Aromatics & Fibers

Duncan Clark Global Aromatics & Fibers Team Lead

Duncan Clark is the Vice President of the global Aromatics and Fibers business at Chemical Market Analytics.

Duncan acts as the key resource within Dow Jones for understanding and providing insight into the Aromatics sector of the petrochemical industry, he works closely with the petrochemical, oil, and financial industries.
Duncan joined IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) in 2013, he has spent the last 32 years working in the chemical and petrochemical industries in various Sales, Marketing, and Global Business Management roles.

Before this, Duncan spent ten years working in an ExxonMobil / Shell joint venture company, involved in Fuel and Lubricant additives visiting refineries all over the world. He also spent 12 years working for Air Products in various chemical and industrial gases businesses in the U.K., U.S., and Netherlands. He now provides insights into the global aromatics and derivative markets including paraxylene, purified terephthalic acid, ethylene glycols, polyurethane feedstocks, and the global benzene, toluene, and xylenes markets.

He graduated with a BSc. in Chemical Engineering from University College London. He also has a Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School.

Peter Feng Americas Styrenics

Mr. Peter Feng is the Executive Director of Aromatics at Chemical Market Analytics.

He is a known industry expert on styrene, polystyrene, and expandable polystyrene. Mr. Feng is currently the Service Leader for the North American Aromatics Market Service and has been covering the aromatics markets for over fourteen years at CMAI and IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics). He has over 36 years of experience in the chemical industry working first for Air Products and Chemicals and then for Sterling Chemicals. During this time he had assignments in Process Engineering, Process Technology, Information Systems, Environmental, Supply Chain, and Commercial. In 1992 he joined Sterling Chemicals where he had various supply chain and commercial responsibilities for styrenics and other products. Mr. Feng was a Partner at CMAI when it was acquired by IHS Markit in May of 2011.

He has covered the benzene, toluene, mixed xylenes, styrene, polystyrene, EPS, ABS, and phenolics markets at CMAI and Chemical Market Analytics but focuses currently on styrene, polystyrene, and expandable polystyrene. As an industry expert, he has testified as an Expert Witness in numerous arbitration and court cases. He contributes to a number of services and reports including the North American Aromatics Market Report. Mr. Feng has written for a number of World Analyses and is now responsible for the World Styrene Analysis, World Polystyrene Analysis, and World Expandable Polystyrene Analysis. He is a frequent speaker at events such as the World Petrochemical Conference, EPS Expo, Foodservice Packaging Institute, and Badger’s World Styrene Conference. He has assisted with single client work in the areas of strategic planning, mergers, and acquisitions, bankruptcies, benchmarking, litigation, and market analysis.

Mr. Feng holds a Bachelors and Masters of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, US, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Houston, US.

Simon Cleghorn EMEA Benzene & Pygas

Simon Cleghorn is a Director Consultant Aromatics EMEA at Chemical Market Analytics.

Mr. Cleghorn joined Chemical Market Analytics in June 2020, to take up the position of Director Consultant Aromatics EMEA. Working closely with the petrochemical and oil industries, he is responsible for providing market insight to clients in the refining and petrochemical sectors. With almost 20 years’ commercial and management experience in a variety of roles at Royal Dutch Shell, he is a seasoned and networked professional with experience across the energy and petrochemical sectors.

Mr. Cleghorn has an acute awareness of the strategic environment in which businesses and other organisations operate, and is skilled in leading teams, managing the senior stakeholders necessary for the delivery of commercial strategy (incl. capex projects), contracting strategy and negotiation (sales and procurement), contract management, and the management of the interface between commodity sales/ procurement and commodity trading. Mr. Cleghorn has a university degree from Kedge Business School and Middlesex University.

Alan Lu China Aromatics & Fibers Lead

Alan Lu is a Director for Aromatics & Fibers at Chemical Market Analytics.

Mr. Lu joined IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) in 2001 and he currently leads the China aromatics team with major research coverage on EO/EG, BTX, and SM value chains. In 2012, Mr. Lu was a Director with the Chemicals Consulting Group based in Shanghai. Prior to joining Chemicals Consulting, he was in both aromatics and fibers research in Asia with primary responsibility for PET Bottle Resin for Asia, Polyester Fiber, PTA, MEG, Phenol, and Acetone for China.

Mr. Lu holds a Master degree in business administration from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and a Bachelor degree from Shanghai International Studies University.

James Nicholson America Benzene, Pygas & Reformate

Mr. Nicholson is the Research and Analysis Director responsible for market coverage of Benzene, PyGas and Reformate in North America.  He has 30 years of industry experience with 29 years having served Lyondell Chemical in a variety of roles including optimization, olefins feedstocks, trading and multiple commercial roles where he was most recently Business Director – Aromatics and Oxygenated Fuels, Americas.

David Potter Europe Acetone

David Potter is Executive Director for EMEA aromatics and phenolics at Chemical Market Analytics.

Mr. Potter joined IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) at the start of 2013, where he has been responsible for market coverage and insight across the global aromatics and fibers team. He has specialized in aromatics derivatives such as phenolics, styrene monomer, and polyurethane feedstocks for both the EMEA region and the Americas. He is currently responsible for aromatics and phenolics in the EMEA region.

Prior to joining IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics),  Mr. Potter worked on the petrochemical desk at Platts for close to six years, where he covered the EMEA benzene and toluene markets for over four years. He also worked on other product streams including olefins and polymers. He first entered the petrochemical world in 1999 when he was recruited by Petrochem Carless, a UK-based refiner and distributor. He worked with Petrochem Carless for nearly seven years, where he took a variety of sales and marketing roles.

Mr. Potter also has a postgraduate diploma in periodical journalism.

Ashish Pujari Asia Aromatics | Global Polyurethane Feedstocks | Polyester Fibers & Feedstocks | Polyester Stream

Ashish Pujari serves as a executive director of Aromatics and Fibres in the Chemicals team at Chemical Market Analytics in Singapore and has the responsibility for the Asian Aromatics business and Global Fibres and Feedstocks business.

Mr. Pujari is the service leader for subscription services covering the global Polyester, and the Asian Aromatics value chain. He also provides commercial leadership to the Polyurethanes Service within th Base chemicals group. Apart from regular market and outlook updates, Mr. Pujari also leads initiatives in creating and updating the long-term outlook for the polyester value chain. He has also been involved in numerous consulting studies since joining the firm. Prior to joining Chemical Market Associates, Inc. (CMAI) in 2009, Mr. Pujari gained 15 years of experience with Reliance Industries Limited in India. He started his career as a project and operations engineer and was involved in the startup and commissioning of the Hazira complex on the west coast of India. He shifted to the commercial role in mid-1998 and worked as a business analyst for Reliance’s executive management before shifting to a sales and marketing role, handling Fibers Intermediates. Mr. Pujari holds a B.E. in chemical and polymer engineering from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, India, and completed his Executive MBA, at the Indian Institute of Management (IIMB), Bangalore, India.

Tobias Spyra EMEA Styrenics & Polyurethane Feedstocks

Mr. Spyra joined the European aromatics and fibers team in 2016 and his current role in Chemical Market Analytics is as Director Styrenics and Polyurethane Feedstocks in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. As a key resource within Chemical Market Analytics for understanding and providing insight into the Aromatics sector of the petrochemical industry, he works closely with the petrochemical, oil and financial industries. He specializes in cumene, phenol, acetone, AMS, BPA, solvents, styrene monomer and its derivatives as well as the in the isocyanates, polyether and polyester polyols markets. Prior to joining Chemical Market Analytics, he worked in the chemical and petrochemical industries in various Sales, Marketing and Global Business Management roles at Ineos, Innovene and BP. Fluent in English, Spanish and German.