Nico Duursema has been in leadership roles in the energy business for over 25 years. Nico sees the energy industry through an international lens as he has worked in North and South America, Africa, and the Middle and Far East within the petrochemical, transportation, mining, and oil and gas industries. Nico has led several significant business transformations and project development portfolios resulting in his teams receiving excellence awards.

As the president and CEO of the Cerilon Group, Nico's core areas of focus are environmentally friendly, low carbon, energy, infrastructure and downstream benefication. This includes gas-to-liquids (GTL), bio-to-liquids (BTL), liquefied-natural-gas (LNG), and renewables. Established in 2009, the Cerilon Group exists to provide global energy security with an approach that is strategic, courageous, intentional, and sustainable. Cerilon is committed to helping business lead changes toward a new energy future.

Nico serves on Cerilon’s corporate boards and acts as an advisor to the Board of Impact Nations. He has been a member of the Canadian Energy Executive Association (CEEA) for the last five years and has served for three years as CEEA board governor. Nico is also serving on the Global Energy Show (GES) executive committee and is executive chairman for the Global XTL Summit.

Pauli has more than 22 years of experience and has held various positions across the life cycle of technology-based ventures from operations & maintenance, business development through to technology development and licensing. He currently leads and directs Hatch’s global activities in the XTL (anything-to-liquids!) space and is actively involved in concurrent, ongoing projects for the conversion of natural gas, waste and biomass to high value products.

Selected gasification assignments include Technology Manager: Coal-to-Syngas Conversion for Sasol, the world’s largest user of coal gasification technology. In the area of syngas conversion Pauli honed his craft as Senior Manager: Technology Licensing with Sasol, one of the preeminent global developers and practitioners of GTL. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, he hold various post-graduate qualifications including a Master’s Degree in Technology Management.