Senior Consultant,  CRU

Willis joined CRU Consulting in February 2017 with more than five years in metals sales, production, and procurement activities.

Since joining he has worked on projects in a wide range of mined commodities, metals and fertilizers. Focus areas, mainly through primary research, include ferroalloys (vanadium & niobium), steel metallics and raw materials, minor metals (tin), as well as coverage across markets for mined and chemical fertilizers.

Previously, Willis was the Inside Sales and Production Manager at Kapp Alloy & Wire, Inc., a US-based manufacturer of solder and other non-ferrous wires. There he focused on daily metal pricing for raw and finished products, metals purchasing, and the management of production operations. Before this he worked in economic development with a focus on business outreach and retention.

Willis holds a Masters in Finance from Colorado State University and a BA in Political Science from Washington & Jefferson College. Willis is based in CRU's Pittsburgh office.

Sustainability Director and China Initiative Leader,  International Fertilizer Association (IFA)
Mr. Volker Andresen is a seasoned business development executive who joined the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) as Technical Director in 2012 and he assumed the position of Sustainability Director in 2021.

In this leadership role, Volker develops and promotes efficient tools that encourage the fertilizer industry to become more sustainable. Examples of past successes include the IFA’s product stewardship certification (Protect & Sustain), regular benchmarks on safety, emissions and energy, reports on the sustainable management and use of Phosphogypsum and on Green Ammonia production, as well as the organization of sustainability conferences and trainings.

New projects include the development of sustainability roadmaps for fertilizer production and use with external stakeholders and the launch of a Sustainable Fertilizer Academy.

On top of that, Volker has coordinated the IFA's activities in the Former Soviet Union for seven years and he is focusing on China since then, handling relations with key market players and government officials.

Originally from Schleswig, Germany, where Volker grew up on a large farm, he completed his Economics Master’s studies at the Georgia Southern University, USA, and at the American University of Paris, France. Before joining the IFA, Volker has held several senior-level positions in the Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters of IBM, as well as directorship positions at Survey Sampling International and at the World Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Association.

Senior Analyst, Fertilizer Costs,  CRU
Alex Derricott is currently the cost analyst in the fertilizer analysis team, working across a diverse range of fertilizer cost reports. Alex has also worked as part of the Phosphate Fertilizer analysis team, that produces the Phosphate Fertilizer Market Outlook, Phosphate Rock Market Outlook and the Phosphate Cost Report.

Alex joined CRU in 2016 after previously working for IHS Markit and Curzon Capital.

He has a Master’s degree in Energy Trade and Finance from the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping at Cass Business School.

Executive Director,  Ammonia Energy Association
Trevor Brown is the Executive Director of the Ammonia Energy Association, a global trade association that promotes the responsible use of ammonia in a sustainable energy economy. Originally, Trevor was as an award-winning theater and film producer, in London and New York. He retrained in finance when he began to understand the climate change challenge, earning the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Since 2012, when he established himself as an independent ammonia industry analyst, he has been an agitator for the commercialization of sustainable ammonia synthesis technologies. Trevor is also a partner in Carbon-Neutral Consultants, a consulting firm established in 2019.

Senior Global Product Manager,  Clariant
Dr. Stefan Gebert is the Global Product Manager in Clariant’s Business Unit “Catalysts” and is responsible for Clariant’s syngas catalyst product portfolio for ammonia, methanol and hydrogen plants. Dr. Gebert has a PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and started his career in the catalyst business with Süd-Chemie AG in 2003. He has more than 18 years of experience in the field of syngas catalysts for hydrogen, ammonia and methanol production with varying roles in catalyst sales, technical service and product management. From 2012 – 2014 he was appointed as Head of Regional Sales Office in Singapore for the catalyst market in South East Asia / Pacific.

Business Development Manager,  Clariant
Dr. Thomas Cotter is the Power-to-X Business Development Manager at Clariant Catalysts and is responsible for the product portfolio and strategy in the area of sustainable syngas as well as hydrogen storage and transport. Dr. Cotter has a PhD degree in Chemistry from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin and has had several roles within Clariant including; Innovation Project Management, R&D Management and Business Development since he joined the company in 2012.

R&D Division Head,  Casale
Michal Bialkowski graduated in chemical engineering and process engineering at Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and is a PhD graduate from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in chemical engineering. From 2006, with Alstom Power in Switzerland as a part of the Future Technology team. From 2008 Mr Bialkowski led the Chemical Processed group at the Open Innovation Department of Alstom. In 2014 and 2015 he was responsible for the post combustion CO2 capture technology validation at two industrial sites at We Energies and AEP in West Virginia. In 2016, he was given the lead as the Senior Technology Portfolio Manager in Gas Plants of General Electric. From November 2018 Mr Bialkowski is the R&D Division Head at Casale SA taking care of the basic research and technology development.

Head of Process Department OU Fertilizer & Methanol,  thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions
Klaus Noelker graduated at the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, with a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He joined Uhde in 1998 and since then worked in process engineering for ammonia plants. He took part in commissioning of ammonia plants and was commissioning team leader of SAFCO IV in Saudi Arabia, the largest ammonia plant of the world (2006 to 2007). He was promoted to the head of the process department in the ammonia and urea division in 2009, which has been expanded to the fertilizer and methanol division later. 

Head of Process Group Ammonia,  thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions
Bernd Mielke graduated from the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany in 1997 with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in 2001 on the design of adsorptive gas separation processes by expert systems. He joined thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG (formerly ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH) in 2001 as a process engineer for nitric acid plants. In 2004 he became a member of the ammonia process group and worked on basic and detail engineering, commissioning, plant revamping and trouble shooting. Since 2019 he is the head of the ammonia process group at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG.

Process Engineer,  thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions
Evgenij Safronov joined thyssenkrupp Industrials Solutions AG in January 2019 as process engineer for gas treatment plants. Mr Safronov works on proposals and projects for coke oven gas treatment plants. He also works on projects for aced gas removal, specifically on projects for CO2 removal from process gas and flue gas. 

Product Portfolio Manager,  Stamicarbon
Joey Dobrée has a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering at the Hanze University and a Master degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. After graduation Mr. Dobrée started working as Process Engineer for Stamicarbon in 2007, the Licensing and IP Group Center of Maire Tecnimont. After seven years working in the role as Licensing Manager, Mr. Dobrée now holds the position of Product Portfolio Manager. Within this position Mr. Dobrée is commercially responsible for product management and incremental innovation of all business lines, as well the overall account management of Safurex®In his work Mr. Dobrée has special attention to drive plant digitization and the development of sustainable production of urea and nitrate fertilizers in order to contribute to more sustainable footprint of the fertilizer industry in order provide resilience to the industry and answer challenging questions in relation to the environmental footprint of urea and nitrate fertilizers.

Water Treatment Systems - Technology Manager,  Saipem
Andrea Carotti has the position of Technology Manager for Water Treatment Systems in Onshore Division of SAIPEM SpA, a multinational Italian company leader in the Oil&Gas industry as EPCI Contractor. Since the entry into the company in Utilities & Offsite Technologies Department, he has also continuously collaborated with Innovation Department for the development of new technologies for sustainable energy systems and wastewater reuse. During 17+ years of international professional experience he gained a wide range of understanding of the management and reuse of water resources, and a very good practical experience on dealing with water treatment engineering problems.

Process Engineer,  Stamicarbon
Branislav Manic received his Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Belgrade in 2006 and Professional Doctorate degree in Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2010. From 2007 to 2008 he was working in process operations at rubber goods manufacturer Tigar (Serbia). In 2010 he started at SABIC Europe in The Netherlands as a Process Engineer, where he was working on improving production processes of polypropylene and low density polyethylene. Mr Manic joined Stamicarbon in 2014 as Urea Process Engineer focused on developing finishing technologies and related design packages.

Licensing Manager,  Stamicarbon
Wilfried Dirkx obtained his PhD degree in Analytical Chemistry in 1993 at the University of Antwerp.  He holds several publications in the field of Speciation Analysis. From 1994 till 2003 he was the Site & Facility manager of the GE Betz Europe Technology Center at Haasrode, Belgium. As Laboratory Manager, he was responsible for the scientific as well as commercial aspects of the strongly specialized Customer Service Analytical- and Application laboratory. From 2003 till 2012, he led the Kimre Europe Division. In this function, he is responsible for the European Sales of Kimre Products and Applications all over Europe. In May 2012, he joined Stamicarbon BV as a Licensing Manager for Urea. In this new role he is involved in Urea melt and granulation plants equipped with low emission scrubber technology. Besides this licensing and commercial role, he is also Product Manager for several products such as Finishing technologies, the MMV scrubber and for the re-introduced Stamicarbon Nitric Acid Technologies.   

Assistant Manager Urea & Utilities,  Engro
Luqman Rafiq graduated from National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. He is part of Engro Fertilizer’s Limited Operations department and currently working in the capacity of Assistant Manager Urea & Utilities. He takes keen interest in bringing new initiatives and challenging the status quo. To remain market competitive and to produce value-added product with lesser environmental hazards, he brings on energy efficiency, sustainability and environment-friendly initiatives in his short industrial career. To pursue continuous improvement in his profession and to make a global mark with his indigenous ideas, he had co-authored a technical paper published in “International Journal of Experimental Design and Process Optimization (IJEPDO-Inderscience Publishers)”. He has a diverse experience of Operations Management blended with Process Optimization.

,  DuPont Clean Technologies
Stephanie joined the Process Engineering group for the MECS® technology in DuPont Clean Technologies in March, 2012 just after graduation. Over the years, Mrs. Brennan has worked on proposals and projects for all MECS® sulfuric acid plant types for different world areas. Stephanie enjoys getting out in the field and has made several plant site visits. She has been a part of many acid plant startups in both India and China and recently assisted in a remote startup in China.

Manager of Process Engineering,  PegasusTSI
Ricardo L. Sepulveda has over 25 years of experience in Process Design, Product Development and Management. Industry experience includes refining, petrochemical, particle board manufacturing, waste treatment, energy, and natural gas industries. As Manager of Process Engineering at PegasusTSI, Ricardo’s responsibilities include direction and overall supervision on all projects. He is responsible for approving man-hour estimates and budgets, managing design staffing requirements, conducting reviews of process engineering staff, preparing salary plans, developing estimates and budgets for training and development programs, development of department and company standards and procedures, preparing proposal estimates and reporting staff and projects statuses to the Manager of Engineering. Mr. Sepulveda’s engineering responsibilities include development of material and heat balances, process flow diagrams, P&I diagrams, utility drawings, hydraulics, sizing relief and control valves, equipment data sheets and process simulations for various energy projects, Isomerization Units, FCC Units, Sulphur Plants, Topping and Vacuum Processes, Gascon Units, Waste Treatment, Natural Gas Distribution Systems, Refinery LP Modeling and HAZOP evaluations. As Consulting Manager, Mr. Sepulveda’s background includes extensive experience in the petrochemical industry; having developed or lead over 200 studies/projects involving various Chilean oil refinery energy projects and particle board manufacturing projects; responsibilities included supervision, manpower planning and scheduling of a team of 15 engineers. Duties included the oversight and management of FEED and FEL package preparation and conceptual study development. As General Manager of Echeverría Izquierdo Industrial Solutions Mr. Sepulveda was responsible for the startup of a company for executing EPC projects; responsibilities included Business Development, consortium agreement with technological partners, contract negotiations for EPC contracts and financial results of the company. The company increased sales from 7 MMUS to 70 MMUSD in 3 years.

Process Engineer,  BD Energy Systems
Clara Vido is a chemical engineer with more than 5 years of experience in ammonia production management and process engineering. Miss Vido started her career at El Dorado Chemical, a LBS Industries subsidiary, working at the ammonia production facility, where she participated in the relocation and commissioning phases, as well as plant start-up, normalization of operation and continuous improvement. In 2020, Clara joined BD Energy Systems and Parrish Process Services to work with Mr. Steve Parrish in carrying out ammonia plant performance evaluations and retrofit studies that aim to provide recommendations for plant debottlenecking and optimization, and decarbonization.

Lead Process Engineer,  Technip Energies
Marieke Maenhaut holds a MS Degree in Engineering, with Chemistry specialization, from the engineering school HEI (Ecole des Hautes Etudes d’Ingénieur – Lille, France). She has 20 years’ experience in engineering, for Fertilizers, LNG, Oil & Gas, low-carbon impact solutions. Marieke joined Technip in 2006 and has since then been part of the Process department, involved in Projects and studies. She also has activities in the T.EN Fertilizers Product line and Phosphoric acid License development.

Sulphate and Phosphates Technologies,  thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions

General Manager,  Prayon Technologies
Tibaut Theys graduated as a Biochemical Engineer at the University of Louvain in Belgium. Mr Theys joined Prayon Technologies Company in 1995. After 6 months in production, he joined the licensing division. In 2002 he was the Commercial Manager of Prayon Technologies; the technologies offered include Phosphoric acid and related technologies along with Profile, an other division of Prayon, for the fabrication equipment as filters, agitators droplets separators and so on. In 2004 Mr Theys joined CYTEC as a Project Manager and Maintenance Specialist. In 2010 he joined back Prayon as a Process Manager. Mr Theys works on the technical and commercial development of new and existing phosphoric acid technologies. In 2013, he became General Manager of Prayon Technologies.

Chief Technology Officer,  Ostara Nutrient Management Solutions
Ahren Britton has over 17 years of experience in environmental engineering, with a focus on the wastewater treatment industry. He is a co-inventor of Ostara’s technology and developed the first prototype during his research at the University of British Columbia. His professional experience includes roles in engineering consulting, municipal utilities and heavy industry both in North America and in Australasia.