Julian McGill

Dr Julian McGill is the Managing Director and Founder of Glenauk Economics. Glenauk is an advisory firm focusing on the economics of crops, agricultural commodities and their value chains.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Dr McGill''s main focus is on palm oil and the lauric oils as well as their many downstream derivatives in food, specialty fats, feed, biofuels and oleochemicals.

A globally recognized authority on the economics of the oil palm, Dr McGill also has a longstanding interest in yield intensification in tropical oil crops. He is a member of the Incorporated Society of Planters and council member of the Malaysian Estate Owners Association (MEOA). Dr McGill is also on the advisory board of the Sustainable Coconut Partnership.

Prior to founding Glenauk Economics, Dr McGill started his career with LMC International where he established the Kuala Lumpur office.

Dr McGill holds an M.A. (Honours) in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and completed his PhD at the University of Oxford.

Abdul Rasheed Janmohammed

Abdul Rasheed Janmohammed, the Chief Executive Officer of Westbury Group, holds a Commerce degree and a Masters in Law. He leads several key businesses, including Mapak Edible Oils, Mapak Qasim Bulkers, FWQ Enterprises, Dalda Foods, and Bulk Management Pakistan.

Rasheed is a prominent figure in various trade associations, currently serving as the President of the Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry (BQATI) and the Association of Port Terminal Operators (APTO), and as the Chairman of the Pakistan Shippers’ Council of FPCCI. His past roles include Chairman of the Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association (PEORA) and Executive Committee Member of FPCCI, REAP, and APSEA. He was also a member of the Prime Minister''s Task Force for the supply of Palm Oil from Indonesia in 2022.

In addition to his professional endeavors, Rasheed is active in social causes as a member of the Managing Committee at Kharadar General Hospital, a member of the Rotary Club of Karachi, and a trustee of the Janmohammad Dawood Trust. He is a regular speaker at international edible oil conferences across Asia and is the Chief Executive of the Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC).

Pietro Paganini

Pietro Paganini is a distinguished economic and geopolitical analyst renowned for his policy-making expertise. He assists businesses, trade associations, and governments in navigating the complexities of the socioeconomic landscape and in promoting policies that foster innovation, free trade, and individual/societal well-being.

As an advocate for critical thinking, Pietro employs a multidisciplinary approach, integrating economic, social, and scientific perspectives to address contemporary societal challenges. He is the founder and Curiosity Officer at Competere - Policies for Sustainable Development, a policy institute dedicated to creating a favorable policy ecosystem for businesses and governments.

Holding a Doctorate in Communication and Complex Organizations, Pietro serves as an Adjunct Professor in Business Administration at Fox School of Business, Temple University in Philadelphia, and John Cabot University in Rome. He has also been recognized as a Visiting Professor for the MPOB-UKM Endowment Chair at The National University of Malaysia (UKM).

Pietro''s insights are regularly featured in prestigious Italian national newspapers and international publications, where he passionately advocates for an open society and innovation policies. He is the author of the best-selling policy book "iFood: How to Overcome Food Ideology?", which addresses public health policies.

He sits on the Board of Advisors of DiBiz and Envent, and on the Scientific Board of the Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal (OPIEJ). He is a Montessori kid.

Thomas Mielke

Thomas Mielke is Executive Director of ISTA Mielke GmbH in Hamburg (Germany), OIL WORLD, a leading research organization that provides global supply, demand and price analyses, statistics and forecasts for all the major oilseeds, vegetable oils & animal fats and oilmeals as well as for biodiesel and other products with clients in 100 countries.
 
Two times a week a market report is also released in Mandarin. Thomas Mielke joined the OIL WORLD team in the mid-1970s, after studying economics. He is a member of the Programme Advisory Committee of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. In 2014 Thomas Mielke received a Lifetime Excellent Award of the Malaysian industry in recognition of his contributions and commitments.

OIL WORLD was founded in 1958 and it is recognized worldwide for its independent, authoritative and unbiased information. The WEEKLY and daily FLASH reports can be obtained from the Internet at www.oilworld.de.

Eddy Abdurrachman

Eddy Abdurrachman is a President Director of the Indonesian Plantation Fund/BPDP since 2 March 2020.

He earned his bachelor's degree in finance from the Institute of Financial Science (IIK), Jakarta in 1979. He received his Master of Science degree from Senior International University in 1999 and in the same year, he also graduated from a regular national course conducted by the national resilience institute (Lemhanas) KRA XXX11.

Before chairing BPDPKS, he had been assuming a number of leading positions, which include Director General of Customs and Excise at the Finance Ministry during 2002-2006, expert staff on International Financial Economic relations at the Finance Ministry during 2006-2008, and Secretary of Economic Coordinating Minister in charge of Economy during 2008-2014.

Eddy Abdurrachman was awarded with the Satya Lencana Karyasatya XX, Satya Lencana Karyasatya XXX, Satya Lencana Wirakarya, and Bintang Jasa Pratama.

Andri Hadi

Ambassador Hadi was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo on 14 September 2020. He presented his Letters of Credentials to King Philippe of Belgium on 13 January 2021, to the President of the European Council Charles Michel on 11 February 2021, and to Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg on 24 March 2021.
Born in Bandung, West Java, Ambassador Andri started his career as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia in 1987.
Before being appointed to Brussels, he served as the Chief of State of Protocol (2016-2020), an ex officio position entitled to the Director General of Protocol and Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia. As the Chief of State Protocol, he was responsible among others to coordinate all State and official visits and events for the President and Vice President of Indonesia, High-Level State Visits to Indonesia, and high-level international conferences.

Ambassador Hadi was the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Singapore for four years (2012-2016). Before this assignment, Ambassador Hadi was the Director General for Information and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (2007-2011).
Before serving as the Director General for Information and Public Diplomacy, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Indonesia in Washington DC, from 2005 until 2007. Before that, he was the Director for Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (2004-2005). Ambassador Hadi was also posted in Washington DC, USA (first posting) and Ottawa, Canada (second posting).

Ambassador Hadi received an award from President Soeharto in 1985 for being an outstanding model student for nation-wide university-level. Ambassador Hadi also received appreciation awards (Satyalencana Karya Satya) from three Indonesian Presidents, namely from President B.J. Habibie (1999), President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2007), and President Joko Widodo (2018) for his excellent service as a public servant.

Ambassador Hadi is a lawyer by training. He received his Doctoral Degree in Public International Law from Padjadjaran University in 2013 (Bandung, West Java), master''s degree in International Law from Monash University in 1998 (Australia), and bachelor''s degree in International Law from Padjadjaran University in 1986 (Bandung, West Java).

Ambassador Hadi is happily married to Mrs. Ferial Hadi, a trained dentist. He is blessed with 3 children and 1 granddaughter. He enjoys reading, jogging, and playing golf.

Dr. M. Fadhil Hasan

Dr. Fadhil Hasan is Senior Economist and Head of Foreign Affairs Division of Indonesian Palm Oil Association / GAPKI.

Dr. Fadhil Hasan held various positions previously among other as Executive Director of GAPKI from 2009 to 2017, Director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), Director of Standardization and Smallholder Development of Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), Member of National Committee for Economy and Industry (KEIN), Chairman of Supervisory Board of Indonesian Bank Central and Director of Corporate Affairs Asian Agri Group.

Dr. Fadhil Hasan graduated from Bogor Agricultural University, and earned Master of Science from Iowa State University, USA and Ph.D from University of Kentucky, USA majoring in Agricultural Economics.

Oscar Tjakra

Oscar is an Executive Director in Rabobank's global RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness department. He is located in Singapore, and focuses on grains, oilseeds and soft commodities sectors. He is frequently invited to speak at various Agri commodities outlook conferences.

In his previous role, he was Senior Vice President of Freight Research with Oldendorff Carriers Singapore, where he led global supply and demand research of the grains & oilseeds sector.

Oscar holds a Master of Science in Applied Finance from Singapore Management University and Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from Nanyang Technological University.

Sathia Varqa

Dr. Sathia Varqa is Managing Editor and analyst with Fastmarkets Palm Oil Analytics. He co-founded Palm Oil Analytics (POA), an online publisher of palm oil daily news, price, data and analysis based in Singapore, serving global commodity markets. POA was acquired by Fastmarkets in February 2023.

Fastmarkets is a cross-commodity price reporting agency (PRA) with a history spanning more than 160 years in the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining, and new-gen energy markets.

Sathia previously worked for S&P Global Platts, a division of S&P Global (previously McGraw-Hill Finance) based in Singapore.

He holds a BA (Business Studies), Master degree in International Trade (Distinction) and a PhD in political economy from The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Dorab E Mistry

Dorab Mistry was born in India in 1953 and graduated from Bombay University in Commerce in 1973. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1976, having won the President''s Gold Medal.

He started his career at GODREJ, one of India''s leading industrial groups, in 1976. Since 1977 Dorab was based in London handling the vegetable oil buying and trading portfolio for GODREJ. The company''s wide ranging interests in vegetable oil processing, animal feeds, oleo chemicals, alcohols, soaps, toiletries, foods and plantations gave him a unique perspective of the world vegetable oil scenario.

Since 1996, Dorab has been a regular speaker on vegetable oil Price Outlook and is regarded as a leading analyst of price behaviour. He also writes and speaks regularly on the Indian economic scene. Dorab has served as India''''s representative on the managing committee of the International Association of Seed Crushers and was its Vice President from 2006 to 2008.

In June 2013, Dorab Mistry was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours List.

From April 2015, Dorab has re-located to Singapore.

Ryan Chen

Ryan Chen works in Cargill Investment (China) Co., Ltd. Mr. Chen has 17 years trading and research experience in vegetable oil and oilseeds sector. He graduated in Finance and Investment, Master of Arts and started his career with Louis Dreyfus Company as an vegetable oil analyst/trader. Prior to joining Cargill, Mr. Chen also worked in Julong Group, Chinatex Corporation and Macquarie Group, and stationed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and China.

Atul Chaturvedi

Atul Chaturvedi is a veteran in the Vegetable Oil/ Oil seeds and Agro Business of the Country. He has close to 5 decades of successful and varied general and strategic management experience in the field of Manufacturing, Trading and Agri Infrastructure Development. He had been associated with Adani Group since 1998 and had played a key role in the development of the Agro and Agri Infrastructure business of the Group as CEO of the Agri Business including Adani Wilmar and Adani Agri logistic.

He is currently Executive Chairman of Renuka Sugars Ltd as well as Senior Advisor to AWL Agri Business Ltd (Formerly Known as Adani Wilmar ltd). These Companies where he has been associated are market leaders in their category and have done pioneering work in India.

Mr. Chaturvedi is also Chairman of Asian Palm Oil Alliance representing many palm oil importing countries in Asia.
A widely travelled International Trader, he has hands on experience in handling Agro Products, Vegetable Oils, Grains, Sugar, Ethanol, Oilseeds, Apples, Agri Infrastructure etc. both within and outside India.

Mr. Chaturvedi has received many awards/recognitions over the years. Some of the awards are listed below.

• Best Analyst award from ZEE Business
• CEO of the year 2025 from Agriculture Today
• Globoil Man of the year 2013 for contributions to Vegetable oil industry
• Globoil Legend for 2022
• Promising Asian Business leader award by ET
• CMD of the year 2024 by Business Leader
• Life time Achievement for Oil and Sugar by Chini  Mandi 2024

Mr. Chaturvedi is associated with various Organisations and Trade Bodies. He was President of Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) a leading trade body of Vegetable Oil Industry. He has been Dy. Chairman of SOPA. He is also associated with CII and headed the Task Force on Edible Oil and Oilseeds.

Mr. Chaturvedi is a familiar face on Business channels like CNBC, Zee Business, Bloomberg, ET, NDTV etc as an expert. An eminent Speaker his views are widely respected by Trade and Industry.

Khor Yu Leng

Ms Khor Yu Leng is senior economist at Segi Enam Advisors, and Senior Fellow (Sustainability) at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. She works on ESG, trade, competition, supply-chains and more. Yu Leng has followed the progression of certified palm products and waste via RSPO, ISCC and NDPE assurance into the regulatory era. She is a specialist on the political economy of smallholders.

Trained at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she started her career at financial institutions. She is independent director at SIPEF and at Rimba Collective, a palm user-led initiative for long-term forest conservation and restoration.

Budi Mulyanto

Prof. Dr. Ir. Budi Mulyanto, MSc is a distinguished academic and leader currently serving as the Rector of Universitas Nusa Bangsa in Bogor. He holds a tenured professorship in Soil Science at IPB University's Faculty of Agriculture, a position he has maintained since 2007, and also chairs the Faculty Senate. Additionally, he leads the Palm Oil Study Center at IPB, a role he began in 2022. His educational background includes a Bachelor's degree from IPB (1980), followed by an MSc (1990) and a PhD (1996) in Soil Science from the ITC at the State University of Ghent, Belgium.

Prior to his current academic leadership roles, he had an extensive decade-long career in public service at the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN), culminating in his appointment as Director General of Land Procurement. A prolific researcher, he has published over 100 scientific publications. His significant contributions to his field have been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement Sawit Indonesian Award (2023) and the Satya Lencana Karya Satya for both 20 and 30 years of dedicated service.