Speakers at this Event

Dr. Indroneil Ganguly is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) and Associate Director of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR). Dr. Ganguly has a Ph.D. in Forestry and Wood Products and published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, industry reports, and newsletter articles. His research has been featured in Forbes Business and Energy section and many other national and international news outlets. His research has helped influence forestry-related public policy in the United States.

Dr. Ganguly’s research expertise is in temporal life cycle assessment modeling of wood products, woody biomass-based bioenergy, and wood-based building systems. His research focuses on natural climate solutions and the synergic role between the wood products industry, trade, and regional forestry practices. He has developed Life Cycle Environmental Assessment (LCA) models for a broad range of innovative wood products and wood-based construction systems, including ‘woody biomass-based biofuels, ‘Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) Panels’, and ‘comparative LCAs of traditional vs. CLT buildings’. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Ganguly has undertaken research in the U.S., Canada, India, China, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand, exploring trade and environmental policies in those countries.

Maarten Herrebrugh is CEO and co-founder of Blackwood Technology, a Dutch torrefaction technology company. He joined Blackwood’s predecessor Topell Energy as COO in 2009 and became its CEO in 2014. In his former roles at Topell he was responsible for the successful construction and operation of the world’s first industrial-scale torrefied pellet plant.

Before entering the biomass industry, he worked as interim CEO and executed several successful turnarounds for medium-sized companies in different sectors.  Earlier in his career he worked for Akzo Nobel and the Boston Consulting Group. Maarten holds a MSc degree in Aerospace engineering from Delft University of Technology and a MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Mads is acts as a Director for the world-leading value-adding biomass aggregator and producer, CM Biomass.

His role revolves around managing the global biomass portfolio (wood pellets in particular) together with the Deputy CEO of CM Biomass with a key focus on caretaking the company’s commercial activities in Europe and Asia. His activities strives towards balancing supply and demand through flexible and efficient logistics solutions in a market characterised by constant change and volatility, where adding value throughout the value chain from the suppliers to the end-users is considered vital. With a strong diversified portfolio along with a continued growth of own-production in the US, CM Biomass is positioned to expand its network further around the world.  

Before joining CM Biomass 5 years ago, he spent several years working within the shipping and commodity industry already back then focusing on energy commodities, in particular.

Mr. Guay has over 25 years of experience in business development, sales, product management and marketing in the technology sector. He joined Airex Energy in 2016 as Vice-President Business Development where his role is to develop new projects for the construction and operation of biocoal pellets and biochar production plants. During his career, he has worked for global firms such as Nortel Networks, Arthur Andersen and Deloitte. Mr. Guay holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Sherbrooke University and a Master of Business Administration from McGill University

Takanobu Aikawa is a senior researcher, Renewable Energy Institute in Tokyo, since June 2016. In April 2018, he was appointed as a member Biomass Sustainability Working Group organized Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He is a board member of Japan Woody Bioenergy Association.

He was previously employed in a senior research consulting position for Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. from 2004 to 2016 and was involved in investigations and consulting activities on the forest sector.

He obtained his Master's degree in forest ecology from the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. In March 2016, he completed his doctorate in agricultural studies on the theme of human resources development policy in the area of forest management.

Dr Hirzun Mohd Yusof heads the Technology and Innovation Management under Strategy and Innovation at Sime Darby Plantation Berhad. He is responsible for technical evaluation and business development of Renewable related projects such as biogas and large scale solar, as well as lead and align innovation initiatives within SDP to bring new insights and perspectives to create opportunities for alternative and diversified revenue streams. Prior to joining SDP in 2003, Dr Hirzun was a Lecturer at the Biotechnology Department, Faculty of Food Science and Biotechnology, Universiti Putra Malaysia since 1999 and also serves as a Consultant for the Science Adviser Office of Prime Minister Department.

David has been an Executive Director of PIO Hardwoods since 2002 and an Executive Directive of Rainbow Pellet since 2016. He has 20 years’ experience of manufacturing and export of timber products to Europe and South Africa, and since 2014 has been involved in wood pellet production.

David oversaw the construction of Rainbow Pellet’s four pellet production facilities, which make the company the largest wood pellet producer in Malaysia. Managing the export of wood pellets to Europe and Asia is amongst David’s responsibilities.

Since 2019, David has been a committee member of the Timber Exporters Association of Malaysia.

David has a BSc in Marketing and Finance from the University of Bradford, UK.

Paul and his teams are responsible for maximising the value of the biomass and renewable power produced from the Drax portfolio. Paul joined Drax as Chief Operating Officer, Haven Power, in May 2017, bringing extensive experience of the retail energy sector, having previously and notably worked as Commercial Director for EDF Energy, the largest B2B energy supplier in the UK.

Mr Yasuhisa Okamoto is Managing Director for Drax Asia, leading the organisation's business development team and Tokyo field office in Japan. Mr Okamoto has an integral role in achieving Drax’s target to double biomass sales to 4Mt pa by 2030, to support the net-zero transition.

Vaughan is Senior Vice President of Biomass Sales and Logistics at Drax PLC based in London, UK from where he manages a global team stationed in the UK, Canada and Japan. Vaughan has an extensive career in international business, particularly in the forest products industry. Previously, he spent almost 20 years with Sappi, a global pulp and paper company. As their executive in charge of their world-wide pulp sales, he was stationed in Hong Kong for 10 years before moving to Canada in 2007 and joining Pinnacle in 2011. Vaughan earned his BSc from the University of Natal and his MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand, both located in South Africa.