David M Faktor joined Stemcor (originally a part of Coutinho Caro Group) in 1981 as a graduate trainee and quickly moved up the ranks, increasing his responsibilities through a series of assignments in the Far East and reaching the main Board of Stemcor Holdings in London, 1995. As the group opened new offices and increased its’ turnover and tonnages, David was appointed Group Managing Director of International Trade. By 2007 he became responsible for a total of US$10 billion in annual turnover and 20 million tonnes of steel and raw materials products. He moved on from Stemcor towards the end of 2013. David lives in London and is married with one son. As well as liking rugby and reading, he also speaks Mandarin, which he acknowledges has become a bit rusty over the years!

Jim Lennon is now a part-time consultant to Macquarie. Until June 2013, he was Chairman of Commodities at Macquarie, having worked for there for 19 years. He headed up a 10 person research team in London, Singapore and Shanghai which services the equity, LME trading and corporate advisory divisions of the bank with steel, coal, metals and minerals research and market intelligence. In July 2013, Jim founded his own consulting company: Red Door Research Ltd. Jim and his team at Macquarie have regularly been ranked number one in various surveys of commodities research among equity investors for over a decade. Jim has 33 years of experience in researching the international metals and mining industries.

Jean-Luc Fiorenzoni is a founding partner of Commos Consulting Ltd a boutique coaching and consulting firm exclusively dedicated to provide innovative training solutions and advisory in the field of commodity price risk management. Through their proprietary online trading simulator HedgeTutor, Commos Consulting propose a unique and extremely practice-driven training approach. Fiorenzoni has over 20 years of experience in industrial commodities and raw materials price risk management having held various operational and management roles for leading trading, mining and industrial companies in the field of base and ferrous metals. Jean-Luc was, until recently, Managing Director of Stemcor Risk Management AG where among others he pioneered and developed the use of steel and iron ore derivatives. Stemcor is the world's largest independent steel and steel raw materials trading company. He holds a Master's Degree in Business and Finance from CERAM Graduate School of Business in Sophia Antipolis as well as a Post Graduate Degree in International Trade and Logistics from the Centre d'Etudes du Commerce Exterieur in Marseille.He is fluent in French, English and Swedish.

Roger Emmott is a highly regarded management consultant, business developer, innovator and advisor to the global metals and mining sector. For over more than 20 years he has advised more than 50 clients in over 50 countries. Roger has held senior positions with Steel Business Briefing, Atkins Plc in the UK and Hatch Associates of Canada. In these roles he gained in-depth experience of strategic, due diligence, market and feasibility studies including interview and research techniques, information synthesis, validation and presentation.

Patrick was born in Scotland and completed his early education in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Having been involved in international industry and business since 1986, Patrick initially worked with British Steel PLC (later Corus and Tata) based in Europe, Asia and America. Subsequent to British Steel he completed an MBA at Cranfield School of Management and then, after various consulting and dot com roles, he co-founded SBB in 2001. He led, managed and developed SBB for 10 years. During that time the company evolved into The SBB Group, consisting of Steel Business Briefing, The Steel Index and Gas Business Briefing. Patrick then led the negotiations for the sale of the group to McGraw Hill in July 2011. He has extensive experience in China and speaks both Chinese and French. He is now trying to follow the quiet life in Scotland, though he cannot help following the global steel and iron prices on a daily basis! Patrick, and his wife Linda, have 3 dogs (Hamlet, Tubs and Maginus), chickens, ducks, quail and guinea fowl.