2019 Advisory Board

After graduating in Chemistry & Economics from Birmingham University, Reg Adams began his career at Amalgamated Metal and was later seconded to English China Clays (now Imerys), where he wrote his MBA thesis on company growth. At British Sulphur (now CRU) during the 1970s, he edited a range of publications on industrial chemicals and fertiliser raw materials. His first book Titanium & Titanium Dioxide (ISBN 0903199793) was published by Financial Times Business Books in May 1984. His seventh and most recent book Titanium Minerals: Global Industry, Market & Outlook (ISBN 9781910922088) was published by Roskill in August 2016. Reg Adams has also been retained as an expert witness in matters of commercial litigation or investment scrutiny and he has been commissioned as a speaker at more than 60 international conferences, including each of the TiO2 conferences hosted by Smithers (and predecessor companies) since 1992. He has also chaired a number of conference sessions. His company - Artikol (founded in 1977) - specialises in market intelligence and publishing on mining and chemicals. Drawing on Artikol’s extensive information database, Reg Adams compiles and edits the monthly bulletin Focus on Pigments and the quarterly TiO2 Worldwide Update. For further details, see http://www.artikol.com.

• United Kingdom

Robert Gibney is General Manager Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Sales for Iluka Resources, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. 

Mr. Gibney has over 30 years of pigment industry experience, having spent over 21 years with Tronox/Kerr-McGee Chemical in a wide variety of management positions, including

Vice President Global Pigment Marketing, Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain and Chief Administrative Officer.

[Gibney_Robert] Having joined Iluka on February 1, 2014, Mr. Gibney is focused on developing Iluka’s TiO2 feedstock sale strategies along with increasing the TiO2 expertise within the company.

Bruce Griffin joined Lomon Billions in 2017 as Senior Vice President Strategic Development. His role is to lead the company’s domestic and international expansion in feedstock, pigment and titanium metal. Bruce is an experienced executive with international experience in mining, oil and gas, chemicals and agribusiness.

Prior to Lomon Billions, Bruce was CEO of TZMI (2014 to 2016) and World Titanium Resources (2011 to 2013) and held a number of positions over seven years at BHP Billiton including four years as Vice President Titanium where he was responsible for BHP Billiton’s titanium business, including the Richards Bay Minerals joint venture with Rio Tinto and the Corridor Sands and Tigen projects in Mozambique.

His career started at Shell working as an engineer and economist in New Zealand, Venezuela and the Netherlands. Bruce has also worked as a consultant for Bain and Company and as a senior executive at GrainCorp in Australia. Bruce holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical and Process Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and an MBA.

Frank recently formed Fermium Research in conjunction with Analyst Hub after spending the previous 7+ years with Wells Fargo Securities. Based in New York, Mitsch’s coverage includes commodity, specialty, and agricultural chemicals.  He joined Wells Fargo Securities from BB&T Capital Markets and has covered the chemicals space for more than 20 years. Mitsch began his career as a chemicals consultant with Kline & Company, living in both the US and Europe, and then went on to work with Betz Laboratories, a specialty chemicals company.   

Mr. Mitsch received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the record–setting lacrosse team.  He holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance from M.S.U.

• USA

Jean-François Turgeon serves as Executive Vice President since joining Tronox on January 1, 2014. He oversees the combined business operations of the company’s Mineral Sands and Pigment & Electrolytic Divisions.

Turgeon brings decades of experience in leadership positions in the global titanium dioxide business.  He joined Tronox from the Rio Tinto Group, where he served for more than 24 years, most recently in London as managing director of its $3 billion iron and titanium division.  In that role, he had oversight over international TiO2 operations in Canada, South Africa, and Madagascar, and regional sales offices in the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific.  Previously, he held several executive, mining operations, and chemical research engineering positions in Rio Tinto’s titanium dioxide business unit.

Turgeon holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Universite Laval in Quebec City and a master’s degree in hydrometallurgy from McGill University in Montreal.

 

• USA

During the past five years, Karin has been based in London, UK, working in the sales team as the market analyst for TiO2 feedstock producer TiZir.  TiZir produce TiO2 ores at the GCO mine in Senegal and TiO2 slag at TTI’s smelter in Tyssedal, Norway.

Karin brings a wide range of experiences from the mining, metallurgical and chemical industry.  She started her career at Sandvik Steel in Sweden before moving to the United States to pursue her doctoral degree. She then worked in research for Rio Tinto Alcan in Canada before moving to France where she joined Air Liquide.  In 1999, Karin joined the French mining and metallurgical company Eramet in Paris, France, where she held various positions in technical development before joining TiZir.

This background has given Karin a substantial know-how in the management of process and product development. Karin believes the raw materials industry enters an exciting era with increasing pressure for the industry to achieve sustainable growth in global markets, and she is happy to be able to contribute to the TiO2 Summit.

Karin received her MS degree in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm in 1988, Sweden, and her PhD from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, USA in 1992.