Chief Economist,  Associated General Contractors of America

Ken Simonson has been Chief Economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, the leading construction trade association, since 2001. He provides insight into the economy and what it implies for construction and related industries through frequent media interviews, presentations, and the Data DIGest, his weekly one-page e-newsletter that goes to more than 20,000 subscribers.  

Ken has over 40 years of experience analyzing, advocating, and communicating about economic and tax issues. He currently serves as an advisor to the Census Bureau’s construction data re-engineering initiative. He is a Fellow and past president of the National Association for Business Economics, and he is co-director of the Tax Economists Forum, a professional meeting group he co-founded in 1982.  

Ken has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago, and an MA in economics from Northwestern University.

Economist,  CRU
Veronika Akhmadieva is a regional Economist at CRU group, and I focus on the economic analysis and forecasting for the North America region. I hold a PhD in Economics and Finance specialising in econometrics and applied macroeconomics. My doctorate focuses on fiscal sustainability and balance of payments solvency, and in addition, covers topics such as income and price elasticities of trade and the macroeconomic impact of the euro. Before doing my PhD, I completed an MSc in Finance and Accounting at Imperial College Business School and a BSc (Honours) in Economics at Brunel University, for which I received a University Prize. Before joining CRU I worked at Birkbeck, University of London, since 2016, teaching modules such as applied statistics and econometrics, mathematics for finance, and international finance. I continue to lecture there part-time. In addition, during my years in academia I have presented her research at academic conferences and at internal and external seminars.

Principal, Commodities Management Group,  Constellation Energy Corp

Brian Habacivch began his career in the natural gas industry as the Associate Editor of Gas Daily, the nation’s leading natural gas industry information service and price index. Brian covered the natural gas spot market compiling the daily pricing indices for traders, brokers, producers and end-users of natural gas and regulatory matters at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C.

Brian has worked in natural gas sales and marketing, business development, energy project development, energy consulting and management, and energy market intelligence at Allegheny Energy, Sprague Energy Corp., Fellon-McCord and Associates, and Constellation.  Brian was in charge of energy market intelligence, risk, and publications for one of the leading energy consulting firms in the U.S. providing risk management services to a large portfolio of the nation’s leading manufacturers and institutional end-users in the U.S. and E.U.  Brian’s comments on energy markets have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and Industry Week.

Today, Brian is Principal, Commodities Management Group with Constellation Energy Corp (Nasdaq CEG).  Constellation is among the leading U.S. electric power generators and is the largest supplier of electric power and natural gas to industrial, commercial, and institutional consumers of energy.  Constellation is the largest generator of carbon free energy in the U.S. and operates the largest fleet of nuclear-power generation in the country.  The Commodities Management Group, within Constellation, is the energy-market-intelligence function of the company covering electric power, natural gas, crude, coal, and other inputs that affect the direction and pricing of energy markets.

Brian has spoken at hundreds of industry events during his career both in the United States and the European Union and interacts with thousands of industrial, commercial, and institutional consumers of energy.  Brian is a past member of the Petrochemical Refiners Association Shale Energy Committee, The Aluminum Association of America, and works closely with The Energy Professionals Association

Independent Base Metals Consultant ,  Marex
Edward Meir's firm (Commodity Research Group) is currently providing research services to LME broker Marex in base metals, having provided similar services to three other ring-dealing LME brokers in the past 20 years. Prior to becoming involved in research full-time, Mr. Meir traded physical nonferrous metals, utilizing the experience he gained while working at UK-based Trans-World Metals and as a physical broker representing several US clients overseas.

Edward was named as the most accurate price forecaster for LME base metals in five of the last ten years through 2020, as ranked by the Fastmarkets APEX analyst survey. Edward obtained his BA in Economics from Montreal's McGill University and his MBA from New York University.

Managing Director, Head of Metals, Mining, & Chemicals,  Fifth Third Bank
Rachel Hermanson serves as Managing Director, Head of Metals, Mining, & Chemicals at Fifth Third Bank. Rachel is based in Cincinnati, OH and leads a team of professionals responsible for growing and enhancing Fifth Third’s Corporate Banking business with companies in the metals, mining, and chemicals space in the United States. Rachel and her team focus on profitable business development with metals companies across the industry as well as monitoring the quality of an existing portfolio of both public and large private companies. Rachel has an extensive background in the metals space, including underwriting and leading deals on both ends of the spectrum, from heavily monitored ABL transactions to unsecured investment grade deals. Rachel specializes in providing tailored financial solutions and capital raising services to her clients and brings all of the resources of the Bank, including cash management, capital markets, financial risk management, custody/401K services, and the private bank. Rachel attended the University of Florida and has been with Fifth Third Bank for the past 13 years.

Managing Director,  Million Link (China) Investment Ltd

Hill Summer co-founded Million Link Shipping Ltd. in 1992 with Liping Wang, then co-founded Million Link ( China ) Investment Ltd. in 1999 as the holding company of Million Link companies. Being working in international trade for supplying steel and chemical industries, he has comprehensive knowledge and managerial practices in international trade, customer relationship, risk management, ISO quality system, cross border logistics solutions, metallurgy, material supply chain, and mining investment.   

Hill Summer holds a degree in law from Law School, Jilin University,  specialized in international law. Taught in Hubei province from 1986 to 1988.

Senior Analyst Ore and Ferroalloys,  CRU

Clare Hanna joined CRU in August 2019 and currently works as a Senior Analyst covering Manganese Ore and Ferroalloys and is Editor of the Bulk Ferroalloys Monitor.

Ms Hanna has over 30 years’ experience in the steel industry with British Steel, Tata Steel and Corus in a range of strategy, sales, marketing and procurement roles. Recent responsibilities include business development for wire rod and, prior to that,  lead buyer ferroalloys for Tata Steel Group.

She holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and BA Honours degree in Economics from Leeds University.

Director,  US Vanadium
Terrance T. Perles joined US Steel Corporation in 1980 as a Construction Management Engineer and held assignments at the company’s steel mills in Homestead and Clairton, Pennsylvania. In 1988, Mr. Perles joined vanadium producer Stratcor and during his 20-year tenure held positions in sales, marketing and senior management. By 2006, the EVRAZ Group had acquired controlling interest in Stratcor and Mr. Perles joined East Metals S.A. of Lugano Switzerland, the trading arm of the EVRAZ Group. In March 2010, Mr. Perles established TTP Squared, Inc., a metals industry consulting firm serving both producers and consumers of vanadium chemicals and alloys. In May 2012 Mr. Perles joined the senior management team of Atlantic Ltd., owners and operators of the Windimurra vanadium project in Western Australia. In 2019 Mr Perles and a group of investors formed US Vanadium LLC for the purpose of acquiring Evraz Stratcor Inc and the vanadium production facility in Hot Springs Arkansas. Mr. Perles holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh

Partner,  Sidley Austin
Arnoud Willems leads the EU trade and customs team and co-founded Sidley’s office in Brussels. Mr Willems represents the interests of companies in high-profile trade matters and advises clients on strategies for solving market access problems and resolving other disputes that affect their business. With respect to the latter, he is a leading advocate of companies challenging EU anti-dumping regulations, with an exceptional success rate in such cases before the national and European Courts. Since 2000, Mr Willems has been continuously involved in anti-dumping cases concerning ferroalloys like silicon, ferrosilicon, ferrochrome and silicon manganese.

Partner ,  Wiley Rein
Chris represents clients on international trade law and policy matters, including antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, global trade policy and trade negotiations, export control regulations, trade sanctions regulations, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Analyst, Steel,  CRU

Biagio joined the steel team at CRU’s London office in October 2022. Biagio’s main area of specialisation is the finished steel market, including stainless steel market analysis.

Prior to joining CRU, Biagio worked as an industry research analyst for a market research company, covering a broad range of sectors spanning mining, manufacturing and financial services.

Biagio holds an MSc in Economics from Queen Mary University of London, and a BA in Economics and Politics from the University of York.

Chairman & CEO,  Canada Nickel Company

Mr. Selby was formerly President & CEO of RNC Minerals (Royal Nickel Corporation) where he led a team that successfully raised over $100 million and advanced the Dumont nickel-cobalt project from initial resource to a fully permitted, construction ready project.

He has held a number of senior management roles with Quadra Mining, Inco, and Purolator Courier, and was a partner at Mercer Management Consulting.

Since 2001, Mr. Selby has been recognized as one of the leading authorities on the nickel market.  He graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and has also served on the boards of multiple junior mining companies.

Principal Analyst,  CRU
Nikhil Shah is responsible for primary nickel analysis at CRU. Prior to this he has gained extensive experience in aluminium and through leadership of CRU’s research on alumina, bauxite, carbon and energy. He has previously been responsible for CRU’s aluminium analysis and contributed to the development of cost models. He also contributes to CRU’s single client work and regularly presents at major industry gatherings. He holds a Masters degree from University of London in Business Economics.

Director of Marketing,  Climax Molybdenum Company
Kevin Pritchett is Director of Marketing for Climax Molybdenum, a Freeport-McMoRan Company. He has held roles in market analysis, plant operations and business development for the company. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Analyst, Base Metals,  CRU

Luke joined CRU in June 2022 and leads the Chrome/Ferrochrome product offerings including the Chrome monitor, the Ferrochrome Market Outlook and the Ferrochrome Cost Service. 

Luke has close to 5 years' experience in metals analysis- having worked at both Wood Mackenzie, as a zinc smelter cost analyst, and S&P Global Market Intelligence, as a zinc market analyst. Most recently, Luke led Capital Economics' Industrial Metals research covering all exchange listed metals.  Luke hold a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Geophysics from the University of Est Anglia. Luke is based in the London office.