Agenda

Chet Thompson is president and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the trade association representing over 300 member companies that encompass virtually all U.S. refining and petrochemical manufacturing capacity. He became AFPM’s president and CEO in 2015.
Prior to joining AFPM, Thompson was a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, where he was chairman of the Environment & Natural Resources Group. He previously served as deputy general counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the George W. Bush Administration. Before joining EPA in 2004, he spent 10 years at Collier Shannon Scott PLLC.
In October 2015, The Hill named him as one of Washington’s Top Lobbyists. He has also been recognized as one of the leading lawyers in the United States by Chambers & Partners. Thompson holds a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College and a J.D. from the Catholic University Columbus School of Law.

Tim Olsen is an AIChE Fellow with 33 years of experience in the refining industry, 25 of which have been with Emerson Automation Solutions. He is a Solution Consultant with refining business and technical knowledge within Emerson’s Performance Software group. Previously, Tim was with UOP for 8 years as a Technical Advisor on refinery startups around the world.

Tim is a Vice-Chair for AFPM’s Operational Planning, Control & Automation Technologies (OPCAT) Committee and an active member of AFPM’s Steering Committee. He is also a past Chair for AIChE’s Fuels and Petrochemicals Division and past elected AIChE Board of Directors. Tim also served on the Board of Directors for Emerson’s Global Users Exchange. He earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University, with an emphasis in industrial engineering and process control, and an MBA from the University of Iowa.

Fritz started his career with Marathon Petroleum Company (MPC) in 1998 just after the Marathon/Ashland Joint Venture.  Fritz has over 32 years of experience as a safety, security, and emergency preparedness professional.  In his current position, Fritz is the Director of Safety, Security, Process Safety Management, & Emergency Response for the MPC Refining organization.  Fritz has held a variety of positions across MPC including ES&S Manager at the Garyville, Louisiana refinery, Safety & Security Manager for the Refining organization, Corporate Manager of Emergency Preparedness, Safety Manager for the Terminal, Transport & Marine Division, and Corporate Emergency Preparedness Coordinator.

Prior to joining Marathon, Fritz spent over seven years in the Corporate Health & Safety department of a hazardous waste remediation & emergency response company where he responded to large scale, high hazard emergency response incidents across the country and provided safety & industrial hygiene support at large environmental remediation projects.

Fritz started his career in the hazardous materials/emergency response training division of a community college on the East Coast.

Fritz is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Certified Instructional Trainer (CIT), and a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM).

Fritz is married to a University Professor and enjoys golf, woodworking, and blacksmithing.

Bill Clark is the Director, Reliability for Phillips 66, responsible for reliability excellence programs across the Refining organization. Bill has worked for Phillips 66 and its heritage companies for over 30 years, including time spent at multiple refineries and the company’s headquarters office. He has held leadership positions in maintenance, reliability, turnaround, operations, and process safety. Bill holds an Electrical Engineering degree from California State University, Fullerton and an MBA from California State University, Long Beach.

Srinivasan Vanchinathan (“Cheenu”), Director, Refining Digital Operations, Phillips66. He is responsible for the development and implementation of digital transformation strategy across refining to enable business value and competitive advantage. Prior to joining Phillips66, he worked at various refining companies holding leadership positions in process control, technical management, and information technology.

As a seasoned professional, I have performed a wide array of functions throughout the refining and petrochemical industry for over 25 years. My experiences to date include aerial inspections utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), turnaround inspections for process equipment, repair planning and tracking, all aspects of QA/QC functions, Productions Supervisor, and comprehensive electronic report generation.

As a professional in the oil and gas industry, I have performed a wide array of inspections throughout numerous refining facilities for over 10 years. My experiences to date include project supervision, turnaround inspections, repair recommendations, as well as all aspects of QA/QC functions. Additionally, I currently hold API 510, 570, 571 and 580 certifications.

John R. Auers is the Managing Director of Refined Fuels Analytics (RFA), the downstream petroleum consulting arm of RBN Energy LLC, an industry leading energy market analytics company. Prior to forming RFA in July 2022, Mr, Auers was the Executive Vice President of Turner, Mason & Company (TM&C), where he spent 35 years beginning in 1987. Mr. Auers began his career in the petroleum refining industry with Exxon Corporation in 1980, with which he held various positions at its Baytown, TX refinery.

Alan is VP Refining, Chemicals and Oil Markets. As Downstream Global SME, he is responsible for formulating Wood Mackenzie’s integrated cross sector perspectives on this global business.

Alan Gelder joined Wood Mackenzie’s Downstream Consulting team in 2005 and became global head in 2009. He transitioned into research upon his return from Houston in 2011 and was Global Head of Refining and Chemicals.

Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Alan had 10 years of industry consulting after working for ExxonMobil in a variety of project planning and technical process design roles.

Alan has a first class Master Degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London, supplemented by an MBA from Henley Management College.

Debnil Chowdhury joined S&P Global (formerly known as IHS Markit) in 2012 and currently holds the position of Vice President where he leads the Americas refining research team. Prior to joining S&P, he was a Senior Market Analyst for Valero where he provided strategic planning and market analysis support for downstream, renewable, and retail assets globally. Debnil performed short and long-term planning for downstream and midstream assets, refinery economics evaluations, and supported new expansion and supply optimization efforts. Prior to joining Valero, Debnil worked in Technology Development for Halliburton-KBR as a Process Engineer where he worked with clients globally to develop new refining technologies.

Since joining S&P, Mr. Chowdhury has been involved in a number of refined product market, pricing, and new market entry strategy studies for clients in the U.S Gulf Coast, Eastern U.S., Atlantic Basin, Caribbean, Latin American, and Asian markets. Additionally, Debnil has worked closely with private equity and upstream clients to perform project feasibility studies for various oil and gas assets. Mr. Chowdhury has evaluated potential merger, acquisition, and divestiture opportunities. His work included screening of potential assets, specific facility evaluations, and due diligence activities.

Debnil is also the primary creator of S&P’s proprietary long-term ethane analytics price forecast model. The model can be utilized to quantitatively link and provide insight on ethane supply/demand to long-term pricing.

Debnil holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and Certificate in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a MS in Predictive Analytics and Data Science from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Rice University.

Athicha joined ExxonMobil working in the Research & Engineering Information Technology section. There he held a position as a lead developer in web & desktop applications. He then joined Architecture & Technology where he conducted proof of concepts with XR for the business units. This led to the creation of Immersive Technology Studios, an internal IT organization that provides XR services to the business units. In his current role as the Extended Reality Domain Architect, Athicha now leads the R&D efforts within the 3D space for Digital Realities.

Kyle has been with ExxonMobil over 12 years in various roles ranging from software development to high end visualization. Kyle found his true passion working as the Technical Lead for high end visualization spaces called CAVEs. He quickly realized anything to do with immersion and computer generated environments called his name. Soon after the Oculus DK1 announcement he started development within Unity and tinkering with how to integrate it within the business. Shortly after getting bitten by the “immersion” bug he joined the technology research group and started doing proof of concepts on XR. Proof of concepts quickly turned into business cases and allowed him and colleagues to journey into creating a service organization called Immersive Technology Studio designed to help the business with all XR needs. He is now the product manager of xr and digital twins building a digital reality ecosystem applying his passion to move the corporation to a more visual way of work.

Adi Punuru, Ph.D., is Autonomous Process Operations Commercialization Lead at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. Adi has been working within various ExxonMobil groups and with external vendors in developing next-gen technologies, including AI/ML for Autonomous Process Operations.
 
Adi is an expert in Model Predictive Controls Technology and Base Controls Applications Design and Implementation. He has more than 30 years’ experience in implementation of APC applications in both in downstream and upstream areas. He led the deployment of Base Control Performance Monitoring technology globally within ExxonMobil.
 
Adi received his M.S., and PhD from the University of Louisville, Kentucky and B.Tech from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India

Hi Chen has over two decades of experience in the petrochemical industry. With 8 years in research and 12 years as a senior process chemist at a refinery, he's dedicated his career to advancing chemical processes and innovation. Beyond his professional life, he is a proud spouse and parent of an energetic toddler who keeps him on his toes with her endless curiosity and playfulness.

I am currently a Process Engineer at Sulfuric Acid Alkylation unit at PEMEX Deer Park. I also support intermediate tank farm and a naphtha splitter. I started current role in October 2021. I was Heavy Products Scheduler for two years at Shell Deer Park, prior to sale of interest in Joint Venture.

Mark Geisenhoff is the Global Fixed Equipment Leader for Flint Hills Resources within the Operations Services Group. Mark’s 40 years of experience has focused on mechanical integrity and fixed equipment reliability and inspection practices. He has led reliability and mechanical integrity groups at various sites and has been in the corporate leadership position since 2008. Mark is an active member within API and AFPM and is the current vice-chairman of API Sub-Committee on Inspection & Mechanical Integrity (SCIMI) and chairman of the Advancing Process Safety MI Subgroup (MISG).

Bill Keesom has consulted with refiners and government regulators for over 3 decades to help determine cost-effective methods to meet clean fuels requirements. He has significant experience in modeling refineries and leading technical/economic evaluations of new plant configurations and investments, and helped establish fundamental bottoms up methodology for estimating well-to-wheel GHG emissions from oil production and refining used by LCA practitioners.

Soheil is the Chief Carbon Technologies Officer at Green Star BCS. He has served in various positions (Vice President of Low Carbon Group, Group Manager, and Refining Technology Manager) and provided consulting services to numerous Refining, Petrochemical, and Energy Sectors.

He has established his reputation and career on his front-end consulting for refining and petrochemical clients, for whom he has routinely reduced GHG emissions and project costs over the past 35 years. His expertise includes Renewable Fuels, Hydrotreaters, Hydrocrackers, Crude, FCC, Coker, and Hydrogen.

Soheil is a world-renowned leader in Energy Transition and renewable fuels strategy development. He led the major Refineries conversion, including the world’s largest renewable fuel production facility in the US, and identified many Energy/ GHG Reduction Projects (listed on the CARB website).

He has worked on 90+ renewable/ alternative liquid fuels studies and projects globally, with a combined capacity of 500+ MMBPD renewable fuels.

Soheil holds a BSChE from Tehran University.

Jeffrey Sexton is the Refining Technology Director for Marathon Petroleum Company located in Findlay, Ohio. He directs the efforts of 40 subject matter experts to provide technical and operational expertise and support to Marathon’s downstream organization while working closely with the refining Technical Services departments. Jeff also has responsibility for Virent. This is a technology company based in Madison, Wisconsin that produces transportation fuels from corn sugar. Jeff previously worked for UOP in a variety of assignments and has worked in over 64 different refineries around the world. Jeff was previously the FCC & Alky subject matter expert for Marathon responsible for unit technical and operating performance and Operations & Training Director. He has authored over 30 technical papers, holds 8 patents and made several presentations at the AFPM and other industry forums. Jeff has been chairman of the U.S. EPA Consent Decree FCC Technical Team, PSRI Technical Advisory Committee and is an AFPM Summit Steering Committee member. Jeff holds a BS in chemical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Background in E/I, Front Line Leader, Reliability, Planning & Scheduling,
Maintenance Manager (Excellence, Contract Manager, Mechanical)

Ann Benoit is a Senior Principal FCC Technologist in Grace’s Global Customer Technology (GCT) group. Ann provides technical consulting to Grace’s global FCC customer base. She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. She joined Grace in 2008. Before joining Grace she held several different positions such as FCCU process engineer, economic analyst, and logistic manager at a Gulf Coast refinery. She has over 20 years of refinery and catalyst experience.

Kim Gilbreath is a skilled Analyzer and Instrumentation Technician with over 23 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Knowledge in all aspects of process instrumentation and specialized in gas detection, tail gas, and lube oil analyzers. Involved with Motiva's vocational learning and mentoring programs for all local schools and colleges pertaining to STEM and STEAM using robotic and drone technology.

Joe Gilbreath is an experienced Instrument/Analyzer/Electrical Technician with 34+years working in the Oil and Gas Industry. Skilled in Gas Detection, Process Instrumentation, Analyzers and Electrical installation, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting and repair. Mentor for Motiva's S.T.E.M/S.T.E.A.M initiatives in schools and universities for today's youth and adult workforce in their community. Utilizing robotics, drones and the latest technology to inspire and educate the next generation of workers about careers in Oil and Gas.

Keith joined ARIX Technologies as the Director of Business Development. Keith has over 15 years of experience in the Energy industry and a Ph.D. in Physics. He has held management positions across technical, commercial, and planning in Oil & Gas and began his career supporting Deep Water R&D.

Adi Punuru, Ph.D., is Autonomous Process Operations Commercialization Lead at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. Adi has been working within various ExxonMobil groups and with external vendors in developing next-gen technologies, including AI/ML for Autonomous Process Operations.
 
Adi is an expert in Model Predictive Controls Technology and Base Controls Applications Design and Implementation. He has more than 30 years’ experience in implementation of APC applications in both in downstream and upstream areas. He led the deployment of Base Control Performance Monitoring technology globally within ExxonMobil.
 
Adi received his M.S., and PhD from the University of Louisville, Kentucky and B.Tech from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India

Ziad Jawad is the Director of FCC Technology at Phillips 66 in Houston TX where he supports Fluidized Catalytic Cracking operations to deliver a competitive advantage. He is responsible for setting technical strategy via catalyst selection, capital projects / improvement opportunities, and implementing best-practices across the organization. He supports plant operations, focuses on improving process-safety and assuring regulatory compliance. Prior to joining P66 Ziad was Director Catalytic Cracking Technology at Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology and Vice President / General Manager Houston at Emtrol LLC. Ziad holds a BSChE from the Virginia Tech University and has over 26 years of experience in the refining industry.

Richard Grove is an FCC Subject Matter Expert with the Chevron Global Manufacturing Process Technology Team. Richard received B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide). Prior to assuming his current position at Chevron in 2007 Richard worked as the West Coast Regional Manager for GRACE Davison. Richard worked as the FCC Process Engineer at Chevron Pascagoula refinery before his employment at GRACE Davison. Richard has given many presentations on the wonderful aspects of FCC Units and loves bringing new people into the FCC family.

Melike Yersiz joined the U.S. Chemical Safety Board as a Chemical Incident Investigator in March 2020. Prior to joining the CSB, she developed 12 years of industry experience at two refineries. Ms. Yersiz has a B.S. in Chemical-Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bruce is an experienced executive professional with more than five decades of experience defining, developing, and implementing innovative solutions utilizing leading edge technologies. Recognized for his innovative approaches, he always focuses on delighting the user community with common sense capabilities that fundamentally transform and enable front-line organization to achieve and sustain ever improving levels of operational excellence.

Beginning his career with NASA supporting the Apollo and other space-based programs, transitioning to holding leadership positions with recognized leading industry vendors, Bruce retired from Suncor Energy in 2015 as Manager, Business Process Integration. After which he then completed another 5 years as Director, Digital Transformation for Sinclair Oil. Most recently his work was recognized and honored with the AFPM 2021 Peter G. Andrews Lifetime Service recognition. Bruce remains active as a enterprise technology SME, influencer and industry consultant.

As Manager of SmartPlant and Document Control at Motiva Enterprises, Adam has over fifteen years' experience in OGC systems management and administration. He is fully certified in SmartPlant P&ID, SPEL and S3D and is his experience includes work on Offshore Drilling/Oil Platforms, On Shore, LNG, Petrochemical, Chemical Gasification, Hydrocarbon and Electrical Plants. Adam is also well versed in project support management with extensive experience managing the customized automation, symbol creation, parametric symbols, customized reports, program updates, design work, application administration and integration of the SmartPlant Tools Suite.

Dr. Anderson received his Bachelor of Science in agriculture from Ohio State University in 1980. From 1980 until 1994 he held several management positions in the agriculture and retail industries. During this time, he obtained his master’s in business administration from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. In 1999 he obtained a Ph.D. in psychology at Ohio State University. Since 2000 he has run his company, Integrated Leadership Systems. ILS has offices in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio and has provides leadership development services for hundreds of companies all over North America. ILS has done consulting for many nationally recognized companies including Sunoco, McGraw Hill, Honda, Nationwide, Ohio State University, Husky Energy, Irving Oil, OhioHealth, and Worthington Industries. Presently, Dr. Anderson is on the board of directors of The Nature Conservancy and is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science. Dr. Anderson is the author of four books about leadership.

Mr. Moreaux holds a B.S in Chemical Engineering from Lamar University and has been with LyondellBasell for over 20 years in various roles of increasing responsibility in the manufacturing organization. Through multiple assignments in Channelview, Corpus Christi, Bayport and Chocolate Bayou, Lawrence has gained broad knowledge and experience in Olefins, Intermediates and Derivates and Polymers. He is also a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Council and chair of the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers Walk the Line group. Mr. Moreaux is now the Director, Digital Technology Integration for LyondellBasell.

Chris Lee is President at The Hand Safety Tool Company, LLC in Missouri City, TX. He is responsible for the company’s operations and product development efforts. Chris possesses over 20 years of experience in industrial distribution and innovative safety tool development within various market segments. The Hand Safety Tool Company’s products focus on improving worker safety by helping to address common workplace hazards such as pinch points, line of fire risks and ergonomic issues. Chris holds a Masters in Industrial Distribution and B.A. in Philosophy from Texas A&M University.

Russell is from Sweeny, Texas, where he works as a Union Boilermaker with Phillips 66. He has been a boilermaker for 14 years. He currently leads the Sweeny Refinery Maintenance Area Safety Team. In this capacity he created SWAGGER, a ergonomics and work readiness program used by the refinery. He also collaborated with the Hand Safety Tool Company to develop the Grading Removal Tool, which is now patented and protecting personnel across our industry. He is also a Safety Instructor and curriculum developer at his site.

Jarvis has been a Boilermaker with Phillips 66 for over 12 years & has experience inside the refinery for over 20 years. Listed as one of the top P66 Safety Days Instructors he’s been very involved in any activities that become available. Recently there’s been a ton of progress along with success with the collaboration that’s been made between Jarvis and the Hand Safety Tool Company.

Serving as an ERT member for over 10 years, emergency care has become a passion of his. This year was very exciting as Jarvis and his Certified P66 Rope Rescue Team managed to capture a gold ring 2023 IRECA (International Rescue & Emergency Care Association) Annual World Competition 1st Place Phillips 66.

Raj Puri is the Corporate Medical Director for PBF Energy. He oversees the health and wellbeing of employees across the company. In this role, he also initiates strategic health initiatives and innovation for employees. He is a physician with expertise at the intersection of medicine and technology, involving workplace safety. Dr. Puri has been a speaker at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and other Silicon Valley conferences. He has degrees and medical training from UC Berkeley, UC-San Francisco, UPenn, and has worked for many years as a Professor/faculty at Stanford University.

As an leader, engineer, and data science enthusiast, I have a passion for leading teams to find and solve real world problems using data, computational thinking, engineering and team work.

Experience examples:
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Set long term labor services model for large manufacturing asset ($10M/yr) using statistical analysis, visualization, and data story telling. Coordinated implementation with multi discipline team.

Coordinated full site reality capture of large integrated petrochemical complex using a mix of scanning technologies to build a 3D virtual asset to leverage in modeling of maintenance and operations processes.

Built numerous dashboards to expose business opportunities using Tableau and Power BI. These efforts focused on field and planning analytics to support active business processes.

Key business member for Dev team who designed and deployed modern web platform to collect and store major maintenance data. Led design team for business analytics engine built from captured data.

Specialties:
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Digital technology adoption leader, project management, analytics and visualization design (BI engines), Python EDA and statistics, leadership, team building, risk analysis and management, asset maintenance.

In my career (6yr engineering/10yr leadership) I have had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of problems and employ a number of unique technologies leading digital transformation.

- 3D Reality capture and asset digitization solutions (industrial metaverse)
- Computer Vision deployments
- Personnel geo-tracking technology
- Web Solution development and deployment
- Big Data platforms (Snowflake, Azure, etc)
- Augmented Reality applications
- Decentralized blockchain technologies
- Large project ($100M+) management and engineering support
- Large project ($100M+) field coordination and leadership

Specializing in the application emerging technology by combining custom software and off the shelf solutions to plan, deliver, and support motivational training and educational XR interactions.

As a key creative design member of collaborative international teams, I leverage learning theories and research methodologies to derive strategies for adoption, scale, and production of immersive technologies (AR, VR, MR, 3D) at the enterprise level.

As an altruistic and skilled leader, my entrepreneurial skills and knowledge helped to identify, develop, and grow internal service lines at the fortune 5 level, while my extensive cross industry experience promoted collaboration with global teams as a subject matter expert in learning technologies, data, and analytics.

As an impactful design leader, I helped to deliver award winning, innovative global software with growth-oriented industry disruption by developing influential partnerships with internal and external senior executives and government officials.

My educational and growth mindset paired with over 25 years of design experience in entertainment, education, and enterprise has developed a deep foundation of skills in user centered design best practices in which I am able to deliver high impact, motivational learning and extraneous cognitive load reducing software and hardware solutions within enterprise level organizational budgets.

Through my expertise in digital production and XR development, I have saved lives by solving real world business training problems. My unique hybrid of multidisciplinary knowledge results in positive ROI for metaverse focused roadmap challenges.

Virgilio (Virgil) Guzman is a Mechanical Engineer who graduated from Universidad Tecnologica del Centro (UNITEC) in Venezuela. He joined TapcoEnpro in 2020, taking on the role of Sales Director for the Americas region. With a career spanning over a decade, Virgil has specialized in critical service valves application for various units, including FCCU, Delayed Coker, Steam cracking units, and petrochemical applications

Andy Woods is the Plant Manager at Chevron Phillips Pasadena plant. He has extensive manufacturing experience in both Operations and Maintenance mainly in Polymers and Ethylene processes. He has been a member of AFPM’s Reliability & Maintenance Conference committee for eight years. Andy holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland and has 34 years of experience in the chemical industry.

Fritz started his career with Marathon Petroleum Company (MPC) in 1998 just after the Marathon/Ashland Joint Venture.  Fritz has over 32 years of experience as a safety, security, and emergency preparedness professional.  In his current position, Fritz is the Director of Safety, Security, Process Safety Management, & Emergency Response for the MPC Refining organization.  Fritz has held a variety of positions across MPC including ES&S Manager at the Garyville, Louisiana refinery, Safety & Security Manager for the Refining organization, Corporate Manager of Emergency Preparedness, Safety Manager for the Terminal, Transport & Marine Division, and Corporate Emergency Preparedness Coordinator.

Prior to joining Marathon, Fritz spent over seven years in the Corporate Health & Safety department of a hazardous waste remediation & emergency response company where he responded to large scale, high hazard emergency response incidents across the country and provided safety & industrial hygiene support at large environmental remediation projects.

Fritz started his career in the hazardous materials/emergency response training division of a community college on the East Coast.

Fritz is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Certified Instructional Trainer (CIT), and a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM).

Fritz is married to a University Professor and enjoys golf, woodworking, and blacksmithing.

Tom is currently the Vice President, Health, Safety and Environmental for Cheniere Energy. Cheniere Energy is a global provider of LNG with headquarters in Houston, Texas, LNG facilities in Southwest Louisiana and South Texas, and offices in London, Singapore, Washington, Beijing, and Tokyo. Tom has over thirty-five years of experience working in various operational and HSE roles in the energy and chemical industry. At Cheniere, Tom has corporate wide responsibility for health, safety, process safety and environmental operations. He has held previous positions as Director, Global Safety, Security and Operational Excellence for LyondellBasell, and as HSE Manager for Global Refining, Marketing and Transportation for ConocoPhillips. Tom has a B.S. in Chemical and Petroleum Refining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Brian Probert is the Maintenance Manager for the Olefins units at LyondellBasell’s Channelview facility. Brian has 30 years of experience, 20+ with LyondellBasell. Prior to his current role, Brian has held various leadership positions in Maintenance, Project, and Turnaround organizations at several North American LyondellBasell sites.

Mark Mitchell is the Maintenance & Reliability Manager at LyondellBasell’s Channelview Location. Mark has 36 yrs experience, 30 in Maintenance & Reliability. Prior to LyondellBasell, Mark worked 4 years with Sasol in Lake Charles, LA, and 29 years with Eastman Chemical in NE Tennessee. Mark is a graduate of the University of Kentucky in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP), Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE through ASQ) and was a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of TN.

Casey Long is the Director of Field Services for Flint Hills Resources® Corpus Christi and member of Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) for last 9 years. Casey has 32 plus years of industry experience, the last 30 year he has held various Leadership roles in Turnaround, Projects, Maintenance, Asset Management, and Construction in a broad cross section of industrial business segments with a heavy focus in Chemicals and Refining the last 16 years. Casey has worked at multiple sites within Koch Industries of which he spent 6 years at INVISTA® before joining Flint Hills Resources in 2014 to present.

Atique Malik PhD has over four decades of experience in applying APC and AI at refineries and petrochemical plants in Europe, Canada and the US. Atique has worked for GEC, Esso Chemical, Amoco Oil, Air Products and Phillips 66 in applications and supervision. Atique’s current interests lie in the complementary nature of applied model predictive control and applied Reinforcement Learning. He has BSc, MPhil and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Leeds, England.

Adi Punuru, Ph.D., is Autonomous Process Operations Commercialization Lead at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. Adi has been working within various ExxonMobil groups and with external vendors in developing next-gen technologies, including AI/ML for Autonomous Process Operations.
 
Adi is an expert in Model Predictive Controls Technology and Base Controls Applications Design and Implementation. He has more than 30 years’ experience in implementation of APC applications in both in downstream and upstream areas. He led the deployment of Base Control Performance Monitoring technology globally within ExxonMobil.
 
Adi received his M.S., and PhD from the University of Louisville, Kentucky and B.Tech from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India

Rajan is the Process Optimization Engineer for Phillips 66. He has 20+ years of research and industry experience in Process Monitoring, Process Engineering & Optimization, Process Control, Advanced Process Control, Unit Operations, DCS, Process Fault Detection & Diagnosis, working with Fortune 500 companies. Rajan is also a visiting Adjunct Professor at VIT University teaching Process Control for Chemical Engineering students.

Aaron is one of the lead Product Managers heading the development and design of Imubit's Platform. Aaron has been with Imubit from the start, originally the first implementation engineer hired at Imubit. Aaron has held several roles during his 6 years at Imubit including leading the entire Implementation team. Before Imubit, Aaron worked in Wood Group as process engineer designing distillation and hydrotreating systems in refineries and petrochemical plants. Aaron has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M.

Yangdong Pan is a director of advanced process control at Delek US. He has over 30 years’ experience of both academic research and practical implementation in multiple industries in areas, such as process simulation, control, and optimization, as well as supply chain optimization. He also has experience in refinery blending and chemometrics modeling.
Yangdong holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

Alex Kalafatis is a Sr. Director of Product Management responsible for the roadmap of AspenTech APC solutions. He has over 20 years of application experience in the area of Advanced Process Control and Optimization. He is a co-author of a US Patent for Nonlinear Control Technology. Alex Kalafatis holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Sam is a recognized industry expert and has over 45 years’ experience in refinery process chemistry/chemical treatments, opportunity crude processing and crude desalting. During his 45 years of corrosion / refining / petrochemical experience, he has been involved in all aspects of managing risk due changing crude slates and process conditions; including corrosion prevention, fouling prevention and control, failure analysis, and crude desalting.

Sam is active in AMPP, Crude Oil Quality Association (COQA) and the Opportunity Crude Conferences presenting on a wide variety of topic regarding crude oil processing, corrosion control, desalting, and fouling. He is an active member of and American Fuels and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). At AFPM was a member of the 2002 AFPM Q&A Panel, worked on the screening committee (>20 years) and received the 2016 AFPM Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sam is currently an Advisor for Becht.

Wesley Teasdale Bio for AFPM

I have 18 years’ experience in the Oil and Gas service industry, spanning roles including Field Technical Support, R&D, Operations, and Regional Technical Support. I spent 9 years in the Upstream Market segment focusing on Phase Separation and Technical Support. The past 9 years have been in the Downstream Market segment, with my current role as Regional Technical Support with Halliburton Multi-Chem.

Christian is a Senior Technology Engineer for Axens North America. He brings over 14 years of experience to the role holding positions in R&D, technical service, project management, process simulation modeling, and process engineering management in the refining and petrochemicals industry. While his experience spans multiple technologies, he primarily supports developing catalyst and licensing solutions for catalytic reforming and aromatics processing technologies. Christian holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering Science from Benedictine University.

Robert is RBN – RFA’s primary refinery modeler and refined fuels market analyst. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. Robert is an active CFA Charterholder. Robert has nine years of total industry experience split between Western Refining’s El Paso Refinery (now owned by Marathon) and Turner, Mason & Co. He is experienced in petroleum refining and renewable diesel economics, process engineering, process design, and HazOp review.

I have 22 years of experience in refining based at the Chevron Pascagoula Refinery. In my current position, I am a Hydroprocessing BIN Leader (SME) supporting Chevron's fuels hydrocrackers in North America. My wife Sarah and I have two young boys, Gregory and Thomas. In my free time I enjoy fishing and spending time with my family.

Tommy Wagener is a Process Engineering Team Lead at the Chevron El Segundo, CA. He has been working industry & for Chevron as a Process Engineer for the past 7 years. He currently oversees a team of Process Engineers supporting crude units, a hydrogen plant, amine units, hydrotreaters & a renewable fuels plant. Throughout his career, Tommy has directly supported various hydrotreaters and a 2-stage hydrocracker along with some time spent in product blending & tank field operations. He has also supported numerous turnarounds for a variety for technologies & plant startup / shutdown sequences. Tommy holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines.

Michael Alford is the Refining Piping and Valve Specialist for Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC).  Michael and his team provide technical support for piping, valves, bolted flange joints, and specialty piping components for thirteen MPC refineries, four MPC renewable fuel facilities and eight HF Alkylation units, throughout the United States. Additionally, they develop new internal MPC Specifications and Standards related to piping and valves, as well as maintain those that exist.
Michael serves as an end-user SME on the MSS TC-410 task group for HF Alkylation Valves and is active in the API Sub Committee for Piping and Valves.

Brian Probert is the Maintenance Manager for the Olefins units at LyondellBasell’s Channelview facility. Brian has 30 years of experience, 20+ with LyondellBasell. Prior to his current role, Brian has held various leadership positions in Maintenance, Project, and Turnaround organizations at several North American LyondellBasell sites.

Mark Mitchell is the Maintenance & Reliability Manager at LyondellBasell’s Channelview Location. Mark has 36 yrs experience, 30 in Maintenance & Reliability. Prior to LyondellBasell, Mark worked 4 years with Sasol in Lake Charles, LA, and 29 years with Eastman Chemical in NE Tennessee. Mark is a graduate of the University of Kentucky in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP), Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE through ASQ) and was a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of TN.

Casey Long is the Director of Field Services for Flint Hills Resources® Corpus Christi and member of Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) for last 9 years. Casey has 32 plus years of industry experience, the last 30 year he has held various Leadership roles in Turnaround, Projects, Maintenance, Asset Management, and Construction in a broad cross section of industrial business segments with a heavy focus in Chemicals and Refining the last 16 years. Casey has worked at multiple sites within Koch Industries of which he spent 6 years at INVISTA® before joining Flint Hills Resources in 2014 to present.

I am currently employed as a Project Development Manager in UOP's Lifecycle Solutions and Technology group, specifically focusing on Reforming and Isomerization technologies. In my current role, I am responsible for providing catalysts and technical solutions to refiners, helping them improve the performance of their Reforming and Isomerization Units. In this role, I provide technical direction to the business line and ensure the development of the appropriate products. In the past 15 years, I have held various technical and leadership positions in Engineering and Technical Sales at Honeywell UOP. I began my career as a trainee engineer at Essar Oil, where I gained experience in commissioning, start-up, and operation of the Reforming Unit. Later, I transitioned to Foster Wheeler as a Process Engineer. I have more than 19 years of experience in the Oil & Gas industry, with a specialization in Reforming and Isomerization technologies. I am also the author of two US patents and have made multiple invention disclosures with Honeywell. I hold a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and an MBA in marketing.

Tyler Krupp is a Technology Engineer on the Gasoline & Petrochemicals Technologies team of Axens Americas in Houston, TX. Since joining the Axens Reforming team in 2022, Tyler has been responsible for preparing technical proposals, executing feasibility-level studies, and providing catalyst performance reviews and unit troubleshooting assistance for catalytic naphtha reforming units. Additionally, he has conducted several on-side field support missions focused on reforming unit catalyst loading, regeneration, and start-up activities.
Prior to joining Axens, Tyler worked as a process engineer for Marathon Petroleum Corporation with a focus on a variety of units including cyclic reforming and naphtha hydrotreating. Tyler graduated from the Ohio State University with a BS in Chemical Engineering in 2018.

Refining engineer at MPC's Los Angeles Refinery, supporting the Reforming Technology.

Brian Green is Technical Services Supervisor at Marathon’s Garyville, LA refinery. He is responsible for process engineering activities in the Hydrotreater, Hydrocracking, and Reformer areas. His previous experience includes process engineering support for Naphtha Hydrotreater and Reforming and Hydrocracking on process improvements, capital projects, and turnarounds. Brian holds a BSChE from Mississippi State University and has 11 years of experience in the process industry.

I love engineering and mentoring others and have had the opportunity to do so for 23 of the 26 years I've been in the oil refining industry. The industry ultimately chose me more than I chose it.

No computer system can teach young engineers to understand no matter how much data is available, a fundamental understanding of the physics and the world around us is necessary. Young engineers crave this understanding and we are not doing a good enough job of imparting our knowledge and experience as an industry to the next generation(s).

Understand as much as possible while knowing as little as possible.

Scott M. Sayles has 46 years of experience as a refinery manager, engineer, and consultant in the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries. His experience includes most areas in refinery and petrochemical processing. Recent activities are in renewable fuels and energy transformation.

Mr. Sayles holds a B.S. degree from Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI and an M.S. degree from Lamar University, Beaumont, TX; both degrees are in Chemical Engineering.

Sam is a recognized industry expert and has over 45 years’ experience in refinery process chemistry/chemical treatments, opportunity crude processing and crude desalting. During his 45 years of corrosion / refining / petrochemical experience, he has been involved in all aspects of managing risk due changing crude slates and process conditions; including corrosion prevention, fouling prevention and control, failure analysis, and crude desalting.

Sam is active in AMPP, Crude Oil Quality Association (COQA) and the Opportunity Crude Conferences presenting on a wide variety of topic regarding crude oil processing, corrosion control, desalting, and fouling. He is an active member of and American Fuels and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). At AFPM was a member of the 2002 AFPM Q&A Panel, worked on the screening committee (>20 years) and received the 2016 AFPM Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sam is currently an Advisor for Becht.

Sylvain has for the last 41 years held various research, technical, sales and sales management positions where his responsibilities included servicing, product line management, new product development, marketing, and field sales support for cooling & boiler water, wastewater, emulsion breakers, antifoulants and corrosion control chemistries to the refining processing industry. Sylvain currently provides global technical support to the refining processing industries, with a principal focus on crude units; desalting, phase separation, antifoam and solid settling best practices, knowledge management, and technology development. He holds a BSc (Biology) degree from Sherbrooke University, Québec Canada.

Jeff is Global Marketing & Commercialization Lead - Refining at Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions (formerly SUEZ). He has a BE - CHE degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.

After completing a Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Houston, Oscar started his career at Albemarle Catalysts in 2006. He began his tenure at Valero in 2010 in the Refinery Modeling group in San Antonio and progressed through engineering and operations positions at the St. Charles and Port Arthur refineries. He currently is subject matter expert for hydroprocessing at Valero.

Austin Schneider leads Crystaphase’s technology department, with responsibilities in technical service, product development, intellectual property, and customer education. He has developed and applied models for reactor filtration, catalyst poisoning, fluid distribution, and catalyst usage optimization. He has put these models to the test in the field working directly with refinery engineers, conducting on site troubleshooting of reactor fouling and related issues.

Austin has worked in the refining industry since 2004, focusing on fixed bed reactor hydraulics, feed purification, and particle generation. He holds a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in physics.

Vasilis is the Global Innovation and Evaluation manager for Refining catalysts at BASF. Prior to this role he was the technology manager, refining catalysts for Europe, Middle East and Africa at BASF. He holds BS and MS degrees in chemistry and a PhD in chemical engineering from Aristotle University, Greece. Prior to joining BASF, he worked as a Researcher at CPERI Institute of catalysis in Thessaloniki, Greece and as a research Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of South Carolina.

Jason Goodson is a Regional Sales Manager and has been at Johnson Matthey for 4 years. Prior to that he has worked in FCC the last 10 years in Catalyst, Licensing, Environmental and Process Engineering. Jason Graduated from the University of Houston with Bachelor's of Science in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry.

Hongbo Ma worked in the field of FCC catalyst/additives for over 16 years with experience on catalyst R&D, manufacturing, and technical service for various refineries in the US and overseas. He holds a PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michael has 25 years of experience in FCC, having served in roles with technology licensing, catalyst sales and refining companies. He lives in San Antonio, TX where he is a Director, FCC Technology at Valero Energy. Michael holds a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Christian Carnahan is an Area Engineer for CITGO Corpus Christi. His 5 years of industry experience includes time in HF Alkylation, FCC, Hydrotreating as well as pchem and pharmaceutical production. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Arkansas-Fayetteville.

Background in E/I, Front Line Leader, Reliability, Planning & Scheduling,
Maintenance Manager (Excellence, Contract Manager, Mechanical)

Have forty-two years domestic and international refining experience in project development, process design, project engineering, and technical management roles. Currently responsible for vetting new and emerging renewables and sustainability technologies for potential application to facilitate strategic investments that produce renewable fuels, lower carbon intensity, improve energy efficiency, and meet sustainability objectives. Integrate involvement across the enterprise to develop the business case and initiate the conceptual studies that result in renewable and sustainability capital projects. Have BS ChE 1981 from Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.

Kamyar Keyvanloo is a Senior Hydroprocessing Engineer at Phillips 66 with a career spanning 9 years in the refining industry. In his current role, he provides essential support to Phillips 66 refineries, specializing in both fossil and renewable hydroprocessing units. Notably, he played a significant role in the commissioning and operation of the renewable hydroprocessing unit at the San Francisco refinery. With a comprehensive background in industrial catalysis research, Kamyar's expertise has driven refinery performance optimization and profit maximization. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from BYU.

Tanner Lawrence is a Senior Process Engineer at Diamond Green Diesel, LLC. with eight years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry and specializes in Hydroprocessing and Renewable Fuels technologies. Tanner has extensive background in research in catalysis and reactor optimization strategies for refineries to improve performance and maximize unit performances. As a Process Engineer at Diamond Green Diesel in Norco, LA, he has also assisted the commissioning effort of the DGD2 Unit through both the construction and startup efforts. Tanner currently lives in the New Orleans and enjoys playing tennis, drumming, cooking, and reading non-fiction books.

Rich is one of three senior technology experts who support Chevron refinery and gas to liquids hydroprocessing unit safety, reliability, and profitability.

• He focusses on hydrotreating applications, including a broad range of fossil, renewables and gas to liquids-origin feedstocks, and has been in his current role for 11 years
• He is a 1985 graduate of Oregon State University, a registered Chemical Engineer and a 34 year Chevron employee.

Prior to the current role, his career path includes roles of increasing responsibility in process engineering, process control engineering, oils planning, and facilities planning.

Eric Legare is a Chemical Engineer from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has over 30 years in industry with a background in Operations and Technical Services. He is currently a Design Manager with Chevron's TEMA Group in Richmond, CA.

Bruce is an experienced executive professional with more than five decades of experience defining, developing, and implementing innovative solutions utilizing leading edge technologies. Recognized for his innovative approaches, he always focuses on delighting the user community with common sense capabilities that fundamentally transform and enable front-line organization to achieve and sustain ever improving levels of operational excellence.

Beginning his career with NASA supporting the Apollo and other space-based programs, transitioning to holding leadership positions with recognized leading industry vendors, Bruce retired from Suncor Energy in 2015 as Manager, Business Process Integration. After which he then completed another 5 years as Director, Digital Transformation for Sinclair Oil. Most recently his work was recognized and honored with the AFPM 2021 Peter G. Andrews Lifetime Service recognition. Bruce remains active as a enterprise technology SME, influencer and industry consultant.

With over 30 years of experience in the computer software industry, Rudy Alexander is a visionary with proven ability to bring technology to market and developing successful companies. In his current role as President of Breadware, his knowledge of IoT and what the future of tech looks like offers a unique perspective. Rudy has an extensive background in mergers, acquisitions and capital structure in both domestic and international companies. Rudy was the co-founder of 11Giraffes, which developed and provided software to assist retailers in using their digital media more effectively. He has authored several white papers in the software industry and was featured on World Business Review. Rudy was honored with the Charlotte Chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and is a founding member of Charlotte’s Business Innovation and Growth Council.

John Acord is the Site Corrosion and Metallurgical Engineer at the Anacortes Washington Refinery for Marathon Petroleum Corporation. He has 18 years of refining and petrochemical industry experience with prior roles at Rohm & Haas, BP, and Saudi Aramco. He has led the refinery’s Corrosion Control Document and IOW program, and provides expertise for material selection, welding, and failure analysis investigations for the past 5 years at the site. John earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, is a registered Professional Engineer in Washington, and maintains several API and AMPP certifications.

Amit Patel has a BSc Degree in Chemical Engr from Louisiana Tech and a Master’s Degree in CHE from the University of Oklahoma. He is a Licensed PE in OK. He has been with Phillips 66 and heritage companies since 2001. He has held multiple roles in various disciplines over the years in the Technology group. For last 12 years he had immensely been in refinery technical support role - crude oil contamination, overhead corrosion, desalting, and fouling. He was prior Chair STG 34 Oil and Gas Committee at NACE (now (AMPP). He has led refinery technical communications, presented, and published within the NACE community. He looks forward to share refinery impacts of MEA triazine over the years at Phillips 66 to improve awareness at this session.

Michael is a Technical Service Specialist for BASF’s refining catalyst business and is based in Chicago, Illinois. He provides technical service and FCC kinetic modelling support for North American accounts. Prior to joining BASF, Michael worked at UOP for over 13 years in multiple technical functions related to FCC, Alkylation, and Treating technologies. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Austin is a process engineer for Marathon Petroleum's Garyville, LA site, with 4 years of experience. Some of the technologies he has worked on include ROSE, Isomerization, HF Alkylation, and FCC. Austin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Mr. Moreaux holds a B.S in Chemical Engineering from Lamar University and has been with LyondellBasell for over 20 years in various roles of increasing responsibility in the manufacturing organization. Through multiple assignments in Channelview, Corpus Christi, Bayport and Chocolate Bayou, Lawrence has gained broad knowledge and experience in Olefins, Intermediates and Derivates and Polymers. He is also a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Council and chair of the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers Walk the Line group. Mr. Moreaux is now the Director, Digital Technology Integration for LyondellBasell.

Alan is VP Refining, Chemicals and Oil Markets. As Downstream Global SME, he is responsible for formulating Wood Mackenzie’s integrated cross sector perspectives on this global business.

Alan Gelder joined Wood Mackenzie’s Downstream Consulting team in 2005 and became global head in 2009. He transitioned into research upon his return from Houston in 2011 and was Global Head of Refining and Chemicals.

Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Alan had 10 years of industry consulting after working for ExxonMobil in a variety of project planning and technical process design roles.

Alan has a first class Master Degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London, supplemented by an MBA from Henley Management College.

Chloe Petrich is a Director in Standard Chartered Bank’s Project and Export Finance team based in New York. Her role focuses on helping deliver the Bank’s strategy in growing Sustainable and Transition Finance through the origination, structuring and execution of limited recourse/ non-recourse financing, corporate financing, asset-based lending as well as US multilateral / Agency backed financing.
Since joining the team in 2017, Chloe originated and executed cross border Corporate Finance transactions with focus on Project & Export Finance transactions supporting the bank's global clients, across various industry segments including renewable energy, oil & gas, infrastructure, manufacturing and metals & mining.
Before joining the Project and Export Finance team, she worked in the bank’s Structured Finance team in New York focusing on shipping transactions predominantly in the offshore space.
Chloe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2014 where she majored in Political Economy and Diplomatic History. She speaks English, French, and Italian and is conversational in Spanish.

David Schwalje leads Market Development activities for Axens Americas, responsible for technology commercialization and project development for Emerging Markets such as cellulosic fuels, low-carbon chemicals, and plastics advanced recycling. David specializes in renewable fuel and chemical pathways, related incentive systems, and project development and financing, with 19 years of experience holding various roles in the Axens engineering, technology, and commercial groups. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

Jim Andersen is the GM and Head of Business Development at LanzaJet. He is responsible for global business development activities for the LanzaJet ATJ process for converting ethyl alcohol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Jim has over 35 years of experience in the refining and petrochemical industry including ten years as the business director for renewable energy and chemicals at Honeywell UOP where he led the commercialization of HEFA type SAF. Jim holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT in Chicago.

Dr. Normark is responsible for the biofuels
business and the sustainable biofuels technology solutions provided under license. These solutions will help our
customers lower their carbon footprint by allowing them to produce volumes of renewable fuel and chemicals that
will empowering the energy transition, provide energy security, and increase the production of bio-based materials in the
long term. Earlier this year, Dr. Normark
helped launch PureSAF™, a technology
in alliance with Swedish Biofuels, that enables the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, contributing to the
decarbonization of the aviation sector.
Her interest area includes biorefining of lignocellulose into biofuels, green chemicals and renewable materials that will benefit sustainable development and improve energy security.
Based in Sweden, she began her career in traditional pulp and paper industry. Before joining KBR in January 2022, she was the Chief Technical Officer for the Swedish company Sekab, which produces and sells green chemicals, and has developed innovative biorefinery technology for biomass conversion into biofuels and green chemicals.
Dr. Normark holds a Doctorate in Chemistry from Umea University, Sweden, and is a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Lance Packard, FCC Lead Turnaround Coordinator, is an 18-year industry veteran who has worked with over 80 refineries in the United States & successfully executed over 100 turnarounds. He is an FCC subject matter expert who brings knowledge and expertise to the USA DeBusk team.

Dr. Steve Matza is the Chief Scientist at ZymeFlow. Steve is responsible for research and development, product strategy, technical guidance, and regulatory compliance.
Since joining ZymeFlow in 2009, Steve has been instrumental in expanding the company product portfolio by developing additional chemistries that continue to have great global success.

Steve offers over forty-five years of experience as an Industrial Chemist and holds 27 issued patents. Before ZymeFlow, Steve spent three decades at Shell in the roles of Research Chemist, Senior Process Chemist and Corrosion Specialist. He started his career as a NASA Intern.

Steve received his B.S. in Chemistry from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX, followed by a Ph. D from the top-rated Analytical Chemistry program at Purdue University located in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Steve is responsible for the overall management of the Refining Technology department, providing oversight for licensing, projects, proposals and technology development programs. He has over 25 years of experience in refining process design and licensing. Steve holds a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Houston and a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Antonio has 33 years of experience in the oil industry, joined Phillips 66 in 2010, and currently serves as corporate Fixed Equipment Engineering Lead, providing technical support to refining, midstream, and projects. He has is a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a MEng on Materials, and a MSc in Welding Engineering. Antonio is member of ASME and API committees, including the ASME/API Joint Committee on Fitness-For-Service, ASME PCC-2 (repairs), ASME PCC-1 (bolting), API 934 TG G and J (coke drums), and API Std 530 (fired heaters tubes).

Bill Clark is the Director, Reliability for Phillips 66, responsible for reliability excellence programs across the Refining organization. Bill has worked for Phillips 66 and its heritage companies for over 30 years, including time spent at multiple refineries and the company’s headquarters office. He has held leadership positions in maintenance, reliability, turnaround, operations, and process safety. Bill holds an Electrical Engineering degree from California State University, Fullerton and an MBA from California State University, Long Beach.

Andy Woods is the Plant Manager at Chevron Phillips Pasadena plant. He has extensive manufacturing experience in both Operations and Maintenance mainly in Polymers and Ethylene processes. He has been a member of AFPM’s Reliability & Maintenance Conference committee for eight years. Andy holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland and has 34 years of experience in the chemical industry.

Joanna McClellan is Director of Operations – Rope Access at BrandSafway. She is responsible for providing rope access solutions to existing BrandSafway customers. Beginning with her has experience in the US Navy she has crossed over into the private sector serving industrial and commercial industries. She began with BrandSafway working in the Canadian Oil Sands. She has provided rope access operations support across the US, Canada, UK, NL, and UAE both onshore and offshore.

Alex Sabitov holds position of Director, Reforming and Isomerization and Aromatics with Phillips 66 Refining Business Improvement group. His focus is on providing day to day technical support to the existing reforming and isomerization process units at Phillips 66 refineries and development of optimization and project opportunities for maximizing returns from naphtha processing assets.

Alex started his career with UOP as a Development Engineer in 1996 after graduation with Master Degree in Chemical Engineering from Ufa Oil Technological University in Russia. He worked in various functions with UOP Technical Services and Naphtha Technology Business Development departments until joining Phillips 66 in 2015.

Alex Kniuksta is a Principal Technology Specialist in the Gasoline Technology Services group at Honeywell UOP. Alex has spent 15+ years with UOP focusing on reforming, isomerization, and naphtha hydrotreating technologies.

Alex has held roles within UOP in field service, sales support, service manager, and technology service. In his current role, Alex supports a global customer base with unit operation, optimization, turnarounds, training, and troubleshooting to keep units operating reliably and efficiently.

Taylor is a graduate of Texas A&M University and has supported the process industries at Daily Thermetrics for over a decade. During that tenure, Taylor has helped develop solutions for emerging renewable processing technologies, supported the world’s largest grassroots ethylene and hydroprocessing projects, and overseen a number of licensor and corporate customer relationships. Taylor has two children, enjoys coaching his kids’ sports and is a 4.5 pickleball player.

Stephen Gill is Director, Process Safety and has 26 years' experience in refining and chemicals, having held various roles in process design, operations, technical management, and process safety with HF Sinclair, SABIC, Huntsman, DOW, and Union Carbide. Over the past few years, he has been involved with AFPM’s Advancing Process Safety program, participating in and providing leadership in the Process Safety Regional Networks and other subgroups. Stephen has received his Bachelor of Science and Master's degree in chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University.

Karen Kuhn is the Process Control Manager at Cenovus’s Lima Refinery. She has 42 years of industrial experience and 22 years’ experience in alarm management. Karen is responsible for the DCS controls at the refinery and the Industrial Controls Network.
Prior to working at Cenovus Lima Refinery she worked as a Process Controls engineer at Hess Port Reading Refinery, and at Ultramar Refinery, and as a Process Engineer at Elf Atochem Mercaptan plant and at Texaco’s Port Arthur Research Laboratories.

Patrick has 12 years of refining industry experience in the areas of automation, optimization, and leadership. Specific experience includes:
• Process Controls Engineer
• LP & Modeling Engineer, Planning & Economics
• Process Controls & Modeling Team Lead
• Digital Business Lead
• Operations Business Team Lead of Oil Movements
Patrick holds a Chemical Engineering degree by training with a focus on dynamic modeling and control (Lehigh University PhD, New Jersey Institute of Technology BS)

John Durnin has 25 years of experience implementing and supporting process control systems within the refining industry. Early career highlights include a project role for rebuilding and restarting a previously idled, large refinery in Louisiana. John began working for MPC at the Garyville refinery in 2002. There he supported production units and led several projects modernizing legacy control systems.

Later, John took a multiyear assignment to work on Garyville refineries major expansion (GME) project. This was a very large and complex project that doubled the size of the refinery and included multiple new process unit technologies for MPC. John led the design and installation of the control system and supervised process controls resources supporting the project. He subsequently moved to his current role of Process Control Supervisor where he developed Garyville’s Alarm Management Program as an alarm management leader for MPC.

Herb is Manager Maintenance and Reliability for CVR Energy at the Coffeyville Kansas Refinery. Herb earned his engineering degree from Auburn University and has over 30 years of professional experience in Maintenance, Reliability and Turnarounds for the refining and petrochemical industry most recently with LyondellBasell Industries, BP, Shell/Motiva and CVR Energy.

Benjamin Mossman has worked 20yrs in Refining with both Technical and Operations experience in Hydroprocessing, Crude Distillation, and Process Safety Management. A Chemical Engineer by training, he currently holds Operational and Process Engineering Responsibility over a Mild Hydrocracker, ULSD Unit, 3 Hydrogen Plants, and a Sulfur Recovery Unit at CHS Refinery in Laurel, Montana.

Richard Hanson is the General Manager of Petroval Inc. His responsibilities include supporting refinery & chemical plant end-users through reactor-based technologies and services to increase safety and reactor performance while reducing turnaround timelines. Richard has over 20 years of experience providing innovative technologies and solutions for the Oil & Gas industry.

Richard is proud to be involved with an innovative company whose values are based on forward-thinking. Safer, Faster, and Better are the cornerstones of each idea.

Richard is passionate about traveling and sharing life experiences with his family. He also enjoys competing in Bar-B-Q competitions.

Jacob Young is the North American Sales Manager at Petroval responsible for supporting refinery end-users through reactor-based technologies and services to increase safety and reactor performance while reducing turnaround timelines. Jacob has over 15 years of experience providing custom designed technologies and solutions for the Oil/Gas/Petrochemical market across downstream, midstream, and upstream sectors. Jacob earned his BS degree from the University of Houston.

Alfredo Villa is a Principal Engineer in Topsoe’s Technical Sales and Service group in North America, focused primarily on Hydrocracking. Alfredo is responsible for providing technical support to Topsoe’s US customer base. Prior to joining Topsoe, he spent 6 years as a refining process engineer supporting various operating units. Alfredo holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Andrew is the Rotating Equipment Supervisor at the Ergon – West Virginia, Inc. oil refinery. He spent 6 years as a maintenance engineer primarily supporting the rotating equipment group prior to making the shift to supervising the group around 1 year ago.

Brent Gregory is Operations Area Team Leader for Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay Refinery. His first 5 years of refining experience was focused around Process Engineering and the most recent 5 years in Operations management. Brent has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Carol Dwaik is a Process Technical Specialist based out of Western Canada, with a focus on HPI chemical treatment and troubleshooting. Carol's interests include phase separation in the upgrading and refining world, corrosion control, flow assurance, data analysis, and business development. She completed her Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Alberta, with a research focus on electrocoalescence of water droplets in oil emulsions. Carol supports both upgrader and refining operations all across Western Canada and plans to further expand her expertise through supporting up-and-coming process R&D in the Gulf Coast region.

Liz Manning is the Process Safety & Operational Excellence Manager for LyondellBasell’s Houston Refinery. In her twenty plus years with LyondellBasell, Liz has served in a variety of technical and leadership roles in both Chemicals and Refining, including roles in Process Engineering, Performance Improvement, Engineer Development, Process Safety, and Operational Excellence. Liz has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Daniel McGraw is the Technical Services Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s St. Paul Park Refinery. In his 15 years with MPC, Daniel has served in technical and leadership roles at various MPC refineries, including roles in Technical Services, Operations, and Economics and Planning. Daniel has a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Bruce is an experienced executive professional with more than five decades of experience defining, developing, and implementing innovative solutions utilizing leading edge technologies. Recognized for his innovative approaches, he always focuses on delighting the user community with common sense capabilities that fundamentally transform and enable front-line organization to achieve and sustain ever improving levels of operational excellence.

Beginning his career with NASA supporting the Apollo and other space-based programs, transitioning to holding leadership positions with recognized leading industry vendors, Bruce retired from Suncor Energy in 2015 as Manager, Business Process Integration. After which he then completed another 5 years as Director, Digital Transformation for Sinclair Oil. Most recently his work was recognized and honored with the AFPM 2021 Peter G. Andrews Lifetime Service recognition. Bruce remains active as a enterprise technology SME, influencer and industry consultant.

David has been successfully implementing operational and business process improvement solutions for process industry costumers for more than 30 years. These projects range from supply chain management in China to production performance in Saudi Arabia to pipeline customer management systems in Argentina: always with a focus on process and performance improvement. Most recently, David and his team have been working closely with the Operational Excellence groups to provide a variety of low code solutions in areas covering business process enablement and business & process analytics.

Andrew is VP of Professional Services at Macedon Technologies where he has spent the past 10+ years partnering with business and technology leaders at nearly 100 organizations as they seek to streamline their operations. By applying low code technologies, these initiatives have successfully automated mundane, slow, and error-prone tasks like Job estimation, costing, and tracking, Skill-based technician selection and scheduling, ERP data entry, capturing and managing engineering / technical support requests, and Operational procedure tracking.

Sarah Mahmoud is a Process Engineer and Energy Coordinator at the Parkland Refinery in Burnaby, BC. Sarah has been with Parkland for 4 years and has experience on a variety of process units. Currently, she works to increase the energy efficiency of the facility while supporting safe and reliable operations. She is interested in developing and applying data-driven solutions to support optimization and emission reduction initiatives at the Burnaby Refinery. Sarah has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of British Columbia. She is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng) with Engineers and Geoscientists BC.

Robert Ohmes is the Division Manager for Strategic Business Planning with Becht. With over 30 years of experience in refining and technical consulting working, Robert has extensive business planning and optimization expertise. He has broad experience consulting domestically and internationally throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Robert brings with him a passion for helping clients succeed and developing long-term partnerships. Prior to joining Becht, he worked as a Principal Consultant with KBC Advanced Technologies in Houston, Texas and as a refinery engineer for Flint Hills Resources in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ohmes holds degrees from Kansas State University (BSChE) and Tulane University (MBA) and is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana and Idaho.

With more than a decade of experience with Emtrol-Buell, Steve has been involved in every aspect of FCC cyclone system design. In addition to cyclone design, he provides troubleshooting and inspection expertise for clients that are experiencing elevated catalyst losses or mechanical failures. Steve has been involved in the cyclone system design for the smallest and largest FCCU’s in world, and he enjoys working closely with clients to solve problems and improve FCC operation. Steve holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Messiah College.

Virgilio (Virgil) Guzman is a Mechanical Engineer who graduated from Universidad Tecnologica del Centro (UNITEC) in Venezuela. He joined TapcoEnpro in 2020, taking on the role of Sales Director for the Americas region. With a career spanning over a decade, Virgil has specialized in critical service valves application for various units, including FCCU, Delayed Coker, Steam cracking units, and petrochemical applications

Tiffany Clark is a corporate FCC Technologist with Marathon Petroleum Company. Tiffany has spent over half of her twenty-year refining career supporting FCC Operations in Technical Services, Operations and FCC Catalyst roles, in addition to various roles in Process Engineering, Operations, Refinery Economics, Planning and Scheduling. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University and MBA from the University of Houston.

Alfredo Villa is a Principal Engineer in Topsoe’s Technical Sales and Service group in North America, focused primarily on Hydrocracking. Alfredo is responsible for providing technical support to Topsoe’s US customer base. Prior to joining Topsoe, he spent 6 years as a refining process engineer supporting various operating units. Alfredo holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Andrew is the Rotating Equipment Supervisor at the Ergon – West Virginia, Inc. oil refinery. He spent 6 years as a maintenance engineer primarily supporting the rotating equipment group prior to making the shift to supervising the group around 1 year ago.

Brent Gregory is Operations Area Team Leader for Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay Refinery. His first 5 years of refining experience was focused around Process Engineering and the most recent 5 years in Operations management. Brent has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Carol Dwaik is a Process Technical Specialist based out of Western Canada, with a focus on HPI chemical treatment and troubleshooting. Carol's interests include phase separation in the upgrading and refining world, corrosion control, flow assurance, data analysis, and business development. She completed her Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Alberta, with a research focus on electrocoalescence of water droplets in oil emulsions. Carol supports both upgrader and refining operations all across Western Canada and plans to further expand her expertise through supporting up-and-coming process R&D in the Gulf Coast region.

Liz Manning is the Process Safety & Operational Excellence Manager for LyondellBasell’s Houston Refinery. In her twenty plus years with LyondellBasell, Liz has served in a variety of technical and leadership roles in both Chemicals and Refining, including roles in Process Engineering, Performance Improvement, Engineer Development, Process Safety, and Operational Excellence. Liz has a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Daniel McGraw is the Technical Services Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s St. Paul Park Refinery. In his 15 years with MPC, Daniel has served in technical and leadership roles at various MPC refineries, including roles in Technical Services, Operations, and Economics and Planning. Daniel has a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Dean Roberts is the Ergon‐West Virginia Business Coordinator working Jackson, MS. He is responsible for coordinating strategic initiatives and priorities between the refinery and all other Ergon entities associated with EWV. He has 31 years of experience in Engineering, Maintenance and Capital Projects in the lube and oil refineries, as well as natural gas processing. He has provided engineering, maintenance and operations support on large grassroots construction and major revamps in these industries.

Cory Bird is a Project Engineer at Ergon West Virginia, Inc. in Newell, West Virginia. He has led numerous projects in the Hydrogen Processing, MEK Dewaxing and Platformer Units. He is also responsible for other engineering support tasks such as event investigations and facility reliability.

Sergio A. Robledo, is a Senior Account Manager for Clean Fuels Catalyst Sales with Haldor Topsoe in North America. He is responsible for developing catalyst business opportunities and provides expert technical advice relating to selection, use and operation of catalysts and technologies. He has over 20 years of refining experience, 8 of which are working directly for an owner/operator. He holds a BE in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

David de Gruyl has over 20 years of experience as a process design engineer and ebullated-bed technology expert at Axens NA.
He has performed various engineering duties ranging from process design, dynamic simulator design and technical services for various petroleum refinery units with emphasis on heavy oil upgrading (H-Oil), direct coal liquefaction, gasoline desulfurization, diesel hydrotreating, and fixed-bed hydrocracking. David has taken a lead role in simulation and model development for both steady-state and dynamic environments, from reaction modeling through training utilizing the simulators. Throughout his career he has performed reactor modelling, programming, simulation layout and operator training through the use of dynamic simulators.

Lon received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in 1995 and a Master’s of Science in Engineering in 1998 from Kansas State University. Upon completion, Lon began his professional career in environmental engineering and held several positions within an inorganic chemical manufacturing complex. In 2006, Lon received his MBA from Newman University. In 2007, he joined CHS refinery at McPherson, Kansas. Lon is currently a Process Engineering Supervisor serving as process engineer for the Hydrocracker, Hydrogen Plants, FCCU, Gas Complex and Merox units. He serves as the site SME for hydroprocessing and hydrocracking.

Ryan Jesina is a Sr. Technical Service Engineer for Topsoe’s Technical Sales and Service group in North America, focused primarily on Hydroprocessing. Ryan is responsible for providing technical support to Topsoe’s US customer base. Prior to joining Topsoe, he spent 5 years as a refining process engineer supporting various operating units. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University.

Ido is CIO & Chief Data Officer with 20 years record of IT Expertise in various industries. A Data & Analytics Leader with a proven ability to make Enterprises Data Driven. He is Heading the Technology and Data Division of Delek US. In charge of the IT group (managing the CIO) , Cyber Security (managing the CISO), Data & Analytics and the Digital Transformation and Delivery team.

Managing approximately 200 people, internal, external and P.S dedicated teams in the US, India and Israel. Prior to joining Delek US, Ido Led the IT division of EL AL alongside managing the Cyber Information Security officer (and his team), the Data & Analytics field (over 200 people all together) and served as the Chairman of the Board for Cockpit innovation. He held 2 successful Chief Data Officer Roles (Telco & Aviation). Leading Big Data Teams, BI Departments, Advanced Analytics Units (Data Science) and Data Literacy programs.

International Speaker, an Adjunct Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University and the Technion for Big Data Technologies, Data Science and Data Visualization. Representing the state of Israel at MIT’s CDOIQ forum. A Data Geek with a business state of mind.

Bill Clark is the Director, Reliability for Phillips 66, responsible for reliability excellence programs across the Refining organization. Bill has worked for Phillips 66 and its heritage companies for over 30 years, including time spent at multiple refineries and the company’s headquarters office. He has held leadership positions in maintenance, reliability, turnaround, operations, and process safety. Bill holds an Electrical Engineering degree from California State University, Fullerton and an MBA from California State University, Long Beach.