Ibrahim joined CRU Consulting in November 2017, following three years of market research experience in the primary metal and value-added metal sectors with IBISWorld Inc.
Prior to CRU, Ibrahim worked for three years at industry research firm IBISWorld, where his work spanned multiple sectors across the US and Canadian economies, but with a particular focus on primary metal production, value-added metal product manufacturing and consumer packaged goods. His experience covers project and personnel management, market research and publishing market insights for various media organizations and trade associations. Prior to his time at IBISWorld, Ibrahim studied Economics and International Relations at Colgate University and served as a structural firefighter with the Village of Hamilton for four years. Ibrahim holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Colgate University; he is fluent in Turkish and conversant in Arabic. Ibrahim is based in CRU's Pittsburgh office.
Dr. James Stevenson is executive director and leads coal, metals and mining research at McCloskey by OPIS, a Dow Jones company. Previously he led global coal research, and before that he headed up analysis of North American coal for IHS Markit (OPIS and IHS Markit’s coal, metals and mining business were acquired by Dow Jones in 2022).
Dr. Stevenson’s primary expertise includes supply-demand and price dynamics of global thermal and metallurgical coal, iron ore, steel and ferrous scrap. He also has extensive experience in trading of coal, natural gas, and power, as well as being experienced in M&A and business development, both at McCloskey and also having been a part of a number of asset and offtake deals in the coal supply space.
Prior to joining IHS Markit, Dr. Stevenson spent six years in commodity trading, most recently as Vice President, Coal Analysis at Mercuria Energy Trading, and before that as Coal Strategist at Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy. He also worked in the energy trading team at Eraring Energy in the Australian utility industry, working primarily in risk management as well as strategy around coal procurement, power sales, and carbon strategy.
Dr. Stevenson holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Sydney in Australia, and a PhD from Yale University.
Kevin Jensen has been in working on supporting cogeneration and other markets for Solar Turbines for nearly 20 years. He has spent time in various roles and teams from gas turbine engineering and supply chain to marketing and project support. Currently, he has supported Midwest cogeneration and alternative fuel markets for Solar’s industrial power generation division. In his current role, Kevin has been supporting customers and engineering firms in sizing, selecting, and analyzing the benefits of gas turbines as well as generating proposals for customers. Kevin is a current board member for the Midwest Cogen Association and a proud Midwest native. He received a BS Mechanical Engineering degree from Purdue University and an MBA from University of San Diego.
Solar Turbines Incorporated, headquartered in San Diego, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. Solar manufactures the world’s most widely used family of mid-sized industrial gas turbines, ranging from 1 to 23 megawatts. More than 16,000 Solar units are installed in more than 100 countries with more than 3 billion operating hours. Solar is a leading provider of energy solutions, featuring an extensive line of gas turbine-powered compressor sets, mechanical drive packages, and generator sets.
Luke Fritz joined Wood Mackenzie in January of 2020. He is responsible for delivering comprehensive research coverage of the Atlantic basin’s metallurgical coal sector including supply, demand, pricing and costs. He also contributes to the thermal coal sector on the supply side, detailing production and costs in Appalachia.
Prior to joining Luke was a geologist at CNX Resources, an E&P company in Northern Appalachia, and an adjunct professor of geology at Slippery Rock University.
Luke holds an MS in Geology from West Virginia University and a BS in geology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Joseph J. Poveromo (Ph.D., M.S. Center for Process Metallurgy, State U. of New York/Buffalo; BS Chem. Eng. Rensselaer Poly). From 1974 he was at Bethlehem Steel’s Homer Research Laboratories. In 1993 he established his consultancy, Raw Materials & Ironmaking Global Consulting. Through 2008 his principal client was the Quebec Cartier Mining Company, serving as Director Technology-International. Currently, he consults for steel, iron ore, other natural resource, technology provider, financial and consultancy companies on a global basis. Dr. Poveromo is a Distinguished Member of AIST (Assoc. of Iron & Steel Technology); his awards include the T. L. Joseph Award for long-standing contributions to ironmaking technology. He is also a Special Member of the IIMA(International Iron Metallics Association).
Over 25 years industry experience, with senior sales and marketing positions at companies that include Alpha Coal Sales, Robindale Export, and Ramaco Coal Sales, with wide experience in both the export and North American coking coal markets, as well as extensive experience with all aspects of the steel making raw materials logistics systems in North America.
At Trafigura, I am responsible for the origination of all coking coal, met coke and coke products, as well as iron ore as Trafigura looks to expand its global steelmaking raw materials franchise in North America.
David Ailor has been with the Washington, D.C.-based American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute for more than 20 years. His tenure with ACCCI includes 16 years, from 1989 – 2005, as ACCCI’s first Director of Regulatory Affairs; and, six years, from 2015 to the present, as President of the Institute.
As ACCCI President, Mr. Ailor, who reports to ACCCI’s Board of Directors, organizes and manages four off-site meetings of the Institute each year, including ACCCI’s Annual Meeting, a Business Meeting of the Board, and biannual meetings of ACCCI’s “Manufacturing, Environmental, and Safety and Health” (MESH) Committee. Additionally, he prepares and manages an annual budget for the Institute.
Mr. Ailor also has many of the same responsibilities he had from 1989 – 2005, when he served as ACCCI Director of Regulatory Affairs. His overall responsibility in this area is
monitoring and reporting to ACCCI’s membership on Federal agency actions on environmental and employee safety issues of potential concern to the membership. Related responsibilities include analyzing regulations/legislation; formulating policy positions; developing regulatory responses; and, working with the relevant regulatory agencies (EPA, OSHA) to ensure the reasonableness of the regulations being developed.
Technology development leader with career experiences spanning R&D to manufacturing within oil & gas, petrochemicals, and specialty chemicals. Highlights include; managing the startup of a new manufacturing plant, supervising and developing direct reports, leading multiple technical teams, running research projects and leading multiple volunteer based organizations.
Biography to come
Ted O’Brien is Managing Partner and Chief Commercial Officer of Oluma Resources. Prior to launching Oluma Resources in September 2021, Ted spent five years with Xcoal, most recently as Vice President – Pacific Basin Operations, based in Singapore. Ted has extensive experience in coal marketing and logistics, and is well versed in the interplay between geopolitics, macroeconomic developments, and global coal markets.
Prior to joining Xcoal, Ted spent 10 years at Doyle Trading Consultants, LLC, culminating in his role as CEO.
Ted is a proud graduate from The Pennsylvania State University and serves as an Independent Trustee and Chair of the Audit Committee on the Board of the Goehring & Rozenczwajg Resources Fund.
Mr Mathai has 32 years of operational experience in Recovery and Non-recovery type coke.
Presently working at Jindal Saw Limited, Mundra Gujarat as Head - Coke Oven
Served as General Manager (Coke ovens) at Bhatia Coke & Energy Ltd, near Chennai, India. Served as Sr. Manager (Operation) Heat recovery coke plant with 35 MW JSW Steel, Salem (India) and worked 2 decades for Bhilai Steel Plant, 7-meter-tall recovery coke ovens.
• Bagged Vishwakarma national award (Govt. of India 2005) & prestigious Apex awards (BSP 2006), also won a gold medal for technical papers presentation at INSSAN (TATA steel 2006).
• Two technical papers published in international journals and 5 papers in national level.
• Participated many paper presentations in NMD-IIM & international conferences 2012 to 2017
• Recipient of JSW Innovation award 2016 and Best safety (DuPont) performance award 2017.
• Visited various recovery and Non recovery coke plant SAIL PLANTS, RISUN COKE CHINA, JSW-ISPAT Dolvi, JSPL Raigad, TATA MET COKE, BHUSAN POWER & STEEL ORISSA, JAISAWAL NECO RAIPUR, ECL Bokaro, SMIRE Hospet, Mahashakti coke Gujarat.
• Presented international paper on Usage of catalyst in coke making at Bangkok 2019.
• Hobby: Stamp & Coin collection, Traveling (PAN India & UAE, China, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia. Australia, Germany, Thailand.)
• Technical Education: B.Sc.& PGD in Environment management.
G.S.Venkata Subramanian has 37years of operational experience in Recovery type Coke Oven Operations.
• Educational qualification: B.Tech(Metallurgy) from Karnataka Regional Engineering College, presently NIT, Surathkal, India
• Joined Bhilai Steel plant (a flagship unit of Steel authority of India) in May 1982 as Management Trainee(Technical)
• Worked in various sections of Coke Oven and Coal Chemical department (1983-2018)
• Became Head of the Department (General Manager) in 2017
• 4 months prior to retirement, joined as Head of Energy management Department (Feb-May 2019)
• Superannuated from Bhilai Steel plant in May 2019
• Implemented e-log systems, Web based Delay Analysis for Wagon Tippler unloading and Battery production operations, numerous modifications in Coal, Coke Handling plants and Battery proper
• Championed the cause for initiating and purchasing high valued items for the department
• Initiated 5-S based housekeeping in Coke Plant and secured awards for improving work ambience with greenery and compliance to environmental norms
• Got the coveted ‘Jawahar Award’ twice for outstanding performance in 1999 and 2016
• Secured ‘Engineering Achievement Award’ from The Institution of Engineers (INDIA) in 2013
• Secured plant based ‘APEX’ Award in 2009 for improving Coke Handling Logistics
• Presented 20 technical papers during seminars and Operating Committee Meetings on Coke Making Technology, Environment Control of Coke Plant etc.
Bio coming soon
Siew Hua Seah is the Global Editor for Argus Ferrous Markets, a daily report covering the iron ore, coking coal, steel and scrap markets. Her focus is on ferrous raw materials, particularly the Atlantic coking coal and iron ore markets. In her time at Argus, Siew Hua has covered fertilizers, LNG, freight and thermal coal. In 2014, Siew Hua was granted the OIES-Saudi Aramco Fellowship at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies where she researched Indonesia’s policy on natural gas.
Colin Petryk is Director, Marketing at Teck Coal responsible for coal sales to India and the Americas and earlier this year also acted as Director, Logistics. He has been involved in the coal industry since joining Teck in 2004.
Prior to assuming his current position, Colin marketed coal in Europe and the Middle and previous to that acted as Director, Investor Relations and Assistant Corporate Secretary.
Colin obtained his MBA from Simon Fraser University. He also holds a BA in Economics and a BComm in Finance from the University of Calgary.
Mike Nobis is Director of Met Coal Procurement and Coke Sales for DTE Vantage. He has been involved in the coal industry since joining DTE in 2000.
Prior to assuming his current position, Mike was Director of Coal Trading for DTE Coal Services where he was responsible for leading DTE’s trading activities in the OTC markets.
Before joining DTE, Mike obtained his MBA in Finance from Michigan State University following a brief foray in the auto industry. He also holds a BA in Economics and a BS in Engineering from MSU.
Mr. Schwartz is the President of the consulting firm of Energy Ventures Analysis and was one of the founders of the firm in 1981. He and his firm specialize in applied analysis of energy markets, including power, coal, natural gas, oil, renewables, and emissions. EVA publishes regular reports on energy markets, including forecasts of supply, demand, and prices. EVA’s clients include energy consumers, producers, and transporters as well as investors and regulators. Mr. Schwartz manages EVA’s coal consulting practice, which includes market studies, investment analysis, procurement operations, property valuations and transaction services. Mr. Schwartz testifies on energy markets before courts and regulatory agencies and has served as an arbitrator in contract disputes. He has also served as CEO of Centennial Resources and Atlantic Carbon, two coal producers and has been an agent for power plant coal procurement activities. He received a degree in Geological Engineering from Princeton University in 1977.
