Agenda

Senior Vice President,  CRU

Aluminium Analayst,  CRU

Chairman,  Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd
Liguo Luo is a pioneer of the Chinese silicon industry. Mr Luo served as Director and later General Manager of Cixi Shenyi arts and Crafts Co., Ltd. before Founding Ningbo Hoshine Group Co., Ltd in 2003 and then Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd in 2008. He holds the position of Chairman of the Board or Executive Director at 7 Hoshine group companies. Mr Luo is the recipient of numerous awards related to his business achievements and is also holds senior positions in a number of governmental and industry bodies.

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.

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.

Senior Consultant,  CRU

Aluminium Analyst,  CRU
Euan Sadden is an Analyst in the Non Ferrous Unit based in London. Mr Sadden holds an MSc in Environmental Governance from Oxford University and a BA (Hons) in International Relations from the University of Victoria, Wellington. He currently works in the Aluminium Team specialising in downstream markets, contributing to multiple reports, including Aluminium Monitor, Aluminium Market Outlook, Aluminium Products Monitor and Aluminium Rolled Products Market Outlook.

Senior Vice President Procurement & Logistics,  Wacker Chemie AG
Dr. Erk Thorsten Heyen is Senior Vice President Procurement & Logistics at Wacker Chemie AG, one of the world’s leading producers of silicones and polysilicon. After having received a M.Sc. degree from Brown University in 1984 and a Ph.D. degree from Max-Planck-Institut in 1992, Dr. Heyen spent sixteen years in the semiconductor, telecommunications and internet industries at McKinsey & Company, Bertelsmann AG and finally at Infineon Technologies AG where he served as president of the Wireless Semiconductor Solutions division and VP Corporate Strategy and M&A. In 2009, he joined WACKER as VP Sales, Marketing & Finance of the Polysilicon Division. In 2012 Dr. Heyen became responsible for Raw Material and Energy Procurement before taking over his current position in summer 2017.

Senior Vice President,  CRU

SVP Business Development,  Elkem AS
Inge Grubben-Strømnes has been Senior Vice President responsible for Strategy and Business Development in Elkem since 2008. Mr Grubben-Strømnes joined Elkem in 2005 and has held various roles in strategy and business development as well as being CEO of Elkem Solar 2012-2016. Before joining Elkem, he worked 4.5 years with McKinsey & Company as a management consultant. Mr Grubben-Strømnes holds a Masters degree in zoology from the Technical University in Trondheim (NTNU) and a Masters degree in Business Administration from EM-Lyon in France.

Director European Energy, Climate and Raw Materials Policy,  EUROALLIAGES
Iva Ganev is a Director with EUROALLIAGES, the European Ferro-Alloys and Silicon Producers Association. Her daily tasks consist of tracking and analysing development, as well as recommending and implementing advocacy on the European Energy, Climate and Raw Materials policy aspects relevant to the sector. Building on her understanding of the interaction between corporate needs and the necessary alignment with public policy, her strong points are the design and execution of institutional strategies. Prior to joining EUROALLIAGES in 2012, Ms Ganev was Manager at a Brussels-based consultancy, chairing the Energy department and seconding the Executive Director in the daily management of the Brussels office and team.

President & CEO,  Rogue Resources Inc.
Sean Samson runs Rogue Resources, a Canadian miner with assets that include Silicon Ridge in Quebec, and Snow White, in Ontario - both are high quality quartz projects which will supply silicon metal producers. Before Rogue, Mr Samson helped run base and precious metal mining companies, joining the resource business after a decade in private equity and consulting (Bain) and trading for investment banks in New York (Lehman) and Istanbul. He has degrees from Harvard (US) and Cambridge (UK), is an elected board-member of the PDAC (the leading industry group for global mineral exploration) and won the CIM's Young Mining Leader award in 2012.

Steel Raw Materials Analyst,  CRU
Cathy Kang has more than 6 years experience in commodities analysis and consulting. Before joining CRU, Ms Kang worked at AZ China for 2 years as a market analyst specializing in aluminium & raw materials. She also spent 4 years at Joy Global, a top U.S. based mining equipment company, working on the China coal market as a senior strategic market analyst. Ms Kang gained significant experience in cost model development and maintenance for both aluminium and coal in her previous roles. She brings that experience to the China section of CRU’s Steel & Raw Materials Costs Service, covering steel, metallurgical coal & iron ore. In addition, Ms Kang is also in charge of CRU’s China thermal coal market & cost service and silicon metal market & cost service.

President,  Polchar Sp. z o.o.
Alex Nielsen has since 1996 been the CEO & President of the Polchar group of Companies with factories in Poland producing specialized chemical carbon reductants (char) for the alloy industries, mainly FeSi & SiMetal. Mr Nielsen has through this job obtained extensive knowledge on coal and coke uses worldwide, both in specialized niches and generally for power generation. With a degree of M.Sc. in Civil and Structural Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark he started his career in 1973 in harbour & bridge construction in South Africa, Brazil, Trinidad, England, Germany & Denmark ending as Senior Vice-president in 1988. Armed with an MBA from the Simon School of Business Administration from the University of Rochester, New York, Mr Nielsen became Managing Director and President of a major urbanization project in Portugal from 1988-1994 before joining Polchar Sp. z o.o.

Senior Consultant,  CRU

Director of Metallurgy and Engineering,  Viridis.iQ GmbH
Valdiney Domingos is the chief technical director for metallurgy & engineering for Viridis.iQ GmbH. Mr Domingos is responsible for Project Development and Process Optimization in Ferroalloys Industry. Technical support for materials project development (recycling into PV Supply Chain) and mentor of the Diagnostics of Operational Excellence for Silicon and Ferrosilicon plants. As a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt he brings the innovative 6 Sigma methodology to industrial metals production. Mr Domingos specialized in technical process knowhow and training; development of new equipment and tools; management of the team for hot and cold commissioning, start up and ramp up services for metallurgical and chemical plants. He is a Chemical Engineer, Specialist in Metallurgy Thermodynamics and MBA in Strategic Development with 16 years of industrial experience, in all existing electrode technology for Si and FeSi operations, different reducing agents, UMG process for PV and several types of equipment technologies.

Principal,  Silicon & Ferroalloy Consulting
After working as Commissioning Manager in the Submerged Arc Furnace Division of Mannesmann Demag for a number of years, Jim Brosnan joined SIMCOA Operations in 1990 after overseeing the commissioning of the silicon furnaces. Mr Brosnan held a number of roles at SIMCOA up until the end of 2012, including Smelter Manager, Technical Manager, General Manager Operations and Vice President. Since 2013, he has been working as an independent consultant, providing advisory services to existing producers and new projects in the silicon industry. These services include troubleshooting/ process optimisation for existing operations and project support from prefeasibility through to commissioning for new projects.