«BLACK SEA GRAIN & OIL-2023»

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).

Taras Vysotskyi

First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine

Born in 1986 in the village of Kunin, Zdolbuniv district, Rivne region

Education: master’s degree in Administrative Management

Languages: Ukrainian, Russian and English – fluent, German – conversational level

Work experience:

2006 – manager of the private enterprise “Zdolbunivvetpostach”

From 2011 to 2013 – expert on agricultural markets LLC “Nika PP”

From 2013 to 2019 – expert on agricultural markets, General Director of the Association “Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business”

2019 – First Deputy Head of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration.

From 2019 to 2021 – Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.

On 26 May 2021, by Order No. 506, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Taras Vysotskyi as the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine

Gert Bosscher

Broker/consultant
GBCom Consulting
Romania

Gert Bosscher is active in the Grain Industry since 1985 where he had leading trade management roles in multinational companies such as Glencore (now Viterra, 18 yrs), Nidera (now Cofco, 5 yrs), Australian Wheat Board (now Cargill, 3 yrs) and Bunge (5 yrs) and until recently as broker in Copenhagen Merchants. Gert has been actively trading in all world supply demand regions, but his main focus and strength is Central Europe and Black Sea Regions.  Gert has a passion for research and  technologies, which led to the creation of CMNavigator.com, a trade platform for the grain industry.

Today, Gert Bosscher is working as a broker/consultant for his company GBCom Consulting SRL, Romania. He is member of the board at Coceral where he actively participated in the discussions with government organizations for the grain exports from Ukraine during the war situation. Gert is also a member of the advisory board of Nibulon, a leading agribusiness in Ukraine.

Stephen Nicholson

Global Sector Strategist--Grains and Oilseeds
Rabo AgriFinance in the RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness group

Nicholson has more than forty years of experience in cash grain markets, hedging, commodity/ingredient procurement, commodity risk management and commodity analysis. A native of Iowa, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Farm Operations and Agricultural Education and a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, both from Iowa State University.

Nicholson joined Rabo AgriFinance in 2014 and was the Senior Grains and Oilseeds analyst for North America until being appointed Global Sector Strategist in 2022.

Prior to joining Rabo AgriFinance, Nicholson was Category Manager and Chief Economist with International Food Products, a trader and distributor of food ingredients. Responsibilities included procurement and trading of vegetable oils, corn sweeteners, starches and grain products, along with consulting assignments.

From 2001 to 2007, he was a Senior Economist with Doane Agricultural Services in St. Louis as the oilseed analyst.

Nicholson also has nearly fifteen years of experience in the food and beverage industry. He has served as Senior Buyer at The Earthgrains Company, now part of Bimbo Bakeries USA, in St. Louis. From 1988 to 1997, he was the Senior Commodity Analyst in the Global Procurement and Trading Company at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. While at Coca-Cola, he was involved in the creation of the first commodity risk management and governance policy framework for the company.

Mykola Gorbachov

President
Ukrainian Grain Association
Ukraine

Mykola Gorbachov – 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).

Rafael Goroyan

Owner and Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Prometey
Ukraine

Born in Yerevan (Armenia) in 1976. Graduated from Mykolaiv National University of Shipbuilding. In 1999, Mr Goroyan founded a grain trading company Prometey. Today it is a group of companies with 34 elevators with a capacity of 2 million tons and a land bank of 20,000 hectares. The total exports of the Prometey group of companies in 2022 are estimated at $280 million. In 2021, Rafael Goroyan was ranked 78th in the Forbes list of the 100 richest Ukrainians.

Maksym Volchenko

Director
Almeida Group

Anton Zhemerdieiev

Deputy CEO, Chief Commercial Officer
TAS AGRO

Anton Zhemerdieiev has extensive experience in various areas of agriculture: public administration (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ministry of Agrarian Industry and Food), international trade (CHS), infrastructure (Maxigrain terminal) and production (Astarta, TAS Agro).

He has successful experience in managing trade in grains, oilseeds and processed products, port transshipment, oilseed processing and road/rail/sea logistics.

He graduated from the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics (two master’s degrees in Commodity Research and Commercial Business and Commercial Law).

Bartosz Peczkowski

Chairman of the Board
Frontier Logistics
Poland

Stepan Kapshuk

General Director
Association Ukroliyaprom
Ukraine

In 1980 he graduated from the Kyiv Technological Institute of the Food Industry.

He began his career in 1971 as a mechanic of mechanical assembly works at the Kyiv plant “Tsukoravtomat”.

After graduation, he worked as a commissioning engineer for instrumentation and automation equipment at the same enterprise, then in the apparatus of the former Ministry of Food Industry of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as Gospischeprom, Ukrpischeprom, State Department of Food) in positions from senior engineer to head of the State Department of State Food Industry.

From April 03, 2000 he has been working as a technical director, and from November 09, 2006 to the present time, as a general director of the Ukroliyaprom association.

Yevhen Sadovyi

Plant Operation Manager
Astarta-Kyiv

Yevhen Sadovyi has been appointed to the position of Director of Agricultural Processing of Astarta-Kyiv from July 8, 2022.

Yevhen has 25 years of experience in construction, development and management of production and infrastructure assets in various branches of agriculture.

He managed and participated in projects in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, the USA.

Julia Garkavenko

Oilseed Market Expert
UkrAgroConsult

Yulia Garkavenko – Oilseed Market Expert, Head of Analytics at UkrAgroConsult.

Being with the company since 2008, Yulia is specializing in oilseed and vegoil market of Ukraine and Black Sea countries. Yulia’s primary focus is crop forecasts, S&D; balances and market studies.

Yulia is an author and chief editor of UkrAgroConsult’s specialized weekly Newsletter “Black Sea Vegoils”, holds numerous publications in Ukrainian and internatinal agricultural media, is a regular speaker at the top agricultural conferences.

Artem Sklyarenko

Deputy Director for Strategic Planning
UKROLIYA

From May 2015 to the present day, Artem Sklyarenko has been working at Ukroliya LLC, where he rose from economist to Deputy Executive Director for Analytics and Strategic Planning.

From November 2012 to December 2014, he worked as an economist at Amarant, a large agricultural holding company.

In 2007, he graduated from Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava National Technical University with a Master’s degree with honors in Accounting and Auditing.

Ksenia Guseva

Head
Agribusiness Clients Department
OKKO

Ksenia has been heading Agribusiness clients department since 2016. She specializes in forward financing program for agricultural producers and organization of agricultural products procurement.

Previous 7 years of experience in banking in the field of risk management, retail and corporate business helped Ksenia to participate in development of a comprehensive offer by OKKO to meet the main production needs of farmers and agri operators, namely providing them with high-quality fuel, effective fertilizers, financial resources and guarantees for the sale of grown crops.

During 2023, under the forward program OKKO provided more than UAH 1 billion in cash and supplies of mineral fertilizers and fuel to agrarians.

Every year, the company purchases more than 150 thousand tons of agri commodities, a significant part of which is exported.

Vladislav Bielakh

Deputy General manager for economics and finance
UDP

Vladislav Bielakh – Deputy General manager for economics and finance in UDP (Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company).

Was taking lead of commercial activity in BUNGE LTD for the grain operation and logistic in Ukraine for 10 years. Has great experience in commodity export and trade, inland and export sea logistic, river transportation. In UDP is responsible for finance, commerce, strategy and development. Has 4 years experience in Corporate Banking, lending for the Large corporates.

Graduated from Kyiv International institute of International Relations with International Business degree.

Berlin Steinbeis University with Executive MBA degree.

Nikolay Gapeyev

Executive Director
Ascet Shipping, Ukraine

Anna Lebedynets

Associate Director, Senior banker, Agribusiness
EBRD

Anna has 20 years of experience in the banking sector. She joined the EBRD team in 2007. Before joining the EBRD worked for a Ukrainian commercial bank.

Oleksandr Solovey

Chief Commercial Officer
Spike Brokers

Oleksandr has over 17 years of experience in grain trading.  Together with his partners, he founded a brokerage company Spike Brokers. The main specialization of the company is trade and freight brokerage and full support of transactions between the seller and the buyer. In three years, Spike Brokers has become the leader of the Ukrainian market and helped to implement 1438 transactions for the sale of agricultural products of 159 Ukrainian farmers to 12 European countries. Spike Brokers also provides high-quality and free analytics of prices and logistics in the agricultural market.

Ivan Dogadaev

Director
Agronizer and AgroUser
Ukraine

Ivan Dogadayev is the founder of Agronizer, a trading platform for agri enterprises, and AgroUser, a trading service for individuals.

He has experience in selling agricultural products and organizing procurement in Ukraine. Specializes in interaction between producers and buyers.

Agronizer is an agricultural trading platform for companies specializing in agricultural products, fertilizers and fuel. The platform works with more than 2000 medium agri businesses and engages both Ukrainian and foreign buyers and suppliers in cooperation.

Svyatoslav Kravchuk

Sales Representative, Cereals Department, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr region,
KWS UKRAINE

Svyatoslav has over 10 years of experience in agricultural sector. He currently holds a position of Sales Representative of the Grain Department in Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions at KWS-Ukraine.

Svyatoslav is responsible for sale of seeds (rye, rapeseed, wheat, barley), agronomic support, new product development, sowing and harvesting of demonstration plots, organizing and conducting field days, seminars, participation in exhibitions.

Anatoliy Chupryna

Director of the Separation Technologies and Components Division
GEA Ukraine

Anatoliy Chupryna, Director of the Separation Technologies and Components Division at GEA Ukraine
Anatoliy has been working at GEA for 21 years. He graduated from the National University of Chemical Technology, where he received a PhD in engineering.

Yuriy Katsion

Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of JSC Oschadbank, responsible for corporate business

For more than 24 years of work in two of the largest banks in Ukraine, he has gained vast experience in developing corporate business, implementing complex investment projects, and structuring transactions involving instruments of international financial organisations.

He has high expert competence in agriculture and processing industry, fuel and energy complex, oil refining, construction, metallurgy and retail.

He actively participated in the development of regulatory documents of Oschadbank and the National Bank of Ukraine, as well as in the creation of specialised regulations in cooperation with the executive and legislative branches of government.

Igor Gerasko

Head of Sales
Payoneer
UKraine

Vlada Zhehulska

Commodity Broker
Prospex-Agro

Vlada Zhehulska is a Commodity Broker at Prospex-Agro Company and has been working in the market of vegoils and oilseeds since 2017. Her main field of expertise is Chinese market. Besides, she actively participates in trading in MENA and European markets. Being a part of the Prospex-Agro team, Vlada’s main objective is to keep clients updated and informed on the latest market dynamics and make the interaction between Parties smooth and comfortable.

Nazar Malyniak

Managing Partner
SmartFarming

Expert in precision agriculture, land bank management, agro IT, and business analysis.

Nazar has 17 years of experience in project management and business process optimization, business development and sales. He is one of 125 consultants in Ukraine certified in accordance with ISO 20700:2017 “Directives for Management Consulting Services”.

He has extensive experience in optimizing agricultural production through  implementation of innovative technologies and software solutions. As a leading consultant, he is involved in a number of international projects aimed at developing the agricultural market in Ukraine (with the support of JICA, USAID, IAMO, etc.).

As a speaker, he regularly participates in national and international conferences on agro-technologies and land market.

Oleg Mistiuk

Senior Analyst
UkraineInvest

Volodymyr Vasylevskyy

Specialist in investment and regional development, Head of the Investment Office of Ternopil Region

Volodymyr Vasylevskyy is an investment and regional development specialist. Head of the Investment Office of Ternopil Region.

Since 1992, he has been in business in senior positions (DOMEX Group of Companies). From 2018 to 2021, he created and headed the Ternopil Regional Development Agency.

Has over 10 years of experience in attracting foreign direct investment.

Over the past 5 years, he has attracted more than $120 million in investments to Ternopil region. Including during the martial law – for 18 million dollars. Thanks to the work of the Investment Office team, the following world leaders entered the region: MONKS Int., Home Essentials (USA, Hong Kong), etc.

Education – KMBS (MBA), CEIBS (Shanghai, China), KSE.

Head of the NGO “Institute for Sustainable Regional Development”.

Iryna Zelenina

Chairman of NGO "Ukrainian Export Alliance"

Iryna Zelenina – Chairman of NGO “Ukrainian Export Alliance”, CEO of Export Promotion Center KCCI, Executive Director of Travel Company “Sputnik Kyiv”, Member of the Business Woman Club and the international business community Board.

Iryna has an impressive track record of successfully managing large-scale projects in the fields of Ukrainian export promotion and MICE. In her role as CEO and co-owner of the Export Promotion Center, she led the management of 35+ collective Ukrainian Pavilions at major international trade fairs like Gulfood, SIAL Paris, Anuga, PLMA and others.

Her main goal is to support Ukrainian businesses in various ways, including developing the potential of SMEs and promoting “Made in Ukraine” products around the world. Additionally, she actively supports various initiatives that strengthen entrepreneurship, including education, women’s, social, and humanitarian projects.

Mykola Babenko

CEO
Meat Industry Association of Ukraine

Head of the Meat Industry Association of Ukraine since April 2020.

Mykola Babenko has 20 years of management experience in private business and implementation of industry strategies for production growth.

He is a specialist in crisis management, modern technologies in animal husbandry, an expert in strategies, control and business development.

He advises owners and top managers on business development in the livestock sector.

Daria Sichkar

Logistics Committee Manager
European Business Association

Daria Sichkar is the Logistics Committee Manager at the European Business Association. Logistics Committee is one of the most numerous and influential logistics business alliances in Ukraine and includes 60 member companies. Since its establishment in 2013, the Committee actively promotes the integrated development of the transport sector of Ukraine and represents the interests of freight forwarders, shippers, car-building, stevedoring companies, and other participants of the freight market. Daria graduated from the Kyiv National Economic University with a degree in Law and obtained an MBA degree at the Kyiv School of Economics in 2023.

Iryna Bryk

Director
ISO Company

Founder and owner of the solar energy company ISO Company.

Owner of the MySunnn brand – backup power and storage systems Smart Storage Systems.

Expert in alternative energy and energy efficient technologies. Social innovator.

Entrepreneur and manager with 24 years of experience.