1st Australasian Commodity Markets Conference

Speakers

Thursday Opening Address

Marcel Prokopczuk

Marcel Prokopczuk is a Professor of Finance at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, and Visiting Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, UK. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and previously graduated from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with an MSc in Business Engineering. He is a CFA charterholder and holder of the Professional Risk Manager (PRM) designation. His research has been published in international high-quality journals such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Banking and Finance, and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. Marcel’s main research interests are commodity markets, derivatives, asset pricing, and risk management.

Friday Double Plenary 

Thomas Schmitz 

Thomas started his career with Deutsche Bank in Germany in Private Wealth Management in 1994 before moving to Investment Banking in 1999. In 2000 he joined Enron Europe first in Enron's physical gas business and later on trading European power markets. Between 2002 and 2006 Thomas worked in similar trading and sales roles for Aquila, BHP Billiton and BNP Paribas before joining Constellation Global Commodities as Head of Origination for Continental Europe. In 2009 Thomas relocated to Sydney, Australia, taking on the role of Global Head of Business Development for d-cyphaTrade (now ASX Energy). In September 2013 Thomas joined the European Energy Exchange AG as Head of Sales - Clearing & ISV, Coal & Freight to run their London office and has most recently been appointed Director EEX Group Sales - Global Commodities and Chief Commercial Officer of Cleartrade Exchange (100% subsidiary of EEX Group) in Singapore, where he also heads EEX Group's office in Asia.

Graham Town                                                                                                                       

Graham Town is an electrical engineer with 8 years experience in the Australian electronics industry, and 30 years experience in engineering education and research. He received a BE (Hons 1) from NSWIT (now UTS) in 1984, a PhD in medical imaging from the University of Sydney in 1992, and a Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Management (Higher Education) from Macquarie University in 2007. He is a Professor in the Department of Engineering at Macquarie University where he established the University's undergraduate engineering program, first offered in 2004. He has published extensively in diverse areas including optical fibre communication and sensing technology and systems, engineering education, and in recent years he has been leading industry-supported research projects on power electronics for compact and efficient power conversion, and smart-grids with a focus on electric vehicle integration and management.