Speakers

Adrian leads comms and industry insight at BullionVault, the precious-metals fintech where private investors now own $4bn of physical gold, silver, platinum & palladium. A regular speaker on LBMA webinars and a member of the Public Affairs Committee, he is frequently quoted by news, investment-trade and personal-finance outlets across the world.

Hecla Mining Company, a 132-year-old company, is the United States’ largest silver producer, mining over 40% of that country’s silver. Phil has been its CEO for almost 20 years starting with the company when the price of silver was at its lowest price in the last 30 years. As a company with a long history, Hecla had significant legacy environmental liabilities which Phil made sure Hecla resolved with hundreds of millions of dollars of expenditures long before the focus on ESG. He sold Hecla’s mines in Venezuela where the company was the country’s largest gold producer using the proceeds to increase Hecla’s ownership to 100% of one the world’s best silver mines, Greens Creek. He has encouraged the development of a new mining method at the long-lived Lucky Friday mine which makes the next twenty years of the mine safer and more productive. He is a leading voice for the importance of silver as a metal necessary for renewable energy. He has seen the highs and lows of our industry.

Mehdi Barkhordar brings to neoshapes 40 years of leadership experience in the precious metals industry. Accordingly, Mehdi is widely respected and recognized for his comprehensive trading, refining, fabrication, and client services expertise by all notable actors throughout the precious metals industry, including major mining companies, central and commercial banks, government and private mints, as well as fine jewellers and watchmakers.

Mehdi graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and Decision Sciences. In 1983, he joined the MKS PAMP GROUP, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and lead the effort to significantly broadening the Group’s reach, range of services and productivity as well as widening perceptions of the value of precious metals worldwide through innovative product and marketing concepts and advanced, best-in-class client services.

Indeed, throughout his career, Mehdi has been one of the industry’s most vocal proponents of products and services quality standards, and compliance to best practices and ethics, as well as environmental sustainability. To that end, he served on the Board of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), as well as being a founding promoter of the Swiss Better Gold Association, which supports the sustainable development of artisanal and small-scale mining communities through technical support, and environmental and social impact investments.

Always alert to recognize and adapt emerging and robust technologies with potential to be of significant benefit to end users, Mehdi directed the development of anti-counterfeit security, as well as implementing transparent blockchain based supply chain traceability functionalities. Both service platforms were tactically implemented from 2014 to 2019, and today are recognized as invaluable industry benchmarks.

From 2008 to the end of 2022, Mehdi also served as Chairman of the Board of MMTC-PAMP India, a joint venture of MKS PAMP and MMTC Limited, a Government of India Undertaking, which remains India’s first and only refiner and fabricator for both gold and silver internationally accredited by the LBMA. Thus, he lead the development and provided the strategic vision for the company, in particular, to focus on the development of innovative bullion products of impeccable quality, including India’s first, largest and most trusted digital gold platform with over 130’000’000 accounts, all of which contributed in 2021 to placing MMTC-PAMP at rank 64 of the Fortuna 500 India, the highest ranking of any Indian company upon first entering the list.

Brad Brooks-Rubin is a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Sanctions Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, where he is responsible for sanctions policy coordination related to sub-Saharan Africa, Burma, and natural resources. Brad re-joined State from 6.5 years as policy Director and then Managing Director at The Sentry, an investigative and policy team that follows the money connected to war criminals and transnational war profiteers and seeks to shut those benefiting from violence out of the international financial system; Brad also served as the Strategic Advisor & North America Engagement Lead at the Responsible Jewellery Council in late 2021-early 2022. Prior to The Sentry and RJC, Brad held roles at the Gemological Institute of America (where he focused on a range of projects related to sustainable development), the U.S. Department of State (where he focused on the Kimberley Process and conflict minerals in eastern DRC, as well as sanctions issues), the Department of the Treasury (where he served as an Attorney-Advisor concentrated on sanctions issues, principally related to a range of sub-Saharan African conflicts), as well as two law firms (where he advised clients on economic sanctions, export controls, and business/human rights issues).

Suki is the Bank’s Precious Metals Analyst, based in New York. She covers the markets for gold, silver, platinum, palladium and other platinum-group metals, along with the key producing countries and consuming sectors. She joined Standard Chartered in 2015 from Barclays, where she spent 11 years, most recently as Head of Metals Research. Suki has worked with corporates, refiners, physical traders, sovereign wealth funds and central banks, institutional investors, hedge funds and private wealth firms, providing analysis and the outlook for the precious metals sector. Previously, she was a Chartered Accountant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Suki is the Chair of the Public Affairs Committee of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). She is an ACA Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Ruth was appointed Chief Executive of the LBMA in January 2014. She is responsible for the success and strategic development of the LBMA, in partnership with the Chairman and the Board. She is also responsible for maintaining accountability to and the quality of, the Association's Membership and Good Delivery Refiners as well as representing the interests of the Association in relation to regulators, investors, media and international precious metals markets.

Before being appointed Chief Executive, she spent seven years working in the Association, initially as Commercial Director and then as Deputy Chief Executive, where she acted as the main lead on Governmental Affairs. She was also responsible for the Association's work on supply chain due diligence, with particular regard to the creation and implementation of the LBMA’s Responsible Gold Guidance. She has represented the Association at industry, governmental and multi-stakeholder regulatory forums. She continues to serve as Vice Chair of the OECD Multi-Stakeholder Governance Group for Responsible Minerals. As Commercial Director, she oversaw the development of the LBMA Conference, the LBMA's quarterly publication the Alchemist and the LBMA website.

Prior to joining the LBMA, she worked in bank finance and US corporate law at the law firms of White & Case and Norton Rose, and also acted as a monitor at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. She has an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and a degree in English Literature from Kenyon College in Ohio.

John was appointed Chairman of the LPPM in February 2022. He has served on the Management Committee for the previous three years. He is also Commercial Director of Johnson Matthey’s PGMS business. He has worked in the industry for many years and has held a variety of senior commercial roles in JM including spending several years managing their Precious Metals Management business, which included the Trading, Sales and Market Research functions.

Antoine de Montmollin has worked for more than 18 years in the Swiss company Metalor Technologies. After having held various positions within the company, he has served as CEO since 2019. Prior to this, he worked 6 years as delegate at the International Committee of the Red Cross with missions in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Sudan, RDC, Iraq. He held as well various finance positions in several multinational companies. He is vice president of the Swiss Precious Metals association (ASFCMP). He holds a bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management from the Hotel School of Lausanne.

Michael DiRienzo serves as the Executive Director of the Silver Institute, an international association whose membership comprises the major participants in the silver industry. In that capacity, Michael manages the Institute’s overall daily activities, budget development and management, implementing the annual plan, public affairs, and government relations activities.

From 1999-2002, Michael served as Vice President of the Gold Institute, managing that association’s government and public relations activities. Prior to 1999, Michael also represented a member company of the Toyota Group as Director of Government Relations. Formerly, Michael served as Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary to the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, U.S. Congressman David Dreier (R-CA). During his tenure with the Chairman, Michael worked on House Banking Committee and Rules Committee issues.

After a 10-year academic career, Dr Paul Fisher was a senior figure at the Bank of England for 26 years, retiring at the end of July 2016. He was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, the interim Financial Policy Committee and the PRA Board. During the Great Financial Crisis he worked in the Markets Area of the Bank, from March 2009 as Executive Director responsible, amongst other things, for the Bank’s programme of asset purchases for quantitative easing. In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Prudential Regulation Authority. Previously, from 2002, he ran the Bank’s Foreign Exchange Division where he had a constructive relationship with the LBMA and developed a working knowledge of the bullion market.

Since leaving the Bank he has been working on Climate Change and Sustainability in the financial sector, including for the EC. He has also been writing on matters of financial stability, policy co-ordination and governance, competition policy, supervision and regulation. Among a range of outside positions he is a Non-Executive Director at the UK Debt Management Office; Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership; Senior Research Fellow at the DAFM centre, King’s College Business School; and he is a Visiting Professor in Economics and Finance at Richmond University, the American International University in London.

As Senior Vice President Precious Metals Management, Dr. Bernhard Fuchs, has been overseeing Umicore’s physical as well as non-physical precious metal supply, sales and hedging since 2014. In 2019 he was elected by the members as Chairman of the International Platinum Association (IPA). Besides his precious metals related responsibilities, he is leading Umicore’s global commercial organization “Umicore Marketing Services” as well as heading as CEO Umicore’s largest activity in Germany, Umicore AG&Co.KG.

Between 2009 and 2014 he was President Umicore Greater China, responsible for all activities in the Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He developed and deployed Umicore’s strategy for the region and managed the relations with the local joint venture partners.

Before moving to China he had served for seven years as CFO of Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG, Pforzheim, Germany. During this time he acquired today’s US activities, expanded the sales-network, turned around the activities in Thailand and founded a precious metals refinery in China.

Bernhard Fuchs is 55 years old, married and lives in Frankfurt, Germany. He holds a Dr. degree in law, is a licensed lawyer in Germany and certified banker.

David has been active in the metals markets since 1979. Originally as a dealer on the London Metal Exchange trading Silver and eventually becoming Head of Trading and the French Investment bank Natixis in London.

In 2005, whilst at Natixis, David was elected to the Management Committee of the LBMA becoming Vice Chairman in 2010 and eventually Chairman in 2011 continuing until 2014.

Elin Hauge believes artificial intelligence should be at the forefront of every leader’s mind; because it will fundamentally change the business landscape, significantly impact your life, and play an essential role in the sustainable future of our societies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is probably the most disruptive technological development in human history, and it is ubiquitous; from the face recognition on your smartphone to advanced public surveillance, from food production to medical research, from online shopping to human-like text and image creators. According to Elin Hauge, understanding the basics of artificial intelligence should be as compulsory for any leader in 2023 as having a computer.

Elin Hauge has built bridges between business and data-driven technologies for more than 20 years. Through her work with business leaders and technology entrepreneurs, she has developed an exceptional ability to connect the dots between business strategy and the application of AI. She brings new perspectives to known challenges, relentlessly demystifying jargon and buzz words. She has a humoristic, down-to-earth, and pragmatic approach to what is actually possible with AI here and now, what is responsible to do in the context of both your company and the society, and what you as decision-maker need to understand to make the right decisions. She then takes the futurist perspective, looking five steps ahead at the potential scenarios and future outcomes, challenging our beliefs and points-of view. She systematically brings in the human perspective; “the future of artificial intelligence is not human less, it’s human more.”

In her talks, she provides tangible and well-grounded recommendations for how to reap real benefits with AI, how to comply with regulations, and how to embrace AI as an integral part of your business or organization.

Elin Hauge holds a MEng in Biophysics and Medical Technology and a MSc in Management Science and Operational Research. Her strong academic background from mathematics and physics, combined with broad business experience, provides a rock-solid foundation for her perspectives on the revolutionary opportunities and complex challenges with and around artificial intelligence.

Brian started his career with Black and Decker in the UK, ending up as Regional Service Centre Manager, following which he spent a year living in Melbourne, Australia. He then moved into the UK Domestic and International Logistics arena with FedEx and latterly with DHL in Regional Director roles.

In 2009, he moved to a career in Valuable Logistics with Via Mat International as Head of Sales for UK & Ireland. Via Mat was purchased by Loomis in 2014 and rebranded Loomis International in 2015. Over the last fourteen years, Brian has been responsible for the Nordics and India, and supported the International Business Development in Hong Kong, China and Singapore. From 2016 to 2020, he was the Loomis International Representative with LBMA and sat on the Vault Managers Committee and has also had a close working relationships with CME and SGE.

In September 2020, Brian took responsibility for Loomis International Americas and moved to Miami in July 2021.

Hilton is Executive Head of Marketing (Strategy and Precious Metals), looking to enhance Anglo American’s customer value proposition, using ever more sophisticated trading and marketing tools to add value to customers and Anglo American.

A South African with a business degree from the University of Cape Town, Hilton first joined Anglo American’s De Beers subsidiary as a Metallurgical Engineer. What followed was a broad and varied career in mining which saw Hilton leading teams in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Canada, Singapore and the UK.

In 2011 Hilton joined Anglo American Platinum as Head of Precious Metals Marketing and has been instrumental in leading the company’s journey from precious metals wholesaler to integrated miner-trader. The change in marketing strategy has delivered significant benefits to Anglo American’s customers and shareholders. Hilton was promoted to his current role in 2017.

Hilton is a director of the International PGM Association and served on the London Platinum and Palladium Market management committee for nine years.

Hilton lives in Hertfordshire, England with his wife and three children and enjoys cycling and fly fishing as often as work and family life will allow.

Trevor has 20 years of experience in the development and commercialisation of new technologies across a range of sectors, with a particular interest in the evolving role of precious metals in the green economy. As an independent consultant, he works with various organisations on a range of issues related to sustainability, supply and demand of metals and new materials and business development. He is currently Technical Director of the Silver Institute, where he supports the industrial and sustainability programmes, and consultant to the World Gold Council. Trevor began his career as a chemist and project manager at the pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline, and holds a PhD in nanotechnology and degree in chemistry.

Hannah Koep-Andrieu is the Head of Due Diligence in the OECD’s Centre for Responsible Business Conduct. She oversees the work on due diligence across the minerals, agriculture and garment & footwear supply chains and the practice on alignment of industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives with OECD due diligence standards. She previously led the Centre’s work on due diligence in mineral supply chains and joined the OECD in 2014 with a background in private sector consulting. Hannah has extensive field experience and worked on risk and impact assessments in the extractives sector, with a focus on stakeholder engagement, artisanal mining, security and human rights issues particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

James Kynge is Global China Editor at the Financial Times. The winner of the prestigious Harold Wincott award for journalism for his coverage of China and its complex relationship with the rest of the world, he has spent 26 years as a journalist in Asia. The lion's share of this time was spent in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong covering China's expanding prosperity and influence in the world from the late 1980s onward. He was a Reuters bureau chief in Taiwan and Central Asia and then, with the Financial Times, based in Malaysia/Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong and London. His stint as China bureau chief in Beijing lasted 8 years.

During his time as a journalist, James covered many of the significant events that shaped the Asian region - including the Japanese economic bubble and its deflation, Tiananmen Square, the independence of Mongolia, the rise to nationhood of the five former Soviet central Asian republics in the early 1990s, the China-Taiwan missile crisis of 1996 followed by Taiwan's first presidential election, the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and China's emergence as a great economic power.

He also worked in business in China for three years, heading up the Pearson Group of companies working in fields such as educational publishing, media and testing. James is the author of the bestselling award-winning book, China Shakes The World, which describes the development of China as a superpower and has been translated into nineteen languages. His 2022 podcast series on the US-China tech rivalry was recognised with a Lovie Award for podcasts in 2023. A fluent Chinese speaker, James volunteers for groups promoting the study of the language in the UK.

Henrik Marx is heading global precious metals trading at Heraeus with four sites in Germany, New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai. He has been working with Heraeus and in the precious metals industry for over 18 years. He went through various roles starting in Recycling through Sales and Business Development. From 2015 to 2018 he was heading the Heraeus business in Hong Kong as the General Manager, followed by two years in Switzerland at Argor-Heraeus being in charge for the investment products department as Director of Sales. Since June 2020 he is the CEO of Heraeus Metals Germany overlooking the global trading activities for Heraeus.

David McWilliams is an economist, author, journalist, documentary-maker and broadcaster. He is Adjunct Professor of Global Economics at the School of Business Trinity College Dublin. and is ranked 10th most influential economist in the world. He produces a weekly economics podcast which has repeatedly topped the Irish and English podcast charts.

David is co-founder of the world’s only economics and stand-up comedy festival Kilkenomics – described by the FT as “simply, the best economics conference in the world”. He also founded Ireland’s leading literary and ideas shindig, the Dalkey Book Festival. The WEF at Davos debased their currency profoundly by making him a Young Global Leader a few years back.

With the objective to make economics digestible and engaging for all, David draws on his unique sense of humour when he travels the globe speaking on growth trends, geo-politics, currencies, financial markets and the link between economics and the individual and cultural psyche

Consistently accurate in his forecasts, David McWilliams was the only economist in Ireland who accurately forecast a strong UK Brexit vote, the Trump victory and the 2008 global crash. David is ranked the 10th most influential economist in the world and as such is a regular on the international speaking circuit.

David has written five bestsellers and one of these The Pope’s Children is the best selling nonfiction ever published in Ireland. His writing style is described by Bloomberg’s head of economics Stephanie Flanders, as having “a great knack for bringing a complex economics story to life. He is also funny. In economics, that’s a rare and persuasive combination.

He is very active on social media and is the third most widely followed economist in the world with 238,000 Twitter followers. He writes a weekly economics column for The Irish Times and is a regular international contributor to the Financial Times.

Once upon a time he had a real job working as an economist first in the Irish Central Bank and later as Chief European Economist at UBS and Head of Emerging Markets Research at Banque Nationale de Paris. He studied economics at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe in Bruges.

David has recently launched his new online economics course – "International Trade and Money". Additionally, his series of animated economics videos – Punk Economics – have been viewed by over 2,000,000 people so far.

In all his speeches, David reaches beyond the conventional, challenging his audiences to think differently about the world, because it is in thinking differently that innovation and progress are bred.

Rory has been involved in the Precious Metals markets for nearly 30 years now after joining HSBC in the mid 1990’s in the back office, he developed his knowledge and skills and progressed through many areas of the market.

Working at companies like Marc Rich, Mitsubishi, Commerzbank, BASF and now Sumitomo he has experience in all aspects of the OTC bullion market that and is now leading the Sales and Development area of Precious Metals for Sumitomo Corporation Global Commodities in London.

As Executive Director and General Counsel of LBMA, Sakhila leads on sustainability, notably, the responsible sourcing and ESG agenda. Her role also includes leading on market development projects and all the legal and regulatory work. As a Board Member she works closely with the Directors and the CEO on the strategic direction of LBMA, guiding on the governance and legal and compliance risks.

Following the success of LBMA’s responsible sourcing programme, Sakhila’s focus has broadened to ensure that this grows to become the leading industry standard - by establishing principal ESG requirements. She has advised the industry on how this and the wider sustainability principles impact the precious metals sector. She is a leading industry subject matter expert and has spoken at several global events.

Sakhila is continuously engaged with industry participants across the value chain, as well as civil society and media. She has strongly focused on active lobbying on a number of issues, including financial services regulations, fostering relationships with several governments and regulators. She educates stakeholders on the dynamics of the precious metals markets and LBMA’s role and work. Sakhila is also involved in setting policies, establishing market standards and leading the incident management process within the LBMA, to resolve high profiled issues.

In addition, Sakhila works on market development projects – such as leading the Gold Bar Integrity project, which focuses on how technology can help address supply chain issues. The global remit of this project and the multiple other complex projects that she has worked on, means that Sakhila is often invited to share her thoughts on new market initiatives by stakeholders.

Sakhila brings a wealth of experience having previously worked in the energy and commodities industry where she dealt with compliance, legal and regulatory matters. Sakhila read law at the London School of Economics and went onto qualify as a solicitor.

Gregory Mthembu-Salter is the director of Phuzumoya Consulting, a South Africa-based company, and is a writer, researcher, and analyst, specialising in due diligence and political economy, particularly in Africa, and often concerning natural resource governance. He is a former member of the UN Group of Experts on the DRC, and wrote the Group’s due diligence guidelines for companies sourcing minerals from conflict areas. He devised a strategy to increase the flow of responsibly mined ASM gold into the LBMA’s Good Delivery List that was adopted by the LBMA in 2022. He has spent much of 2023 working with the LBMA to implement this strategy, including researching and writing studies on seven ASM producing countries.

John Reade is Market Strategist: Europe and Asia and is based in London. He joined the World Gold Council in 2017 and, working closely with the research team, is responsible for developing strategy about gold and engaging with all aspects of the gold market. He is also one of the principle spokespeople for the organisation.

John has over 35 years’ experience in the gold industry and has worked for gold mining companies in production and project evaluation; for investment banks as an equity analyst and gold strategist; and at an asset manager as gold strategist and portfolio manager.

John has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, a constituent of Imperial College, London.

Marge Ryan is Industrial PGM Research and Strategy Manager at Johnson Matthey. She is a member of JM’s PGM Market Research group, globally regarded as the leading experts on platinum group metal supply and demand.

Marge began her career as an engineer in the South African platinum mining industry, before emigrating to the UK in 2006. In 2011, she joined the team at Fuel Cell Today, an organisation that tracked key trends and developments in the then-nascent hydrogen and fuel cell industry. The knowledge gained from this was married to her PGM expertise when she joined JM’s PGM Market Research group in 2014, taking on responsibility for forecasting the PGM requirements of the global hydrogen economy, a function she still fulfils. Marge is also a member of a cross-functional team at JM that constructs long-term scenarios for how the energy transition will play out in key markets and is responsible for generating and communicating insights on the implications for the PGM markets.

Nicky is Head of Metals Strategy at MKS PAMP Group, a precious metals trade house and refiner headquartered in Switzerland, where her focus is to develop and enhance the precious metals marketing and research platform. Prior to joining MKS PAMP, Nicky worked in the financial industry for almost 15 years most recently as Scotiabank’s Commodities Strategist where she established and grew their base & precious metals platform.  Before that she was an Institutional Saleswoman at JP Morgan and the Precious Metals Strategist at Jefferies, where she covered both corporate and institutional accounts. Her expertise spans macro and capital markets, fundamental metals research, metals market forecasting and emerging industries. Nicky has presented at key metals conferences & industry events and is a contributing voice in many media outlets such as the WSJ, FT, Reuters, CNBC & Bloomberg.  Nicky graduated from Yale University with a B.A majoring in Economics.

Matt is a 25 year veteran of the Precious Metals markets, joining the UBS PM Trading after several years in the UBS Interest Rate Derivatives business. His career has primarily focused on the OTC PM Forwards space while coordinating closely with the UBS Physical, Options and Spot teams to delivery the full product suite to UBS’ client base.

Since 2020 Matt has led the UBS PM STIR Trading team globally covering the PM linear (ex-spot) and Physical product suite. In addition to Risk Management and Market Making in these spaces he is responsible for the UBS IB PM Clearing and Custody business and manages UBS global physical liquidity including UBS “Three Keys” bullion production and capital optimization. He has been instrumental in developing UBS control frameworks for Conflict Minerals as well as Gold Sanctions.

UBS PM business has a uniquely broad footprint giving Matt a wide perspective on global PM markets. UBS remains on the cutting edge of product development with recent innovations touching on both the digital gold and Sustainability/ASM space.

Matt sits on the LBMA Financial Services User Group and a was participating panellist at the 2022 LBMA Lisbon conference. He holds a degree in Engineering from The University of Birmingham, UK.

James Steel is HSBC’s Chief Precious Metals Analyst. Jim joined HSBC in May 2006. Previously Jim ran the New York research department for Refco, a large US commodities brokerage house, specializing in energy and metals. Jim also worked for The Economist in the Economist Intelligence Unit covering commodity producing nations and on the Middle East desk.

Jim’s primary duties at HSBC include the production of daily market reports, including long term outlooks for the precious metals markets. These include supply/demand and price forecasts, as well as qualitative analyses. Jim is a frequent speaker at commodities related conferences. He is often quoted in the financial media and frequently appears on Bloomberg and CNBC. Jim is an economist by training and studied economics at undergraduate and graduate levels in London and New York

James started his career trading Precious Metals at Barclays, focusing on options and exotic derivatives. He then moved on to Bank of America, where he gained experience in Base Metals, running the options book for several years as well as running their Commodities ETF business. His responsibilities turned to Precious Forwards and Financing activities from 2017 onwards, as well as building out physical trading.

In 2021 he joined Citadel, to launch Precious Metals trading within their Commodities department. This focusses primarily on relative value, trading different curves, locations and time horizons against one another.

James studied Mathematics at Cambridge University and went on to earn a Masters in Computational Biology.

Wilma heads all platinum group metals research at Metals Focus with 16 years’ experience in the platinum group metals industry. She has 12 years’ experience in the PGM mining industry focused on metal sales and marketing from her time at Lonmin, where she was Head of Commercial Services. She served as non-executive director on the boards of the Platinum Jewellery Development Association, World Platinum Investment Council and Furuya Metals . She also served as chairperson of The Platinum Incubator from 2016-2019 and is the current Chairperson of Women in PGMs. Wilma holds a MSc in International Business Administration from the University of London.

Emma joined Implats in February 2019 and provides support across a number of group functions including marketing and commercial, investor relations and strategy. She joined Implats after an 18-year career as an equity analyst at a number of domestic and international banks, where she was involved in commodity and equity research on precious metals and producers, with a particular focus on PGMs.

Bhargava N. Vaidya, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). His firm "B.N. Vaidya & Associates," specializes in the Gem & Jewellery Sector since 1987. The firm provides consultancy/services to prominent players in the industry, including diamond traders, bullion experts, refiners, jewellery businesses and financial entities operating within the Gem & Jewellery sector.

He has been involved in bullion sector reforms in India, since 1992 including opening the Indian market to bullion Imports and bullion trading, setting up commodity exchanges trading in bullion, setting up exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in bullion and making related structural changes in the jewellery sector.

He has been a member of various committees set up by trade associations, trade bodies and regulators. He has been a consistent participant in the activities of prestigious entities such as the World Gold Council, Associated Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Assocham), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry(FICCI), Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), Dubai Multi Commodity Center (DMCC), India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA), the All India Gem & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), and various commodity exchanges.

Frederik von Ameln is a senior portfolio manager and strategist at the Swiss Federal Pension Fund PUBLICA, the second pillar pension provider for the Swiss federal administration and associated organizations. With asset under management of roughly CHF 40bn, and more than 100k active and retired beneficiaries, PUBLICA is one of the largest pension providers in Switzerland.

Frederik joined PUBLICA Asset Management in 2014 as a portfolio manager and strategist, focusing on (listed) equity and commodity investments. He’s responsible for overseeing the management of the CHF 10bn equities allocation, and co-manages the CHF 1.2bn precious metals allocation. Prior to joining PUBLICA, he worked as a senior portfolio manager for indexed equities at a Swiss asset manager, where he also assisted in managing active quant strategies for equities. Frederik started his career in finance in 2002 at UBS AG in credit portfolio management after graduating from Technical University of Dortmund with an M.Sc. equivalent degree in Statistics. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Fragold GmbH
With over 37 years of professional experience, Wolfgang is one of the leading precious metals experts in the German-speaking world. In 2019, he founded Fragold GmbH, the first consultancy in Germany specialising in precious metals topics. Fragold's consulting activities focus on corporate strategy, risk and liquidity management, sourcing, M&A, PR and marketing, and human resources.

His clients include banks, refiners, precious metal traders, trade fair organisers and industrial companies using precious metals. He also advises wealthy private and institutional investors.

Degussa Goldhandel GmbH
Before founding Fragold GmbH, Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach was for eight years CEO of Degussa Goldhandel GmbH. Under his leadership the newly founded Frankfurt-based company became quickly the German and European market leader for trading physical investment precious metals with retail customers. Degussa's success was due both to its stationary business with the help of a nationwide branch network and to a very active online business, which catapulted Degussa into the leading top 25 online shops in Germany.

At the end of his term, Degussa had around 160 employees spread across 16 locations in Germany and abroad and an annual group turnover of up to €1.9 billion with as many as 250,000 customers.

The successful integration of several companies taken over during his term of office, such as the precious metal trader Silvior GmbH in Würzburg, the refinery Schellhorn und Roth in Pforzheim and the London-based precious metal specialist Sharps Pixley, rounded off his portfolio of tasks.

Heraeus Metallhandelsgesellschaft mbH
Before joining Degussa, Wolfgang was for six years responsible for the sales and marketing activities and business development at Heraeus Metallhandelsgesellschaft mbH, focusing on industrial customers and banks on topics like financing, risk management and the procurement of precious metals.

Dresdner Bank AG
Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach began his career in 1986 in the precious metals trading department of Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt, which he headed from 1992 until his move to Heraeus in 2005. In addition to the non-physical precious metals business, his responsibilities included trading banknotes, investment precious metals and the bank's numismatic department. In addition to extensive business with well-known industrial companies, one of the world's largest gold lease books with central banks was built under his leadership.

After the liberalisation of the financial markets in Germany at the beginning of the 2000s, Wolfgang was in charge for setting up Dresdner Bank’s sales and trading activities in base metals and energy products in Frankfurt.

While he spent most of his career at the bank's head office in Frankfurt, Wolfgang also spent almost 2 years in the trading offices in Singapore and Sydney.

During his professional life, Wolfgang published also numerous articles and research on precious metal topics. For more than five years, he was also the part-time author of a weekly precious metals column in the business daily Financial Times Deutschland (FTD).

Mr Mark Yang joined UOB China in October 2016 and is currently Alternate Chief Executive Officer and Head of Global Markets at UOB China, responsible for financial markets trading and sales and liquidity management.

Mr Yang has extensive experience in international financial markets and assume multiple job roles in both global and domestic markets. Prior to joining UOB, Mr Yang served at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) China as Deputy General Manager of Financial Markets and Head of the ANZ Shanghai FTZ Branch, and at the National Australia Bank Head Office in Melbourne as Risk Manager in the Market Risk Department.

Mr Yang has been placing great effort in promoting connectivity of bullion markets across borders. He led his team to support the inaugural transaction for the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE)’s Gold Road Project to help Chinese companies process gold imported through SGE International Board. In January 2022, he led his team to complete the first gold import trade in China in 2022, realizing the import of gold from Singapore, a member of RCEP, and using cross-border RMB settlement. The practice was selected as an innovative practice case of 2022 Shanghai Service Trade Promotion Manual. Previously, Mr Yang guided his team to successfully complete China’s first gold forwards and gold options in Renminbi (RMB). The RMB gold forwards solution won the second Prize at the 2012 Shanghai Financial Innovation Awards. Under his leadership, the team also won several Best Market Maker and Best Member honours in foreign exchange and commodity.

Mr. Yu Wenjian, PhD, is the Chairman of Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).

Before taking the current role as the Chairman of SGE In January 2023, Mr. Yu spent his whole career at China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBC). He has made in-depth research on macroeconomic and monetary policies, and his expertise covers financial inclusion and financial consumer rights protection. Mr. Yu successively served as the Deputy Governor and Governor of PBC branches in Fujian, Guangxi and Inner Mongolia. His last role at PBC was the Director of the Financial Consumer Rights Protection Bureau and Deputy Director of PBC Shanghai Headquarter.

Peter Zöllner became Head of Banking Department on 1 May 2013. He is a member of the Bank's Executive Committee.

Previously, Mr Zöllner was a member of the Governing Board and Executive Director for Financial Market Operations at the Central Bank of the Republic of Austria (OeNB). Mr Zöllner started his career at the OeNB in the Banking Department in 1980 and was a member of the Governing Board and Executive Director from 1998. Between 1991 and 1996, Mr Zöllner was Economic Policy Adviser to the Austrian Federal Chancellor.

He holds a PhD from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.