International Tar Association

Zaid Aljanabi is a global lead analyst covering the aluminium value chain worldwide. Prior to joining the aluminium analysis team, he spent six years with CRU’s consulting division as head of aluminium consulting. He also worked for several years at Emirates Global Aluminium where he led the market research unit and held various positions within marketing and sales, corporate strategy, and finance. He previously worked in London for several commodity-focused firms as an analyst, including Thomson Reuters and Diapason Commodities Management. He began his commodities research career in 2002 as a petroleum economist with AUPEC. Zaid holds an MA in Economic Science from the University of Aberdeen and an MSc in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Graduated from Tianjin Foreign Languages Institute and majored in International Trade. 1994 – 2002, worked in a famous international trading house named Nichimen Corporation in Tianjin, China and deeply engaged in international business, including machinery, auto parts, bearings, electric appliances and chemical products.
1992 – 2006, worked in JECT Corporation Beijing office, mainly working for all kinds of carbon business, including Needle Coke, Graphite Electrode, Green Petroleum Coke, Calcined Petroleum Coke, Metallurgical Coke, Foundry Coke, Coal Tar Pitch and recarb etc. Heavily provided raw materials to steel, aluminum and chemical industries with rich experience and technical knowledge.
Since 2007, worked in East River Asia Limited as consultant to provide professional services to the customers all over the word with Chinese carbon and chemical industries.

Vince Guercio has a chemical engineering degree and over 50 years’ experience in the international petrochemical, petroleum and natural gas businesses. For the past 40 years, he has been an independent consultant providing commercial and technical advice about the interactions that occur at the refinery/LPG/petrochemical interfaces. He specializes in the utilization of steam cracker byproducts such as butadiene, C5s and carbon black oil (CBO). Due to his ethylene byproduct experience, in 1982 Vince became heavily involved in carbon black feedstock from naphtha crackers, FCCs and coal tar. Since then, he has offered consulting services in the pricing, marketing, evaluation and acquisition of CBO. Since 1988, he has published the CBO MONITOR which provides reliable market intelligence about worldwide CBO and carbon black. Vince was educated by Catholic University of America, Princeton University and the U.S. Army. His corporate experience includes Mobil Oil, Lummus and Foster Wheeler.

Andrew Jones is an independent analyst and researcher on the mineral commodity markets. He established Resource-Net in Brussels, Belgium in 1999. Resource-Net's main interest lies in metallurgical reductants, producing regular research on the global markets for:

• Metallurgical and foundry coke
• Anthracite for reduction applications, metallurgical coke replacements
• Metallurgical coals (coking, PCI)

Andrew has more than 20 years' professional experience, including periods of employment at Metal Bulletin Research (London) and Standard Bank (Johannesburg). Professional qualifications include an honours degree in metallurgy from the University of Sheffield and a masters degree in multinational commerce from Boston University Brussels.

Mr. Anil Khatri is the Chief Strategy Officer at Epsilon Carbon Pvt. Ltd. He holds an engineering degree from the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT), Maharashtra and is responsible for developing and implementing the business strategy across Epsilon carbon portfolio.
With over 19 years of professional experience in Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Technology Licensing, Project conceptualization to execution, Sales/Marketing, R&D and New product development.

Dr. Fengqin Liu is a Professor of Engineering and recipient of various government subsidies as well as the National Technical Talent award. She is the Technical Manager at the China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co. Ltd.; Deputy Director of China Non-Ferrous Metals Institute Light Metal Academic Committee; Director of Aluminum-used Carbon Research Committee; and is a member of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Association Expert Committee.
As the well-known expert in aluminum smelting and aluminum-used carbon fields, Dr. Liu was in charge of setting up technological development planning and standards for relative industries. She led dozens of major scientific and technical projects at both provincial and national levels, solving a series of technical problems in the aluminum smelting industry. She hosted three international aluminum-used carbon conferences. As a scientist and expert in her field, she was invited to visit and conduct collaborative research in Australia, the U.S. and Switzerland, and gave large-scale presentations at several international metallurgy conferences.
Some of Dr. Liu’s published achievements include: “The Key Technology of Quality Carbon Anode for Aluminum Smelting”, “The Integrated Technologies to Improve the Life Span of Aluminum Smelting Cell”, “The Technology of New Structure for Aluminum Smelting Cell”, and “The New Technology of Wettable Cathode Production”. She is the recipient of the National Science & Technology Progress Award, has won the Provincial & Ministerial Award three times, and many other awards in recognition of her technological contributions and she has designed 50 national patents.
Dr. Liu is published in English as well: “Chinese Raw Materials for Anode Manufacturing”, “Production Technology of Aluminum Smelting" and “Production Technology of Aluminum-used Carbon” under the series of China Non-Ferrous Metals book selection. She is also the main author of the Carbon Volume for the “Encyclopedia of Metallurgy”, “Manual of Aluminum Production Technology" and “Advances of Nonferrous Metals” and has delivered over 40 papers on the importance of technical conferences and journals both at home and abroad.

I joined the Creosote Council III in January 2019 as the Technical Advisor. My experiences include working in the field of toxicology for over 30 years where I have designed, executed, reviewed, and summarized toxicology studies ranging from acute mammalian toxicity studies to 2-year oncogenicity studies in laboratory animals. Another unique aspect of my experiences is that I have had the opportunity to oversee acute & chronic aquatic toxicity tests in fish, invertebrates, and plants as well as worked closely with environmental chemists to design environmental fate an effect studies for assessing the environmental risks and hazards for the key wood preservatives. Through my various roles I have interfaced with regulatory authorities on a global basis to submit study reports, discuss toxicity of products of interest, negotiate study designs as well as negotiate testing programs. This is also includes providing full toxicology support to Wood Protection groups for two major Wood Treating Companies spanning the years of 2001 to 2014. In addition, through the American Chemistry Council I carried out the risk assessment on the Occupational Exposures to CCA after the mandated mitigation steps required by the EPA designed to reduce exposures to workers, and the exposure study in workers to demonstrate that the engineering features and improved industrial hygiene practices reduced the exposures and risks to workers from exposures. The Creosote Council III is dedicated to being a responsible steward for the handling and use of creosote in the environment and our research projects are focused on further supporting the continued use of creosote and to the safety of the environment.

Dr. Zygmunt Stompel received his MSc diploma in coal science from Silesian Technical University in Gliwice, and immediately after joined the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze, where he spent the next 20 years. In the Research & Development sector Dr. Stompel specialized in processing of coal tar, with particular attention paid to pitch and pitch coke. His PhD thesis (in 1978) was devoted to the subject of manufacturing of pitch coke of improved graphitizability.
In 1991 Dr. Stompel left the Institute and has established a private company Coal-Chem Engineers & Consultants. As a consultant he participated in several international projects aimed at improving efficiency of coal tar industry in Poland and abroad.
Dr Stompel taught coal tar science at Silesian Technical University in Gliwice and Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow. He is active as a consultant on coal tar matters for various Polish and international organizations.

Jakub Szwajka works as Commercial Director at MAKROchem, one of the leading carbon black distributors in EU and US. He is MSc in International Affairs from Warsaw School of Economics and Executive MBA from Warsaw University of Technology Business School. During his career, he held multiple executive roles in telecommunications and retail, focusing on sales, marketing and operations. In his current role, he drives growth of operational capacity of MAKROchem, increasing the number and range of transloading stations with responsibility for both top- and bottom-line result.

Mr. Greg Traczek has been a member of the coal tar distillation industry since 1989, working for multiple companies in various roles in quality control, operations, logistics, raw material purchasing, and sales. He is currently Director of Raw Material Purchasing & Distillate Sales for Rain Carbon. Greg has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and an MBA from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. Greg currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, Stephanie, and their daughters.

Deng Xiaoxing graduated from China Foreign Affairs College, majoring in Business English. He has twenty years experiences of all kinds of carbon business, including Met Coke, Foundry Coke, Green Coke, Calcined Coke, Coal Tar Pitch, Anode, Cathode, Needle Coke, Graphite Electrode and recarb etc. He is heavily involved in steel, coke, aluminum, and chemicals industries and possesses a tremendous understanding and technical knowledge of carbon industry and also has vast experiences in logistics. 1992 - 2005, he was a key staff member in Nichimen and JECT Corporation, a Japan based trading company, and positioned as General Manager of the Beijing Office 2002-2005. He also set-up a J/V tar distillation plant in China for JECT in 2003, and worked as V.P. responsible for Pitch sales for both domestic and export markets. 2005, he set up own company, focusing on consulting services for the carbon and chemical industries.