Top Names On The Agenda For 2012's Leading Bioenergy Event!

Jarkko Sairanen joined Pöyry PLC in April 2011 as President of the Management Consulting Business Group and Member of the Pöyry Group Executive Committee. In his position Mr Sairanen is leading a global team of 500 Pöyry management consultants with presence in 5 continents. Pöyry Management Consulting has more than 30-years heritage in advicing globally leading players in Forest Industry and Energy with its deep insights into these specific sectors including market development, technology evolution, financial assessements and competitive value chain dynamics.

Dr. Christian Böse, born in central Germany in 1961, studied agricultural economics at Bonn University. As a scientist with the Institute for Agricultural Policy at Bonn University he gained a PHD in agricultural economics in 1992. Till 2008 he was heading ASA Institute for Agricultural Sector Analysis and Renew-Sources GmbH. Major working areas were agricultural markets and polices and bioenergy. Since mid 2008 Dr. Böse is head of feedstock management at E.ON Bioerdgas.Besides managing the feedstock supply for E.ONs biomethane plants he is responsible for the monitoring of feedstock markets and liaising with relevant Government bodies and NGOs.

Tania de Grave-Barbosa Curado - Master of Law and MBA, spent eight years with the family agricultural commodities and textile business (more than 500 employees), as legal advisor and business manager. Initiated and managed projects for the development and implementation of non- food crops in Brazil. Assisted the plantation of sugar cane on the family properties, based on the “ Pro- Alcohol “ programme, supported by the Brazilian government.
From 1990 in the Netherlands purchased and sold properties on the Dutch Real Estate market. In that time developed a wide business network between Europe and Brazil.
Founded the consulting and trading company, AgroNovas  Brazil Ltd which trades agricultural commodities for bio- energy business.
Since 2002, expanded her business network and focused on the bio- fuels and bio- energy market. As independent consultant, she set up and advised Jatropha and Crambe projects in different countries AgrenNewEnergy BV, a new company which builds on work completed in the last 7 years to develop Crambe and Carmelina and deliver a major new energy business based on it with successful Nederland-based plant breeding company with years of international plant development experience. Experienced in establishing bio crop production projects and breeding locations in different continents.

Rakesh Singh worked as a chemical engineer at the downstream naphtha-cracking units of Haldia Petrochemcials Limited in India. He did his Masters of Energy and Environmental Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Ecole des Mines de Nantes. During his work at Fraunhofer Institute (Karlsruhe) he developed post 2012 industrial sector greenhouse gas emissions benchmarks for the free allocation of CO2 emission allowances within the EU Emission Trading System. Now he is working at EPEA GmbH (Hamburg) as an environmental consultant for Cradle to Cradle® product design and optimisation. His expertise and interests lies in the resource recovery, recycling and upcycling technology, waste to fuel conversion, especially pyrolysis technologies.

Sari Mannonen is Director, Business Relations & Marketing for UPM Biofuels based in Helsinki, Finland. Representing and promoting the business she is responsible for defining and leading UPM Biofuels international activities. Her main contact groups are technology suppliers in biofuels sector, investors, reporters, EU and national decision makers, NGOs and financial audiences. Sari has over 15 years’ experience in leading global sales & marketing, customer management, customer strategy & business relations as well as business development in different global businesses. Sari graduated from Helsinki University and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Sari´s background also includes research and development in biotech field.

In 1997 Wim became Project Manager at Essent for a novel wood gasification plant. After that, he was Manager of the Process technology group of Essent until 2012. Today, he is Strategic Engineer in Essent Production. His current work covers subjects such as biomass co-firing, coal firing, wood gasification, technological support and trouble shooting on running plants, Essent's R&D work, project scouting, etc.

Francis X. Johnson is Senior Research Fellow in Energy and Climate at the Stockholm Environment Institute, focusing especially on assessments of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of biomass and bioenergy programmes and policies. He has been co-editor of two recent books, one focusing on the Food vs. Fuel debate, and the other on Bioenergy from sugar cane in Africa. He has been a scientific advisor to UNCTAD, UNIDO, FAO, European Commission, and the Environment Committee of the European Parliament.

Ralph Brieskorn works currently as Policy Manager in the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment in the Netherlands. He contributes to the development of legislation and policies on biofuels, bio energy and the biobased economy. His focus lies on sustainability and international aspects of biomass use. In this respect he also contributed to the development of sustainability indicators in the Global Bio Energy Partnership (GBEP) and is currently cochair of the GBEP Working Group on Capacity Building. In previous positions in and outside the Ministry he worked on a broad range of issues concerning environmental legislation and policies in the EU, climate change, sustainable development, trade, energy access, biodiversity, natural resources and poverty.

Pat Howes is Bioenergy Knowledge leader at AEA, one of the UK’s leading energy and environment consultancies.  She joined AEA after a number of years in research at Imperial College and Essex University.  She has been working in the field of biomass and waste to energy for over 25 years.  During this time she has worked with the UK public and private sector and managed a number of international bioenergy and waste to energy projects. Her work has included a number of projects to examine biomass resources both in UK and globally.  In 2011 she managed work for DECC on the potential biomass available to the UK, given constraints on biomass development. She has discussed her work in UK, Europe and North America and has advised private sector generators on their biomass supply strategies.  Pat’s work has also encompassed biofuels, sustainability, regulation, anaerobic digestion and many other key biomass topics

Luc Pelkmans is project manager bio-energy in the unit ‘Transition, Energy and Environment’ at VITO. He got promoted  as master of science in mechanical engineering at KULeuven (Belgium) in 1994, with a post master of environmental technology in 1995. Since 1996, he works for VITO, initially mostly on alternative fuels and new vehicle technologies. The focus of his current work is on policy oriented studies, project implementation and sustainability analysis, mainly towards biofuels and bio-energy. He gained important expertise in European projects (ESTO, PREMIA, Biofuel Cities, ELOBIO, BioBench) and in studies for Belgian and Flemish governments. Luc is actively involved in IEA Bioenergy, as alternate ExCo member for Belgium, and as the Belgian representative in IEA Bioenergy Task 40 (on sustainable bioenergy trade).

Dr. Cortright is the founder and Chief Technical Officer of Virent, Inc. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of catalytic processing of both fossil fuel and biomass-derived feedstocks into chemicals and fuels. Dr. Cortright’s background includes research and development, process design, start-up, and operations of large scale industrial catalytic processes at UOP LLC, a provider of petroleum and petrochemical process technologies. At the University of Wisconsin he co-invented Aqueous Phase Reforming, the innovative pathway to biofuels and bioproducts used by Virent’s BioForming® technology platform.

Peter T Jones is involved in freelance delivery of the low carbon waste infrastructure having Chaired a Planning Advisory Group for Advantage West Midlands .He is building on that work facilitating links between funders, technology providers, waste companies, property companies and fossil energy users.  He qualified as an Industrial Economist  in 1969 , holds an Honorary Degree from the University of Southampton  for work associated with Environmental technologies and is a Member or Fellow of CIM , CIWEM, CIWM , CILT. In the Waste sector, since retiring from Biffa in 2008, he is Chairman of Waste2Tricity,non Exec Director for C8S and Strategic Waste Recycling as well as Ecolateral Ltd. He advises a wide range of blue chips with regard to Distributed energy from Waste and Chaired the WRAP sponsored Gas to Grid Group.

Paul Attfield is Head of Operations for Microbiogen Pty Ltd, based in Sydney, Australia. Paul holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics. His expertise is in the improvement of Saccharomyces yeasts for use in industrial processes. He has 25 years experience of working in and with yeast-dependent companies in the baking, brewing and food industries. In 2001, Paul co-founded Microbiogen in order to develop and commercialise non-GMO technology for manufacturing bioethanol, protein and other valuable co-products from lignocellulosic biomass.

Allison Carlson is Vice President of Green Technology and Fuels at Garten Rothkopf. Ms. Carlson manages the firm’s fuels team, which identifies and analyzes emerging trends in fuels markets worldwide, conducts market and regulatory analysis as well as identifies and evaluates strategic opportunities for private sector investment in renewable fuels. Ms. Carlson also serves as an adviser to a range of businesses engaged in the energy sector. Prior to joining Garten Rothkopf, Ms. Carlson worked with an international consulting company assisting European companies to invest in the Latin American and Eastern European energy and financial sectors. She received her Master's Degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in International Relations and International Economics with additional concentrations in International Law and International Negotiations. Ms. Carlson is based in Garten Rothkopf's San Francisco offices.

Anselm Eisentraut is Bioenergy Analyst in the Renewable Energy Division of the International Energy Agency (IEA). He is the lead-author of the recently published Technology Roadmap – Biofuels for Transport and involved, amongst others, in the work on the forthcoming Technology Roadmap - Bioenergy Heat and Power. Prior to joining the IEA in 2008, he has spent time in the service sector of BKN Biostrom AG in Berlin, working on quality assurance of biogas plants, as well as at NLU Projektgesellschaft in Münster, focussing on environmental impact assessment.

Dr. Sergio Ugarte works in energy since 1990, being among others Vice Minister of Energy of Peru. In Europe, he was the international Director for Energy Generation at Ecofys. Sergio combines a thorough understanding of investment decision making with extensive hands-on experience on overcoming investment barriers. He advises on bioenergy policies and strategies to European governments, multilateral institutions, and large companies such as Abengoa, ED&F MAN, Electricité de France, Endesa, ShellCEMEX, Lafarge, etc.

Jan Paul is a co-founder of StrategicFit. He specialises in developing strategies in highly uncertain situations where there are often conflicting perspectives. He has particular expertise in multi-billion-dollar investment decisions and designing effective decision processes and methodology. In the energy sector, he has supported clients in most aspects of the life-cycle, in conventional, unconventional and renewable energy sources. He has worked extensively for supermajors, and also independents, industry associations and small caps. Jan Paul has also consulted in many other industries, such as high tech and manufacturing, where innovation, flexibility, and market differentiation enable value creation. Combining incisive analysis, industry perspective, an ability to generate creative alternatives and achieving alignment, enable him to open up significant opportunities for teams and entire organisations. Jan Paul was Vice President Consulting at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA / IHS). Before that he was a Board Member and practice Partner at Strategic Decisions Group (SDG) with responsibility for Oil and Gas. Before joining SDG, he worked in a number of international line management assignments at Shell, prior to which he was a navigation officer in the Dutch navy.

Emma is currently working as Vice President at NIBC Bank in London, concentrating on financing renewable energy projects in the UK. Emma led lenders' negotiations for NIBC on Sleaford biomass plant in Dec 2011, and is now managing NIBC's UK biomass advisory services from London. Emma started her career as an energy finance lawyer with Allen & Overy in London and Gide in Paris, advising governments, sponsors and banks on large scale nuclear and renewable energy project finance. She recently completed her thesis on the role of large-scale CSP projects in addressing energy and water security issues in the MENA region.

Yves Ryckmans graduated from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and conducted a PhD study at the same university on modeling heat transfer in furnaces by finite elements techniques. In 1989, he joined Laborelec research Centre of Electrabel as a research engineer in the field of nuclear energy. From 1996 on, he initiated the development of fixed bed gasification and CFB gasification of wood through several Belgian and European projects. In 1999 he became Head of the Biomass Competence Centre of Electrabel at Laborelec. This competence centre covers more than 15 years of working on technical issues like co-firing biomass in pulverized coal power plants, biomass gasification, biomass fuel quality, biogas applications and biomass sustainability verification. His R&D efforts were focused on CFD modeling of PC boilers, slagging and fouling, NOx and SOx emissions, biomass milling and upgrading, ESP, ash quality and utilization, as well as the verification of sustainability criteria for solid biomass. Currently, Yves Ryckmans is Chief Technology Officer Biomass at Laborelec. As such, he is managing research and services for bio-energy applications within GDF SUEZ Group.

Faustine Defossez holds a Master degree in European Union law from the University of Lille, France and a Master degree of EU Politics from the Institute for Political Sciences in Strasbourg, France. Since 2010 she has started working in the policy unit of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) coordinating the organizations advocacy work in the areas of agriculture (reform of the Common Agricultural Policy- CAP) and bioenergy (Biofuels and Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) and Biomass and sustainability criteria). Before joining the EEB she worked for the European Commission, in the Directorate General Agriculture and Rural Development, where she was in the charge of the European Food aid Program for the most deprived and then focused on the integration of environmental issues into the CAP.

Mark Horn is a fluent Portuguese speaker and Brazil agriculture specialist. Participating in the program AgroFuturo, Mr. Horn completed two projects for the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) in Brasilia, in the area of innovation and technology transfer. A Fulbright Scholar (Biochemistry, UK) with 20 years of Fortune 500 corporate experience, Mr. Horn served as chairperson of the conference “AgriYield: The Central and Eastern European Agricultural Yield and Input Optimisation Summit” in Prague, was a member of the Advisory Board for “The Food Finance Conference” in London, presented on “Open Innovation in Public-Private Partnerships” at the Entrepreneurial Innovation Policy Conference in Sao Paulo and was invited to chair the South America Stream of the Agricultural Investment Summit Europe in London.

Dr Frank Rosillo-Calle is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Biomass Energy at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. He has over 30 years research experience in biomass energy- related areas (biofuels, technical, agricultural, socio-economic, and environmental implications of bioenergy). He has extensive experience in international research projects. He has published extensively on many aspects of biomass energy with more than 80 publications in scientific journals, books, etc.  His latest book, with Francis Johnson, (2010) entitled Food versus Fuel Debate: An Informed Introduction to Biofuels, Zed Books, London.

Following an MSc in Biotechnology at ESBS in Strasbourg and a biotech-focused Master's in business administration at Grenoble École de Management, Thomas started his career in the technology transfer office of the CEA, (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) the biggest research institution for applied sciences in France. He then became Business Development & IP Manager at Biométhodes, a protein engineering company, and subsequently took over the responsibility for strategic development at the antibody development company MorphoSys, one of the three biggest German biotech companies. Thomas joined Global Bioenergies in October 2010.

Stuart Hayward-Higham is currently responsible for non bidding emerging development activities in SITA UK, delivering tools, techniques and information  to meet the business impetrative.His main activity themes include harnessing waste as a resource, energy and bio-fuels manufacture, sorting,  extraction and value enhancement for waste mix resources and  the increasing influence of carbon. He is a  GDFSuez Business Development Ambassador, member of the SE community of Innovation, Chair of the UK ESA Carbon Committee and member of the UK REA gasification and Pyrolysis committee. Winner of a 2011 Suez envrionnement  innovation trophy.Previously he was Technical Development Director  and Technical Director. Prior to this he was Head of New Market Business Development where new markets and techniques were developed in the business. Previously he was divisional manager for SITA Power, the landfill gas to power generation arm of SITA UK and  was the group engineering manager for SITA UK

In 1990 Paul joined the Energy Research centre of the Netherlands where he has worked on various topics like air pollution, hot (coal) gas cleaning, fuel processing for H2 production etc. Since 2004 Paul works in the ECN Biomass, Coal and Environmental Research department, where his main activities deal with innovative thermochemical conversion technologies for biomass within the framework of the biorefinery approach. On July 15, 2011, he received his PhD at the university of Groningen on the subject of biomass pyrolysis for chemicals.