Asia’s transportation system - cars, trucks, ships and planes – is almost entirely dependent on oil, a commodity whose price is on the rise and its supply is frequently interrupted. Oil-powered combustion engines are also a source of Asia’s acute air pollution problem. As manufacturer of a full half of the world’s automobiles Asia can shape the automobile market and usher important steps toward opening the transportation sector to fuel competition. This would reduce Asia’s oil import bill and offer consumers fuel choice when oil prices spike while providing Asian countries significant clean air benefits.
The roundtable will present the various transportation fuel options that are currently available for consumers and the barriers to their market penetration. It will also suggest mechanisms for cooperation among Asian countries to bring about fuel choice and share experiences from countries that have embarked on successful efforts to introduce fuel competition in their transportation sector.
Speakers:
Eyal Rosner
Chairman
Fuel Choices Administration, Israel Prime Minister's Office
Francisco Pereira
Senior Research Scientist
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, Future Urban Mobility project
Francisco C. Pereira is Senior Research Scientist at ITSLab under Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, Future Urban Mobility project (SMART/FM), where he works on advanced data collection technologies, real-time traffic prediction and behavior modeling. He is based in Singapore and locally leads the ITSLab team, being actively involved in FMS, DynaMIT2.0 and SimMobility. His main research focus is on applying machine learning and pattern recognition to the context of transportation systems with the purpose of understanding and predicting mobility behavior, and modeling and optimizing the transportation system as a whole.
He worked at the Senseable City Lab, as a postdoctoral research fellow, during 2009/10 and has been collaborating with the MIT ITSLab since 2008. He holds an assistant professor position since 2005 at the University of Coimbra, Portugal from where he also has a PhD degree (January 2005). The thesis relates Artificial Intelligence with Creativity and originated a book.
He was recently awarded the prestigious Singapore Challenge 2013 prize for a collaborative paper with researchers from A*Star, SUTD and MIT, and he has authored/co-authored a long list of journal and conference papers in areas such as pattern recognition, transportation, knowledge based systems or cognitive science.
Gal Luft
Senior Advisor
United States Energy Security Council
Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security, and a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council, a cabinet level exta governmental advisory committee. He is also co-chairman of the Global Forum on Energy Security. He specializes in strategy, geopolitics, energy security, natural resources and economic warfare. Newsweek Magazine called him a "tireless and independent advocate of energy security," the business magazine Poder called him "one of the most recognizable figures in modern energy and security issues," and Esquire Magazine included him in its list of America's Best and Brightest. Dr. Luft has published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, the National Interest, Commentary Magazine, LA Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009,) Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice (2009) andPetropoly: The Collapse of America's Energy Security Paradigm (2012). He is author of Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq. He appears frequently in the media and consults to various think tanks and news organizations worldwide and testifies before committees of the U.S. Congress. He holds degrees in international relations, international economics and strategic studies and a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University.
Lucky Nurafiatin
Stratas Advisors
Anthony Dixon
Former CEO
ASB Biodiesel Hong Kong Limited
Anthony Dixon is the former CEO of ASB Biodiesel (Hong Kong) Ltd. During his tenure, the company funded, constructed, commissioned and operated one of the largest waste-to-biodiesel factories in Asia with a capacity of 100,000 tons per annum. The plant was designed to process low grade and/or highly acidic waste vegetable oils (such as used cooking oil, grease trap waste, and palm oil mill effluent) which required the parallel development of a regional feedstock supply chain spanning eight countries, including a direct waste collection business serving 7,000+ restaurant customers.
Mr. Dixon has held a variety of other roles in the renewable energy industry including director of China Hydroelectric Corporation - a NYSE listed acquirer and operator of small-to-medium hydropower assets in China; director of the Solar Electric Light Company - a pioneer in the use of solar PV for rural electrification in India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam; and Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer of ZEDfactory - a designer of low- and zero-carbon housing. He was an early investor in General Compression, a developer of compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology.
Previously Mr. Dixon was a Managing Director in structured finance and debt capital markets with Citigroup, where, during his 15-year career, he held various leadership roles in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London and completed more than US$ 25 billion in financings.
He holds an M. Sc. in Sustainable Energy Futures (engineering) from Imperial College, an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics from the University of Western Australia.
Lynette Cheah
Assistant Professor
Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)
Lynette Cheah is an Assistant Professor with the Engineering Systems and Design Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Her research group develops models, tools and solutions to assess and reduce the energy and environmental impacts of road transport. Research interests include sustainable urban mobility, urban freight modeling, and life-cycle assessment (LCA) of new technologies. Prior to joining SUTD, Lynette was a research scientist at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, part of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. She also worked at the Materials Systems Laboratory and Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. She is a Singapore National Science Scholar and a Fellow with the Martin Family Society for Sustainability. Lynette holds a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in management science from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in engineering systems from MIT.
Dom LaVigne
Director
Government and Public Affairs - Asia Pacific/Middle East, The Methanol Institute
Dom LaVigne joined the Methanol Institute (MI) in September 2011, and is based in the Institute’s Singapore global headquarters. With more than 20 years of senior management, government relations, and foreign direct investment (FDI) experience in the Asia Pacific region, Mr. LaVigne has lived and worked in Asia since June 2000.
Mr. LaVigne’s role with MI is to support the methanol industry in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, and the Middle East, by developing government relations initiatives and outreach, and in helping to raise the visibility of the Institute and its members among policymakers, media, the private sector, and consumers.
His experience in Asia includes eight years of senior management roles at the American Chambers of Commerce (AmChams) in Singapore, Malaysia, and Afghanistan. Prior to this, Mr. LaVigne had lived and worked in Washington, DC for more than seven years at The White House and for a leading North American trade association.