Argus Fertilizer Africa Conference

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.

Seelan Gobalsamy

CEO, Omnia Fertilizer

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.

Marcus Meadows-Smith

CEO, Bioconsortia

Ashish Lakhotia

CEO

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.

Colin Emmanuel

CEO, Steinweg Africa

Habiba Mouttaki

Chief Commercial Officer, OCP Africa

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.

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

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.

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.

Jesper Sorensen

CEO, DSM Corridor (Dar-Es Salaam)