Director of Biomass Strategy at Drax Group
Experienced Mergers & Acquisitions and Commercial Project Manager with strong technical and economic background in the oil & gas and power industries. A proven track record of managing and delivering complex multi-million dollar projects.
My current role is on the development of bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) projects; focused on the biomass strategy to underpin these developments.

Rachael has been working in the bioenergy sector since 2014, joining Hawkins Wright in 2017 where she writes and edits Hawkins Wright’s monthly Forest Energy Monitor report and co-authors the quarterly Outlook for Wood Pellets service. She is also a regular contributor to other multi-client and consultancy projects, covering all regions. She presents frequently at industry gatherings.

Rachael holds a biological sciences degree from the University of Leicester.

Laura Lundell is a strategy and business development professional with management consulting and industry experience from forest industry. She joined UPM in 2020 and has been working in leadership roles for UPM Pulp’s strategy and business development. Her current role focuses on business development of pulp mills sidestreams, where she has led several initiatives related to the business opportunities of biogenic CO2, and as an example co-authored UPM white paper on Carbon dioxide removals. She is based in Helsinki, Finland.

Director
Fiona is a bioenergy consultant and market analyst with more than fifteen years' experience in the renewable energy industry. She joined Hawkins Wright in 2013 and is now responsible for overseeing the company's bioenergy activities. She is the co-author of Hawkins Wright’s market-leading Outlook for Wood Pellets service and Editor of Forest Energy Monitor. Fiona regularly undertakes consultancy projects for clients in Asia, Europe and North America on topics including wood pellet and biomass markets, sustainability, and energy policy.

She has a degree in Physics from the University of York and is an APMP qualified Project Manager.

Nicole brings 20 years of experience in the energy and industry world, both in the public and private domain. From national energy & climate policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, regional approach at DCMR, business development in energy and (industrial) feedstock at Port of Rotterdam and leading sales & business development commodities at Bureau Veritas. Recently Nicole joined the &flux team based in Rotterdam.

Making industry more sustainable and circular in Europe and Netherlands specifically has a major impact and therefore great urgency for achieving the climate objectives. In addition to greening, the availability of sustainable raw materials is also crucial. And it is precisely in that area that Nicole's expertise is a valuable. Collaboration, partnering and support are decisive for a successful transition. And that is precisely the core business of &flux.

Nicole is an enthusiastic and result oriented lead developer, with a strong focus on a sustained relationship with strategic partners. Her strength lies in connecting people, resources and information to strengthen business and collaboration and create new initiatives in existing and new value chains.

Floor Vogels is a Project Lead at SkyNRG, a pioneer and global leader in the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Floor leads SkyNRG’s advisory projects. These projects include feasibility studies to develop new SAF production capacity and SAF strategies for airlines and corporates looking to decarbonize. Previously, Floor worked as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company for 5 years with a focus on sustainability related projects.

Michalis Agraniotis has joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in 2013. He currently works as Senior Business Development Manager for MHI's Carbon Capture technology in Continental Europe.

Chief Executive Officer  
Nicholas B. Dottino serves as the Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Graanul Invest, Europe’s largest and a global frontrunner in sustainable biomass and bioenergy production. With over 30 years of expertise, Mr. Dottino has solidified his reputation as a distinguished C-Suite executive in the fiber-based industrial manufacturing and consumer products sectors. His extensive management experience spans across Americas, Asia, and Europe, encompassing paper, pulp, packaging, and sales. Additionally, he has helped to shape significant charitable organizations, showcasing his versatility in leadership.

Simon Göß is an expert on energy and carbon markets and policy. He is managing director of carboneer providing advice to companies on carbon markets, carbon management and net-zero strategies. He is also certified trader at the European Energy Exchange (EEX AG) and conducts workshops, coordinates consultancy projects and compiles studies for various stakeholders, including GIZ China, International PtX Hub, BMZ.

Biomass Broker at Voyage Power

Jan Groeneveld holds a master from Delft University of Technology and has some 20 years’ experience in sourcing and trading of Biomass within Uniper (previously E.ON).

Over the past years having sourced the biomass for Uniper’s Biomass projects in UK, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as working on many projects today using biomass for production of biogas  and advanced biofuels.

Philipp works with the SOLER group as Business Development Director and holds master’s degrees in chemistry and business administration, with a specialization in Environmental Finance.

In his former role as the Program Lead for Agora Industry, Philipp devised regulatory solutions to advance the decarbonization of heavy industries such as steel and chemicals. His contributions to the EU ETS Reform and the creation of Carbon Contracts for Difference have played a significant role in shaping policies that now guide the transformation of these industries.

Drawing on this experience, Philipp is currently exploring strategies for smart carbon management to achieve climate neutrality in industries that rely on carbon and carbon-based feedstocks, with a focus on steel, ferroalloys and silicon production.

Neil has over 20 years’ experience in the chemical industry with ICI plc, Croda International, Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Applied Graphene Materials.

Neil started with ICI in 1995 following completion of his DPhil and Bachelor of Arts at the University of Oxford. He is a Chartered Chemist and Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

He has held a number of roles both in the UK and overseas; his primary focus has been the scale-up of the production process from laboratory to commercial production, as well as process improvements of existing production assets.

Chairman of the Board & CEO Biocarbon

Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Perpetual Next. Extensive track record in large scale petrochemical conversion industries in CCO and CEO positions with P/L responsibility. International work experience at Shell participations and General Electric, and as an entrepreneur in the sector since 1996. MBA from Temple University, USA.

Carsten Huljus is Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), a not-for-profit multi-stakeholder organisation that has developed an independent third-party certification system to provide assurance that woody biomass is sourced from legal and sustainable sources. Initially trained as a forester he has been working in the voluntary sustainability certification sector with schemes like FSC, PEFC and SBP in global forest industries for more than 21 years, in various management positions.

Andrew Johnson is Vice President at TSI, a Seattle based technology provider for the Woody Biomass Industry. Andrew has a 40+ year career in the wood processing industry and has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, and Asia. TSI is a leader in equipment for the solid biofuel industry  with patented technology to make both torrefied and biochar products.

Laurent has been working on chemical and metallurgical process development and operation for almost 30 years. He has in-depth knowledge of carbonaceous materials, glassmaking, steelmaking and the extractive metallurgy of aluminum, niobium, nickel, lithium, titanium oxide and manganese. His experience enables him to approach business development by integrating economic, operational and management constraints, in addition to purely innovative and technological aspects. With ERAMET for 18 years, he has held positions in production, research and innovation and industrial management. He is currently director of the Bioreductor project, which aims to replace fossil carbon-based reducers with biobased reducers to help reduce CO2 emissions.

Management Board Member, CSO

Mihkel Jugaste is a civil engineer turned environmental engineer turned multinational value chain quality manager. Jugaste started his career in engineering and process design and for the last 7 years has been applying those skills in the bioenergy sector. His focus has been on developing post-harvest/post processing sustainable sourcing systems to demonstrate sustainability without having a role in forest management or pre-processing. Mihkel Jugaste oversees all aspects of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) at Graanul Invest Group.

As a part of the Group Management, Patrick Kongsbak-Dahl is the Head of Business Development at CM Biomass, leading the company’s business development efforts globally, including new markets and customers from the Heavy Industry Sectors, as well as the company’s portfolio of alternative products. Patrick comes with 5 years of experience within the full value chain of biomass, from having been a major part in the company’s development of its own production capacity of wood pellets in USA, to the strategic approach to its customers. Patrick lives in Copenhagen Denmark, from where he works at the CM Biomass HQ.

Nando Leerentveld started his early career in R&D and manufacturing where his interest grew in making the industry more sustainable. He joined Tata Steel over 17 years ago to become part of the solution of the hard-to-abate industry. He started by leading teams optimising various steel making processes to save energy. Around 2014, together with early pioneers the first analyses were made on how carbon neutral ambitions could be achieved. A few years later the decarbonisation and sustainability program started and has grown now to become the leading strategy for the company. Since 2022 Nando is leading the program to replace the very hard to abate carbon in steelmaking with non-fossil carbon sources like biochar and syngas.

Rodolphe Nicolle started his career in the public sector but spent it mainly in the industrial one (Rhodia, LyondellBasell, Knauf Insulation). His experience has led him in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States to lead teams in charge of public affairs, sustainable development and global projects. He has developed campaigns to fight energy poverty, promote carbon capture deployment and funded an energy efficiency coalition. He serves as a secretary general for the European Lime Association- EuLA – since March 2022. He is a French citizen established in Belgium. @NicolleRLH

Engineering & Technical Director at Alfanar

Peep Pitk holds a Ph.D. in environmental chemistry and bioprocess engineering from TalTech, with a focus on optimizing protein-rich side streams and anaerobic digestion processes.

In 2016, he joined the Fibenol team and has been at the helm of the company's development journey. Starting from the idea of wood valorization on paper, leading the SWEETWOODS project, he has led the Fibenol team to the completion of a globally unique wood fractionation industrial demonstration plant by 2023. Now, he is taking the lead in driving innovation in the material and chemical industry powered by bioproducts

Erik Rylander has +20 years’ experience from managerial positions in the energy industry. In recent years with focus on circular economy business development. Today Erik is Commercial Director of Stockholm Exergi’s CDR program with the short-term objective to establish a commercial framework and business model for permanent negative emissions that allow Exergi to invest in a BECCS plant capturing 800.000 tons biogenic CO2 p.a. starting 2027.

Steve started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Sanofi followed by 2 years at Total in La Defense, Paris. Steve has been working at Arcelor Mittal since 2015 and has been responsible for sourcing liquid fuels for Arcelor Mittal's sites across Europe. Steve has recently moved towards decarbonised sources of alternate fuels such as biomass for the the use in greener steelmaking.

Head of Alternative Biomass Portfolio, CM Biomass.

Victor Smith is the Head of Alternative Biomass at CM Biomass, a role he has held since 2020. His work focuses on expanding the presence of agricultural biomass in the European market. Victor oversees the sourcing and commercialization of agricultural biomass feedstocks, playing a crucial role in bringing these products into the European market. He has been particularly influential in establishing a strong presence in the processing industry, responding to the sector’s increasing demand for bioenergy.

Damien has 25 years’ experience in trading global commodities, previously managing a $4 Billion Commodities Portfolio. An accomplished asset manager, Damien has managed both fossil and renewable generation assets. Whilst he was the Head of Trading at Drax Power, the business transitioned from 100% coal to become a world leader in biomass production and biomass power generation. Prior to joining Javelin, he was Head of Markets Innovation at Orsted a world leader in renewables, where his team focussed on the emerging market opportunities in biogas, hydrogen and the wider opportunities across renewable fuels.

Mr. Taylor has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer since January 2023. Formerly, he was Senior Vice President, Sales & Fulfillment since June 2022 as well as Senior Vice President, Optimization and Origination since March 2020. He joined Enviva as Vice President, Optimization and Origination in February 2014. He has been an integral part of the sales and marketing team, spending the last several years developing new markets in Asia, most significantly in Japan, and now leads our Asia Pacific team. Mr. Taylor is responsible for sales processes as they relate to managing existing Enviva customer contracts and executing new long-term wood pellet offtakes and related freight contracts, leading Enviva’s contract fulfillment process from inception to fulfillment. He also analyzes the broader market at large in order to deploy customized logistical solutions for customers to improve the Enviva value chain. Prior to joining Enviva, Mr. Taylor served as Vice President of Biomass Brokerage at Evolution Markets, where he developed and grew the company’s biomass business. He holds a B.A. in Commerce and an M.A. in International Economics and Finance from Ryerson University in Toronto and graduated from the Carbon Finance & Analytics Programme at the London Business School.

Pim is Aker Carbon Capture’s Regional Sales Director for their operations across continental Europe. He holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering as well as in Business Management. Having started as a Process Engineer at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in syngas technology, he subsequently engaged in several techno-commercial roles in a wide range of industries, from petrochemicals to food and beverage. In the last five years, Pim has been focusing on supporting asset owners in their sustainability endeavors, first as a Commercial Director for advanced heat recovery and now in carbon capture and its value chain.

General Manager Europe and Vice President Commercial

Jens Price Wolf is General Manager for Enviva Europe, leading the company’s regulatory engagement, customer fulfillment and market development activities across Europe. Jens brings more than 20 years’ experience in the energy sector and the full value chain of biomass for power and heat. He started his career as a consultant with ICF Consulting and later McKinsey & Company, where he advised businesses on operations and strategy. As a Director of Asset Management and Development for DONG Energy (now Orsted) he was responsible for converting four Danish CHP plants. Prior to joining Enviva, he was Commercial Director at Drax, responsible for trading, biomass sourcing, development and logistics.
Jens holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.
He is a Danish national but lives in Yorkshire in the UK.