Dr. Fahimeh Yazdan Panah is the Director of Research and Technical Development at WPAC and a research associate at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She has over 15 years of experience in bioenergy, managing numerous bioenergy projects for governments, manufacturers, and technology developers. For the past decade, she has spearheaded research studies on biofuel densification, pretreatment, storage, and handling. She has co-authored more than 80 technical reports and peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Yazdan Panah also serves as the project lead within the ISO Technical Committee 238 (Solid Biofuels) and previously chaired the ISO Technical Committee 300 (Solid Recovered Biofuels).

Dr. Yazdan Panah earned her PhD and MASc from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UBC and holds a bachelor’s degree from Amirkabir University of Technology. She is a registered Professional Engineer with Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia and a certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute.

Jens Kai Holm is the Chief Specialist at Ørsted Bioenergy, with over 15 years of experience in the green energy transformation. As the Lead of Optimal Bio Operations R&D initiatives within Ørsted’s Bioenergy segment, Jens spearheads projects and leads efforts to support Ørsted’s vision of a world that runs entirely on green energy. He is responsible for the fire safety of biomass storage facilities at Ørsted Bioenergy and leads communication with fire authorities to ensure legal compliance.

John, often called “the grandfather of North American wood pellets,” is widely recognized as one of the sector’s leading experts. John brings a broad range of wisdom and skills key to the sector from biomass supply management, wood pellet manufacturing, shipping logistics, and off-take contracts.

In 1994, John founded what would become Pacific BioEnergy Corporation. He negotiated, manufactured, and shipped the first trans-ocean shipment of pellets from the West Coast of Canada to Sweden in 1998. In 2005, John was instrumental in establishing the Wood Pellet Association and served as its executive director from 2005-2009. In 2013, John joined the FutureMetrics team, sharing his knowledge and experience with industry stakeholders.

Søren Alsing has extensive experience in the energy sector, including energy trading of the entire energy complex, project management, business development, managing terminals, shipping, and other midstream assets. He joined Ørsted in 2017 and is currently the Director Bioenergy, Head of Fuel with the company. Prior to Ørsted, he was with Vattenfall in Amsterdam for 11 years, the last five as Head of Global Commodities. Earlier he was Head of Fuel in Energy E2, a former east Danish utility.

Dr. William Strauss is the President and Founder of FutureMetrics, LLC. Bill and his FutureMetrics team are globally recognized as the leading experts in the wood pellet sector. Bill continues to be a thought leader in the sector and has published numerous papers on a variety of subjects relevant to the wood pellet sector.

He is also a Founder and Director of Maine Energy Systems, the largest manufacturer of European-style automatic pellet-fueled central heating systems in North America.

Bill is the 2012 recipient of the International Excellence in Bioenergy award and was named as one of the most influential leaders in the biomass sector in 2016 and 2017 by Argus Media. Bill has more than 40 years of strategic and policy planning, project management, data analysis, operations, and modelling experience in the renewable energy sector. He has an MBA (specializing in Finance) and a Ph.D. (Economics, Earth Systems Science).