SPEAKERS
MIKE WITTNER
GLOBAL HEAD OF OIL MARKET RESEARCH
INTERCONTINENTAL EXCHANGE
Mike Wittner is Global Head of Oil Market Research for Intercontinental Exchange. Mike joined ICE in 2019. He leads a robust research effort to continuously analyze and anticipate changes in oil market structure and fundamentals. Mike and his team support oil sales and business development at ICE in creating new contracts and evolving existing contracts, in order to meet the hedging, trading, and investment needs of its customers around the world. With more than 30 years of experience in oil market analysis, Mike has extensive knowledge of the global and regional crude oil and refined product markets, geopolitics, and non-fundamental oil market drivers.
From 2007-2019, Mike was the Global Head of Oil Research for Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, where he was a Managing Director. He was directly responsible for short-term and long-term global oil market analysis and forecasting. Mike was ranked in the top 4 for oil market research in 2009-2019, according to Risk and Energy Risk magazines, including 7 consecutive years at #1 in 2013-2019. Before that, he held a similar position at Crédit Agricole, as well as senior analytical roles at Koch Supply & Trading, the International Energy Agency, and PIRA Energy Group (now part of S&P Global Platts). Before getting his MBA, Mike worked as a geologist and project manager for an engineering firm and as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mike holds a BS in Geology from Cornell University and a MBA in International Business from George Washington University.
Mike is a regular speaker at industry conferences and seminars. His commentaries on oil market developments have been frequently quoted in the international media and he has appeared regularly on broadcast news. Media interviews have included CNBC, Bloomberg TV, CNN, BBC, CBC, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Economist, Bloomberg Business Week, the wire services, and the energy trade press.
JEFF BROWN, PH.D.
PRESIDENT
FGE
Dr. Jeff Brown leads FGE’s analytical and consulting efforts globally across oil, gas/LNG and NGLs. He oversees diverse teams of consultants based in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. FGE has over 400 clients globally subscribing to its various retainer, consulting and commercial advisory services. In addition to specialized consulting, FGE releases over 850 reports annually. FGE also commits to visit and brief every client at least once annually. Dr. Brown both supervises and engages directly in all of these efforts.
Jeff joined FGE eleven years ago from JP Morgan where he was Executive Director, Global Commodities Research/Strategy. He was a regular featured speaker at JP Morgan events and published widely. Jeff also served as Senior Oil Analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris. During this time, he developed the IEA’s short- to mid-term oil demand forecasting framework and led research examining oil/gas interfuel substitution. Before the IEA, he was a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu where his primary emphasis was LNG Markets East of Suez. Dr. Brown is the author of many articles in industry, economic, and policy journals and widely cited as an energy expert. He delivers numerous speeches and conducts specialized briefings around the world each year.
AMENA BAKR
SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST MIDDLE EAST
ENERGY INTELLIGENCE
Amena Bakr is a Senior Research Analyst based in Dubai. Key focus areas of Energy Intelligence’s Research & Advisory group include the energy transition, corporate strategy and competitor intelligence, oil and gas/LNG markets and aboveground risk. Amena’s expertise supports the Oil Markets Service, where she leads analysis and client engagement on oil market analysis, Opec policy, political trends and risk assessments in the Middle East and Gulf Arab region. She also contributes to Competitive Intelligence Research by examining corporate strategies and investment strategies in this region.
Prior to her current role in the Research & Advisory group, Amena was Energy Intelligence’s Chief Opec Correspondent and Dubai Deputy Bureau Chief for the past eight years. In that capacity, Amena received several international journalism awards for her work that covered energy news and analysis related to Saudi Arabia and other Opec countries. In 2023, she received the Opec award for best journalist, and in 2019, The International Association for Energy Economics gave her the award for Excellence in Written Journalism for covering the energy sector.
Amena was also an Energy Correspondent for Reuters news agency for six years, posted in Dubai, Doha and Riyadh, covering energy and political risk developments. Amena holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport in Egypt, with a major in management information systems.