The Women in Leadership Forum (WILForum) in
Olefins trader Gina Fyffe of Integra was among those shortlisted for the Energy award at the conference, which was held at the Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah.
Recently in trading Category
I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a leaflet for a local stand-up comedy gig starring an up-and-coming comedian called Stuart Goldsmith. Just why it should be so amusing to picture olefins trader Stuart Goldsmith as a stand-up comedian is hard to explain to those readers who don't know him.
I remember being impressed to see a review of a new Picasso biography by art historian John Richardson, when we all know the more famous John Richardson, blogger of Asian Chemicals Connections.
A simple Google search shows that very few of us have sole rights to our own name.
My namesake is a Viennese opera singer, my daughter's is a supermodel, and my husband's is busy scoring goals for Port Vale when he can take time off from being an Australian surfing champion.
For more on same, see: Two
(photo: EPCA 2009)
It's time for the Blog to make some early announcements about the stellar line-up for our own Aromatics Conference, and the amazing Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) deal which still has a month to run.
Headline acts will include
- BASF
- Reliance
- Shell
- Trammochem
- Integra
- Interchem
- International e-Chem
- Wood MacKenzie
- Nexant
- M&G
Watch this space or the conference's own dedicated website as further speakers are confirmed.
The conference, organised jointly by ICIS and International e-Chem, will take place in
Click here for the amazing BOGOF deal.
A new play entitled "Enron" will be coming to the London stage in September, and the Blog can't wait to see it. Starring Tim Pigott-Smith as Ken Lay and Samuel West as Jeffrey Skilling, the play at the Royal Court theatre in Sloane Square will be "using music, dance and video to chart the downfall of the US energy company."
The Blog remembers visiting Enron's grand office in London's Grosvenor Place, overlooking the gardens of Buckingham Palace, with its fountain, gym, sweeping blue-carpeted staircase and banks of screens.
Happily most of the former Enron petrochemical traders in London and the Netherlands have made themselves new lives in the industry - Lineke, Stuart, Britta, Jaap, Rob, Roger, Mark, Peter ...
The Blog couldn't help but go to have a look through the ICIS news archives at the articles around Enron's collapse in November 2001 to stir up old memories. Particularly poignant are these pronouncements from the manager of Enron's European plastics and petrochemicals trading desk on their launch of chemical swaps on www.enrononline.com (November 2000), followed by a styrene swap contract in Europe (August 2001): "Companies that hedge against price volatility enjoy extra financial certainty."
(photo: Rex)
Vinmar has appointed Ms Sofia Honore as its agent for chemicals marketing, based in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 June 2009, the company announced on Friday.
"Sofia's seven years of petrochemicals experience complements Vinmar's product and market portfolio very well. She will play a key role in the company's aromatics and related chemicals buying and selling activity throughout Europe," the company said in a statement.
Sofia was formerly with Peninsula Trading in Lisbon.
Vinmar's European operation is based in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands.
Philippe Geominne has joined trading house Integra to trade liquids at its offices in Brussels, Belgium, the company's executive director Gine Fyffe said on Monday.
Geominne was previously a trader at Helm Benelux.
Meanwhile, John Clement, formerly of INEOS Olefins & Polyolefins, would be trading propylene for Integra from August.
By: Nel Weddle
The Global Trader Summit 2009 which took place in Singapore this week, attracting many of the chemical industry's finest, seemed like a good excuse to dust off a few old trader stories and gossip.As delegates at this by-invitation-only event dallied over cocktails at the opening reception in the Equinox Complex atop the Swissotel The Stamford, they were able to admire the awesome view of 735 idle ships in the Strait of Malacca, before spending the following days discussing the busting of the global commodities super cycle and whether big was still beautiful.
That all puts the Blog in mind of a few old industry tales ...
(photo of Stamford and Fullerton Hotels, Singapore: Rex)
Rotterdam
Plunging demand for fuel is triggering a growing global supply glut, and
Paul Brunner, doyen of the European aromatics chemical trading community, has today announced his retirement from Trammochem after 22 years with the company.
In an email to his friends in the industry he remembered his start in the industry with Cargill as a grain trader, and his first EPCA and NPRA conferences 30 years ago, and reflected that, "It was a business which required analysis and decisiveness, yet where people's personalities and characters mattered."
He retires on 15 April 2009 from the Trammochem European base in Altendorf, Switzerland at the age of 60.
Brunner and his wife will be looking forward to spending their retirement in family pursuits and on the golf and tennis courts.
Click here for ICIS news article
The Blog has just heard that trader Olivier Riebel left Antwerp-based BMS (Belgium Marketing Service) two weeks ago, according to a company source today.
Riebel had been trading styrene at BMS, part of the Landmark Chemicals Group, and had previously been at Rhodia.
