Helena Matza (Keynote)

Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership on Global Infrastructure Investment (PGI), U.S. Department of State

Helaina R. Matza is the Acting Special Coordinator for the Partnership on Global Infrastructure Investment (PGI), U.S. Department of State. Matza has most recently served as the Director of Energy Transformation in the Bureau of Energy Resources at the Department of State. In this role, she led strategic engagement on clean energy and power sector issues, including the Department’s multilateral effort focused on securing clean energy supply chains.

Helaina previously served as Director of Climate Diplomacy and Energy Transformation at the National Security Council in the White House. She has spent the past 11 years at the Department of State developing and managing multi-million-dollar innovative initiatives related to energy, climate change, and environmental issues. Helaina has served in a diverse set of roles, including a lead sustainability advisor developing the Department’s global air quality monitoring program, leading several Bureau of Energy Resources’ policy priorities overseas, and as a lead negotiator on the U.S. delegation at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Before joining the Department of State, she held positions focused on philanthropic engagement and trade promotion.

Helaina holds an M.P.A. focused on global energy management and a B.A. in International Affairs, both from The George Washington University.

Bruno Pelli (Keynote)

Global Technical Services Director of Mining at Vale S.A.

Bruno is a mining executive with 20+ years of experience in corporate, operations and project roles for several commodities in countries across Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He is a Mining Engineer (Sao Paulo University), with post-graduation in Risk Management (The Queensland University), Management Excellence (University of Pretoria), and an MBA in Project Management (FGV/UCI). Bruno is also a Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), and has embarked in a Sustainability journey in the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (CISL) for the last 2 years.

As Global Technical Services Director, Bruno technically leads Vale on Brownfield Exploration, Geology, Mine Planning, Mining Excellence, Processing, and Technical Transformation. He has been championing the connection of sustainability with technical agendas by sponsoring Vale Mining Circularity Programme (Waste to Value) and transformational initiatives like Vale’s green cement, where he is a Circlua board member.

Bryony Clear Hill

Director of Innovation at ICMM

Bryony joined ICMM in February 2021 and currently leads ICMM’s Innovation portfolio, comprising Climate Change, Circular Economy, Tailings Reduction and Health & Safety, in addition to the Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles (ICSV).

Prior to taking on the director role, Bryony led ICMM’s work on Circular Economy and Mining Standards. She sat on the GRI Expert Working Group developing a new sector standard for mining.

Bryony holds a MA (Oxon) in Geography from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining ICMM, she worked in business ethics, procurement and responsible sourcing at energy services company Centrica and at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She is a fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

Francisco Carlos Manesco

Manager of Strategic Mining Projects at Vale S.A.

Francisco is the Manager of Strategic Mining Projects at Vale, with over 10 years of experience in mining, strategic planning, and innovation practices focused on mineral commodities.

He is an industrial engineer (Campinas University) with specializations in innovation (VC Institute) and mining projects valuation (Imperial College). In his role, Francisco leads the core management team of Vale’s circular mining program (waste to value), and he is in charge of the technical program for designing the mine of the future.

Priscilla Nelson

Professor and Department Head of Mining Engineering at Colorado School of Mines

Dr. Priscilla Nelson came to the Colorado School of Mines in 2014 as Professor and Department Head of Mining Engineering. She formerly served as a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, Division Director at the U.S. NSF, and Provost and Professor at NJIT. She has an international reputation in geological, geotechnical, mining, and tailings engineering. Dr. Nelson has more than 200 technical publications. She is a Distinguished Member of ASCE, former president of the Geo-Institute of ASCE, and a lifetime member, former President and Fellow of ARMA (American Rock Mechanics Association). Dr. Nelson was elected as a Mole and Tau Beta Pi Eminent Engineer. She also received the Roe Award from AAES and the Michel Award from ASCE. In 2016 she was identified as a Global Inspirational Woman in Mining, and in 2018 she received the Outstanding Educator award from UCA of SME. In 2020, she founded the Tailings Center in collaboration with Colorado State University and the University of Aruzona. Her PhD is from Cornell University.

Phil Newman

Lead Tailings Innovation at Anglo American

Phil Newman is Lead Tailings Innovation at Anglo American and has over 30 years experience in mining.  Phil was a founding member of Golder PasteTec in 1996 and built paste backfill plants around the world for 10 years in addition to other tailings dewatering solutions.  After 8 years running CRU consulting, Phil joined Anglo American in 2015 and was Head of Innovation until 2023, when he refocused on the roll out and commercialization of the successful Hydraulic Dewatered Stacking technology, developed by Anglo American.

Andrew Whittle

Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT

Andrew Whittle is the Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. He is an expert in geotechnical engineering, whose research deals principally with formulation of models for representing the complex mechanical properties of soils and their application in predicting the performance of foundations and underground excavation and tunneling projects. He is actively involved in research to mitigate potential liquefaction and to develop methods for long-term monitoring and stabilization of tailings storage facilities.