Pradeep Dhobale
Chief Executive, Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division
ITC

Mr Pradeep Dhobale is Member of the CMC (Corporate Management Committee) of ITC Limited - a Conglomerate with over 5 billion US$ in revenues. He is Chief Executive of ITC's paper business and overseas Paper, Paperboards and Packaging businesses of ITC which account for over US$700 milliion.

Born on December 6, 1955, at Pune, Maharashtra, India, Mr Pradeep Dhobale, distinguished himself in academics in School and at University. He passed with distinction in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, one of India's most prestigious Engineering Institutions. He did his professional training in Paper-making Technology at Mills in France and Sweden; and General Management Training at Management Development Centre, Chelwood of British American Tobacco Co., U.K. He has also done Global Advanced Management Programme at ISB and Kellogs School of Business.

Mr Dhobale joined ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited as a Project Engineer (Management Trainee) in July 1977. With his dedication to duty and excellence in work, Mr Dhobale climbed the Company's hierarchical ladder swiftly – from Management Trainee in 1977, to become the Company's Managing Director on 1st January, 1999. Following the amalgamation of ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited with ITC Limited in March 2002, Mr Dhobale took charge of the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division as Chief Executive.

He is accredited with the planning and executing turnaround of ITC Bhadrachalam in early 2000, and exponential growth thereafter. He spearheaded the growth involving capital infusion of over US $ 500 million through brownfield organic growth as well as acquisitions. Under his leadership, ITC's Bhadrachalam Mill has emerged as the largest single location paper mill in the country producing more than 400,000 tonnes of Paper & Boards. Known for his environmental penchant, his leadership also saw ITC crossing 100,000 hectares of plantations, pioneering of ECF and Ozone Bleaching Technology, GFTN Membership and many successful CDM Projects.

Rod Young
Chief Economic Advisor
RISI

Rod Young started modeling and forecasting in the pulp and paper industry in 1977. Since then, his work in international pulp and paper markets has received worldwide recognition.

In March 2005, he became President and CEO of Paperloop, which was later renamed RISI in 2006. Rod Young has remained an active contributor to RISI's forecasts since stepping down as RISI's CEO and being named Chairman in 2007. Rod, a founding member of RISI, has 32 years of experience tracking and reporting on the global pulp and paper markets. In 2009, Rod took on responsibility for ensuring that all RISI's economic analysis meets or exceeds the industry's expectation for excellence and accuracy when he took on the role of RISI's Chief Economic Advisor.

Rod received a Master of Science degree in Forestry Economics from Virginia Polytechnical Institute in 1977 and also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Michigan State University.

Dr T R Manoharan
Head - Forest Program
WWF - India

Dr T R Manoharan is Head of Forest Programme and Global Forest & Trade Network –India at WWF-India Secretariat, New Delhi. He holds Masters Degree and M. Phil in Economics from University of Kerala and Ph.D in Forestry Economics from Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun.  He has more than two decades of hands on experience in project development, management, research, teaching and policy analysis in the area of economics of forestry, environment conservation, trade and environment and forest certification. He has published 30 research papers and reports.

Dr Manoharan is Member of several technical committees constituted by the Government of India and other institutions. He is national contact person of Forest Stewardship Council, Member of research advisory board and guest faculty of Department of Environmental Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Trustee of Forest Certification Council of India and Member of Indian Society for Ecological Economics.

His areas of interest include forest certification, ecological footprint, economic valuation of forest goods and services, responsible wood trade, trade & environment, payments for ecosystem services, linkages between forests and climate change and policy issues on environment conservation.

RR Vederah
Managing Director
Ballarpur Industries Limited

Mr. Rajeev Ranjan Vederah is Managing Director of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), the largest paper producer in India and Malaysia. BILT is a part of 3 Bn dollar Avantha Group and has six manufacturing facilities in India and one in Malaysia with a capacity of over 900,000 MT of paper per annum, consisting of Woodfree Coated and Uncoated writing & printing paper and copier paper, and 95,000 MT of Rayon grade pulp per annum.

Mr. R R Vederah has been with BILT, for over 25 years, where he has contributed significantly to its turnaround and growth. Currently, he is driving the overall business plan and is responsible for the company’s top-line and bottom-line volume and growth, along with managing its Business operations.

Mr. Vederah is also involved in the development of BILT’s organization and Business Strategy towards a mandate to achieve the company’s aggressive growth plans. He is also the key driver of new technology and quality initiatives aimed at taking BILT to in the South Asian region.

Mr. Vederah is the Chairman of Solaris Chemtech Industries Ltd and BILT Industrial Packaging Company Limited, and a key member of the Avantha Group Council.

He sits on the boards of various companies, including BILT Tree Tech Limited, The Paperbase Company Limited, BILT Graphic Paper Products Limited, Ballarpur International Holdings B.V., Ballarpur International Paper Holdings B.V., Ballarpur International Graphic Paper Holdings B.V., Sabah Forest Industries Sdn. Bhd., and Imerys NewQuest (India) Private Limited.

Mr. Vederah is a Chemical Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Aston, Brimingham, U.K. He has interest in Cricket and plays Golf.

Sunil Sood

Director
April Fine Paper Trading Pte Ltd

Sunil Sood has over 20 years experience in the Pulp and Paper industry. He started his career in India with M/S Ballarpur Industries in 1981 and managed the export business for glass packaging and later the domestic market for the paper business as a Product Manager. He joined Asia Pulp and Paper in 1988 and managed various senior marketing and business development and executive functions till 2003. Since late 2004, he is leading the Paper business for April in Singapore; now moving to group strategy Head for pulp and paper.

He has wide experience setting up sales through channels in Asia, Middle East, Australia, Europe and USA covering coated and uncoated woodfree, converted scholastic and office products and packaging grades. He has wide knowledge of markets, equipment procurement and has helped by being on road shows to raise capital for new projects. He is well known in the paper industry circles and has been a speaker in many forums on subjects related to the paper business.

He now leads a growing team of professionals in APRIL running the fine paper division out of the Singapore global headquarters.

He is an avid reader, a budding audiophile with interests in listening to Indian and Western music and is happily married with two sons.

Surya Raina
Vice President, Mill Intelligence, Pulp & Paper Division
RISI

Surya Raina is Vice President of Mill Intelligence for RISI. Surya is a Chemical Engineer with over 30 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry, including 15 years of operational experience in the Asian pulp and paper industry. His career in mill operations included working at Ballarpur industries, India and Phoenix pulp and paper, Thailand. Prior to joining RISI, he spent eight years working as a consultant with Jacobs Sirrine Consultants and Simon Consulting group.

Surya specializes in cost benchmarking and is well versed in the cost structure of pulp and paper board grades across different world regions. He has also been actively involved in due diligence, risk and optimization studies. Surya has recently been involved in leading a major product launch at RISI, which involved developing the company's new web based cost benchmarking service. Surya leads a team of engineers based in North America, Asia and Europe.

Joe Hughes
Director
McKinsey

Joe Hughes is a Director in McKinsey’s Chicago Office. He leads McKinsey’s Global Energy and Materials Operations Practice and previously led the Firm’s North America Pulp & Paper practice. The bulk of his client works focuses on designing and orchestrating broad based performance transformations in large scale, industrial companies and strategy development for companies in cyclical, capital intensive industries . His recent client work has focused in the Pulp & Paper, Chemicals and Metals & Mining sectors. He is a leading thinker in through-cycle management, micro-economics of industry pricing, the development of operating systems, leadership transformations, and the integration of lean and six sigma concepts.

Prior to McKinsey, Joe worked as a Space Shuttle Flight Controller in Robotic Operations at NASA’s Mission Control Center, Houston where he was responsible for mission design, crew training, and real-time operations monitoring and troubleshooting of robotic systems onboard the Space Shuttle. He has a MBA (honours) (Operations Management and Finance) from the University of Chicago and a B.Sc Engineering (Mechanical Design) from the University of Illinois.

Saikat Dey
Associate Principal
McKinsey

Saikat Dey is an Associate Principal in McKinsey’s Chicago office and a core member of the Basic Materials practice. He has worked extensively with paper, pulp and metals and mining clients in North America, Europe and the Middle East on topics of supply chain strategy, commercial optimization and investment strategies. He is currently leading the firm's research efforts on developing integrated strategies for commodity companies to help manage cyclical demand, pricing and margin environments.

Saikat received his Masters in Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and his undergraduate degree in Mining Engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India. Prior to McKinsey, Saikat worked at three technology startups and IBM in various sales roles across India, Australia, Singapore and the US serving primarily the basic materials sector.

Beth Lis
Consultant
RISI

Beth began her career at RISI in 1995, as an economist analyzing Asian paper and board markets. Her work was instrumental in helping to develop and expand RISI's analysis of these markets, building RISI’s extensive databases, developing RISI's price series, and forecasting for the Asian region. She became Vice President in 2001 and took on full management responsibility for RISI's Asian Service in 2004. She has been involved in numerous special studies and conferences and helped to open RISI's office in Shanghai in 2006. Since 2007, Beth has been working as a consultant at RISI, with a focus on Asian graphic paper markets.

Beth holds a Masters in Public Affairs (focusing on Economics and Public Policy) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, USA and a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science from Dartmouth College, USA.

Sridhar Chandrasekhar
Head, CRISIL Research
CRISIL Limited

Sridhar has a cumulative work experience of close to fifteen years in industry and company research. He has been researching and providing opinion on various sectors including paper, sugar, textiles, and some of the services sectors like hotels, hospitals and educational services. Besides being quoted in the print and electronic media for his views, Sridhar is also a speaker at several industry forums and training colleges of banks. He has advised various corporates in areas of product selection, market estimation and demand forecasting.

Sandy Lu
Economist, Asian Graphic Papers
RISI

Sandy Lu, Economist, Shanghai, have been working in the Asian Service helping with RISI's coverage of Asian graphic paper and pulp markets. Ms. Lu holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cardiff, United Kingdom. She is fluent in English, Cantonese and the Shanghai dialect.