Multi-year Expert Meeting on Commodities and Development, fifteenth session

Luz Maria de la Mora is the Director of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade and Commodities. As a former Vice-Minister for International Trade and decades of government and private sector positions, Ms. de la Mora developed a career in international trade policy, negotiation, operations, and trade promotion. 

During her tenure as Vice-Minister for International Trade of Mexico from 2018 to 2022, Ms. de la Mora led Mexico's trade and investment policy, overseeing fourteen free trade agreements with 51 countries. To bolster Mexico's development, she steered discussions in the World Trade Organization, the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Pacific Alliance, among others. She also coordinated policy dialogues and handled private sector consultations.

Ms. de la Mora holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University, USA, a Master's degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico.

She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French.

Vanúsia Nogueira is the Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization (ICO). She comes from a family of coffee producers, and started her career at PwC Consulting, where she was a partner and worked for 15 years. She started working directly with coffee in 2002, always focusing on niche markets. She served as executive director at BSCA from 2007 through April 2022 and took over as Executive Director at the International Coffee Organization in May 2022. Vanúsia holds a PhD in Administration/Marketing from Rosario National University in Argentina, a BS in Systems Engineering and Administration from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ) and MBAs and post-MBA focusing on Management, Marketing and Advanced Project Management from Fundação Getulio Vargas-Rio de Janeiro (FGV-RJ). (Vanúsia Nogueira – CV)

Peter Clubb is a Market Analyst at the International Grains Council (IGC), an intergovernmental organisation that monitors the global situation of grains, rice, oilseeds and pulses. Peter’s primary focus is on assessing the world supply and demand of rice and rapeseed (canola), including production, consumption, stocks and trade, as well as monitoring other grains and oilseeds. Before joining the IGC in 2017, Peter was the Editor of the Live Rice Index, a specialist rice market publication and price reporting agency, and has accumulated more than a decade of experience in monitoring the global rice trade.

Monika Tothova is a Senior Economist in the Markets and Trade Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She leads a team which provides short term outlook for basic food commodities. She also serves as a Secretary of the Agricultural Market Information System, AMIS, a G20 initiative to enhance food market transparency.  A national of Slovakia, she earned her Doctorate in Economics and Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University. Before joining FAO in 2012, she worked in the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France. 

Mr. Sergio René Araujo-Enciso is an Economist at the Medium-Term Outlook and Market Analysis Team at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Before joining FAO, Mr. Araujo-Enciso was a research fellow at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (EU-JRC) based in Seville Spain, and a research assistant at the George August Gottingen University in Germany, where he gained his PhD degree. His fields of expertise are agricultural markets analysis and economic modelling. 

Professor Adelegan is the Secretary-General of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) based in Singapore, the biggest worldwide community in the Rubber Industry. He is a C-Suite Executive and an international development expert, a Professor of Practice of Environmental Science and Engineering and a practitioner-scholar in management with over three decades of distinguished professional trajectory across 24 African Countries, Europe, North America, and Asia. His work experience spans several organizations including the United Nations, development finance institutions, international organizations, government, non-governmental organizations, education, innovation, and research institutions among others. He has extensive experience in the sustainable investment, disruptive innovation, and circular economy of the elastomer products. He has held Senior Roles at the United Nations as the Team Leader at the United Nations Technology Innovation Lab, the first European Lab in Finland and as a Senior Advisor at the United Nations Office of Project Services in Denmark. Professor Adelegan was the Division Chief at the Office of the Vice President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, an International Development Financial Institution established by ECOWAS Treaty and covering 15 ECOWAS Countries. He was a representative of Africa and the Middle East at the Climate Investment Trust Fund at the World Bank, Washington DC, United States. His portfolios have included programs and projects funded by the European Union, World Bank, Green Climate Fund, Climate Investment Fund, African Development Bank, ECOWAS, African Union, NEPAD Agency, Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), Australian Aid, several United Nations agencies, and funds among others. Professor Adelegan have held several board appointments, created strategic partnerships, and mobilized resources from development agencies, development finance institutions and several donor agencies. He was a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council, Geneva, Switzerland, and Non-Executive Director of the European Sustainable Development Organization among others. 

Peter Nielsen is an Impact Investment Manager with the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), where he manages a portfolio of agriculture and land use investments across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In his work, he focuses on developing investment cases with dual social and environmental benefits for smallholder farmers in developing countries. As part of this, he oversees the CFC’s strategic work on regenerative agriculture, climate and biodiversity, and outcomes-based financing.

Isabelle Ramdoo is the Deputy Director of the IGF Secretariat and leads its work on local content policies, new technologies in mining and critical minerals. Isabelle is an economist with 25 of experience in international trade and industrial policy. She worked as a senior advisor to the African Minerals Development Centre/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa where she worked on linkages and local content policies. Prior to that, Isabelle was Deputy Head of Programme, Economic Transformation, at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM). Isabelle also served the Government of Mauritius for 10 years, where she worked as an economist for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and as trade policy analyst for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, respectively.

Dario is the Director of Sustainable Energy at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), a region that includes 56 member States in North America, Europe and Asia. In this capacity, he provides analysis, policy advice and assistance to governments for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreements and to facilitate international cooperation in energy within and outside the region. His professional experience in the energy space spans almost 30 years. Prior to joining UNECE, Dario was the Chief Underwriting Officer at SACE, the Italian State Guarantee Agency, responsible for export credit, the EU Green New Deal and the guarantees under the EU Temporary Framework. 

Before joining SACE, Dario spent more than a decade with General Electric (GE), where he was responsible for project financing activities, corporate strategy & business development, corporate finance and investment banking, later serving as Global Head of Government and Export finance, managing the group’s relations with export credit agencies and international financial institutions. He previously worked at the Council of Europe Development Bank and with the European Commission. His career started at Cargill.  

Dario Liguti has a MSc in Economics from Bocconi University (Milan) and a MA in EU Law from Leicester University (UK).
 

Abdoulkarim Saidali is an Associate Economist in the International Trade and Commodities Division at UNCTAD, where he focuses on economic research addressing key development challenges. 

Abdoulkarim Saidali has contributed to a diverse range of publications exploring critical issues such as access to agricultural inputs in Togo's cotton sector, the digital practices of informal enterprises in Senegal, and the price volatility of minerals essential for the energy transition, along with their impact on the economic development of producing countries. 

Abdoulkarim Saidali holds an engineering degree in applied statistics and economics from the Institut National de Statistique et d'Économie Appliquée in Rabat, and a master’s degree in development and population economics from the University of Bordeaux.
 

Guillaume Albasini is an independent consultant in the mining, metals and energy sectors. Previously, he was a research officer at the CRES Foundation in Geneva where he carried out various studies on the geopolitics of energy and raw materials and the challenges faced by producing countries. He is a graduate in political science from the University of Lausanne and holder of a Master in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His most recent research focuses on the impact of the energy transition on demand for energy and mining commodities. 

Amrita Dasgupta is an Energy and Minerals Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. She has been working on various topics related to clean energy technologies and energy sector decarbonisation for nearly six years on the World Energy Outlook (WEO) team at the IEA. Having co-authored around forty IEA flagship reports, Amrita was one of the lead authors of the IEA’s pioneering 2021 report on The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions. Since then, she is one of the core members of the team founded to work on the demand and supply outlooks for critical minerals at the IEA. Her areas of expertise include rare earth elements, battery technologies, battery recycling, transport energy demand, solar PV technologies and low-emissions hydrogen production. 

Amrita holds a Master’s degree in Physics from EPFL in Switzerland and a dual degree in renewable energy engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and École Polytechnique in France. She has previously worked as a scientist and researcher at several cutting-edge research institutions in Europe: in nanomaterials like graphene at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, ultrahigh efficiency tandem solar cells at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg and perovskite solar cells at École Polytechnique in France.

Romain Perez is an Economist in the International Trade and Commodities Division at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), specializing in project management and supporting intergovernmental initiatives to assist commodity-dependent countries. With over 15 years of expertise in global trade, commodity markets, and sustainable development, his prior roles include work at the OECD on G8-G20 negotiations and at UN DESA on sustainable development financing. His research covers trade liberalization, environmental tariffs, and water stress in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has authored several peer-reviewed articles and holds a degree from HEC Paris.

Alexander Bressers is a Senior Oil Market Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), where his primary focus is on global oil demand and prices. Before joining the IEA in 2022, he worked for fifteen years as a commodity portfolio manager and futures trader for a number of banks and investment funds, developing quantitative trading strategies in the energy and agricultural markets. He holds a Master’s degree in economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. 

Dr Thierry Bros is a Professor at SciencesPo Paris, a contributor to the Natural Gas World website and Tellurian Policy & Research Vice President. In his 30+ years long career, Thierry was Senior Policy Manager & Lead Analyst for an oil & gas organisation in Brussels, Senior European Gas and LNG Analyst in a bank, notably accredited as the best European gas analyst for five years, as well as Senior Financial Equity Analyst, dealing with gas stocks (from upstream to regulated). Previously, Thierry was in charge of Security of Supply at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance where he liberalised the French gas market and supervised the European Contingency Gas Plan. On the academic side, Thierry has been a Senior Research Fellow of The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and, in his first book, published in 2012, he rightly forecasted that the surge in US oil and gas production was going to deeply alter the energy and geopolitical landscapes. Thierry holds a Master of chemical engineering from ESPCI ParisTech and a PhD from Ecole Centrale Paris.

Takuro Yamamoto is the General Manager of Business Development of Tokyo Gas United Kingdom Ltd. beginning Apr 2024. Prior to the current position, he acted as the General Manager of Paris Representative Office of Tokyo Gas for 2 years as well as engaged for LNG Trading Department in Tokyo headquarters for 6 years. He also has an experience for taking secondments for working for International Energy Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. He joined Tokyo Gas in 1999 and started his career in residential sales department and also has experience working in upstream investment project in Australia.

André Pierre Mattei is French-Brazilian and currently works as Director of the Senai Institute of Innovation for ICTs (Brazil), Vice President of the FLIC group (Brazil, France, and USA) and President of the startup GrapeHawk in France. He has post doctoral and doctorate training in computer science, a master’s degree in physics, an MBA in strategic management and processes and a degree in electronic engineering and a eronautical s ciences. He has experience as director of Brazilian and multinational companies, business development in LATAM, technical manager of aerospace programs, university professor (ITA, ISA SUPAERO and MIT), scientific researcher and military pilot.

Gloria Magombo is Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Power Development (MoEPD). Gloria has more than 33 years of experience in the Energy Sector spanning the fields of engineering, management, power sector reform and regulation. Her key areas of experience and expertise include strategy development and implementation, general management, project management, power plant operations and maintenance, plant optimisation and testing, generation planning, feasibility studies, energy sector regulation and training of technical staff and general management. 

Before joining MoEPD, Dr.Magombo served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA). She also worked as the Managing Director of an international consultancy firm, Norconsult Botswana. She also worked as Regional Energy Advisor with Southern Africa Global Competitiveness Hub. She is a former Executive Commissioner of Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission (ZERC) and she also worked as a Generation Expert for ZESA. 

She served as the Regional Chairperson of Capacity Building Portfolio for the Regional Electricity Regulators Association (RERA).
Dr. Magombo served as a Councillor at the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe (ECZ) and was recently appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) Board. 

She is a representative of Zimbabwe to the IRENA Council were she is the current chair of the 28th and outgoing Chair of the 27th IRENA Council meetings respectively. She is currently chairing Collaborative Framework on Hydropower. She has been championing the discussions on critical materials for energy transition at International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), REN21, and other discussion panels. (The geopolitics, the role and the socio-economic issues including the policies to empower Africa to actively participate in the value chains of critical materials for community benefits). She also chaired the Open Ended Group on IRENA staff tenure. She is currently co-facilitating the IRENA Collaborative Framework on Hydropower. She is a member of the UN Secretary General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.

Dr Magombo is the co-Chairperson of the Zambezi River Authority Board of Directors for Zambia and Zimbabwe. She is also a Board Member of Mathew Rusike Children’s Home Childcare in Zimbabwe,  for orphaned and vulnerable children.

Clovis Freire Junior is Chief, Commodity Research and Analysis Section, Commodities Branch, of the Division on International Trade and Commodities of UNCTAD in Geneva. He is an Economist specialized in economic diversification and strategies for building productive capacities in developing countries. His work supports the structural transformation and sustainable development of commodity-dependent developing countries. He has over 20 years of work experience in the United Nations in programmes related to commodity dependence, least developed countries, technology and innovation for development, and disaster risk reduction. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), Brazil, a Master’s degree in Computer Sciences from the University de Brasília (UnB), an MBA in Strategic Management of Information Systems from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Brazil, and a PhD in Economics from the Maastricht University, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Sofia Dominguez is an Associate Economic Affairs Officer in the Division on International Trade and Commodities at UNCTAD. She specializes in economic research focused on development topics related to commodity dependence and commodity-dependent countries. Sofia has contributed to multiple publications covering a range of topics including diversification and inequality, value addition, and trade dynamics along critical mineral value chains. These publications shed light on pressing issues within the field. She holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Mario Guiot is the CEO of Suape Industrial Port Complex. With extensive experience in the port sector, Marcio Guiot has held executive leadership positions in several companies and has worked as a consultant on various projects in the sector. He served as director of Brasil Terminal (Port of Santos), Port of Itapoá, and Libra Terminais Santos. Additionally, he held the position of superintendent at Ceará Terminal Operator (CTO) in the Pecém Complex, located in Ceará.

Graduating in Nautical Sciences from the Merchant Marine Academy of Rio de Janeiro, Guiot holds an MBA from Fundação Dom Cabral, a specialization in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) from the Administration Institute Foundation of the University of São Paulo (USP), as well as executive development courses in Brazil and abroad.
 

Arthur Neves is the Director of Industrial Management, Suape Industrial Port Complex. Arthur Neves is a lawyer specializing in administrative law from the Federal University of Pernambuco, with a focus on infrastructure contracts, public-private partnerships, and innovation in the public sector. 

As the director of the industrial area at SUAPE, he has been leading initiatives for generating critical market intelligence and defining the business attraction model of the Complex, emphasizing a just and green economic transition, production diversification, and increased port activity. In the private sector, he worked as a manager in the third sector and in education in the city of Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco.
 

Constantinos Chaelis has been with Lloyd’s Register for 10 years and currently holds the position of Global Gas Markets & Technology Lead, based in Athens Greece.

His primary focus is echoing the strategic direction in maritime gas supply chains towards the sustainable growth of the gas segment, engaging with technological developments in gas commodity markets and steering the enhancement of Lloyd’s Register service portfolio to the shipping community.

In the past he held the position of Project Manager & Marine Surveyor for new construction and existing ships in operation for Lloyd’s Register, acquiring robust technical expertise in various global placements including UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, South Korea. Prior experience further enhanced working in the technical management of a tanker fleet for a Greek shipping company.

Constantinos represents Lloyd’s Register in gas associations including the Global Gas Centre and World Liquid Gas Association (WLGA) and is a member of the Investment Board at SEA-LNG. Since 2012 he has represented Lloyd’s Register in several projects, conferences and LR Ship & Naval Technical Committees. Constantinos holds an MEng in Naval Architecture from the University of Southampton, UK and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) status by the British Council. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (MICS) and a member of the RINA & IMarEST.

Panos Mitrou has been with LR for 19 years and currently holds the position of Global Gas Segment Director, based in Athens Greece. His primary focus is on the maritime gas supply chains, LNG, LPG and other gas commodities and fuels, as well as gas floating solutions, delivering an enhanced service portfolio to the shipping community. 

In the past he has held various commercial and technology positions. Since 2012 he has been deeply involved in the setup and materialization of several funded projects related to alternative fuels and innovation in the maritime sector. In 2013, he has initiated Poseidon Med, a key cross-border European project, introducing LNG bunkering in Eastern Mediterranean maritime transportation.

Panos represents LR in a number of gas associations. He chairs the Methane Abatement in Maritime Alliance and the Marine Working Group of the -World LPG Association. He is a member of the Board at SEA-LNG and the Global Gas Center and a member of the Environmental Committee at SGMF. He is also chairing WG31 at SGMF tasked with Methane Slip Measurement.

Panos holds a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer Diploma from NTUA and an MBA in Shipping from ALBA Business School. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. He is also a PhD candidate in Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, at University of Strathclyde with focus on optimizing the shipping transition pathway.

Rouben Indjikian is an adjunct professor teaching energy, commodities, trade finance, digital economy and international economics at Webster Geneva Campus. He organizes events at Webster and is a frequent speaker at international conferences on commodities, energy, trade finance and other topics. Indjikian had a distinguished career of nearly 30 years at UNCTAD where, as an economist and manager, he was in charge of analysis, policy advice and technical assistance in the areas of international trade, finance, e-commerce and commodities. At UNCTAD he drafted many reports, organized conferences, and initiated the Information Economy Report and Global Commodities Forum. He is also the author of a monograph based on his PhD thesis, book chapters and articles in prestigious academic and business journals. His PhD is from the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of World Economy and International Relations, the leading think tank of the time.