Agenda

Senior Vice President,  CRU
Jorn P. de Linde was appointed to his current position following the merger between Resource Strategies Inc. and CRU International in April 1996. Based in the United States, he specialises in ferroalloys-related research, with particular emphasis on silicon-based alloys and electric power, drawing on 30 years of experience. In addition to the manganese ferroalloy cost data service, Mr de Linde is the principal author of CRU's silicon metal market outlook and silicon cost data service reports. Mr de Linde also is a contributor to other CRU ferroalloy-related reports, including the Bulk Ferroalloys Monitor. He earned an MSc Degree in Mineral Economics from the Pennsylvania State University in the USA and holds an MBA (Siviløkonom) from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway.

Chief Executive Officer,  Ferroglobe
Pedro Larrea is Chief Executive Officer of Ferroglobe since December 23, 2015, when the company was created as a result of the merger of Grupo FerroAtlántica and Globe Specialty Metals.
Pedro Larrea was Executive Chairman of Grupo FerroAtlántica since December 2012. He joined Grupo FerroAtlántica as CEO in 2011.

Professional experience
Before joining Grupo FerroAtlántica, Pedro Larrea developed most of his professional career in the energy sector
For thirteen years (1996-2009), he worked in Endesa, the biggest power company in Spain and Latin America, where he reached the position of Chairman and CEO of Endesa Latinoamérica, with total revenues above 8 bn€ and EBITDA above 3 bn€. In Endesa he also held positions related to raw materials management, long term planning, risk management and M&A. He served in the Board of Directors of
Enersis (2007-2009) and Endesa Chile (1999-2002 and 2006-2007), both public Chilean companies listed in NYSE.
Pedro Larrea has also worked in management consulting firms like PwC (2010-2011), where he lead the energy sector practice in the Spanish office, and
McKinsey & Company, in Spain, Latin America and the USA (1989-1995).

Educational background
Mining Engineer (MSc equivalent) from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Graduated With Honors.
MBA from INSEAD. Henry Ford II award for academic excellence

Senior Vice President,  CRU
Jorn P. de Linde was appointed to his current position following the merger between Resource Strategies Inc. and CRU International in April 1996. Based in the United States, he specialises in ferroalloys-related research, with particular emphasis on silicon-based alloys and electric power, drawing on 30 years of experience. In addition to the manganese ferroalloy cost data service, Mr de Linde is the principal author of CRU's silicon metal market outlook and silicon cost data service reports. Mr de Linde also is a contributor to other CRU ferroalloy-related reports, including the Bulk Ferroalloys Monitor. He earned an MSc Degree in Mineral Economics from the Pennsylvania State University in the USA and holds an MBA (Siviløkonom) from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway.

President,  Canadian Metals
René Boisvert is an electrical engineer graduated from Laval university in Quebec City in 1980. He has 30 years of experience in the production of ferrosilicon and silicon. He has also been responsible for the design and construction of many different production units. After 5 years as project engineer and field manager for CMQC in Port-Cartier and F.A. Tucker in Laval, he started in ferroalloys in 1986 for SKW Canada Inc. in Becancour as electrical engineer. He was promoted to Technology Manager in 1995 and Engineering and Technology Manager in 1997. In 2001 he became Vice-President Operations of the plant and President and CEO of Becancour Silicon Inc ( Quebec Silicon LP ) from 2005 to 2016. Furthermore from 2005 to 2012 Mr. Boisvert was responsible for international sales to all the major accounts of the foundry, aluminum, silicones, polysilicon and solar industries. Mr. Boisvert obtained many patents on electrode design and silicon purification and is the author of numerous papers and presentations at the most important meetings on arc furnaces, silicon, ferrosilicon and solar silicon.

Partner,  Sidley Austin LLP
Arnoud R. 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.

Executive Director,  Viridis.iQ
Lou Parous is the Executive Director of Viridis.iQ GmbH, a German company specializing in industrial process design and optimization, knowhow transfer and engineering for metallurgical silicon and solar manufacturing technologies; as well as the interrelationship between the production of silicon materials and their downstream industrial performance in the solar, chemical and aluminum fields. Mr Parous has 21 years of experience in various global pyrometallurgical and silicon based industries as well as in various solar and silicon manufacturing developments in Brasil, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Trinidad, China, Malaysia, Iceland, Russia, Oman, Algeria and the UAE. Mr Parous is the former Director of Advanced Silicon Materials at Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG, holds a Bachelor of Science in Materials Engineering from Auburn University, Alabama (USA) and publishes and speaks at various industry and trade conferences around the world on issues including silicon and solar manufacturing, industrial development, silicon optimization, PV markets, silicon technology development, international trade and strategic planning.

Manager New Markets & Technologies, Strategy & New Growth Business,  Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH

Principal Analyst,  CRU
Guillaume Osouf joined CRU in July 2017 after 15 years working in the brokerage industry, the last 11 years with LME broker Triland Metals. During his time at Triland, he managed European and Asian clients and took part in the company’s expansion to Singapore. He obtained a Master in Management from ESCP Europe in 2001 and is an STA qualified technical analyst since July 2016. Guillaume is a Principal Consultant in the Aluminium Primary and Products Team. His areas of specialism include LME, aluminium price forecasting, charting and production analysis.

Owner,  Alan Crawford Consulting LLC
Alan Crawford is a chemical engineer (Bachelors of Engineering; Masters of Engineering) who has focused 29 years of his career on technology and operations for conversion of metallurgical grade silicon to trichlorosilane and methylchlorosilanes for production of polycrystalline silicon and silicones. He excels in root cause identification of complex industrial problems and implementation of improved process technology focused on reduction of operating costs. Alan has worked as an independent chemical engineering consultant since 2008 in the global polycrystalline silicon and silicone industries. He formerly worked for REC Silicon and GE Silicones. 

Ferroalloys Price Assessor,  CRU
Rena Gu joined CRU in 2017 and has been reporting on commodity markets since 2006, including her role at Metal Bulletin, ICIS and ChemOrbis. At CRU she covers ferroalloys prices across Asia, as part of CRU’s global ferroalloys team, markets she has covered for almost ten years

Senior Research Scientist, Metal Production and Processing,  Sintef Industry

Vice President Non-Ferrous Metals,  SMS group GmbH

Studied chemical engineer at the Technical University in Aachen

1996: PhD graduation in direct reduction processes for iron making

1996 - 1999: Head of the R+D department and manager for DRI-plant of NSM in Chonburi/Thailand

1999 – 2001: Senior sales manager iron making for SMS Demag in Pittsburg/USA

2001 – 2012: General manager submerged arc furnace technology for SMS Siemag in Düsseldorf/Germany

2012 – 2016: Vice President Special Metallurgical Plant for SMS group in Düsseldorf/Germany

2016 – today: Vice President Special Non Ferrous Metals for SMS group in Düsseldorf/Germany and board member of Metix in Johannesburg/South Africa