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.

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.

Javier Rios is a Principal Technical Service Specialist at Honeywell UOP and he is responsible for supporting UOP FCC and Merox operations worldwide. Over the past 17 years Javier has worked in the Field Services and Technology Services groups. As a Field Service Advisor he provided on site guidance and expertise during new unit commissioning, startup, and troubleshooting for Hydro-treating/Hydrocracker, Molex, Fix Bed Platforming, and Merox technologies at multiple refineries throughout the world. In his current role, Javier specializes in FCC and Merox technologies, providing troubleshooting, optimization and operational assistance for over 15 FCC and over 300 treating units as well as supporting internal FCC and Merox technology development teams for UOP FCC R&D and Engineering. He has been awarded 4 patents on UOP Technologies, 3 trade secret for improvements in treating technologies and published 2 articles. Javier earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Optional: He enjoys to play soccer, Karaoke and his favorite team is America (Mexico) – Barcelona (Spain).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Montri Vichailak is Hydroprocessing Technologist at Marathon Petroleum Corporation HQ in Findlay, OH. He is responsible for providing leadership on hydroprocessing and hydrocracking technical and operating performances across Marathon’s refining system. Montri holds a Doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from Lamar University and has more than 23 years of experience in oil and gas industry.

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.

Dean Roberts is the Ergon-West Virginia (EWV) 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 33 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.

Mr. Hoffman has over 50 years of domestic and international engineering and management experience in the refining, petrochemical and synthetic fuels industries. His experience includes plant design, construction, start-up, maintenance and reliability management. He has experience as an expert witness and has conducted numerous due diligence, maintenance and reliability assessments.

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.

Mark Galley is the President of ThinkReliability. He developed his practical experience in risk cause analysis and work process reliability during nearly nine years at Dow Chemical Company. Since co-founding ThinkReliability, Mark has focused on equipping organizations with the tools and training they need to effectively identify and address root causes. Mark holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and became a Certified Reliability Engineer through the American Society for Quality.

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.

Alan Kramer is the Global FCC Modeling Advisor for Albemarle. He is responsible for development and support of the kinetic cracking models used by Albemarle. In his seven years as a modeling advisor, Alan has modeled over 120 FCC units across the globe. He has been a presenter at numerous industry conferences and has had authored over two dozen papers or articles on FCC.

Alan earned a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA from Loyola University in Maryland. He has over 24 years of experience in FCC.

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.

Gary Gianzon is currently a Heavy Oil Advisor at Becht, providing technical consulting in delayed coking, solvent deasphalting (ROSE), and resid hydrotreating/hydrocracking (LCFining).
He previously retired as Heavy Oil Technologist at Marathon Petroleum Company (MPC), the largest U.S. refiner, where he served as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for 17 heavy oil units. In this role, he focused on developing unit engineers through mentoring, knowledge sharing, and structured training. He authored key company standards and procedures for unit startup, shutdown, safety, and operations, including MPC’s coker safety standard and technical training materials for coker, ROSE, and LCFiner units.
Gary supported major projects across MPC, including grassroots cokers in Detroit and Garyville, a coker heater replacement in Detroit, interlock upgrades in Galveston Bay, and the SDA expansion in Catlettsburg. Earlier, he served as lead process engineer for the 45 MBPD coker in the Garyville Major Expansion, overseeing design, reviews, operator training, commissioning, and startup.
He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, graduating magna cum laude in 1992.

Liana Siegel is the HF Alkylation Technologist for Marathon Petroleum Company. She has 18 years of refining experience with positions held in Technical, Economics and Planning, and Major Projects Departments with 7 years of experience directly in HF Alkylation.

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.

Alex currently serves as a Development Manager at Nalco Water across the North American Midstream and Downstream markets. Major operational areas include transitioning accounts from incumbent suppliers into Nalco Waters holistic solutions—or designing/building/operating water reduction projects across refineries operations from a process improvement perspective.

This change leadership often includes managing change of processes, procedures and implementing change of people’s day-to-day operations. Over a decade ago Alex started his career in upstream drilling (Mudlogging) for Offshore US & Guyana operations in ultra-deepwater operations. Alex received an opportunity to start-up a R&D center in Germany working on Gas Analyzers for organic & inorganic gasses on drilling rigs while Alpha & Beta testing this technology into the field to obtain real-time tweaks to the final commercialized portfolio of solutions. Moving back to his operational roots—Alex ran global operations before moving out to the Permian Basin to start-up a reservoir consulting group and eventually running the Sales and Commercial group for a Chemical Supplier in the Basin.

After leaving the Permian—Alex joined Flint Hills Resources as a Strategic Portfolio Manager on Water Reduction projects related to the risks of water consumption within their downstream operation in Minnesota. Before his industrial career, Alex earned a B.S. in Analytical Chemistry from Northland College before attending Michigan Tech for a Masters in Environmental Engineering focused on Biogeochemistry of invasive species within Lake Superior Watershed working across industrial partners, NGO’s and State/Federal agencies.

Currently Alex lives in St. Paul Minnesota and enjoys the 2 months of nice Minnesota weather when he isn’t traveling for work. He and his wife enjoy their downtime and annual trips to Europe for exploration and relaxation. One of his favorite hobbies is listening to podcasts while on a run and getting lost in the data of “The Indicator”, or “Business Wars” and taking lessons from thought leaders and letting his natural curiosity wander.

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.

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

Liana Siegel is the HF Alkylation Technologist for Marathon Petroleum Company. She has 18 years of refining experience with positions held in Technical, Economics and Planning, and Major Projects Departments with 7 years of experience directly in HF Alkylation.

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.

Matt Goodman is the Manager of Renewables and Emerging Energies at Marathon Petroleum Company based in Findlay, Oh. where he and his team are responsible for evaluating and supporting new technologies across the renewables and emerging energies platforms. He is an experienced Chemical Engineer with 25 years of industry experience. He has a vast background in the Refining and Chemicals markets, with multiple roles including process engineering, project management, commercial sales, commercial account management, technology development and licensing, business development, and strategy.

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.

Dean Roberts is the Ergon-West Virginia (EWV) 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 33 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.

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.

Liana Siegel is the HF Alkylation Technologist for Marathon Petroleum Company. She has 18 years of refining experience with positions held in Technical, Economics and Planning, and Major Projects Departments with 7 years of experience directly in HF Alkylation.

Mike DeHart is Executive Director of Maintenance Excellence for Valero Energy. He is responsible for developing and implementing best practices to support routine and turnaround maintenance across Valero’s refineries. Mike has experience in Fixed Equipment Reliability, Inspection, Turnarounds, Maintenance, Operations and Refinery Optimization. He has provided leadership in these areas in refineries and in a corporate capacity.

Tom Golden is Director of Global Maintenance for LyondellBasell Industries, at their Houston Engineering Center. He has 36+ years of experience in the refining and petrochemical industry and is responsible for the corporate-wide maintenance workflows, processes and software tools. He has experience in Maintenance, Reliability, Capital Projects and Turnarounds and has worked in multiple facilities throughout LyondellBasell. Mr. Golden has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

John Duenckel is Director Technology for Valero Energy at the company headquarters in San Antonio, TX. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of routine maintenance best practices company wide. He has 16 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. In refining, he has experience implementing comprehensive preventive maintenance programs for electrical power systems as an engineer and managed a team responsible for overall equipment reliability in the technical areas of electrical power distribution, process controls, and plant instrumentation. In his current role, he works with internal stakeholders on initiatives to improve and optimize the routine maintenance work process. He also develops and analyzes key performance indicators for tracking maintenance efficiency and effectiveness. John is a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas and Oklahoma.

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.

Wendy Wildenberg is the Flint Hills Hydroprocessing Lead and has worked primarily in Hydroprocessing in areas of process safety, damage mechanism understanding, design, and operating envelope improvements, catalyst selection, reaction kinetics understanding improvement, and other large capital improvements. Wendy holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked in various process and operational roles for FHR since 1992.

Delbert Grotewold is a Renewable Fuels SME in the fuel production industry with Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions. He has held roles in research, process engineering, operations management, technical marketing, strategic product development and commercial operations. Delbert’s areas of expertise are in refinery process design, unit operations troubleshooting, membrane separation technologies, heavy and tight oil processing, advanced modeling, statistical process control, data management and water reuse. He holds 5 patents in the refining industry including applied artificial intelligence modeling and refinery process control.

Mr. Grotewold holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering, a BSc in Petroleum Refining Engineering and a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a registered Professional Engineer with 40 years of experience with operating companies and refinery treatment providers.

Alex Kniuksta is a Principal Technology Specialist in the Gasoline Technology Services group at Honeywell UOP. Alex has spent 18+ 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.

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 the Team Lead, Refinery Systems and Sustainability at Chevron's Richmond Refinery in Richmond, CA.

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.

Cheryl Gonzalez is the Enterprise Training Manager at Cheniere Energy and is responsible for corporate training initiatives throughout the company. Cheryl has over 27 years of experience that started in the industry where she began her career as a plant operator. She found her passion for training after taking a position as an Operations Training Coordinator. After 16 years in refining, she held positions of increasing responsibilities navigating the upstream, petrochemical and LNG areas of the industry. Over her career she has collaborated and partnered with sites and colleagues throughout the United States coaching and providing sustainable learning solutions. Cheryl holds a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology from Purdue University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Training and Development from Fort Hays State University.

Wendy Wildenberg is the Flint Hills Hydroprocessing Lead and has worked primarily in Hydroprocessing in areas of process safety, damage mechanism understanding, design, and operating envelope improvements, catalyst selection, reaction kinetics understanding improvement, and other large capital improvements. Wendy holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked in various process and operational roles for FHR since 1992.

Delbert Grotewold is a Renewable Fuels SME in the fuel production industry with Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions. He has held roles in research, process engineering, operations management, technical marketing, strategic product development and commercial operations. Delbert’s areas of expertise are in refinery process design, unit operations troubleshooting, membrane separation technologies, heavy and tight oil processing, advanced modeling, statistical process control, data management and water reuse. He holds 5 patents in the refining industry including applied artificial intelligence modeling and refinery process control.

Mr. Grotewold holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering, a BSc in Petroleum Refining Engineering and a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a registered Professional Engineer with 40 years of experience with operating companies and refinery treatment providers.

I am a Site Manager for SUEZ WTS handling all process, fuel additive, boiler, cooling, and waste water chemical needs. I have an deep interest in all aspects of the refining industry and fuel production.

Bob Graham is a Process Technology Specialist with HF Sinclair Corp in their Corporate Engineering Group. He is responsible for providing technical support to refinery operations for Crude/Vacuum and SDA process units at the 7 HF Sinclair refineries. Bob previously held positions with UOP, Murphy Oil USA and Jacobs Consultancy where he had experience in Refinery Operations Management, Process Engineering, New Unit Commissioning (including 4 Grass Roots Refineries), Planning and Economics, Technical Services, Process Consulting and Managing Profit Improvement Programs. Mr. Graham holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, an MBA from Northwestern University and has 45 years of experience in the petroleum refining industry.

Yugender Chikkula is Manager of Technology-Advanced Process Control & Digitalization with Motiva Enterprises and is responsible for scouting, evaluation and deployment of innovative technologies that can make a difference. Yugender holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University.

Abhay is the Team Lead for the APC, optimization, base layer support, and process modeling team at Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery. He has19-years of work experience in Advanced Process Control (APC), inferential modeling, blend property control and base layer control.

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 the Team Lead, Refinery Systems and Sustainability at Chevron's Richmond Refinery in Richmond, CA.

Bob Graham is a Process Technology Specialist with HF Sinclair Corp in their Corporate Engineering Group. He is responsible for providing technical support to refinery operations for Crude/Vacuum and SDA process units at the 7 HF Sinclair refineries. Bob previously held positions with UOP, Murphy Oil USA and Jacobs Consultancy where he had experience in Refinery Operations Management, Process Engineering, New Unit Commissioning (including 4 Grass Roots Refineries), Planning and Economics, Technical Services, Process Consulting and Managing Profit Improvement Programs. Mr. Graham holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington, an MBA from Northwestern University and has 45 years of experience in the petroleum refining industry.

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.

Rajeev is Director, Advanced Operations Solutions based in Houston, TX and heads the Linde’s business focusing on the development and deployment of technologies that enable autonomous plant operations, enhance profitability, and improves process safety. With over 30 years of experience in process control and automation and is recognized for his expertise in functional safety and has spearheaded the implementation of Safety Instrumented System (SIS) lifecycle standard in Linde Americas, reinforcing the company's commitment to operational integrity. His business unit implements latest automation technology using Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Linde Gas plants as well as for third party customers in various industry sectors to transform these plants to the assets of future. Rajeev holds a master's degree in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay India and an MBA from the University of Houston. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Texas.

Lena Tetampel is Advanced Process Control Engineer at Linde Engineering where she focuses on Artificial Intelligence Plant Control (AIPC) development and implementation work. She has 7 years’ experience at Linde Engineering, mostly in the field of air separation plants, and in the last 3 years has been fully involved in deployment and supporting the development of AIPC. Lena is based in Munich Germany and holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering.

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.

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.

James Esteban is the Senior Technical Manager for Unicat Catalyst Technologies, Inc. His past experience includes operations, engineering and project management with Suncor Energy at the Commerce City Refinery. As well James served as a Senior Technical service Engineer with Criterion Catalysts and Technologies before joining Refined Technologies and ultimately Unicat Catalyst. He specializes in reactor engineering and catalysis with a strong emphasis on hydroprocessing applications.

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.

Anthony Galando has over 27 years of engineering experience with Chevron. He spent 11 years at Chevron’s Richmond Refinery, working at hydrocracking and base oil dewaxing/hydrofinishing units for the majority of that time. He has over 16 years of experience supporting CLG licensing and catalyst refill business, with a focus on hydrocracking and lubes technologies.

Suresh Vaidyanathan is VP & Chief Engineer, Refining Business Improvement for Phillips 66. A chemical engineer, Suresh has more than 30 years of global experience in the oil and gas industry.

Prior to assuming his current role in 2018, he served in a variety of positions for the company, including operations manager at Sweeny Refinery, refining technical services manager for Refining Business Improvement, West Coast strategy manager for Refining, technical manager at Trainer Refinery and optimization manager at Ponca City Refinery. He started his career at HPCL Refinery, India in 1991 (formerly Exxon-Caltex Refining), and later worked in the Fractionation industry with Koch Industries and Sulzer Chemtech in India, Europe and the U.S. Suresh holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Krishnan Vaidyanathan is a Senior Hydroprocessing Specialist in UOP's Hydroprocessing & Renewables Technical Services group with close to 20 years in the technology. He has worked for UOP since 2008 on hydroprocessing, renewables and heavy oils technologies. In his current position, he is accountable for startups, optimization, and troubleshooting. Krishnan has a Bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the University of Calicut, India.

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 the Team Lead, Refinery Systems and Sustainability at Chevron's Richmond Refinery in Richmond, CA.

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.

Carlos Acosta is a Senior Rotating Equipment Engineer in the Reliability and Operational Excellence department at Phillips 66 with over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, specifically in machinery reliability. Carlos holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering with a focus on vibrations, which has equipped him with advanced knowledge and skills in equipment diagnostics, maintenance strategies and reliability. His expertise in vibrations has been instrumental in developing innovative solutions to enhance the reliability and operational excellence of Phillips 66's operations.

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.

Diana Cheek is a senior technical advisor focusing on Crude Units/Distillation in Chevron’s Process Technology group. She has 24 years of experience in the refining industry, with a diverse background spanning several different aspects of the business. Diana has held roles in process and design engineering, process controls, project development, strategic planning, laboratory management, and supervision. Prior to joining Chevron in 2017, Diana worked for two other US refining companies. She has Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences from Wellesley College.

Katie Marshall serves as Senior Technologist for Refining with Refined Technologies, Inc. (RTI) where she leads a team of engineers accountable for the integration of new processes and technologies for all RTI chemical applications. She has 15 years of refining experience beginning as a process engineer in the areas of Crude Distillation, Hydroprocessing, Hydrogen production, and Reformation. In addition to process engineering, she held roles as a front-line shift supervisor and the refinery scheduler in the economics and planning department prior to moving to RTI in 2019.  Katie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical and biological engineering from Colorado State University and an MBA with specialization in Risk Management from the University of Colorado.  

Diane is the commercial manager at Johnson Matthey responsible for the Refinery Catalysts and Purification team and has worked in Oil & Gas for 34 years. She started her career at UOP, where she specialized in isomerization and hydroprocessing. She joined JM in 2005 as a Technical Service Engineer supporting the hydrogen market. She has held a variety of commercial roles since 2012, and has been managing the Americas team since early 2023.

Diana Cheek is a senior technical advisor focusing on Crude Units/Distillation in Chevron’s Process Technology group. She has 24 years of experience in the refining industry, with a diverse background spanning several different aspects of the business. Diana has held roles in process and design engineering, process controls, project development, strategic planning, laboratory management, and supervision. Prior to joining Chevron in 2017, Diana worked for two other US refining companies. She has Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences from Wellesley College.

Katie Marshall serves as Senior Technologist for Refining with Refined Technologies, Inc. (RTI) where she leads a team of engineers accountable for the integration of new processes and technologies for all RTI chemical applications. She has 15 years of refining experience beginning as a process engineer in the areas of Crude Distillation, Hydroprocessing, Hydrogen production, and Reformation. In addition to process engineering, she held roles as a front-line shift supervisor and the refinery scheduler in the economics and planning department prior to moving to RTI in 2019.  Katie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical and biological engineering from Colorado State University and an MBA with specialization in Risk Management from the University of Colorado.  

Keith A. Couch is Vice President of Business Development within UOP’s Process Technologies (UPT) business. In this role, keith is accountable for leading UOP’s global Business Development function. The focus of the organization is to drive improved client value creation for projects ranging from single process units to fully integrated industrial mega-projects.
Since joining UOP in 1990, Keith has held numerous domestic and international positions across a broad range of manufacturing, R&D, service, and business management roles. He is recognized as an author with over 20 industry publications, presenter at over 60 global events and an innovator with 33 U.S patents.
He has a strong background in both Refining and Petrochemicals and is driving UOP’s thought leadership for the Refinery of the Future.
Keith holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University, and a Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in Strategy from the University of Chicago - Booth School of Business.
He is based in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA.

Todd Hochheiser is Global Technical Service Manager at Johnson Matthey. He leads a team responsible for technologies including FCCs and hydrogen plants. Todd obtained his Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and Master of Business Administration from the University of California Irvine. Prior to joining Johnson Matthey, Todd held engineering, operations, and planning & economics positions with Valero Energy and ExxonMobil.

Nate Hager is a process engineer at the Cenovus Lima Refinery with 5 years of experience at the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. During his time at the FCC, he was involved with the startup of a new selective catalyst reduction unit, wet gas scrubber, and preheat furnace as well as a turnaround to replace the regenerator head, cyclones, and air grid. Prior to the FCC, he spent 1 year at Lima’s water reuse units which treat refinery wastewater to be used for boiler feed water. Nate is a graduate of The Ohio State University and is married with two children.

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

Liz Manning works in Process Safety for Cheniere Energy. In her twenty plus years in energy, refining, and petrochemicals, Liz has served in a variety of technical and leadership roles, 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.

Liz Manning works in Process Safety for Cheniere Energy. In her twenty plus years in energy, refining, and petrochemicals, Liz has served in a variety of technical and leadership roles, 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.

Adrián Azpilicueta works for Nalco Water as Sr Industry Technical Consultant. He has over 38 years of experience in Refinery operations, both in Argentina and USA. He worked his first 26 years for ExxonMobil in Operations, Technical, Maintenance and Projects. The last 12 years he has been with Nalco Water, starting in the Sales organization and moving to Marketing 6 years ago as Sr Industry Technical Consultant with special focus on Process Operations. Adrian is an active member of AFPM Hydroprocessing Committee where he presented several topics as well as in the AMPP (ex-NACE) and LRGCC (Laurence Reid Gas Conditioning Conference). He is a Chemical Engineer from the Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina) and has an M.B.A. from the Universidad Católica Argentina (Buenos Aires).

Alex Kniuksta is a Principal Technology Specialist in the Gasoline Technology Services group at Honeywell UOP. Alex has spent 18+ 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.

Clifford Avery is the Global FCC Process Advisor for Albemarle Corporation, Houston, Texas. In this role, he leads the global FCC effort in training, troubleshooting and performing unit health checks for Albemarle’s FCC customers and sales teams. Previously he has held positions in Business, Technical Services (FCC) and Sales (Hydroprocessing and FCC). He has experience in working with FCC units globally, especially in the North American and Asia Pacific regions.

Cliff received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from California State University, Long Beach and has over 38 years of experience in the FCC/hydrocarbon processing industry.

Dan is a Senior Technical consultant at Veolia with 27 years of refining chemical treatment experience. He has successfully treated all aspects of refinery chemical applications including process side antifoulants, corrosion inhibitors, desalters, fuel additives, cooling towers, steam systems, as well as primary and secondary wastewater treatment. Dan is the co-Author of numerous published papers on topics such as reactor bed fouling treatment, successful treatment of cooling towers using reclaimed water, development of new cooling tower corrosion inhibitors, and heat exchanger monitoring.