Andres Barcelo is the CEO of UNESID, the trade association of the Spanish steel industry. It gathers all the Spanish steelmaking companies, as well as the biggest share of downstream steel processing companies. Before being appointed CEO in 2009, he was in charge of Trade Policy and Statistics, dealing with international issues between 2003 and 2009. Graduate in Physics, with an MBA, he had previously worked for a mining company, a capital equipment firm and a steelmaker. He also served in the public sector as Senior Manager in a state-owned holding and as Pre-Accession Adviser in Poland, dealing with coal & steel restructuring programs. He is President of the External Relations Committee EUROFER, and member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and AENOR.

Jesus is a graduate in Law and Master in Business Law from the University of Navarre, and Master in Human Resource Management and Organisation from ESIC. His professional career has always been linked to what today is the ArcelorMittal Group (formerly Aceralia), since he joined the organisation in 1998 as Legal Counsel specialising in Labour Law at the Group’s subsidiary Aceralia Transformados. In 2003 he was appointed Head of Human Resources and Legal Department for the Distribution sector in Spain and Portugal, following the acquisition by Aceralia of Grupo Velasco. In January 2013 he was appointed General Manager, Human Resources for the ArcelorMittal Group in Spain, and two years later he became Country Manager of the ArcelorMittal Group in Spain and Chairman of ArcelorMittal Spain Holding, positions that he combines with his previous responsibilities. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Cuatrecasas International Institute for Legal Strategy on Human Resources.

Li Xinchuang has served in many roles previously including those approved by the State Council. He was Professor Senior Engineer, Vice Secretary-General of China Iron & Steel Association (CISA), President and Chief Engineer of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute (MPI), and Director of Technical Economics Branch of the Chinese Society for Metals.

Karl has been Director at the European steel association EUROFER (Brussels), responsible for international relations since April 2007. Prior to joining EUROFER, Karl worked for Arcelor Corporate (Luxembourg) in the International Affairs department (2001). Karl worked in Central sales organization of Sidstahl in Ghent (1997- Flat carbon steel Sector of Arbed) and then joined the Marketing Services in 1999. In 1994, Karl was in charge of the sales coordination for cold-reduced sheets in Central sales organization TradeARBED (Luxembourg). In 1989, Karl was employed in the legal service at steel producer Sidmar - Arbed group (Ghent). Karl has a Law degree from the University of Louvain (1987) and from the College of Europe, Bruges (1988).

Jens heads the sales and trade of ferrous raw materials for the Stena Metall Group’s combined sales company, Stena Metal International, through which the group coordinates its outbound sales activities. He also serves as a board member and chairman of the raw material committee at Irepas – the international organization for long steel producers, traders and raw material suppliers.

Georges started a steel business career in Luxembourg in the financial department of ARBED. Afterwards, he joined TRADEARBED, the Sales Company of ARBED Group. Next, he was in charge for the development of steel distribution in ARBED Group. In 1995, Mr Kirps entered the Management Board of PROFILARBED, ARBED’s Long Products producing units, with responsibility for Steel Distribution and Marketing. At the merger of ARBED, ACERALIA and USINOR into ARCELOR in 2002, he  got put in charge as Executive Vice President Strategy, Logistics and Synergies for ARCELOR Distribution, Trading and Transformation. Since 2005, he is the Director General for EUROMETAL, the European Federation of Steel , Tubes and Metal distribution and trading. EUROMETAL gathers 18 national steel distribution federations representing 1 600 European steel distributors, steel service centers and steel traders, to a large extent mostly independent and family owned small and medium sized enterprises.

Steven Randall has over 25 years of experience in the steel, metals and mining sectors where he has worked in a range of consulting, corporate and entrepreneurial roles. Steven co-founded The Steel Index (TSI), a specialist ferrous price information service, in 2006. He quickly established TSI as the leading provider of benchmark prices for iron ore, steel and scrap, used by industrial companies worldwide and as the settlement basis for over 30 futures/derivatives contracts on commodities exchanges in Asia, Europe and North America – most notably the SGX iron ore contracts and LME steel scrap contract. Having built TSI into a multi-million $ business, it was sold to S&P Global Platts in 2011. Steven continued as TSI’s Managing Director for a further four years before being appointed as the Director of Global Content (pricing, news and analysis) for all of Platts metals and TSI. He left this position at the end of June 2016 to pursue new ventures and undertake independent consulting assignments. In 2021 Steven joined the Kallanish team to set up Kallanish Index Services. Kallanish Index Services (KIS) specialises in compiling price indices for commodity markets using a rigorous, data-driven methodology. It works closely with market participants to compile the price indices and other essential industry data they need for business success. KIS is independent and impartial, with a small team of analysts based around the world. Prior to establishing TSI, Steven was the Director of Strategy at Corus, the major European steel producer acquired by Tata Steel in 2007. In this role he was responsible for the Group’s corporate strategy and planning activities for over four years. Steven started his career as a strategy consultant in 1988, working for over eleven years with Hatch Beddows in Europe and North America, specialising in steel industry projects.  Following this, he joined Steelscreen, an independent metals e-marketplace, as its UK General Manager. Steven holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

Ersun is the Marketing and Strategy Manager at Borcelik, which is a joint venture of Borusan Holding of Turkey and ArcelorMittal. Borcelik is a re-roller specialized in giving service to automotive, white (consumer) goods, panel radiator, hvac, industrial packaging and construction sectors. We are one of the biggest exporters of Cold Rolled (CR) and Hot-dip Galvanized (HDG) flat steel, mainly to European Union, Middle East, North America and CIS countries. Ersun has more than 15 years of experience in flat steel; in purchasing, export sales and marketing & strategy divisions.

Manuel is the Director General for Comercial de Laminados, which focuses on iron and steel distribution, with 24 branches and 2 factories: Perfiles Aragon and Cortichapa. Since January 2017, Comercial de Laminados is part of Hierros Añón Group consisting of Gallega de Mallas (mesh) in A Coruña, Silat (rebars) in Brazil and 60% participation of LDL Laminoirs de Landes (heavy plates) in France. Manuel has acquired deep knowledge and wide professional experience in the steel sector. In addition, Manuel has obtained a degree in Business Administration in the ESIC University of Madrid. 

Daniele was born in Rome, Italy on 22 July 1973. He has been in the steel industry for over 17 years, where he has acquired extensive international experience. Daniele is a senior sales manager at Marcegaglia group, a leading worldwide industrial group in the steel processing sector. Daniele has held his current position since March 2015, managing and coordinating the sales team of Coils and PPGI division globally. Previously, Daniele worked as purchasing director for an Italian steel service center sourcing and developing strategic business partnerships. He graduated with summa cum laude from “University of Rome - La Sapienza” with a degree in Business and Economics.He currently resides in Modena with his wife and their two children, is interested in sports, international culture and is trying to learn the Finnish language. You can reach him at daniele.papa@marcegaglia.com.

William has more than 20 years experience in the steel industry, working for producers, traders and service center's like Duferco, Mittal, Essar , Hindusteel and Interfer Steel and Commodities between others. BBA and MBA specialised in foreign trade and with a strong background of global steel trading and Indian steel industry in particular.

Lex has been active in the steel sector since the 70s and has worked for a Belgian steel producer (Cockerill-Sambre) and a Swedish steel mill (SSAB). In 1995 Lex founded his own company in the Netherlands (NovioStaal). First as a trading company and agencies, and since 15 years also simultaneously as a stockholding company. Noviostaal concentrate on high quality steel grades as high strength, wear and weather resistant with emphasis on sheet and strip steel. A few years back, Lex handed the company over to his youngest son and his colleague. Nowadays, Lex works as a consultant and conducts research on the steel market.

Darren is the Stemcor Director of the joint venture with Ansteel one of China's biggest steel companies and a world­-class steel producer; responsibly exporting quality products globally. Since joining Stemcor in 1997, he moved quickly up the ranks increasing his responsibilities through a series of top­-management assignments as the group opened new trading and distribution offices and increased its turnover and tonnages based out of Germany, UK, Italy, and then Spain. Prior to Stemcor he spent 9 years working in the UK carbon and stainless steel retail stockholding sector. He has been in the steel industry since 1988.

Alberto, VP Sales at the LME, has worked on various strategic initiatives for the Exchange, including the launch of new contracts, the development of its steel futures market and the launch of the Registered Intermediating Broker membership category. He joined the London Metal Exchange in December 2014 and has been a member of the LME Nickel Committee since 2015. Previously, he was working in the Transaction Services team of PwC with focus on strategy consulting and commercial due diligence for the Financial Services industry.

Teresa is a graduate of Industrial Engineering and holds an MBA from IE University in Madrid, and is a graduate of both Insead – High potential development AL programme, and IESE- PADE. Teresa began her working career with Gas Natural SdG in Barcelona in 1993 when she joined the company through the young graduates programme. Between 1996 and 2008 Teresa took various positions of increasing responsibility in areas of business development, production management, strategic marketing, IT and change management at Air Liquide Groupe. In 2008 Teresa was promoted to Communication and HR Director at Air Liquide and Air Liquide Medicinal. From 2012 until 2016 she held the position of Secretary General at Air Liquide and in June 2016 was made the Chairman of Air Liquide Spain. Since May 2017 Teresa has held the position of President of AEGE, (The Association of Great Energy Consuming Companies)

Alfonso is the Chief Economist of UNESID, the Spanish Steel Producers Association. He is responsible for the statistical and market research activities in the Association. He is an active member of committees working in the economic forecast in Eurofer and Worldsteel, as well as ESTA and CIELFFA. He was previously engaged in strategic consultancy, economic research and academia. His academic background includes a first degree in engineering (UPM - Madrid) and postgraduate education: MBA (IE - Madrid), MSc Finance (Birkbeck College, U. of London).

Victor holds both a Masters in Industrial Engineering, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and Universidad Pontifica de Comillas of Mardid respectively. Victor has over 20 years experience in the steel sector in addition to previous experience in Banking and consultancy. As CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) for Rails at ArcelorMittal, Victor has been responsible for worldwide sales and marketing of rails and special sections since 2006. Victor is also the President of Mafex (Spanish Railway Association)

Coming soon

Gianmarco has joined Moody’s in February 2011 and he is currently a Vice President – Senior credit Officer in the European Corporate Finance Group based in London. His portfolio includes steel and metal & mining companies headquartered in the EMEA region. He regularly contributes to Moody’s publications, roundtables and conferences with issuer and sector specific credit research. Prior to joining Moody’s, Gianmarco spent 8 years in leveraged and mezzanine finance at European investment banks and alternative investment funds, and before that he had worked for 4 years as an equity research analyst covering the chemical, automotive components and industrial equipment industries. He started his career as an industry analyst at the Economic Research Department of the Italian Chemical Industry Association. Gianmarco graduated with honour in Economics from the Bocconi University in Milan and holds a MSc in Finance degree from the London Business School.