About us :: ICIS training (Homepage)

ICIS training (Homepage)

9th February 2008,

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What is ICIS?

ICIS is a trusted information provider for the chemical, fertilizer and energy industries. We help companies in global commodity markets improve their revenues and profits by providing high quality, timely and commercially useful information around the globe. Our team of around 500 people based in London, Houston, Singapore, New York, Shanghai and Mumbai strives to bring you independent and accurate global chemical intelligence.

ICIS training

ICIS training provides training courses in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Americas for the petrochemical, oil, gas, base oils and fertilizer industries.

Our team is formed of trainers with combined experience of over 100 years and access to the combined knowledge of more than 100 globally-based market reporters and editors. The team also occasionally showcases guest speakers.

Peter Taffe

Course Director

Peter Taffe has over 30 years of experience in technical and business publishing as well as industrial public relations. He is a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Leeds in the UK.

He has worked as a journalist and an editor for Process Engineering, Chemical Age, Processing, Asian Chemical News and European Chemical News. Peter’s present position is Intelligence Editor for ICIS, a 24-hour news and information service for the chemical and energy industries. He is part of the ICIS data and analytics team with responsibilities for Chemical and Company Intelligence, Plants & Projects and the weekly margin reports. He is also responsible for delivering training courses on petrochemicals.

Nigel Davis

Course Director

Nigel is Insight editor with ICIS and comments on the industry, on individual company strategies and the financial performance of the chemical majors. He is a chemist by training, and has written about the chemical industry and edited various international chemicals publications for more than 30 years.

Nigel speaks regularly at industry conferences and other events, and presents industry topics to the financial community. He has helped European blue chip companies with their chemicals and petrochemicals training. Nigel is a long-standing member and Advisory Board Member of the European Chemical Marketing and Strategy Association (ECMSA). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) and through the RSA takes a general interest in industry and business matters.

Barbara Ortner

Head of Market Reporting at ICIS

Barbara Ortner is Head of Market Reporting at ICIS for the petrochemical industry. She is responsible for ensuring ICIS' global price reporting consistently hits the highest quality benchmarks. She works on the development of the company's reporting methodology, and handles direct communication with the market on price reporting standards.

She was previously Managing Editor of the ICIS pricing London editorial team, and has reported on fertilizers, olefins, glycols and aromatics in the European markets, and various chemicals in the Asian markets. She organises chemical industry conferences and for the past three years she has also written the ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog. She previously worked in market analysis at British Plastics and the Commodities Research Unit.

Antonella Harrison

Head of Fertilizers at ICIS

Antonella was born in Italy and graduated in International Economics and Politics at the university of Turin in 1987. Antonella moved to England in 1990 with an overseas contract for FIAT Auto. After working in London for a financial organisation, Antonella joined CRU/British Sulphur publishing company in 1993 as an editor of their fertilizer newsletter. Her first assignment was to follow the ammonia market, which she has continued to research and study for the past 19 years, together with the other fertilizer products.

In 1998, Antonella set up her own partnership company, Decyfer, to publish The Market – Fertilizer News and Analysis and other forecasting reports on the fertilizer business. Antonella ran the company successfully for eight years before it was acquired by Reed Business Information/ICIS in December 2005.

Malini Hariharan

Course Director

Malini has over 15 years of experience in covering the chemicals industry. Malini, formerly deputy editor of Asian Chemical News, has been regularly reporting and analysing the performance of the Asian industry and has interviewed many of the movers and shakers in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Malini has conducted training events and seminars in Singapore, India, New York, Buenos Aires and Houston and has spoken at many industry conferences. She started her career with Indian Petrochemicals Corp (IPCL) and was involved in the marketing of polymers and chemicals.

John Richardson

Course Director

Before moving to Asia, John worked for the BBC and the UK national press.

Following his move to Singapore in 1997, he first worked for the ICIS magazine Asian Chemical News, first as deputy editor and then editor from 2000. He also ran the Asian bureau of ICIS news from 2001 to 2005.

In January 2006, John launched the training business in Asia and developed the Asian training programme, along with Malini Hariharan. John still works as a journalist, contributing to ICIS Chemical Business and the Insight Section of ICIS news. He also runs a successful chemicals blog, Asian Chemical Connections.

Steve Tan

Editorial Director

Steve Tan is the Managing Editor for ICIS pricing and has built up over 15 years' experience covering the petrochemicals markets in Asia and the Middle East. He joined ICIS in 1995 reporting in the polyester fibre intermediates markets and has covered diverse areas such as shipping, base oils, jet fuel, polymers and plasticizers. He launched the DRAM chip and oleochemical portfolios in 1996-1997.

He is currently covering the Asia Pacific ethylene market on a daily basis. As a senior editor on polymers/olefins, Steve has given presentations in Vietnam, India, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Iran, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia. Steve also covered crude oil as an energy correspondent with global newswire Reuters in 2003. He obtained an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University, Australia.

Amy Claxton

Consultant, My Energy

Amy Claxton is a registered professional Chemical Engineer and owns a consulting company called My Energy. Her clients include oil and gas, lube and wax companies, as well as law firms, private equity firms and other energy-consulting companies. Amy speaks regularly at global industry conferences and presents timely updates on topics of interest to the lube base oil, wax and gas-to-liquids (GTL) industries. She also teaches base oil industry training courses in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Prior to starting her own company in 2001, Amy worked for ExxonMobil for 20 years in Fuels & Lubes Refining, Supply and GTL planning. Her lube base oil and wax expertise includes raw materials selection; manufacturing processes and economics; global supply and demand; and competitor analysis. In addition, she has two decades of experience involving GTL technology, economics, and intellectual property and licensing.

Heather McGuire Doyle

Managing Editor Americas at ICIS

Heather is the Managing Editor, Americas, for the Houston ICIS bureau. She has covered base oils and chemicals and supervises editors covering all Americas markets. Heather has also contributed more than 1,500 news articles to the ICIS news wire and ICIS Chemical Business magazine, and often hosts the daily ICIS TV bulletins. She also writes a regular column for Compoundings, the magazine of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA).

In addition to representing ICIS at major industry events around the world, Heather has also been a regular speaker at conferences, including the World Soda Ash conference in Nice, France; the Global Oleochemicals conference in Houston; the ICIS Pan-American base oils conference in New York; the NPRA Lubes and Waxes meeting in Houston; and the Southeast Chemical Conference in South Carolina. She has a bachelor of arts in journalism from University of North Texas.

Judith Taylor

Senior Editor at ICIS

Judith has been an ICIS editor for 12 years, and has extensive experience covering a wide range of petrochemical markets. She currently has responsibility for the US Base Oils portfolio as well as covering the oleochemical markets, including refined and crude glycerine, fatty acids and fatty alcohols. She also covers the US biodiesel market.

Judith holds degrees in Biology and English, and has an industry background in surfactant chemistry and biofuels. She is well known in the sector for her expertise on chemical pricing dynamics and logistics, and she has spoken at many industry events and ICIS training courses.