Kpler APAC Insight Forum 2025

Jonathan Leitch is a member of Kpler’s Insight team in charge of client liaison.He is a recognised industry expert with over 30 years of experience in the crude oil and refined product markets. He has worked in trading, shipping and broking for companies including Shell and RWE.Jonathan moved into research and analysis in 2005, working for FGE, Wood Mackenzie and Turner, Mason & Company.He joined Kpler in 2022 to take the lead on cementing relationships between the analyst team and our clients, helping to bring reputable insights to the commodity community by harnessing Kpler’s considerable array of proprietary data.

Prior to Kpler's acquisition, Andon had spent five years at JBC Energy, leading the downstream research team. For the past three years, he has spearheaded in-depth analyses on refinery margin estimates, operational supply and demand modelling, and forecasting, along with comprehensive cross-barrel analyses. Working alongside his team of seasoned professionals at Kpler, recently, Andon expanded his leadership to oversee liquids and freight research at Kpler. He is based in Vienna, Austria.

Homayoun brings over 11 years of experience in theoil and gas industry, with a strong track record inmarket analysis and strategic insight. ​He leads Kpler’s crude oil analysis team, managing ateam of analysts focused on global oil marketdynamics, from supply and demand fundamentals togeopolitical drivers.​ Homayoun frequently delivers insights to globalclients and speaks at major industry events.​ Homayoun holds an MSc in Energy Management fromESCP Europe and an MA in MENA Geopolitics fromSciences Po Grenoble. He is fluent in Farsi and French and is based in Paris, France.

Amena Bakr is the Head of Middle East Energy & OPEC-plus research at Kpler, based in Dubai. She leads oil market analysis, OPEC policy research, and risk assessments in the Middle East. Previously, she was a senior research analyst at Energy Intelligence Group and served as Chief OPEC Correspondent and Dubai Deputy Bureau Chief for eight years, earning multiple journalism awards, including the 2023 OPEC award for best journalist. She also worked as an Energy Correspondent for Reuters in Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh, covering energy and political risk. Amena holds a BA in Business Administration from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport in Egypt, with a major in management information systems.

Matthew Wright is the Lead Freight Analyst at Kpler. In his role, he leads on providing clients with expertise, analysis and research on the freight markets. Prior to Kpler, Matthew was a Senior Tanker Analyst at SSY ship brokers, where he was responsible for analysing oil tanker markets, leading the development of new models and handling consulting inquiries. Matthew has extensive oil market experience from seven years in consulting at Argus Media where he worked on a range of single client projects before moving on to manage the delivery the subscription reports focusing on freight, crude and refined products.

Nelson joined Kpler in October 2024 to cover Asian gas & LNG markets. He focuses on market analysis and Supply & Demand forecasting in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China. Also, he collaborates with his team on coverage on European, South Asian, and Southeast Asian markets. Before Kpler, Nelson spent 3+ years as an Associate in Goldman Sachs (Singapore) in commodity MO functions, also working on power & commodity data. He also spent less than a year as a Research Associate in Aurora Energy Research in Singapore, where he specialised in power & renewables market forecasting in Southeast Asian and South Korean market. Nelson holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science and a Master of Science in Technology Management from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). He has lived, studied and worked in China, Singapore, and the US. He is currently a CFA charterholder.

Scott is a technology leader with a proven track record of building and scaling globally distributed engineering teams. Over the past two decades, he has evolved from academia and entrepreneurship to executive leadership, driving innovation in data intelligence and commodity markets.Before joining Kpler in 2022, Scott was VP of Engineering at Wood Mackenzie, where he led the development of Lens, their data and analytics platform. At Kpler, he has rapidly scaled the engineering team and built systems that process billions of real-time data points daily, enhancing data-driven decision-making for global markets.With deep expertise in AI, big data, and scalable systems, Scott is dedicated to leveraging technology to drive customer-centric solutions and transform the commodity trading landscape.

Xiuju Fu is a Senior Principal Scientist at A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) with expertise in AI, big data intelligence, simulation and optimisation techniques, focusing advancing complex system management and enhancement. As the Director of IHPC’s Maritime AI Research Programme, Fu drives research and development initiatives in maritime data excellence, AI modelling excellence, maritime AI computing, and application excellence. Her efforts aim to foster the development and application of AI in the maritime industry. Fu received an SMI Fellowship in 2023.