developing the company’s leadership position on transparency and stakeholder engagement in the commodity trading sector.  In 2015, Trafigura became the first privately owned commodities trader to release an annual Corporate Responsibility report and to disclose payments to governments for oil in accordance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative standard.  More recently, Mr Nicholson has led Trafigura’s efforts in pursuit of the responsible sourcing of metals and minerals and, more widely, the assimilation by Trafigura of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Mr Nicholson graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) in Management and Organisation Studies before joining De Beers as a management trainee.

Simone Niven was appointed Corporate Relations Group executive in January 2017. Ms Niven joined Rio Tinto in 2008 and has accountability for the Group’s reputation and corporate relations areas – external affairs,
communities, media, brand, reputation and employee communications. She also has responsibility for the leadership of the country and regional office teams including Africa, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, UK and the US.

Prior to joining Rio Tinto Ms Niven spent over 15 years working in senior roles at some of the world’s largest companies across many continents, including Vodafone, the United Technologies group, Smiths Group plc and Smith & Nephew plc in a range of corporate relations fields. A graduate of the University of Canberra, Australia, Simone has lived and worked in Sydney and London. She began her career in communications in 1993 as a communications officer at the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Ms Niven  is a board member of both The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the UK-Japan 21st Century Group.

Mark Quartermain is responsible for Shell’s global trading and supply activity for Crude. Between 2013 and the end of 2017 he had been responsible for the parallel trading and supply activities in Oil Products.

Mr Quartermain has worked for Shell since graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Exeter University in 1983. The majority of his career has been spent in various roles in crude oil and products trading, natural gas and powered trading, risk management, and manufacturing. He has an MBA and was also responsible for Downstream Strategy from 2011-2013 where he played a leading role in the development of the
Powering the Downstream Engine initiative. 

Graham Ramsbottom joined The Grosvenor Estate, an organisation with almost 1,000 years of history, in March 2009 and was instrumental in founding Wheatsheaf Group in 2011, being appointed as its Chief Executive. Mr Ramsbottom has led the  Wheatsheaf Group’s development to become one of the world’s leading investors and operators of businesses in the AgFoodtech sector. Today the Group has a portfolio of over 20 cutting edge and disruptive companies which focus on themes including efficient protein production, supply chain integrity and safety, and the recovery and efficient use of essential nutrients.

Until 2009 Mr Ramsbottom worked for The Co-operative Group, the UKs largest Co-operative (and largest farmer), as Director of Rural Estates where he led a wide range of sustainable energy, rural and urban development projects throughout the UK. Prior to this, he was an Associate Partner with the land management consultancy, Strutt & Parker, managing rural enterprises and landholdings throughout Scotland and Northern England and developed a farm management consultancy specialising in the restructuring and management of traditional farm businesses. This followed a commission as an officer in the Royal Navy.

Mr Ramsbottom studied at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (BSc Agriculture), The Royal Agricultural College (MSc Rural Land Management). He completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme in 2010.

Fredrik Reinfeldt has been active in Swedish and international politics for over 25 years. As Party leader and Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Reinfeldt reinvented the Moderate Party (centre-right) and formed a four-party alliance that won two successive elections.

Today Mr Reinfeldt holds international speeches on the geopolitical situation, leadership and the need for job reforms in Europe. Having been a member of the European Council for 8 years and its President for six months, he has an extensive international network. In February 2016 Mr Reinfeldt was elected as chair to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The EITI is an international coalition of stakeholders working together to promote open and accountable management of natural resources.

In March 2016 Mr Reinfeldt was appointed as Senior Advisor to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr Reinfeldt hosted a TV interview series in 2016/2017 called “Toppmötet” (The Summit) with Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Jens Stoltenberg.

Stefano Rettore is senior vice president and president of ADM’s Origination business unit. In that role, he is responsible for the commercial activities and operations of the company’s agricultural origination and global trading businesses, as well as ADM’s transportation network, which spans more than 75 countries. Mr Rettore is also ADM’s chief risk officer, and a member of the company’s Executive Council.

Mr Rettore joined ADM in 2017. Before that, he served as president, International, for CHS, based in Europe and with oversight of operations in Asia Pacific, EMEA and South America. He previously served as the company’s president, South America, from 2002 to 2014. He has more than two decades of global experience in the agribusiness industry. 

Mr Rettore holds a graduate degree in international economics from Università degli Studi di Torino in Turin, Italy.

Justine Ryan was appointed the Global Director for Commercial Partnering and Development at GE Renewable Energy in May 2018, based in London. She is responsible for driving strategic partnerships and business growth across GE Renewable Energy’s portfolio of businesses through development, co-development and innovative commercial solutions.Ms Ryan’s scope includes corporate and industrial offtake, development capital and financing support which enable projects in the post-subsidy world of renewable energies.

In her previous role as Director for Energy Equity Investments Europe at GE Energy Financial Services, she was responsible for originating equity investments for GE. Prior to joining EFS, Ms Ryan worked for SSE (FTSE 100), one of the UK’s largest utilities company, as the Head of Business Development for UK and Ireland where she was responsible for end to end management of complex, high value acquisitions, disposals and JV strategy. She has over 15 years of experience in the energy sector and has held various senior management roles within SSE and Airtricity in strategy, business and project development space across onshore, offshore wind and thermal businesses with responsibilities for growing portfolio across the UK, Ireland and Poland.

Ms Ryan has an Executive MBA from HULT International Business School London, a Diploma in Financial Management (ACCA) from Dublin Business School, an MA from Queens University Belfast and an MSc from the University of Silesia, Poland. She is involved in social entrepreneurship initiatives and has been providing support to charitable causes, including fundraising for Children of Peru Charity as part of the New York Marathon in 2018.

Christophe Salmon joined Trafigura in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer EMEA and became Chief Financial Officer for the company in October 2015.

Mr Salmon is a graduate from Sciences Po in Paris and holds a Masters in Finance. After an active national service with the French Navy, Mr Salmon started his career with credit insurance group Euler Hermes in France.

In 1995 he joined BNP Paribas in the internal audit department, moving to the energy and commodities finance division in 2001. Here he rose through the ranks to be appointed head of the commodity finance department for EMEA, then the leading team in the market.

Mr Hiroki Sato is one of the foundation members of JERA from Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and is now Chief LNG Transactions Officer, Senior Executive Vice President of JERA Co., Inc. and Special Advisor of Chubu. He graduated from Keio University, specialising in Marketing Management and has previously worked as a diplomat in Middle East.

Mr Sato has over 25 years of experience in LNG business. He has made several innovative deals such as the first MSPA in Asia, joint purchasing, time swap, tripartite SPA, liquefaction tolling agreements in Freeport LNG Project, capacity agreement with European players whilst at Chubu and JERA.

Valmor Schaffer is Managing Director of COFCO International in Brazil. Before joining COFCO International in 2015 as President of South America, he was President of South America and Country Manager Brazil at Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM). Mr Schaffer has over 30 years of experience in the grain and oilseeds industry. Before joining ADM, he held various management positions at companies including GSI, Grupo Rezende and Cocamar.

Mr Schaffer studied foreign trade at Unisinos University in Brazil and economics at Brazil’s Facultades Integradas do Triangulo. He also attended the CEO-led Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School.

Rosmarie Schlup is Head of the Macroeconomic Support Division at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) since November 2016. In this function, she has been a member of the Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) representing a group of supporting countries. Her division’s portfolio covers a range of programs that target the extractive sector in resource rich developing countries, among them the EITI and World Bank, and IMF trust funds to strengthen resource governance and improve fiscal regimes. Additionally, she is responsible for programs that address specific difficulties with high relevance in the sector such as illicit financial flows, transfer pricing, tax avoidance and money laundering. She has previously worked as Senior Technical Assistance Officer at the International Monetary Fund’s Institute for Capacity Development and SECO’s Macroeconomic Support Division as Deputy Head.

Prior to joining the division, Ms Schlup was Deputy Head of SECO’s Export and Location Promotion Division and served as Head of Delegation to the Paris Club. Before joining SECO, she worked as policy advisor for the Swiss government. Ms Schlup holds a MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a MA in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

Mr Schneiter has over 20 years of experience in information technology, having held executive positions in trading, consulting and technology companies. He joined COFCO International in 2016 as Chief Information Officer Latin America and was appointed Global Chief Information Officer in 2017. Mr Schneiter joined COFCO International from Odebrecht, a Brazilian engineering and construction company, where he held the position of Chief Information Officer. Previously he worked at IBM and PwC in Brazil. Mr Schneiter holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Pontifícia Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and an executive MBA from Business School São Paulo. 

Robert Serpollet is Global Head of Trade Operations at Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC). He is responsible for organising post-trade settlements of physical and derivative trades. Prior to his current role, he held various managerial positions in the company at regional and global levels, including that of Chief Operating Officer for the Europe & Black Sea Region, and Global Head of Organisational Strategy. Over the course of his career, Mr Serpollet has specialised in organisational change, and he is committed to the pursuit of operational excellence. Currently, he is leading the adoption of innovative technologies, such as blockchain, Robotics Process Automation and AI, across LDC’s trade operations structure. Mr Serpollet started his career in the telecom industry in France and worked with McKinsey before joining LDC. He is an alumnus of the ESSEC Business School in France. He holds a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Telecommunication.

Andrew Smart has worked with many of the world’s leading oil and gas companies, helping them to develop their strategies and direction, reset their organisations and transform key elements of their operating models. This has been driven both from his background in business diversification, growth and portfolio development, allied with a personal interest in corporate culture, industry performance and business change.
 
Given the exciting combination of market volatility and technological change in the industry, his current focus as Accenture’s Industry Senior Managing Director for Oil and Gas is to identify where and how Accenture can best help our clients find the right blend of ‘Human and Machine’ to take advantage of fast evolving digital technologies.

Benedikt Sobotka is the CEO of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), a leading producer of natural resources that employs 85,000 people on four continents. Mr Sobotka was born in Germany and has extensive experience in advisory/management roles in the mining and energy sectors. At BCG, he advised leading companies and held various management positions. Benedikt founded Minerals Values Service (MVS), among other high-tech startups, which was sold to Platts/Dow Jones in 2015. He holds a degree in management, studied in Europe, Russia and China and co-authored "China Champions", a Financial Times publication. He is particularly interested in international, CIS and East Asian geopolitical relations.

In 2017, ERG helped launch the Global Battery Alliance, a World Economic Forum initiative aimed at achieving a responsible battery supply chain. ERG is a founding member and partner of the Alliance while Benedikt is a co-chair. Aiming to ensure sustainable cobalt production and drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution, ERG initiated the Clean Cobalt programme. ERG’s Metalkol RTR project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is set to become one of the world’s leading cobalt producers and supply enough material to build over three million electric vehicles per year.

Nick co-ordinates Legal & General Investment Management’s research into the investment implications of climate change and the energy transition. Alongside his research activities, he also manages a portfolio focused on the energy transition. Prior to joining LGIM, Nick worked for Standard Life Investments as an Investment Director in their Asia and Global Emerging Markets team.

Jon Stanton is CEO of The Weir Group PLC, one of the largest global engineering businesses servicing the mining and oil and gas sectors. Founded in Glasgow, Scotland in 1871 Weir has operations in more than 70 countries.

Since becoming CEO in 2016 Mr Stanton has focused on building on Weir’s strengths as a leading provider of minerals technologies from extraction to concentration. Last year Weir completed the largest acquisition in its 148-year history with the purchase of ESCO Corporation, a global leader in ground engaging tools for large mining machines. As a result, more than 80% of Weir’s revenues are now generated from mining and oil and gas markets.

Mr Stanton first joined Weir as Group Finance Director in 2010 having previously been a partner with EY, where he led global board-level relationships with a number of FTSE-100 multi-national companies.

Jakob Stausholm joined Rio Tinto in September 2018. He has worked in senior finance roles for over 20 years. Mr Stausholm worked 19 years for Shell across Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. In his last role as VP Finance for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, he worked on developing the Changbei gas development that proudly was finalised to deliver gas to Beijing just ahead of the Olympics in 2008.

In 2008 Mr Stausholm moved back to his native Denmark as Group CFO of Global Facility Service provider ISS, where he worked with ISS China, headquartered in Shanghai, that has 17,000 staff. Since 2012, Mr Stausholm worked for A.P. Moller-Maersk, initially as Chief Strategy, Finance and Transformation Officer for Maersk Line and later in that role for the whole Maersk Group. Maersk is most dependent on the development of China, today almost half of the global container traffic touches China either as export or as import. Maersk has ownership of terminals in China and provides extensive container logistics inland China. Mr Stausholm was also responsible for Maersk’ shared service centre in Chengdu with several thousand staff.

Ian Taylor has over 30 years’ experience in the energy sector. He began his career with Shell in 1978 and worked in both South America and South East Asia before joining Vitol in 1985. At Vitol he established the crude oil group and was MD of Vitol Asia, prior to being appointed CEO in 1995. Under his leadership, Vitol grew to become the leading physical trading company for energy, trading in excess of seven million barrels of oil a day from its 40 offices worldwide. As well expanding its trading portfolio and upstream expertise, Vitol has invested in a range of complementary, largely downstream businesses, including refineries, energy infrastructure, such as terminal and storage, and 5,000 service stations in Africa, Australia and Eurasia.

Mr Taylor has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford and is actively involved in the arts and charities which support children and young people from less privileged backgrounds.

Torbjörn Törnqvist co-founded Gunvor Group Ltd in 2000. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the international oil markets, he established Gunvor as one of the world’s leading oil trading companies, and is focused on integrating Gunvor’s diversified operations to grow its position as a leading commodities trading house.

Mr Törnqvist received a business degree from Stockholm University. Before co-founding Gunvor, he was managing director for the oil division of Intermaritime Group Petrotrade. Previously, he worked at British Petroleum from 1977 to 1983, and then became head of oil trading at Scandinavian Trading Co AB until 1989. Mr. Törnqvist has more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.

Simon Vere Nicoll advises on public and private company corporate finance transactions including IPOs and secondary offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and private equity transactions and provides inward investment and fund structuring advice, often with a cross-border or multi-jurisdictional element.

His practice focuses on advising international companies, investors, commodities and industrials, fund providers, developers, and other intermediaries operating in the commodities, trade, industrials, energy and property sectors. He is known for providing specialist advice on the structuring and financing of joint ventures and inward investment and fund structuring advice, often with a cross-border or multi-jurisdictional element and on solvent restructuring as well as M&A activity.

Guillaume Vermersch is the Group Chief Financial Officer and a group board member of Mercuria Energy Group (Mercuria). Mr Vermersch is part of the founding team of Mercuria. Previously he spent five years as head of the Credit and Finance Risk department of Sempra Oil Trading for Europe and Asia. He was responsible for defining, implementing and monitoring the full scope of the Sempra Energy credit and financial strategies, from trading business requirements to banking, finance and risk management responsibilities to support the oil and energy division’s expansion.

Prior to that, Mr Vermersch spent 11 years in the energy, metals and mining commodities and structured finance departments of ING/BBL Bank and CIB in Geneva and Paris. Mr Vermersch started his career with Arthur Andersen in Paris. He holds an MBA from the Manchester Business School and also graduated from École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris Europe (ESCP Europe Business School).

Jeremy Weir became Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trafigura in April 2018. This follows his appointment as CEO of the company in March 2014 after a career spanning nearly three decades in commodity and commodity derivative markets.

An Australian national, Mr Weir joined the Trafigura Group in 2001 as head of metals derivatives, structured products and risk management. Immediately prior to becoming CEO he served as a Management Board Director, Head of Risk and CEO of Galena Asset Management and Trafigura Mining Group.

Before Trafigura, Mr Weir spent nearly nine years between 1992 and 2000 with N M Rothschild. Mr Weir holds a BSc (Hons), Geology Major, from the University of Melbourne.

Marcie Weiss began working with MUFG in May, 2013 to build the Commodity Finance business in North America for the Wholesale Banking division. After arriving at MUFG, Marcie built a team of 16 professionals dedicated to the Commodity Finance business. Ms Weiss and her new team demonstrated the strength of the platform by quickly becoming a leader among the Commodity Finance banking universe. As of March, 2018, the Commodity and Structured Trade Finance group was merged with the Commodity Finance team and is now part of the Investment Banking Division in the Americas.

Ms Weiss manages the combined team of 41 professionals including 4 people located in San Paolo, Brazil. The CSTF business provides trade finance products to wholesale banking clients in North America and Latin America. Prior to joining MUFG, Ms Weiss was Head of Commodity Finance NA for BNP Paribas where she worked since 1979. While at BNP Paribas, Marcie developed a franchise business for Commodity Finance ultimately becoming the lead bank in the industry. She worked to lead arrange, structure and syndicate secured CF transactions; a role which continues at MUFG. Ms Weiss is involved with Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) and also serves on the board as a Director for LICADD (Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence). Originally from New York, Ms Weiss lived in France for two years prior to joining BNPP and is fluent in French.

Helene Ziv-Douki is the Risk Management and Sourcing Director for Cargill Animal Nutrition. Ms Ziv-Douki has worked for Cargill since 2003. In Cargill she has held a variety of roles as Trading Global Leader, in Ocean Transportation, Coal and Petroleum. Prior to her career in Cargill, Ms Ziv-Douki worked in Paris for four years at Louis Dreyfus Commodities as a Grain Trader. 

Ms Ziv-Douki holds an MBA from the Neoma Business School in France and spent one year as an exchange student at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Brazil. She has lived in France, Brazil and Switzerland, speaks fluent English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Ms Ziv-Douki is originally from Paris and lives in Geneva. She has been engaging in the Geneva Cargill Women Network and the “Feminin Pluriel” Global Association, promoting Gender Diversity and Inclusion at Cargill and in the Industries she is involved with.

Gideon Rachman became Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times in 2006. He speaks authoritatively about economics, politics, and globalisation as they apply to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and more, and writes a weekly column on international politics as well as feature articles. Mr Rachman joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. Mr Rachman’s book, Zero-Sum World, about the future of international relations was published in the UK in 2010. He was named as foreign affairs commentator of the year in the UK Comment Awards for 2010. He is a regular broadcaster for — amongst others — the BBC, CNN and NPR, and also a regular public speaker before both academic and business audiences. Mr Rachman is a graduate of Caius College, Cambridge and has been a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Anjli Raval is the FT's Senior Energy Correspondent based in London. Prior to joining the commodities team, she spent three years as a reporter and editor in New York. She covered the US consumer sector which included reporting on real estate, retail and hospitality. 

She has also been a reporter in the FT's New Delhi bureau and a writer for the beyondbrics and Energy Source blogs. Since joining the FT in 2009 she has been a companies, markets and breaking news reporter and an editor on the comment and analysis desk.

Henry Sanderson is Metals and Mining Correspondent for the Financial Times in London. He previously worked in Beijing as Deputy Bureau Chief and correspondent for Bloomberg News, where he co-authored a book about China Development Bank, China's Superbank. He has a Master's degree from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree from Leeds University. 

David Sheppard is Energy Editor at the Financial Times. He joined the FT as Deputy Commodities Editor in April 2016, following an 8 year career at Reuters covering oil markets and the Middle East from London, New York and Iraq.

A Gerald Loeb award winner, he helps coordinate the FT's coverage of oil and commodity markets, as well as focusing on trading houses and investment banks in the sector.

Alan Livsey is the Financial Times Lex Research Editor. He joined the Lex column in 2014 after fifteen years in investment management. Based in London his specialities include energy, natural resources and telecoms as well as the emerging markets. In the past he worked in Hong Kong and later in Tokyo as a market strategist for Kleinwort Benson. Later he managed equity portfolios, for Deutsche Asset Management and others, travelling widely in the Americas and Europe. Mr Livsey is a graduate of both Oxford University and University of Maryland and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.  He is a member of the Board of CFA UK.