Conference speakers

Sergey Feofilov

Director General
UkrAgroConsult
Ukraine

Sergey Feofilov – Director General of UkrAgroConsult, Ph.D. in Economics.

Founder of UkrAgroConsult company – the first Ukrainian consulting agency specializing in agricultural sector of Ukraine and Black Sea region (since 1994).

Sergey Feofilov has more than 20 years of expertise in analysis of agricultural market of Ukraine and the Black Sea countries. He has broad national and international contacts in trading, banking and investment spheres, is a recognized speaker at the major international agri conferences. Sergey was trained under a number of national and international programs (1997 – UK, 2006 – USA).

James Zhou

Chief Commercial Officer and Head, Asia Region
Louis Dreyfus Company

James Zhou is a Chief Commercial Officer, and Head of the Asia Region, for Louis Dreyfus Company. A Chinese national, James joined the Group as China CEO in 2016, managing our operations, strategic development and partnerships in the country until his appointment to his present role in 2020. Before joining LDC, he developed a deep understanding of the Chinese market throughout his career in commodities, gaining significant experience through several trading, risk management and managerial roles in the country, particularly in grains and oilseeds. He holds a Master’s degree in English Studies from the National University of Singapore.

Ole Houe

CEO
IKON Commodities
Australia

Ole Houe has been involved in International Trading and Risk Management for more than 15 years in a number of different roles with experience in grain, sugar and steel.

Most recently he was Senior Manager with FCStone Australia Pty Ltd heading up their advanced risk management division in Australia. Prior to that Ole was employed by GrainCorp for 7 years in various trading roles.

Ole has been a member of the Grain Trade Australia commerce committee and is also a Grain Trade Australia arbitrator.

Ole has been a director on the board of Barley Australia and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).

Ole holds a BA in International Business from Southbank University in London, a Masters of Applied Finance from Kaplan and an MBA from the  Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) in Sydney.

Nikolay Gorbachev

President
Ukrainian Grain Association
Ukraine

Nikolay Gorbachev – President of Ukrainian Grain Association

from February 20, 2017 – President of the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA);

from March 28, 2005 – Director of the New World Grain Ukraine (Soufflet Group);

Co-Chair of the Grain and Oilseeds Committee of the European Business Association (EBA);

UZA Vice-President;

since 1992 he has held senior positions in various companies, such as Tradigrain SA (commercial director) or Ukrinpex (director).

Dmitry Rylko

Director
IKAR
Russia

General Director of The Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), Ph.D., Dmitry Rylko was born in 1957 in Bryansk. Graduated with distinction from the Economics Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Since 1983 Dmitry worked at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in in a variety of positions.

From 1996 – Head of the Center for Agribusiness IMEMO.

Among the main tasks of the Centre is a study of problems and development trends of Russian and foreign agribusiness, the main directions of scientific and technical progress in agribusiness (biotechnology), land issues in various countries around the world, marketing and pricing issues in agribusiness in Russia; issues related to the functioning of the Russian food market.

Since October 2001, Dmitry Rylko is a CEO of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), an information-analytical agency, carrying out a wide range of applied and theoretical research in the field of global and domestic agro-food system. In the center of the Institute’s research is analysis of current condition and forecast of domestic ag food markets.

Jeffrey XU

Trading Managing Director
Overseas China Investment & Shanghai Goodsoy
China

Jeffrey XU got his master degree on food biochemistry in 1988. In 1990, when China was a net soybean exporter, he started trading first in Nissho Iwai as buyer, then in Andre as seller, in China Force as trader. Since 2008, Mr. Xu spent 4 years in Chinatex Grains & Oils as chief economist, responsible for the soybean & canola purchase, as well as the ocean freight, and 2 years in Dongling Grain & Oil as deputy general manager. Since July’2014 Mr. XU started his new venture with Overseas China Investment Company and Shanghai Goodsoy Trading Limited, doing trading, consulting and broker business on oilseeds, grains and ocean freight. Mr. XU also participated as the organizer of the 3^rd Team Crusher’s Forum and as a consultant of Xiamen ITG Group Corp. Ltd. Since 2000 Mr. XU has become a speaker in Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and Ukraine.

Taras Kachka

Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine
Trade Representative of Ukraine
Ukraine

Taras Kachka is an expert in international law, a former member of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with the EU on the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Since September 2019 he has been holding the position of Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, and he’s also a trade representative of Ukraine. In June 2020 he became Deputy Chairman of the International Grains Council (IGC).

Taras has experience in promoting a dialogue between business and government. He worked as a manager for regulatory policy in international corporations, as well as in the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (as Deputy Director of the State Legislation Adaptation Department of the Ministry of Justice).

He was the Commissioner for Entrepreneurship at the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (on a voluntary basis). He headed the Ukrainian Media Center for Reforms and was a member of the Tax Reform Task Force under the Ministry of Finance.

He was also a Vice President for Strategic Development (since January 2014) and Interim President (November 2014 – April 2015) of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.

Vladislava Magaletska

Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection
Ukraine

Mykhailo Malkov

FAO Government and Donors Liason Focal Point for Ukraine
Ukraine

Daniele Siqueira

Market Analyst
AgRural
Brazil

Daniele started her career in agriculture in 2002, as a reporter and editor for AgRural, a consultancy based in Paraná, Brazil.

After a break in 2005-2006, when she worked for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Daniele assumed AgRural’s market intelligence service for corporate clients and helped establish the consultancy’s office in the United States.

Nowadays, Daniele leads AgRural’s fundamental analysis team and is in charge of their international service “Brazilian Update”. Daniele holds a BA in Journalism and two MBAs (Agribusiness and Economic Development) from the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil.

Matt Ammermann

Commodity Risk Manager- Vice President, Eastern Europe/Black Sea Region
StoneX Financial Inc- FCM Division

Mr. Matt Ammermann is a commodity risk management consultant in the Eastern Europe/Black Sea region with the StoneX Financial Inc- FCM Division.

Working at the forefront of risk management in one of the fastest and largest growing agricultural markets in the world, his team provides risk management solutions to help improve and control margins and the impact of commodity prices to a business’s operation.  For the past decade plus, Mr. Ammermann has been working in the region with producers, traders, exporters, crushers, millers, and consumers from all commodity groups helping to educate and guide them on how to effectively manage their price risk.  StoneX also offers in-depth market intelligence, which provides tremendous value in the volatile commodity markets.   Growing up on a farm and active in its operations, Mr. Ammermann understands the markets are changing; companies that actively manage their price risk will be in a better position to grow and adapt to these market changes.

The FCM Division of StoneX Financial Inc. provides full service, 24-hour futures and options brokerage, advisory, clearing and execution services on all major commodity exchanges worldwide. The company adds value for clients across a variety of financial markets by helping them to systematically identify and quantify exposures to commodity price risks.  StoneX Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: SNEX) is a Fortune-500 financial services firm with a nearly 100-year history, StoneX’s 1,200 employees serve clients from 40 offices in 15 countries.

Philippe Chalmin

President
Cyclope
France

Philippe Chalmin is a professor of economic history at Paris-Dauphine University where he is in charge of the International Affairs Master.

He is a founding chairman of CyclOpe – leading European commodity research institute, which annually publishes the Cyclope commodity yearbook on the economy and global markets.

Philippe Chalmin has a keen interest to agricultural matters and presently chairs the French Observatory on food prices and margins set up by the French government. He was also a member of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Prime Minister’s office and the chief economist of Euler credit insurance group.

Mr Chalmin holds a doctorate in history from the Sorbonne and is an author of more than thirty books on economies, agriculture and food, history and international affairs.

Dr. Eren Günhan Ulusoy

Chairman, IAOM Eurasia, CEO
Ulusoy Milling Company
Turkey

Harm de Wilde

Head of Research Cefetra
Netherlands

Harm de Wilde grew up at his parent’s arable farm in the south west of the Netherlands. He studied agriculture in the Netherlands, followed by a study in International Business Management in Barcelona. Harm then graduated at the University of Westminster in London in Business Management. He worked for the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) for just over a year as an economist before joining Cefetra around 12 years ago where he built the market research desk from scratch.

Dmitry Vazanov

Head of Trading
Prometey
Ukraine

Has over 19 years of experience in the agricultural sector.

2011–2012 Quantz Ukraine – Director

2012–2016 Adonis Trading Ukraine – Director.

For 11 years he worked at NIBULON in executive positions related to port terminal management, logistics, trading and foreign economic relations.

Orest Matviychuk

Senior Associate
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang
Ukraine

Orest is a Senior Associate at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang Ukraine. Orest joined CMS from an international trading company where he was a Senior Legal Counsel for the Black Sea and Asia (excluding China) and covered a wide range of matters, including agriproducts trade transactions (plain vanilla and structured deals), acquisitions of inland and port silos, project financing and transactions concerning land. He has over ten years of experience in cross-border finance, capital markets, debt restructuring and international physical and financial commodities trading.

Orest is experienced in advising on international trade and the transportation of a wide range of commodities (with a focus on grains, oilseeds and vegetable oil).

Orest’s recent experience includes advising Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), the export credit agency of South Korea, on a secured US$36 million financing to Grain Terminal Holdings, a Singapore-based joint venture between Posco International (Korea’s largest trading company) and the Orexim Group (a leading agri transshipment and exporting company in Ukraine) that controls a Ukrainian grain terminal (MMW) based in Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

Tetyana Alaverdova

Head of Sales
HarvEast
Ukraine

Tatyana Alaverdova has 17 years of experience in the agricultural sector.

For more than 8 years she has held the position of a trader and head of the logistics department in the Kiev office of Soufflet Group.

From February 2015 she heads the sales department of HarvEast. In this position she develops and implements export-oriented sales strategies, improves logistics chains.

Tatyana Alaverdova graduated with honors from V. German Kiev National Economic University, where she received a master’s degree in the specialty “Project Management and Consulting.”

Valery Tkachev

Deputy Director, Commercial Work Department
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia
Ukraine

1999 – head of the representative office of the company “Optimus” at the Zaporozhye butter and fat factory;

2002 – Head of Logistics Department of the Optimus Company, Dnipropetrovsk;

2005 – Head of the Quality Service of the elevator company “Optimus”, responsible for the revenue side of the elevator business direction of the company “Optimus”;

2007 – Deputy Director of Optimus for commodity flows;

2011 – General Director of Optimus;

2013 – Deputy Director for Logistics of TD “Delta Wilmar”, Pivdenny;

2019 – Chairman of the Board of the Logistics Development Center;

2019-2020 – Head of Logistics Division Freight Rail Transportation of Business-Guard NGO;

2019 – Member of the Expert Council at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine; from 2020 to the present – Deputy Director of the Commercial Department of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”.

Alexander Dubrovin

Head of Division, Corporate Business Department
Bank Vostok PJSC
Ukraine

Alexander Dubrovin has over 21 years expertise in banking, including on managerial positions.

He completed higher education master degree with Odessa State Economic University diploma with honors, specialty «Finance and Loans», specialization «Banking».

13.01.2014 – PJSC «BANK VOSTOK» – Head of division in Corporate Business Department

01.09.2005 – JSC «MARINE TRANSPORT BANK» – Head of corporate unit, Deputy Head of Commercial Department

20.01.2003 – Raiffeisenbank Ukraine – Chief economist of customer service unit in Corporate Department

01.10.2001 – JSC «MARINE TRANSPORT BANK» – Senior economist of the corporate sector, Head of the Corporate Sector

07.08.2000 – Odessa Branch «АVAL BANK» – Senior Economist of the customer service sector, Head of customer service sector, Leading economist of marketing and sales unit.

Yuri Shchuklin

Founder of a number of freight forwarding companies, member of the EBA Logistics Committee
Ukraine

Yuriy Shchuklin is the founder of a number of transport and logistics companies, Zertek, Alex Trade, Terminator, etc.), a member of Europen Business Association (EBA), logistics market expert, speaker of Ukrainian and international industry events.

He was born in Zaporizzya in 1969 and has been working on the grain logistics market since 1996. His sphere of specialization includes analysys, strategy, modern logistics solutions for effective railroad grain transportation, holding on to the philosophy of thrift.

Mahesh Raja Manglani

Director
Mast Qalander Group
Pakistan

Mahesh Raja is the Director of Mast Qalander Group, a Pakistan based trading company engaged in the imports, exports, manufacturing and brokerage of Agri commodities.

Mr. Raja is also a founding member of Pakistan Pulses Importers Association and executive member of the body. Also he is Sr. Vice Chairmen and board member of Pakistan–Ukraine Business Council, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Mahesh Raja joined his second generation family business in 2012 after graduating and expertise in the field of Pulses, Grains and oilseeds with a vast clientage network all over the world.

Antonina Sklyarenko

President
Public Association “Community of Pulse Producers and Customers of Ukraine”
Ukraine

Hugo Pels

Director
GRANAR SACYF
Argentina

Fiona Poynter

Agricultural Lead – Business Development
Argus Media
UK

Fiona Poynter joined Argus in 2006, having begun her commodities career in the energy industry at Italian oil and natural gas producer Eni. Fiona leads Argus’ business development across agricultural commodities.

Fiona spent 8 years working for Argus in Australia where she was responsible for the firm’s business development activities across a range of different commodities, with a particular focus on LNG and natural gas. She previously worked at Argus’ London headquarters as editor of Argus LNG Daily and Argus European Emissions.

During her time at Eni, Fiona was responsible for gas sales to the company’s UK-based industrial and commercial customers.

Victoria Blazhko

Editor of AgriMarkets Publication
Argus Media
Ukraine

Victoria Blazhko joined Argus Media’s editorial team in November 2020, bolstering the firm’s presence in the Black Sea agricultural market.

In March 2021, Victoria took up a position as editor of the AgriMarkets publication, where she is responsible for managing content, editing and driving market coverage in the agriculture sector, as well as for developing new content and prices and ensuring product expansion of the publication.

Before joining Argus, Victoria worked at price reporting agency Agricensus as vegoils market reporter and French consultancy Agritel, where she was responsible for grains and oilseeds market analysis and consulting of Ukrainian clients.

Mykhailo Rizak

Deputy General Director for Cooperation with Authorities of NIBULON

Oleksandr Mashchenko

Founder of Zernovoz.ua and Zernotorg.ua

Olga Kopiyka

Head of the Logistics Committee of the European Business Association

Onur Vatan

Director
Sintez Group & Co
Ukraine

Onur Vatan was born in Turkey. He moved to Ukraine 18 years ago. He graduated from Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, specialized in international economic relations. For all these years he has been occupied in vast agriculture business and has proven experience in its different fields. Mr. Onur Vatan is an executive committee member of Global Pulse Confederation as well as Ukraine Pulse Association.