Dr Heather Wijdekop is a seasoned professional in the steel industry, with over 20 years of experience in various disciplines including technical, strategy, marketing, and sales. She holds an engineering background, which has enabled her to have a deep understanding of customer needs and build meaningful connections with internal stakeholders. Heather is passionate about the value steel brings to everyday lives and its continued role in society through sustainable development. In February 2023, Heather was appointed Commercial Director at Tata Steel IJmuiden.

Alexander is founder and managing partner of macroMETAL Handelsgesellschaft mbH, which has been supplying quality products to mainly European steel consumers in the packaging, building systems, SSC, electrical and automotive industries since 1996. In 2003 he also found the company Envitec Engineering GmbH with environmental technologies and regenerative energies as well as the development of recycling plants for biological wastewater treatment and upcycled products. Alexander is a presidency member of EUROMETAL, member of the Board International of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) in Berlin, as well as in various committees of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce.  

Francois-David held executive roles in Asia and Europe for many years, working in various fields and industries. After obtaining his degree in mechanical engineering, Francois-David served in numerous leadership positions at companies including thyssenkrupp, Siemens and ZF Friedrichshafen. Francois-David most recently held the office of President & CEO China at Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche S.p.A. Francois-David’s reputation includes international recognition for his expertise in the fields of supply chains and operational excellence and in the successful implementation of growth strategies. Apart from implementing the new Group strategy at Becker Stahl-Service GmbH, Francois-David Martino focuses on expanding the product and processing portfolio as well as technical expertise in manufacturing while also enhancing the service level for customers and partners.

Stéphane is technical head for governmental affairs and climate change within ArcelorMittal Europe. In that function, he contributes to the decarbonization roadmap of European entities, its financing and control of regulatory impacts. Previously Stéphane has been Chief Marketing Officer in charge of Packaging, Oil and gas, and Electrical Steel segments within ArcelorMittal Europe Flat Products as well Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Avelino & Canossa in Italy. Stéphane holds a degree as sales engineer from the Esidec business school in Metz (France) and he is a graduate in mechanical engineering.

Stanislav is the CEO GMK Center, Chair of the Committee for Environment and Sustainable Development of the European Business Association, President of CSCMP Ukraine Roundtable. Last 5 years provides consulting services for Ukrainian iron & steel companies in sustainability issues, supply chains, CAPEX policy, market analysis. Stanislav Zinchenko has 15-years experience in consulting for manufacturing companies. He has expertise in operational management and supply chains as a team leader, consultant and analyst in international projects in the field of entrepreneurship, operational efficiency and logistic infrastructure. Stanislav has an MA in International Economics at Kyiv National Economic University.

Cesare is the Board Managing Director of ArcelorMittal CLN Distribution Italia, where he is responsible for the steel service centre business, working for 15 years in CLN Group, focused on automotive components' production. He is a graduate of mechanical engineering from Politecnico Milan university and has over 40 years’ experience, covering different roles in the global steel industry. Cesare had experiences in top steel production companies and in important steel distribution groups too, as General Manager and Board Managing Director.

Wilfred Geerlings is the Senior Manager Commercial Sustainable Development at Tata Steel Nederland and the spiritual father of the Zeremis® brand. Zeremis® - short for zero emissions - is our promise to the planet to become carbon neutral by 2045. The Zeremis brand​ represents the journey Tata Steel Nederland is​ taking with our customers, together towards a​ zero-carbon emissions, circular world.​ He is a Management & Engineering graduate from University of Twente and has worked for Unilever and ASICS before joining Tata Steel in 2018. Wilfred feels privileged to work on one of the biggest sustainability projects in Europe being part of Tata Steel Nederland Clean, Green and Circular promise.

Rita Monteiro is the Head of Decarbonization at GFG Alliance, based out of Dubai, where she focuses on developing, measuring, and implementing GFG Alliance's global decarbonization strategy. Rita's previous experience includes managing Amazon's global decarbonization roadmap, leading the sustainable transformation for Amazon Japan, and overseeing operations in the UK and France. Prior to her sustainability roles, Rita worked in human resources and business development across various regions.

Gorkem received his master's degree in Management of Business Administration in 2002 from La Salle University, Philadelphia, USA. He started his career in the US, working in multinational companies such as Saint Gobain. Later, he went on to work in the stock market fortune 500 company SEI Investments as a mutual fund trader in the US. In 2005, he took a challenge in the steel industry and started to work for steel producers as an executive for export markets. Then, he was appointed as a director of the steel desk of LN metals, a commodity trading company in London. In 2012, Gorkem founded Galex Steel International -- a trading house mainly focused on flat steel products and exports to Europe, Turkey, South America, Middle East and Far East. Galex represents reputable government and private mills from China, India and Turkey on regional or project basis. The company covers global markets through its offices in Turkey, China, India and Russia.

Steven Vercammen is a senior expert in McKinsey & Company’s Belgium Office. Since he joined in 2004, he has worked on steel and steel value chain related projects (carbon and stainless steel). Whilst early on focusing on operational improvement, market analysis (supply/demand) and technical benchmarking, in recent years Steven has specialized in sustainability topics related to the steel industry. As part of the global steel industry dynamics knowledge, Steven is the global expert on steel metallics dynamics covering scrap supply, demand and pricing evolution and decarbonization. In addition, Steven is global research leader for steel and metals in general, responsible for proprietary knowledge assets linked to cost curves, demand, supply, capital markets and overall market dynamics. Prior to joining McKinsey, Steven worked at the KU Leuven university as the “science engineering technology” group manager responsible for research strategy, educational programs and day to day management of all support functions. Steven has obtained a PhD in materials engineering (steel) from the KU Leuven and obtained engineering masters diploma from the university of Ghent in Belgium

As Director General of UK Steel, Gareth ensures that the organisation plays a key role in promoting the future success of steel in the UK, as well as highlighting the significant challenges that the sector currently faces. UK Steel is at the heart of the steel sector debate, as the key unified voice of the industry. Gareth began his career in manufacturing before, first representing the milk processing industry on environment and climate change and then joining EEF in 2007, as Head of Climate & Environment Policy. Gareth led EEF’s work on a broad range of environment policies that affect the UK manufacturing sector, with a clear focus on the steel sector. Gareth is also the Executive Director of ISSB (International Steel Statistical Bureau). Gareth graduated from Kings College London with a degree in Environmental Science and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Derek Langston has worked for two of the largest shipbrokers in the world in a career spanning more than 20 years, and was appointed Global Head of Dry Cargo Research at Braemar in 2023. Previously, Derek was Head of Research at SSY from 2019 to 2023. Derek has been engaged for shipping research and consultancy work by a diverse client base including shipowners, operators, trading houses, utilities, mining companies, agricultural producers, government departments, banks and investment funds.  

Arnaud Guerendel has been in the steel business for more than 33 years, starting his carrier in Arcelor group early 90s taking care of automotive subcontractors in France. In 1996, he started to work for SSAB and held various positions in Europe. He left the company in 2007 and for 8 years held senior positions at the Russian steel producer NLMK and DUFERCO International Trading Holding, based in Switzerland. Over the years he has acquired a wealth of knowledge regarding the global steel business and complex assets in steel industries, included trading. Start 2016 he returned to SSAB as global director for their automotive business and operates since 2020 as Director of Strategic Development for SSAB CTO organization.

Alain has been working at Casier Recycling NV for the last 3 years. Casier Recycling is a recycling company, specialised in both non-ferrous and ferrous materials with a strong sourcing network in the industrial activities within Flanders, Belgium. After his studies (Master in Economic Sciences at Antwerp University), Alain joined the raw materials division of the Arbed Group, which later became Arcelor and ArcelorMittal. Alain was stationed in Brussels, later in Singapore where he joined the Group’s steel trading division and returned to Belgium 8 years later to join the logistics division. Alain subsequently joined an American company Tube City IMS, a provider of steel services, including scrap procurement for the Eastern European market, especially within the Czech Republic and Serbia. He later moved to Vienna, Austria to join FJ Elsner Trading as senior trader for raw materials. In 2018 Alain joined Casier Recycling in Belgium as commercial director with responsibilities on both the scrap sourcing as on the sales side.

Ian is a highly regarded industry analyst, with over 20 years experience in metals, starting at CRU in London. Since 2003 Ian was based in Shanghai, China initially with Steel Business Briefing and then Macquarie, before a five-year stint at Rio Tinto running their iron ore analysis. Since 2010 Ian worked as a sell-side analyst with CLSA, Macquarie and others based in Shanghai and Singapore and continues to bring his leading-edge thoughts on the markets as an unbiased independent analyst. 

Selçuk was born in İskenderun, Türkiye. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ), department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering in 2008. Having worked as Production Manager / Production Director at various flat steel mills between 2009-2018, he joined Yıldız Demir Çelik AŞ as Supply Chain Director, in March 2018. During this period he also completed MBA program at Sabancı University. Since August 2022, he is acting as Deputy General Manager for Commercial at Yıldız Demir Çelik.

Yuan Wenjiong is Co-chairman of Dao Fortune Co., Ltd. As a proficient economist, he is deeply involved in steel trading over last 25 years. He and his team have been leading China's steel exports since 2004, covering most of the markets in Asia, Central and South America and Middle East, and now they are also very active in steel trading within the regions. Dao Fortune owns a research team of 11 people, covering studies of macroeconomy and industrial status both domestically and internationally, which helps Dao Fortune have a deep understanding of its domestic steel market. 

Friso was born in 1970 in the Netherlands. He earned a MSc degree at Delft University of Technology in Materials Science. He took several classes in marketing, strategic management and governance at Henley, IMD and Erasmus. Friso has worked and lived in the USA, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands. After his start in R&D and production management with Volvo Aero and Aluminium Pechiney, Friso held several commercial positions in the steel industry with Corus and Tata Steel. He was, amongst others, responsible for mill sales to service centers in South-Europe and for the EMEA sales of specialty plated strip products. He was appointed CEO of a Tata Steel JV active in trade, steel service and fabrications. He is founder and initiator of Steelport Maastricht. His broad and international experience from mill sales, trading and service centers all the way down the supply-chain to manufacturing, strengthened and inspired him to launch himself into entrepreneurship. He acquired his own steel trading/service organisation early 2019.

Christian covers the German steel markets at Kallanish and joined the team in 2015. Previously, Christian worked as a steel journalist for some 15 years. He started off with American Metal Market, and later joined Steel Business Briefing, where he spent seven years as correspondent for the German-language countries.

Having graduated from university in England's steel city of Sheffield, Adam was destined to end up in a career related to the steel industry. He has worked at Kallanish since 2014 as an editor for The Middle East and Turkey, as well as CIS and Eastern Europe, contributing his experience gained from five years in Dubai of the vibrant and fast-growing Middle Eastern and Turkish markets. Adam regularly attends events in the Middle East and Europe, moderating and speaking at some of them. He was previously steel editor at Platts in Dubai and before that Central and Eastern European reporter for Steel Business Briefing in London. Adam prides himself on providing friendly, informative and accurate journalism. He is currently based in Frankfurt and speaks fluent Polish and intermediate German. 

After training as a journalist in Italy, Emanuele started covering the steel market back in 2010 when he joined SBB in London. In 2014, he became managing editor for the EMEA steel market for Platts. Emanuele joined Kallanish in 2016 and he is the editor for Kallanish Steel Weekly. He speaks five languages and love art as much as steel.

Paul is a Director and Co-founder of Kallanish, which he helped to create after working for Steel Business Briefing as General Manager for Asia. With the co-founders, he felt there was a gap for simple, good quality journalism and market intelligence combined with a focus on listening to customer needs. Kallanish aims to put the customer at the forefront of everything it does. Previously, Paul was a Commercial Director and negotiated strategic alliances for blue chip companies in the payments industry. He also holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. Paul is based in Kallanish’s London HQ and previously lived in Paris and Shanghai. He speaks fluent French and conversational Mandarin.

Svetoslav covers the CIS and Balkan markets for Kallanish, as well as the German scrap and northern European wire rod markets. He joined Kallanish in 2020 after more than 20 years at Bulgarian news agencies and newspapers covering domestic and international news. He has working experience in a newsroom environment as well as in live field reporting and speaks Russian, German, English and Bulgarian.