Natalia Yaremenko

Natalia Yaremenko is the Global Sales Director Electrodes & Corporate Marketing at Tokai Cobex, responsible for Group Marketing and Global sales of Carbon Electrodes. She has 20 years of experience in World carbon and graphite industry in the areas of Sales, Marketing, PR and Product Development with expertise in carbon, graphite electrodes, cathode blocks and pastes. Holds an MBA Strategic Management Degree from Cal State East Bay University.

Lou Parous

Lou Parous is the Executive Director of Viridis.iQ GmbH, an independent German engineering and technology firm in the silicon and solar value chains. Viridis.iQ provides full scope engineering, process design, process optimization, operations knowhow transfer and technical project development to international green-field projects and existing manufacturers in the metallurgical silicon, polysilicon, solar cell and module production sectors. With more than 20 reference projects in the Silicon field around the world, the firm is a leading independent and neutral technology, engineering and process design provider to the industry.

Rolf Degel

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

Guillaume Osouf

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.

Oksana Petsko

Agenda Title: Bio carbon
Agenda Time: 14:30 - 14:40
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

Pedro Larrea

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

Sveinbjorn Finnsson

Sveinbjörn Finnsson is a Senior Business Analyst at Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company of Iceland. Mr. Finnsson is responsible for monitoring and analyzing medium- to long-term trends in markets relevant to Landsvirkjun as well as supporting business development and PPA negotiations. Among the markets he focuses on are international power markets and markets in which the company’s international power intensive clients operate (e.g. silicon metal and aluminium producers). Landsvirkjun follows renewable trends and low-carbon policies in order to identify opportunities as a 100% renewable power company. Mr. Finnsson is an Engineer by training and earned an M.Sc. degree in Energy Science and Technology from ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

Gabriella Tranell

Agenda Title: Silicon metallothermic production with waste Al scrap
Agenda Time: 16:10 - 16:40
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

Bart Van Gils

Bart Van Gils has been active in the logistics business for over 30 years, and this in various locations around the world such as Antwerp, Rotterdam, Dubai, Baltimore & New Orleans.
Focus has always been on commodities moving worldwide, with non ferrous metals - including aluminium - as main commodities.
Warehousing (LME, CME, SHFE) and logistics linked to these have been at the centre of his activities.
Since 2017, he has become a partner in The Agency, a logistics company focusing on road transport in Europe and container shipping worldwide.
For more information, please check https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-van-gils-28269312/
Agenda Title: Supply Chains Under Stress
Agenda Time: 15:20 - 15:45
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

Alex Nielsen

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. He has through this job obtained extensive knowledge on coal and coke uses worldwide, both in specialized niches and generally for power generation. He also has considerable knowledge on the various production processes for alloys.

Alan Crawford

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. 

Dr. Julia Lyubina

Dr. Julia Lyubina is a Manager New Markets & Technologies at Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH, a supplier of high performance materials for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient systems to the automotive, paints & coatings, adhesives, construction and other industries. After graduating from National University of Science and Technology “MISIS” in Moscow, Russia and receiving her PhD in Physics in Dresden, Germany, she worked at IFW Dresden in the field of permanent magnet and magnetocaloric materials. In 2010 she continued on as Marie Curie Fellow to Imperial College London, UK. In 2012 she joined Evonik and has held various roles in Process Technology and Strategy & New Growth Business focusing on new product and new business development.

Jim May

Founder, Chief Operating Officer
Hi Test Sand Inc
EDUCATION- BS/MS Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science Univ. of Michigan. MBA Sloan School of Business. WORK BACKGROUND – 10 years in GM cast iron foundries – metallurgist, supervision. 5 years with Foote Mineral in ferroalloys production – superintendent, plant manager. 20 years with Dow Corning – Silicon Tech. Director, Procurement Director, General Manager silicon businesses. CURRENT WORK since 2003 – Owner and operator of Midand Silicon Co., LLC, May Global Business Group INC., Midland Silicon Shanghai Trading Company (China) – Silicon and ferroalloys process technology., operations, sales and procurement. Founder and Chief Operating Officer of HiTest Sand Inc. - quartz mining, silicon plant development.
Agenda Title: Carbon emissions and sustainability considerations have become increasingly important...
Agenda Time: 15:45 - 16:10
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

René Boisvert

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.

Arnoud R. Willems

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.
Agenda Title: Trade restrictions have had a substantial impact on trade flows and silicon prices in individual markets...
Agenda Time: 13:40 - 14:05
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

Eli Ringdalen

MSc. in ore geology from NTNU, Norway in1979. PhD in Metallurgy at NTNU, Norway in 1999. Subject of PhD thesis was HCFeCr process. Worked in various mining and metallurgical companies including some of Elkems silicon plants until 2006. From then working at SINTEF with projects within FeSi and Si including Solar Cell Si, Mn-alloys, HcFeCr, as well as with environmental challenges. Main research field: pyrometallurgi, raw material characterisation and evaluation.

Dmitry Popov

Dmitry Popov has worked across several metals areas for CRU, including global aluminium markets and copper costs modelling. He is currently the editor of Crude Steel Market Outlook, but also specialises in the analysis of CIS finished and semi-finished steel and metallics markets. Dmitry holds a BEng in Engineering with Business Finance and MSc in Finance.
Agenda Title: Global power supply issues
Agenda Time: 11:55 - 12:20
Agenda Day: 09 November 2021

Jim Brosnan

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.