Biography

Paul Adkins, Founder and Managing Director of specialist consulting firm AZ Global Consulting Ltd (previously AZ China Ltd), has had over 30 years’ experience in the aluminium industry, including 13 years at Alcoa, 4 years at Tomago Aluminium and 3 years at Alcan Australia.

Paul did his undergraduate studies at Deakin University in Australia and attained his MBA with Merit from the Newcastle Graduate School of Management in Australia.

From 2001, he was Raw Materials Manager at Tomago Aluminium, before being seconded to Alcan early 2005 to set up their Global Sourcing office in Beijing China. Paul was also involved in Alcan’s FECRI project, which was aimed at significantly reducing the cost of building new aluminium smelters.

On completion of that assignment, Paul chose to remain in China and to establish his own business. Paul has been Managing Director since 2007.

AZ Global Consulting is a specialist consulting company, with focus on the global and Chinese aluminium industry. AZ Global publishes multi-client reports on the market trends and outlook, as well as providing consulting services to individual clients. We have been holding conferences since 2008. As the aluminium and raw materials markets have evolved, so has our focus, which is on green aluminium, sustainability and the challenges facing the aluminium industry.

Biography

Sergey Akhmetov has dedicated his professional career to Aluminium, working in the industry from 2001 and more than decade in EGA.

During his career he enjoyed developing new technologies and optimizing reduction processes by leading research and development teams, making industrial implementation of developed technologies, and maximize efficiency of plants with operational teams.

Sergey led JA Reduction team since 2014 and EGA Reduction since 2016. He is currently holding the position of Executive Vice President, Midstream from 2020, leading the Midstream Team of the EGA overseeing the Operations and a Member of the Executive Committee.

He has graduated from Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold with two degrees: Metallurgical engineer/Alumina and Aluminium production and Economist/Management of organization. He has covered executive leadership courses in INSEAD and London Business School.

Biography

Stephan Broek is the president and principle of Kensington Technology Inc., a boutique consulting firm mainly focused on the primary aluminium industry. He has a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Applied sciences in Amsterdam, with a postgraduate diploma in Process Technology from Twente University in Enschede, The Netherlands. For twelve years, he worked at Tata Steel Europe in the engineering group of Danieli Corus. In 2003, Stephan joined Hatch in Mississauga, Canada, where he worked on commercialization and development of technologies. After that he worked for more than twelve years in the COE for the global aluminium industry where he is recognized for his know-how in environmental engineering and technologies. He was also actively working on smelter feasibility studies and project management, including the rebuild of potline 2 at PT INALUM. In 2021, he joined Boston Metal to provide leadership in the industrial development and deployment of inert anode technology for metal production. In 2023 he returned to Canada and founded Kensington Technology Inc. to work on different projects for which he is most passionate about: the primary aluminium industry.

Stephan has co-authored over 40 articles and papers and is a regular speaker at international conferences. He is the current chair of the TMS Aluminium Committee and in 2023 he published the Light Metals proceedings. Stephan also shares his knowledge within our industry. He created and lectured in several short training courses, contributes to the Trondheim course, and is a lead instructor and organizer of the Potline Scrubber & Fugitive Emissions (PFSE) industrial training course that is part of professional development by TMS.

Biography

Paul-Antoine Calandreau is the Director for Industry 4.0 at EGA since one and a half year. Most of his career to date has been in the aerospace industry with a strong track record on leading digital transformation in the industrial context. Combining the best of technologies, processes and ways of working for value is what underlies all positions held by Paul-Antoine at Airbus and now at EGA.

Biography

Anthony Everiss is a Senior Analyst in the Aluminium Raw Materials team at CRU, and is editor of the Bauxite and Alumina Monitor, Bauxite and Alumina Market Outlook, and Bauxite and Alumina Long Term Market Outlook. Anthony's main areas of specialism include bauxite and alumina price forecasting and market fundamental analysis, and he has developed expertise across the aluminium value chain. Anthony joined CRU in 2011 after achieving a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Biography

Dr. Martin Iffert is an expert in the metals and energy sector with extensive experience in the aluminium industry. He worked for TRIMET for over 25 years, holding various management positions, including CEO, from 2011 until 2018. During this time, he achieved significant milestones, such as expanding electrolysis production in Essen and taking over smelters in St-Jean-de-Maurienne and Voerde. He is also known for developing the "Virtual Battery Concept" for aluminium smelters to enable flexibility in the energy transition. Since 2019, he has started MARTIN IFFERT CONSULTING GmbH and EP ENERGY POOL GmbH, which focus on consultancy services and deploying flexibility solutions and software tools to the energy-intensive industry and utilities.

Iffert has advised leading primary and secondary aluminium producers and private equity firms in operation and on due diligence processes. He has a strong focus on decarbonization strategies for the metals, battery, and energy industries worldwide. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering from UNSW in Sydney, Australia, an MBA from IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Master’s in electrical engineering from RWTH Aachen, Germany.

Biography

Halvor Kvande received his PhD in 1972 from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and in 1979 he defended his thesis for the Norwegian degree of Dr. Techn. from the same university. He started his industrial career with Hydro Aluminum in 1980. His major field of interest has been research and development on the Hall-Héroult process for primary production of aluminium. From 1990 to 2005, and from 2012 to 2014, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. From 2009 to 2011 he was professor and Qatalum Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Qatar University in Doha, Qatar. In 2012 he retired from his position as chief engineer at Norsk Hydro in Oslo, Norway. Halvor Kvande is the author or co-author of about 180 scientific and technical papers, as well as five books on aluminium electrolysis and related topics. His research work has been appraised in the form of several TMS awards and honors including his contribution as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Biography

Jerome Lucaes is the CEO of FAST FORWARD ZERO.

FFZero advises business leaders, investors and funds to transform to net zero carbon, circular and fair models. Among other activities Jerome currently acts as a senior advisor for the IAI and for several aluminium producers.Jerome has over 25 years of world-leading experience in the various sectors, including 20 in the aluminium industry both upstream and downstream, having worked for Pechiney, Alcan (now Constellium), Rio Tinto and RUSAL. articulating business functions having a climate and sustainability impact.

Jerome has an impressive track record with few world premieres. Notably, he co-created the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative in 2011. At Rio Tinto he initiated the first low carbon partnership with key customers like Apple. For EN+ and RUSAL, he created the first low carbon aluminium brand, ALLOW, (which reached 3 Bn of $ sales within 4 years), and he prepared the first corporate commitment to net zero carbon (in Jan 2020), at that time it was the first commitment across the mining and metal sector.

Biography

Uday Patel has over 30 years of experience in the metals and mining sector covering Aluminium and other metals. He joined Wood Mackenzie in 2014 and is Senior Research Manager, Global Aluminium Markets. His industry experience includes Outokumpu, Ma’aden Saudi Arabia, DUBAL where he contributed to the startup of EMAL phases 1 and 2. During his career he has also worked on a range of projects across the entire aluminium value chain, including detailed market studies, cost analyses and strategic advisory work for clients including rolled producers, aluminium processing companies and financial organizations. Uday is a graduate of the London Business School’s executive management programme, Sussex University and the University of Exeter.

Biography

Miles Prosser is the Secretary General of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI), the only body that represents the aluminium industry at the global level. With more than twenty years’ experience working on various industry policy issues, Miles brings in-depth knowledge on resource allocation, sustainability and climate change.

Miles joined the IAI from the Australian Aluminium Council, where he served as Executive Director for more than ten years. He leads the IAI to promote the unique and valuable properties of aluminium in sustainable development. He holds an honours degree from the Australian National University. He is a member of the Institute of Directors in London.

Biography

Sandy Sutherland joined the Aluminium industry in 2001 at Alcoa’s operations in Western Australia.  Since that time, he has held many roles in the industry covering the value chain from Bauxite all the way to Extrusions.  In his current position as SVP of Strategy, Energy & Sourcing for Norsk Hydro’s Bauxite and Alumina operations in Brazil, he is responsible for an aggressive decarbonization program.  The goal is to transform Alunorte, the largest Alumina refinery in the world, to deliver the lowest emissions smelter grade alumina globally by 2025.

Biography

Nitin Tiwari pursued MBA in Marketing and HR from Nagpur University in 2004.

BE in Chemical Engineering from NIT Raipur in 2002.

Result Oriented professional with Over 21 years of experience and proven track record of driving excellence and steering the 1.8 million tonnes aluminium business, including Operations, Planning and Waste management, commercial, and logistics with a strong focus on Quality, innovation and HSE.

Committed to fostering a culture of innovation, Continuous improvement, and Customer satisfaction to achieve sustainable growth, Operational efficiency, and exceed organizational goals in a dynamic and competitive market.