Ahren Britton

Ahren Britton, co-inventor of Ostara’s core Pearl technology, brings more than 20 years of wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery industry experience to the executive team. Raising vegetables, chickens, pigs and dairy cows on a family acreage fueled a passion for sustainability and agriculture starting at an early age. Prior to Ostara’s formation in 2005, Mr Britton held roles in engineering consulting, heavy industry and municipal government. He has since led Ostara’s research and development program and intellectual property management since the company’s founding. Mr Britton holds a BASc in Environmental Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a MASc in Civil (environmental) engineering from the University of British Columbia, as well as being a Registered P.Eng in British Columbia. He is based out of Vancouver, Canada.

Albin Hubscher

Albin Hubscher joined IFDC as President and CEO in 2019 after serving as Interim Corporate Service Director for the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, Nairobi. During 2015-2018, he was the Chief Financial Officer for CGIAR. Hubscher was appointed Deputy Director General of CIAT in Cali, Colombia in 2007 and was instrumental in rebuilding the organization. He previously served as executive in the Crop Protection and Seed Business with Ciba-Geigy, Novartis and Syngenta in Africa, South America, Europe, USA, and Asia where he implemented Syngenta’s seed business strategy in China. Hubscher holds a degree in industrial/process engineering from Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz.

Assaf Naveh

Ben Pratt

Ben Pratt is Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs at The Mosaic Company, the world’s largest producer of phosphate and potash fertilizers. Ben leads corporate communications, the company’s social responsibility work and U.S. Federal Government relations, and he is a member of the company’s Senior Leadership Team. In addition, he serves as Owner’s Representative to Streamsong Resort. Prior to joining Mosaic in February 2012, Ben was Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications at Ameriprise Financial, Inc., in Minneapolis. Earlier in his career, Ben worked in a variety of communications and investor relations capacities at The PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, and at Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, both in New York. A graduate of Duke University, Ben lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Brett Clark

Brett Clark is a senior executive with 25 years’ experience in the mining and energy sectors in funding, operations, project development and advisory, with Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, CRA Limited, WMC Resources Limited, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto Limited and subsequently with Ernst and Young, Tethyan Copper Company Pty Ltd, Oakajee Port and Rail, Mitsubishi Development and Murchison Metals amongst others. Mr Clark has extensive leadership experience in executive and board positions held at both listed and unlisted companies. His commodity and regional experience covers fertilizers, gold, iron ore, copper, nickel, coal, industrial minerals, and upstream oil and gas across Australia, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. His funding experience includes bond raisings, debt restructuring, equity, and mezzanine financing in the US, Asian, and European capital markets.

Mr Clark holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Curtin University in Western Australia and Graduate Diploma of Business Management and Finance from Deakin University in Victoria.

Bruce Bodine

Bruce Bodine was named Senior Vice President—North America in April 2020. In this role, Bodine leads our North America business unit, which is comprised of two business segments, potash and phosphates. Previously, Bodine led the Phosphates business unit as Senior Vice President—Phosphates, and the Potash business unit as Senior Vice President—Potash.

Bodine began his career with Mosaic in 1999 as part of a predecessor company, holding engineering leadership and plant management positions in the Phosphates business segment before taking on the role of Vice President—Operations for Mosaic’s Esterhazy and Colonsay potash production facilities. Bodine also served as Vice President—Supply Chain, responsible for the movement of raw materials and finished production, and strategic sourcing activities for Mosaic’s North American phosphate and potash segments; additionally, he oversaw fertilizer production in South America and China. Bodine serves on the board of directors for the Miski Mayo mining company, a joint venture which Mosaic is the operating partner.

Bodine holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Catherine Thise

Catherine is passionate about industrial marketing and marketing strategy. She held various positions as a marketing specialist in the chemical industry, with a particular focus on the phosphate and fertilizer industry, until becoming a freelance consultant in 2020. 

She now advises industrial companies in their marketing strategies with a special focus on competitive analysis, innovation management and the adoption of adequate IT tools.

Catherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Liège in International Strategy and Marketing and continues to follow training in the fields that fascinate her. Catherine regularly participates in MOOCs on various subjects that are close to her heart and has also taken a certificate in innovation management from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, as well as a training in Transformational leadership from the Bayard Academy.
She can also advise you in the choice of software and the implementation of IT solutions adapted to the needs of your company.

In private life, Catherine is passionate about horses and regularly participates in the organization of international horse riding competitions.

Chris Dennis

Chris Dennis served in the US Navy for six years as a nuclear trained machinist mate on board the USS Eisenhower. Afterwards, Mr. Dennis attended USF where he received a BS in Chemical Engineering.
For the past 26 years, Mr. Dennis has worked for several companies in the phosphate industry where he has held multiple positions in engineering (process and projects), management, and R&D.
Mr. Dennis joined JESA Technologies in 2018. His primary focus is on designing and optimizing fertilizer plants, where he has served as the Process Lead on multiple projects.

David Ivell

David Ivell has 45 years of experience in the fertilizer industry. He has extensive knowledge of processes for the production of granular fertilizer and his experience includes both design and start-up work. Mr. Ivell has traveled extensively, visiting almost 40 countries in the execution of his duties.

Mr. Ivell worked for a fertilizer producer for many years before joining JESA and spent most of that time licensing technology overseas. Prior to his current position Mr. Ivell has held roles as Director of Process Technology, Manager of Projects and Manager of Process and Technology in the Lakeland, Florida office. Currently Mr. Ivell is General Manager, responsible for the Lakeland office. 

Edward DeRose

Edward is an innovative licensed Professional Engineer with over 14 years of experience in operations leadership, process engineering, design, process improvement, startup, and commissioning of phosphate plants. He has supported large scale greenfield and brownfield phosphate projects across the globe in the areas of phosphoric acid production and granular phosphate fertilizer production. Edward’s operational experience has served to enhance his ability to assist in making the optimal process design decisions for his clients, while maintaining efficiency and control of cost and quality.

Eli Amon

Mr Eli Amon has been serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for ICL since 2020. Mr Amon joined ICL in 1991 and served in various leading positions, including Executive Vice President of Specialty Fertilizers from 2017-2019, Executive Vice President of Marketing Sales and Logistics ICL Fertilizers from 2014-2017, Vice President of Sales ICL Fertilizers from 2009-2014, Vice President of ICL Logistics from 2008-2009. Mr Amon holds a BA in Economy, and an MBA from Ben Gurion University, Israel.

Gabriela Budemberg

MSc. Gabriela Budemberg is the global developer for non-sulphide flotation at BASF. She received her Masters’ degree in “new materials and fine chemistry” in 2016 at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. She joined BASF in 2014, after receiving her degree in Biochemical Engineering, and spent 4 years on synthesis and application of products for Mining industry, mainly phosphates. Since 2018 her work centered around the development of collectors for flotation, and in her role, she is focused on innovative, high-performance and sustainable solutions to bring value added products to the mining industry.

Glen Kurokawa

Glen Kurokawa is a phosphate analyst at CRU in London, UK. He analyses the phosphate market, including the rock, phosphate fertilizers, and NPK markets. He edits the CRU Phosphate Rock Market Outlook and NPK Market Outlook and contributes to other phosphate-related publications. Prior to working at CRU, he was an intellectual property lawyer at a Canadian law firm and UN consultant. He has degrees in chemistry, law, and economics.

Guillaume Milochau

Guillaume Milochau is the founder of Praxed, he has worked for large international groups such as Yara, Ajinomoto, Sojitz, where he held the titles of Global Sales Director, Product Manager, Trader in the following sectors : chemicals, agrochemicals, and animal nutrition. He holds two master’s degrees in marketing and business management.

Throughout his career, Guillaume Milochau has developed expertise in the fertilizer markets (ammonia, urea, phosphates) and animal nutrition (feed additives, raw materials, minerals).

In 2021, he created Praxed to offer bespoke market intelligence service to SME-SMI in Europe.

Hadrien Leruth

Hadrien Leruth graduated from Gramme Institute (Belgium, Liège) with a master’s degree of engineering sciences. In 2016, he worked on his master thesis at Prayon Technologies where he studied the improvement of the fluorine recovery in the phosphoric acid plant of Prayon. The same year, he was hired as a process engineer for the licensing division of Prayon. Mr Leruth performed some pilot tests to produce phosphoric acid from various rock phosphates, he also visited several phosphoric acid plants in the world and prepared the process design of some plants. In September 2019, he started to work in the commercial department of Prayon Technologies where he is still busy currently.

Hannes Storch

Prior to joining Outotec in 2002 as Process Engineer in Sulfuric Acid Technologies, Dr. Hannes Storch studied at Clausthal University of Technology and Karlsruhe University KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). Dr Storch holds a doctor degree in Chemical and Process Engineering. 

After a three-year stay in Chile, Dr Storch was promoted to Head of the Product Line Sulfuric Acid and Off-Gas Cleaning. 

Today he is one of the Managing Directors of Metso Outotec’s German operation as well as heading the Business Line Metals and Chemical Processing.

Dr Storch is also a Member of the Board of VDMA – Large Plant Building Section.

Harold Cline

Harold Cline is the North American Area Sales Manager for TOMRA’s Mining Business.  Harold has over 35 years of experience in geophysics and sensor-based imaging applied to a wide variety of scientific, engineering, medical and mineral processing applications. Harold has a BS in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an MS in Medical Physics from the University of Colorado and is an American Board of Radiology certified radiologic physicist.

Hunter Swisher

Hunter Swisher currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Phospholutions, Inc. Mr Swisher graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Plant Sciences, where he was recognized as Top Entrepreneur within the University. He sits on the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Advisory Board for the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State University. Mr Swisher founded Phospholutions, Inc. in 2016 to develop and commercialize solutions to improve efficiency of global phosphorus use. Phospholutions, Inc. is headquartered in State College, PA.

Jaafar Kabbaj

Jaafar Kabbaj is a seasoned professional with experience in servicing players in mining, natural resources and infrastructure sectors. His main area of experience is in working with clients to shape and deliver long term industrial development and operations transformation programs. Expertise spans across strategy, planning, organization and operations excellence. Mr Kabbaj has 22 years of professional experience in investment banking, management consulting and finally in project services with Worley group. He holds a Masters of Engineering (Ecole Centrale Paris) and an MBA (INSEAD).

Jake Niederer

Jake Niederer is the Director of Sales at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) leading the growth and expansion of the Retail Fertilizer Business for ADM in North America, and responsible for ADM’s global Fertilizer procurement strategies. Jake is a graduate from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a B.A in Accounting, and he also holds an MBA from Boise State University. He has held various roles in the fertilizer industry for the past 20 years with the JR Simplot Company and Koch Industries prior to his time at ADM.

Jeff Beck

Jeffrey Beck was the Founding Managing Director and Chairman of Ocean Partners Holding Limited, a base and precious metals trading company, from 2004 to 2020. Prior to this, Mr. Beck led Pechiney World Trade’s (“PWT”) Ores and Concentrates Division from 1992 to 2004. Mr. Beck graduated from Queen’s University in Mining (1980) and while working at ASARCO’s Tennessee zinc mines he also received his MBA from the University of Tennessee (1983). He then spent time at ASARCO headquarters in NYC in the Ores and Concentrates Department and with Elders Raw Materials before joining PWT.

Jill Caskey

Jill Caskey is a Global Sales Director at Solex Thermal Science, a North American-based leader in thermal and bulk materials engineering. She has an extensive background in technical equipment design (thermally and mechanically) within multiple different markets, notably nearly a decade with fertilizer-specific applications. To connect, email jill.caskey@solexthermal.com

Koyel Choudhury

Koyel joined CRU in September 2018 with an experience of 5 years in research and consulting with companies such as Frost & Sullivan, Cheers Interactive and Nielsen. Koyel is an analyst for the Fertilizers team based out of Mumbai. This role includes monitoring, analysing and forecasting of the Indian fertilizer market based on primary research. She has completed her B.tech in Food technology from West Bengal University of Technology.

Kyle Campbell

Lawrence Andermann

Lawrence J. Andermann Jr. is the Subject Matter Expert for Mining and Mineral Processing at Suez’s Water Technologies & Solutions. He holds a Bachelor of Science; Chemistry and Math Minor and has 26 years’ experience in the Mining and Wastewater field. Additionally, Mr Andermann has previously held the positions of Research Chemist at Kasier Aluminum, SNF Floerger at Commercial and Technical Manager, Research Fellow / Director of Applications at Solenis.

Lilian Tu

Lilian Tu currently is the IFC’s global sector lead and senior investment office focusing on base materials (chemicals, fertilizers and construction materials) industries. Li has about 25 years’ experience with international banks, non-banking financial institutions and multinational development bank in Asia, Europe and North America, working on corporate finance and project finance transactions. Currently Li actively works on promoting sustainable finance and cross-border finance for Manufacturing industries.

Mithlesh Kumar Mathur

Mithlesh Kumar Mathur has an experience of more than 30 years in the industry. He graduated in Engineering from NIT Jaipur, India and later completed his post-graduation in Marketing Management. He is the Director of the Company –Neelam Aqua & Speciality Chem. The Company is involved in the manufacturing of water treatment and Specialty Chemicals for the Fertilizer Industry. He has been instrumental in developing a lot of new products and technologies for the Fertilizer industry. The products are designed to maintain the fertilizer quality from Factory to Field and also improving the productivity. It is under his able guidance that the company has expanded its operations to various countries worldwide.

Peter Harrisson

Peter Harrisson has worked on CRU’s Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid analysis since joining the company in early 2011 and is Head of the Sulphur team. Peter also works across other nutrient areas, including both market and cost analysis.

Prior to joining CRU, Peter completed a PhD in Industrial Chemistry at Durham University.

Priscila Richetti

Priscila Richetti earned a bachelor’s degree of Economics from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil in 2004. She also studied her postgraduate degree in FIA – Business School in Brazil. Before her relationship with Yara Brasil, Priscila worked for several important agribusiness players. With more than 15 years of experience in Agribusiness sector and Banking, since 2015 she is part of Yara´s team in Brazil and responsible for the  Market Intelligence area and Direct Procurement P category.

Rene Dijkstra

Rene Dijkstra graduated from Twente University, The Netherlands, with a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering in 1995. He spent the next two years working for ICI Acrylics (now Lucite) in Billingham UK as a plant engineer for the Sulphuric Acid Regeneration plant before joining Chemetics as a process engineer in 1997. Since his start in the Spent Acid recycling group he has continued to expand his technical role and was promoted to Chemetics Acid Technology Manager in 2007. His role now covers the entire range of sulfuric acid and sulfur technologies offered by Chemetics including responsibility for technology development.

Rob Louwe

Rob Louwe grew up on a cauliflower farm in the Netherlands. He studied chemical engineering in Amsterdam and biotechnology in the UK where he also met his wife. After working in an edible oil refinery in London and then for a petfood manufacturer in Yorkshire, he moved with his family to Norway in 2006. He has been working at Yara’s research centre in Porsgrunn since, on a variety of subjects such as phosphorus recycling, process development, raw material assessment, fertiliser pilot testing, and emission control. When not working Rob likes to read a good book or spend time with his family canoeing one of the many Norwegian lakes.

Robert Tinsley

Robert Tinsley has 5 years of experience in chemical engineering and process design. He has been involved in projects from conceptual through front end and detailed design. He has been responsible for development of several deliverables on projects in Phosphoric Acid and NPK Granulation plants including the following: Heat and Material Balances, Process Flow Diagrams, Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams, Line Designation Lists, and Equipment Lists. He has simulated equipment and processes to evaluate existing and developing designs, analyzed plant hydraulics for process systems, and completed economic and optimization evaluations of conceptual designs of chemical process plants. He has also completed relief valve analyses and sizing calculations. He has also participated in safety reviews and Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOPs) as a scribe. Robert also has experience in training plant engineers and operators on projects as part of change management.

Roland Leatherwood

Dr. Roland Leatherwood completed his Masters and PhD work at North Carolina State University where he studied crop postharvest physiology & plant nutrition.  Afterwards he accepted a Postdoctoral Researcher position at Cornell University furthering his work in plant nutrition & postharvest stress physiology.  The first 10 years of his industry career explored the comparison and improvement of enhanced efficiency fertilizers in a broad range of crop types and conditions.  In his current role with Ostara Dr. Leatherwood researches the application of non-water-soluble phosphate fertilizers in specialty and row crops, and develops a new products that leverage Ostara technologies and know how.

Sanjiv Kanwar

Sanjiv Kanwar is the Country Manager at Yara India . In his current role, Sanjiv is responsible for providing strategic leadership for all aspects of the Yara India’s business that includes growth through innovation and focus on growth excellence, emerging markets, operational excellence and building organizational capability. He has over 3 decades of experience in fertilizer and agriculture sector. 

Svétoslav Valkov

Mr. Svétoslav Stéphane Valkov is a Business Development Director with strong background as process engineer with more than 25 years of experience in the prospecting and promotion of different engineering activities, the preparation of technical and commercial bids, the negotiation of agreements and also in the execution phase, including the design of equipment, the design of units, the technical audits, the commissioning and the starting of fertilizers units. He has deep knowledge on the fertilizer market and different special products as well he is endowed with a specialized experience in the Nitrogen fertilizers field, and in particular the Ammonium Nitrate, the Technical Grade Ammonium Nitrate, CAN, CAN+S, CNgg, Urea, Ammonia, MAP, DAP, NPK, etc. He has on the other hand, a thorough knowledge of the sizing of specific equipments such as reactors, evaporators, granulators, etc. Furthermore, Mr. Valkov achieved numerous audits in Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, Jordan, Senegal,…

Sylvain Charlebois

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.

Tim Cotton

Tim Cotton is CEO of Novaphos Inc. and also a member of its board of directors. He is also a principal and the Vice Chairman of the Agrifos Group, which has been active as an investor and operator in the phosphate sector for over three decades. He is also a director of Baobab Fertilizer Africa, Intact Solutions LLC, Zalar Holding SA and Virterras Materials Inc. Prior to forming Agrifos, Mr. Cotton had a career in investment banking. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Tom Bruulsema

Tom Bruulsema is the Chief Scientist at Plant Nutrition Canada. He provides support for nutrient stewardship programs of the fertilizer industry in Canada, the United States, and globally. He serves as chair of the Scientific Panel for Responsible Plant Nutrition. Dr. Bruulsema was recognized as a Fellow by the American Society of Agronomy in 2007, by the Soil Science Society of America in 2008, and by the Canadian Society of Agronomy in 2012. From 1994 to 2019, he served in the International Plant Nutrition Institute and the Potash & Phosphate Institute.

Zhai Jidong

A 35-year veteran of the agriculture industry, Mr Zhai Jidong was previously the COO at Spur Ventures Inc., a public company listed in Toronto.  Prior to Spur, he was the Executive Vice president and Chief Economist of Sino-Arab Chemical Fertilizers Co. Ltd. (SACF). Additionally, Mr Zhai was formerly the Managing Director of Huaying Phosphoric Acid Co. Ltd., a joint venture company between Japanese ITOCHOU and Chinese CNCCC. Further, Mr Zhai was also the Vice Chairman of  China Phosphate Industry Association, Director of China Sulfuric Acid Industry Association. Mr Zhai has been the Executive Board Member of IFA since 2017. Mr Zhai is a Senior Chemical Engineer, and holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Economics.