Argus Fertilizer Africa Conference

Seelan Gobalsamy

CEO, Omnia Holdings

Seelan is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Omnia Holdings Limited, having previously held CEO positions at STANLIB Asset Management, Liberty Holdings Emerging Markets, Liberty Corporate and Old Mutual Corporate. With extensive international experience gained across multiple geographies and sectors in complex emerging and developed markets, Seelan has a proven track record of redefining the strategic direction of companies, turning around businesses and delivering sustainable growth.

Julian Palliam

CEO

Mr. Julian Palliam is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Foskor since 2022. He is a seasoned executive, having worked for Metso as the Administrative Managing Director before joining Foskor as the Chief Financial Officer. He was previously employed by ABB South Africa both the senior management and executive levels in the finance and operations. Mr. Palliam has also worked across the globe and has been involved in numerous merger and acquisitions transactions as well business reorganisations programs. His speciality over the years has been linked closely with business turnarounds and optimization.

Wandile Sihlobo

Chief Economist, Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz)

Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, The Challenges, The Solutions” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“. Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018. He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).

Gerald Maithya

SME and Startups Lead; Africa Transformation Office, Microsoft

Gerald Maithya is Startups and SMEs Lead at Microsoft Africa Transformation Office. As the Startups and SMEs Lead for Microsoft’s Africa Transformation Office, Maithya leads a team focused on empowering these organizations through digital technologies. Prior to this Maithya held various positions at Barclays Bank, where he gained experience in strategy, commercial development, consumer, and corporate banking. His most recent role with the bank was as Head of Global Clients and Financial Institutions team for Barclays Bank in Kenya, which later rebranded to ABSA Bank Kenya. Earlier in his career, Maithya worked at Cadbury Schweppes between 2001 and 2007 where he held positions in Sales and Marketing with responsibility covering emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dr. Maen Nsour

CEO, Arab Potash Company

Dr. Maen F. Nsour is President and CEO of the Arab Potash Company (APC) since April 23, 2019. Before his current position he was Senior Advisor for Business Development and Strategies at APC since September 2017. Dr. Nsour was Chief-of-Staff and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Jordan. He was also a member of the Economic and Financial Ministerial Committee. In his capacity as Chief-of-Staff and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr. Nsour served as the principal adviser to the Prime Minister, offering strategic and tactical advice to the Prime Minister on policy matters and on the implementation of the government's strategic plans and programs. Dr. Nsour was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Jordan Investment Board (JIB). JIB is the government agency responsible for attracting investments, supporting exports, and creating an investment-conducive economic environment. Dr. Nsour was Senior Regional Programs Adviser at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York. He was also Director of Policy Planning and Economic Studies at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in Jordan.

Ricardo Rosa

South Africa Enterprise Commercial Director, Microsoft

Ricardo Rosa is the Microsoft South Africa Enterprise Commercial Director. He previously worked at KPMG and PwC, as well as Standard Bank, where he was a director. Rosa has also built numerous companies around the world, and he leverages this valuable experience to help others improve and lead their own businesses. He is passionate about helping his clients leverage Microsoft’s extensive range of technologies, innovations, capital, and partners to get strategic advantages, accelerated business transformation, and improved business value

Habiba Mouttaki

Chief Commercial Officer, OCP Africa

Nicholas Obby Mainza

Chief Agriculture Economist - Trade and Agribusiness , Ministry of Agriculture- Zambia

Nicholas Obby Mainza (Ph.D, MSc, MBA, PGD, BSc) is Chief Agriculture Economist - Trade and Agribusiness for the Ministry of Agriculture, in Zambia and current National Secretary for the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ). He has served both in public and private sectors, with some time spent as a lecturer with some Universities and Colleges. Nicholas is an active TV discussant with international television stations on issues surrounding African economies and Agri-Food systems of Africa and he is an Author of the book "I SEE GOLD WHERE OTHERS SEE DUST".

Ashish Lakhotia

CEO, ETG Agri Inputs

Ashish is a forward-thinking professional with over 20 years of experience in the Agri inputs industry (Fertilizers, Crop Protection, Seeds and Farm implements). He oversees the company with over 1600 employees, a turnover of $1.5 billion and impacts over 20
million of farmers across 30 African countries and is currently expanding the business beyond Africa in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and North Africa markets. He holds CA degree from ICAI and has completed his
Master of Management Studies from VESIMSR -Mumbai specialized in Finance.

Patrick Heffer

Deputy Director General, IFA

Patrick Heffer joined the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) in Paris in 2002, where he is Senior Director of the Agriculture Service. In this capacity, he coordinates IFA’s global activities relating to fertilizer consumption. In addition, at the regional level, Patrick leads IFA’s Africa programme. More specifically, his duties focus on agronomic, market and policy issues that relate to fertilizer and nutrient management in a global context. Before joining IFA, Patrick spent 15 years with the seed industry, including five years in Switzerland at the joint secretariat of the International Seed Trade Federation and International Association of Plant Breeders (FIS/ASSINSEL), advancing to the position of Deputy Secretary General before his departure, and two years in Rome with the Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He has also worked at GNIS (French parastatal seed organization) in Poitiers, France and at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Rabat, Morocco.

Jesper Sorensen

CEO, DSM Corridor (Dar-Es Salaam)

Sebastian Nduva

AFO programme lead, International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)

Sebastian is a fertilizer market specialist with a special focus on sub-Saharan African fertilizer market systems. He is currently the AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) programme lead at the IFDC. The AFO initiative collects, processes and publishes fertilizer-sector statistics for key fertilizer markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Jacques de Villiers

Head of Supply Chain, Omnia Holdings

Jacques joined Omnia in 2001 as a mechanical engineer in Sasolburg. He was later transferred to Rustenburg to serve as Technical Manager on the Phosphoric acid plant. In 2006, he joined the Omnia Group Projects team and acted as Project Manager for the construction of the Nitrates complex at Sasolburg. In 2015 he was appointed as General Manager: Supply Chain for Fertilizer.

Marcus Meadows-Smith

CEO, Bioconsortia

Tim Cheyne

SVP - Global Head of Agriculture, Fertilizers, Ammonia, DEF, Argus

Tim is Senior Vice President for the fertilizer sector at Argus. Tim worked a process manager at an ammonia/urea plant in South Africa before moving to the UK to join KBR (then M.W. Kellogg) as a process engineer in the ammonia technology team. More recently Tim has covered fertilizer and industrial nitrogen as a market analyst.

Oliver Hatfield

VP Fertilizers, Argus

Oliver Hatfield, is VP Business Development for Argus Media in London. Oliver joined Argus in October 2018 following its acquisition of Integer Research, where he spent 15 years as head of the fertilizer market research team. Oliver has more than 20 years of experience in business analysis and consulting, and he was also one of the founders of Integer. Oliver has worked extensively on multi-client and bespoke fertilizer market analysis studies, covering market forecasts, strategy, due diligence, market entry and project feasibility. He has worked as an analyst on all the key fertilizer and related chemical markets: nitrogen, phosphates, potash, sulphur and sulphuric acid. Oliver is a graduate of economics and development economics from the University of Manchester in the UK.

David Maher

Editor - Fertilizers Europe and Fertilizer Africa, Argus

David is the editor of Fertilizer Europe (FE) and Fertilizer Africa at Argus, and has also worked as a market reporter for FE and the Argus potash report. He has almost 20 years of journalism experience, a first-class bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history, and a master’s in international politics from Trinity College Dublin. He was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, but has lived in London for the past six years. His interests include the natural sciences, philosophy, politics, history, geography, economics, sport, and using commas.