Conference Speakers
AZ China is pleased to announce a distinguished number of industry experts will be speaking at the 2014 conference.
Key Note Speakers
Dr. Geoff Raby
former Australian Ambassador to China
https://www.geoffraby.com
Tom Orlik
Economist, Bloomberg, Author "Understanding China's Economic Indicators"
Andrew Polk
Economist, The Conference Board
Other Speakers or Panellists:
Jim Lennon
Senior Consultant, Macquarie Securities
Liu Jianping
Deputy General Manager, Qingxin Carbon
Ron Knapp
Secretary General, International Aluminium Association
Gerry Sweeney
CEO, RainCII
Dong Chunming
President, Sunlight
Stuart Ehrenreich
Director, Cascade Resources & Consulting
Lang Dazhan
Previous Vice Director, China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association's Aluminium Department
Benedikt Machens
General Manager, Marketing, BHP Billiton
Lang Guanghui
President, Sunstone
Tony Botelho
Commercial Director, Sinoway Carbon
Wan Ling
Head of Asia, Aluminium, CRU
Dong Zhou
Senior Research Analyst, Drewry Maritime Advisors
Zhang Yahong
Deputy General Manager, Hunan Nonferrous Group
Dr. Barry Sadler
Managing Director, Net Carbon Consulting
Bob Wombles
Vice President, Koppers
Michael Wrotniak
Managing Director, Aminco Anodes
Mark Doreen
Operations Director, Light Metals Research Centre
Ma Shaoxian
Chief Engineer, NEUI
...and more!
Speaker Biographies
Geoff Raby
Dr Geoff Raby is Chairman and CEO of Geoff Raby & Associates, a Beijing-based business advisory firm. In addition to his roles at Geoff Raby & Associates, Dr Raby is Chairman of ASX-listed SmartTrans Ltd, as well as an Independent Director on the boards of Fortescue Mining Group,OceanaGold and Yancoal Australia. He is also Co-Chair of Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s China Business Practice, Senior Advisor to Kreab Gavin Anderson, and Vice Chairman of Macquarie Group China.Additionally, Dr Raby is a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University and a member of the Advance Global Advisory Board. In recognition of his contributions to advancing the relations between Australia and China, Dr Raby is honoured with the title of Friendship Ambassador to Shandong Province and has been made an honorary citizen of Chengdu City. Dr Raby was the Australian Ambassador to China from February 2007 to August 2011.
Tom Orlik
Tom is an economist with Bloomberg where he covers China, Japan and Korea. Prior to that he headed the WSJ's China economy coverage, and worked as a policy analyst at HM-Treasury.His book Understanding China's Economic Indicators was published by Pearson in summer 2011, and provides the first comprehensive guide to working with China's economic data.
Andrew Polk
Andrew Polk is the resident economist at The Conference Board China Center for Economics and Business in Beijing. Previously, Polk worked at the Institute of International Finance, where he conducted macroeconomic analysis on emerging markets in the Asia/Pacific region. His research focus has included monetary policy, capital flows, and financial market development throughout East and Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on China. He has also conducted growth and inflation forecasting and country risk analysis for the region. Polk has held research positions at the East Asia Desk of the U.S. Treasury Department, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Foreign Policy magazine. He earned his BA in American studies and communication at Texas A&M University and holds an MA with distinction in economics and China studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Ron Knapp
Ron Knapp was appointed Secretary General of the International Aluminium Institute, London in December 2008. Prior to this, Ron was Executive Director of the Australian Aluminium Council from 2002 to 2008 – and earlier roles include the World Coal Institute (London) and the Minerals Council of Australia. The International Aluminium Institute is the global forum of the world's aluminium industry. Through the Institute, the aluminium industry aims to promote a wider understanding of its value and that of its products to society – and seeks to demonstrate its responsibility in relation to all key sustainability issues . . . environmental, health, safety and recycling.
Gerard Sweeney
Gerry Sweeney is President and Chief Executive Officer of Rain CII Carbon LLC, one of the world’s leading producers of calcined petroleum coke. He is also the President of Rain Global Services LLC. Mr. Sweeney has more than 25 years of experience with leaders in the industrial carbon industry. Over the last fifteen years, Mr. Sweeney has been instrumental in the global expansion of CPC production in South Asia, primarily India and Kuwait. Mr. Sweeney sits on the board of Rain Commodities (USA) and Rain CII Carbon. He also serves on several boards of directors of local charities and non-profit organizations.
Dazhan Lang
Mr Lang Dazhan graduated from Northeastern University in non-ferrous metallurgy. From 2006 to present, he is deputy of the department of Aluminum Business and vice secretary general of China Aluminum Branch of China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association (CNIA. From 2001 to 2005, he had worked for business consulting department, and then the department of Aluminum Business in CNIA. He was involved in the tracking both domestic and international development in aluminum smelting industry, and policy research work. From 1985 to 2000, he was deputy director of the provincial metallurgy ministry in the Ningxia Autonomous Region, and was in charge of the production and marketing activities of nonferrous metals. From 1968 to 1984, he worked for in Ningxia Qingtongxia Aluminum Plant, as director of aluminum smelting workshop, technology chief, and director for control center.
Stuart Ehrenreich
Stu has been in the carbon business over 30 years. He founded and was President of Pacific Basin Coal and Carbon which was purchased in 1984 by Bill Koch and became the core around which Oxbow Carbon and Minerals was created. Stu has worked in both operations, commercial and trading roles handling coal, both met and steam, foundry and blast furnace coke, petroleum coke, both fuel and anode grade plus other bulk raw materials. He lived and worked in China from 1986 through to 1989 as VP of Marketing for the Occidental Petroleum/Bank of China/CNCIEC Joint Venture coal operation called An Tai Bao in Shanxi Province. In his previous role at Alcoa, Stu was responsible for all the green petcoke procurement for the company’s Lake Charles Calcining operation, sat on the board of the Alcoa-RTA JV Strathcona calciner outside of Edmonton, Alberta and was responsible for all the 3rd party pre-baked anode purchases for Alcoa’s smelting system worldwide.
Wan Ling
Wan Ling heads up CRU's aluminum market research in China and the rest of Asia. She has been forging working relations with government departments, as well as various local Chinese players in the nonferrous metals industry.Wan Ling’s reputation in the aluminum industry ensures that she is in high demand to make presentations to banks, funds and leading industry conferences. Wan Ling joined CRU in January 2007. Before CRU, Wan Ling worked for a local nonferrous metals research institute with a focus on copper for six years.Education: Bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, China University of Geosciences; Master’s degree in mineralogy, University of Science and Technology, Beijing.
Yahong Zhang
Mr. Zhang Yahong received a bachelor’s degree from Central South University in 1981, majoring in Geophysical exploration . He has many years working experience in Geophysical exploration technology, as well as the aluminium and fluoride industry. He worked as general manager in the import & export Department of Hunan Aluminium company from 2002 to 2008. Since 2008, Mr. Zhang Yahong has been working at Hunan Nonferrous Fluoride Trade Ltd, responsible for fluoride salt for both the domestic and export market. He was appointed as deputy general manager at Hunan Nonferrous Fluoride Trade Ltd. in January 2009 and is now deputy general manager since April 2011.
Bob Wombles
Bob Wombles has served Koppers Inc. as Vice President of Technology since 1997. In that capacity Bob is responsible for Koppers technical activities on a global basis. Prior to coming to Koppers Bob was Vice President of Research, Applications and Development for Ashland Petroleum Company. During his career Bob's area of expertise has been heavy hydrocarbon products such as asphalts and pitches. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY, and a Master of Science in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University. He holds fourteen U.S. patents in the area of hydrocarbon processing and has authored several technical publications and presentations.
Barry Sadler
Barry Sadler has been involved in the Aluminium Industry for nearly 30 years in a range of positions but always with a focus on anode carbon technology. He has a PhD in Metallurgy, and commenced his career in 1982 at the Comalco Research Centre (CRC) in Melbourne, Australia. Barry established a Carbon Technology Group at CRC before moving to Comalco’s New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) as Carbon Plant Manager in 1989. After more than 7 years at NZAS, and following a stint as the General Manager of Organisational Effectiveness for Hamersley Iron, Barry was appointed as the Corporate Technical General Manager at Comalco Aluminium’s corporate headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. In this role he provided support to improve carbon and metal products operations at Comalco’s smelters. Barry resigned from Rio Tinto/Comalco in 2002 to successfully set up “Net Carbon Consulting Pty Ltd”. As a consultant, he supports clients to improve carbon plant performance and process technology. Barry has authored or co-authored over 20 technical papers, is a regular lecturer on anode technology at Post Graduate courses run by the University of Auckland, and has been an invited speaker at a range of conferences and meetings; he is the 2013 Editor of the TMS Light Metals conference proceedings.
Shaoxian Ma
Mr. Ma is a professor level senior engineer and Vice President and Chief Engineer Design at the Research Institute Northeastern University (NEUI). Mr. Ma Shaoxian received a bachelor degree from Northeastern University of in 1984, majoring in Nonferrous metal metallurgy of light metals. He has been devoted to the technology development of the Chinese carbon industry and engineering design for 30 years.