Dr Alexei Sinitsa joined Wood Mackenzie in 2018, following more than 20 years experience in the chemicals industry. His industrial career began with Rhône-Poulenc/Rhodia, spanning technical, commercial, executive and consulting roles in the nylon chain, including intermediates, polymers, fibres and downstream applications.

Alexei now leads the European fibres contribution to the Wood Mackenzie monthly Global Fibres Report covering nylon, polyester and other synthetic fibre businesses. He has significant experience across a range of international markets, focusing on West, Central and Eastern European markets in particular.

He graduated in Organic Chemistry with honours from Kiev University, and did his doctoral research with the Institute of Organic Chemistry, NAS Ukraine.

Born in 1957 in Managua / Nicaragua. Mr Fritz A. Grobien started his business education with an official apprenticeship programme in a company dealing in international trade in grain and feedstuff in 1978. He graduated in 1980.

After graduation he studied European Business Administration which included studying and working in Germany (Deutsche Bundesbank) and England (Grimsdale Trading Ltd.).

At the end of 1984 he joined Albrecht, Müller-Pearse & Co., Bremen, an international cotton trading company and became partner in 1985.

Mr. Grobien became President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange for the first time in 1991. He was elected for a second and third term. Currently he is Vice President and member of the board of the Bremen Cotton Exchange.

Between 1992 and 1994 he held position as Chairman of CICCA (Committee for International Co-operation between Cotton Associations, Liverpool).

In 1999 he was nominated as member of the Private Sector Advisory Panel of the ICAC (International Cotton Advisory Committee), which he chaired in his final year 2001.

Between 1998 and 2006 he was member of the Board of The Liverpool Cotton Association, Ltd. In 2005 Mr. Grobien became the First President of the International Cotton Association after the name change of The Liverpool Cotton Association, Ltd.

2004 and 2005 he served as Chairman of the Joint Cotton Committee of ITMF (International Textile Manufacturers Federation).

Since 1998 Mr.Grobien is member of the Cotton Advisory Group to the European Commission  DG Agriculture and Rural Development for the Trading Sector.

Isak Staats is the General Manager of the Wool and Mohair Division at BKB in South Africa.

With over 30 years of experience in managerial positions within the South African agricultural sector, Isak is a well-respected figure in the industry. He has been instrumental in brokering and trading wool and mohair through BKB, which is a leading player in the market. In addition to his role at BKB, Isak also serves as the Chairman of the IWTO, (International wool trade organisation), committee on Market Intelligence, which is responsible for providing valuable insights into the wool trade.

Isak has a strong academic background, having earned a degree in Business Management and an MBA. He has used this knowledge to great effect, helping to shape the direction of the South African wool industry. He currently holds several directorships in various wool industry bodies in South Africa.

Isak remains devoted to his family. Isak is married to Hildegard and they have three children.I will be sharing my insights on the wool industry.

Fabrizio Galiè is Associate Director for the Polypropylene business for Europe, Middle East, and African regions at Chemical Market Analytics. He has joined the team at IHS Markit Base Chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) in 2021, providing market insights to clients in the petrochemical and plastics sectors.  Prior to his current position, Fabrizio covered various roles in the polymer business since 2005 and delivering analytics and consulting services, including price and market outlooks, competitive assessment and investment evaluations, market segmentation, trade analysis, scenario planning, and other. He has been a frequent and popular speaker at conferences and seminars on olefins and polyolefins in Europe, Africa, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. He contributed several articles, interviews and editorials to international magazines, sectorial and economic journals. Fabrizio has a Master's Degree in Economics and Business Administration from Bologna University, Italy.

Juliette Vitaloni is Director of the Economic Analysis department at Federchimica, the Italian association of chemical industry. 
Her main activities include outlining short term economic scenarios for companies as well as analysing medium term challenges and key drivers of competitiveness for the chemical industry. She also provides daily counsel on economic topics and on industrial policy for advocacy purposes. Moreover she represents the reference expert for the economics aspects of the National Collective Agreement of the chemical sector in Italy.
 

Damien Durand is Economics Director of Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp since 2019. He is in charge for economic analysis at the Alliance, based on the development of indicators, the collection of information and the development of proximity to brands, in order to enable the sector to better understand the market. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, he was previously for more than ten years an economic and international journalist/reporter, specializing in East Asia, for several main titles of the French press.

47 years old, is CEO of Tessitura Serica A.M Taborelli S.r.l., the family business, which he joined in 1996.

The company was founded in 1895, as a manufacturer of silk fabrics for umbrellas and, subsequently, of linings in "Bemberg"; in the 70s, Ambrogio Taborelli took over the management, adding to previous productions also fabrics for women's clothing and, later, fabrics for neckwear, furnishings and scarves. Tessitura Taborelli - with more than 250 employees and over 25 million turnover in 2021- is today a leading company in the production of plain and jacquard fabrics, both raw and yarn-dyed, with more than 400 last generation looms.

The Taborelli Group includes eight different mills for a total number of employees that exceeds 400 people.

From 2001 to 2015 Andrea Taborelli was a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Group of Confindustria Como and he was active in several projects.

From 2008 to 2014 he was a member of the board of the Textile Branch of Confindustria Como. In the two-year period 2014 - 2016, he became Vice President and in 2016 he become President until 2020.

In March 2018 he became also Vice President of Sistema Moda Italia and remained until September 2021.

Moreover, in 2008, he was one of the founders and project leaders of the comON Creativity Sharing project, which, with the support of Confindustria Como, has given life to a real hub of European creativity, able to gather the best talents from the area of Como to the most prestigious international design schools and stimulate the contamination of ideas with young local students, the productive realities of the territory and, more generally, with the typically Italian culture and passion for the world of the "arts". 

Passionate about sports, such as tennis and skiing, Andrea Taborelli is committed to social issues as Past President of the Incroci Onlus Association, which for almost twenty years has been offering a free evening canteen service for marginalized people, homeless people and people in difficulty .