Ron Alexander
President, R. Alexander Associates, Inc. & Co-manager of the US Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance Program 

Mr. Alexander is president of R. Alexander Associates, Inc. He has been involved in the production and end use of ‘organic recycled’ products, specializing in compost, for almost 20 years. As a consultant, he has directed and completed over 200 compost marketing and utilization projects; working with products derived from a variety of feedstocks. Before becoming a consultant, Mr. Alexander was Vice President of Marketing for a firm specializing in the marketing of composted products. Mr. Alexander has served as Chairperson of the United States Composting Council’s (USCC) Market Development Committee and is currently managing the USCC’s Seal of Testing Assurance Program. He has authored and presented over 150 papers and presentations on the subject and is the author of “The Field Guide to Compost Use", "Landscape Architecture Specifications for the Utilization of Compost” and AASHTO erosion control specifications for compost.
Harry Hoitink
Professor emeritus, Dept of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, USA

Dr. Harry A. J. Hoitink’s group focuses on the development of optimum process parameters for composting of wastes and on mechanisms of biological control of diseases caused by soil borne plant pathogens in compost-amended substrates. With his students, he determined the fate of fungal and bacterial biocontrol agents during composting and identified microorganisms that suppress plant pathogens or induce systemic resistance in plants to disease. Present research focuses on organic matter transformations in composts that sustain biocontrol agents and on composting procedures that enhance activity of this microflora. He has chaired two international symposia on the science and engineering of composting since 1992 and is presently co-editing a third book on this topic.
Josef Barth
European Compost Network, Germany

Josef Barth is a senior consultant and expert in the field of organic waste treatment, compost quality, marketing and compost certification. He has worked for both governments and industrial clients all over Europe. He is currently the Managing Director of the European Compost Network (ECN), an extensive network in the field of biological waste treatment and related topics with more than 1000 experts and facilities as members in 21 European countries with 20 million tons of treatment capacity.

 

He is an agricultural engineer by education and the founder of INFORMA Compost Consultants. He has been a member of the Board of the German Compost Quality Assurance Organisation for several years. He is now providing information and marketing services for compost and anaerobic digestion plants in Germany, Austria, UK and Sweden that generate quality assured compost products.

Josef Barth has attended many composting conferences in Europe, North America and Australia as an invited expert, to report on up-to-date European compost quality standards, quality management in composting plants, compost marketing/markets and the European development in biological waste treatment.