As you will see below, our speakers represent regulatory bodies, industrial process plants, power stations, storage terminals and other industrial facilities right across the world. Gain an insight into what speakers are looking to achieve with their sessions here.
Hervé Barthélémy
International Fellow
Air Liquide
Hervé is a graduate engineer from the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble and has a PhD in Materials Science. His career with Air Liquide spans 37 years and since 2002, he has been responsible for all activities relating to Materials, Gas Cylinders and Pressure Equipment and Hydrogen.
As well as being a member of the Board of AFNOR, Hervé is currently chairing many activities for standards and external activities including the ECUI and EIGA Working Group on Cryogenic Vessels, in addition to sub committees and working groups on gas cylinders, the CEN/268 and ISO/TC/220 on Cryogenic vessels. He is an avid member of the Technical Advisory Board of ISO/TC 197, ASME and ASTM and is also Vice President of HYSAFE.
David Bogert
Senior Boiler Engineer
RWE Generation UK plc
David is a Mechanical Engineer with a broad range of experience within the power industry, including roles as a Project Engineer, Proposals Engineer and Power Station Engineer.
Since 1997 he has worked as a Power Plant Boiler and Pressure Parts Specialist for RWE and the wider UK power industry, developing a comprehensive knowledge of pressure systems integrity management. Within this field, David has gained extensive experience in the analysis of pressure parts and structures, determination of inspection requirements, visual inspection of boiler and pipework systems, design of modifications and policy setting.
David Bogert
Stuart Brady
Mechanical Engineering Specialist
ExxonMobil Research & Engineering
Stuart started his Career with Foster Wheeler Energy in 1988 as a Technology Engineer, and moved on to a role with Zurich Engineering as Pressure Systems Consultant in 1994. He joined ExxonMobil in 1997, initially based in the UK and providing support to EM’s European refineries. Then in 1998, Stuart started an assignment in Florham Park New Jersey at Exxon Research and Engineering, working primarily in the Fluid Solids Technology area on Reactor/internals designs.
He joined ICI (Later Johnson Matthey Catalysts) as Mechanical Technology manager in 2001 taking responsibility for the development of their Gas Heated reforming Technology. In this role Stuart led the innovation of ICI’s proprietary reactor designs, through proof of concept and scale up activities.
Stuart re-joined ExxonMobil in 2009 working within Core Engineering (Chemicals) providing technical support to the Chemicals business worldwide. ExxonMobil combined their Engineering organisations for Chemicals and Refining in 2014 and Stuart now works across the Chemicals and Refining businesses.
Stuart is currently on Expat Assignment at the ExxonMobil Spring Campus in Houston, assigned to the Advanced Analysis Group as well as acting as Mechanical Discipline Technology Lead for the ExxonMobil Beaumont complex. Stuart has worked for ExxonMobil for 12 years in the Chemicals and Refining areas.
Nic Butcher
HM Electrical, Control and Instrumentation Specialist Inspector
HSE
Nic is a Chartered Chemical Engineer who has worked as a Specialist Inspector for HSE in the Hazardous Installations Division for 8 years. Main roles include inspection of COMAH regulated sites and investigation of incidents covering functional safety, control systems and electrical ignition hazards. Nic is also HSE’s representative to EEMUA with respect to electrical, control and instrumentation.
Nic has an industrial background working as a Control System Design, Installation and Commissioning Engineer for a leading DCS control system vendor – this included projects in the chemical, oil and gas and other related sectors. He has also worked for a major bulk chemical manufacturing company including improvement projects for control and safety systems and for the Environment Agency.
Alan Cockerill
Consultant
EEMUA
Alan’s career spans over 40 years in the chemical industry. After 15 years in maintenance engineering on ICI’s Wilton site on Teesside, he moved into project management where he managed projects for ICI Films and ICI Acrylics all over the world. He completed his ICI career as a Business Unit Operations Manager in Eutech - ICI’s devolved engineering business.
Alan continued his project management career with Huntsman and latterly SABIC where his major role was as Project Manager of SABIC’s LDPE plant. After retiring, Alan continued his career as an Engineering and Project Management Consultant working with EEMUA, and various chemical companies.
Mark Cooper
Consultant
EEMUA
Mark is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has extensive knowledge of power generation having held senior positions in the industry.
Throughout his career he has led specialist Engineering teams devising solutions to process safety risks and has developed Engineering policies and strategies for safely managing and extending the life of plant components. Much of this work involved the formulation of in-service inspection and test programmes.
Mark has taken part in and conducted a number of panels of inquiry into serious plant incidents and breakdowns. He was instrumental in establishing the Generators Safety and Integrity Programme (GENSIP), a cross-industry group setting good practice in the management of process safety risks. He also chaired its Pressure Systems Working Group and Management Board.
Mark is now working as an Engineering Consultant providing mentoring and engineering advice. He is currently Chair of EEMUA’s User Inspectorates (UIC) Committee.
Jon Cummings
Reliability and Engineering Leader
Valero Energy Ltd
As a professional Mechanical Engineer with 25 years’ experience in the petrochemical industry, Jon is a chartered member and fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Jon’s Mechanical Engineering career began as a pressure vessel and piping design Engineer for a large EPC contractor working in the UK, Malaysia and Thailand before joining Texaco as a Lead Mechanical & Civil Design Engineer in 1997. Since then, Jon has also worked for both Chevron and Valero Energy Ltd in Inspection, Area Maintenance and Shutdown Planning and Execution. Jon is currently the Reliability and Engineering Leader for Valero Energy Ltd at their Pembroke Refinery in West Wales.
Robin Essenius
International Maintenance Advisor
Vopak Management Netherlands B.V
Robin’s career with storage tanks spans over 15 years. After playing an important role in building a company which specialised in products for storage tanks, he moved to Vopak and was responsible for the maintenance of storage tanks in all terminals in the Netherlands.
He has recently moved to the Global Operations department in the role of International Maintenance Advisor, responsible for international implementation of risk based maintenance systems on all equipment for Vopak terminals worldwide.
During the last 4 years, Robin has also been a member of the EEMUA Storage Tank Committee (STC) and Chairman of Workgroup 102, which updates EEMUA publication 159.
Marie Fallon
Director of Regulated Industry
Environment Agency (GB)
Marie qualified in Town Planning and started her professional working life as a Environmental Educational Officer in Coventry planting trees and working with schools. Marie joined the Environment Agency in 2013 as the Area Manager for North East and she was appointed to the role of Director of Regulated Industry in July 2016.
Prior to joining the agency Marie had a 28-year local government career including: Corporate Director of Environment in Cumbria, Interim Director of Regeneration, Enterprise and Planning in Northampton; Director of Regeneration in Newcastle. She has also run her own consultancy business providing interim management to different organisations.
Marie is passionate about leadership and leadership development and four years ago she undertook a coaching course and regularly coaches a number of people across the agency as a member of the coaching network.
Karen Gadd
Director
Oxford Creativity
Often told that TRIZ gives her one of the most interesting jobs in the world, probably explains why Karen has done nothing but TRIZ for almost 20 years - helping different companies solve their most intractable problems, just by following logical Oxford TRIZ steps.
Karen studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, and has an MBA from London Business School. She has worked in banking, classical music, as a governor of Coventry University, and as a tutor of Oxford’s Business School (ESCP) before founding Oxford Creativity. The development of Oxford TRIZ and the success of Karen’s book ‘TRIZ for Engineers’ (published by Wiley’s in 2011) has helped the European industry access TRIZ by making it easy to learn and apply to any problem.
Oxford Creativity has helped many different teams of engineers, scientists and managers to quickly master this unique Russian toolkit – which offers direct routes to all available strong solutions. Upwards of a thousand challenging problems in many different industries have been solved by driving Oxford TRIZ logic through the valuable experience and knowledge of many different companies – who despite their expertise and brain power have been stalled, stuck or stymied by an apparently unsolvable problem. So far Karen and her Oxford TRIZ team of experts have never seen it fail.
Jez Hill
Regional Engineering Manager
Univar UK Ltd
Jezz has been working as Regional Engineering Manager for the UK, based at Univar’s Wellingborough site, since 2005. He is also involved with a number of external projects and a member of various working groups.
Some of the more recent projects that Jezz has been engaged with include developing global guidance for managing plastic tanks, which incorporates the inspection and testing of Thermoplastic, GRP and GRV chemical bulk storage tanks. He has also worked on a European Government funded project looking at advanced non-destructive inspection technology to detect flaws in thermoplastic welds. This project aimed to improve the overall safety when operating, inspecting and testing this type of asset.
Huw Jones
Electrical Engineering Expertise Team Leader
Dow Corning
Huw is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology with over 25 years’ experience in the Steel and Speciality Chemicals industries, both as a manager and technical leader. He graduated from Cardiff University with a Bachelors (B.Eng) and Masters (M.Eng) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He currently chairs the EEMUA Electrical Committee (ELC).
Huw is based at a large chemical manufacturing site in South Wales owned by Dow Chemical. In his current role as Senior Electrical Engineer and Global Expertise Team Leader, he is responsible for electrical infrastructure, hazardous area classification and management of aged electrical assets, resulting in numerous electrical switchgear upgrade and replacement projects throughout his time.
Martin Jones
CompEx Operations Manager
CompEx Certification Body within JT Ltd
Martin began his career as a craft apprentice in British Coal, moving quickly to Student Apprentice and Management Engineering Trainee. He became qualified as one of British Coal’s youngest Electrical Engineers in 1980.
Various project and operational responsibilities followed in his role as Deputy Colliery Engineer for 10 years, as well as a full understanding of the consequences of gas and dust in the workplace. He later climbed to the positions of General Manager and Production Director at Europe’s largest board panel producer and Operations Director with an Electrical and Mechanical Contracting company. Martin joined the JTL Group in 2006 and now manages the CompEx Scheme and the CompEx Certification Body.
Over the last 10 years he expanded the CompEx Scheme from just 11 centres to the 55 centres worldwide today and has played a key role in the new module developments to increase the portfolio of offerings from the CompEx Scheme. Martin's biggest achievement has been to obtain accreditation from UKAS for the CompEx Certification Body to the international standard ISO/IEC 17024, which has been held since October 2010.
Jan de Jong
Director/Owner
D&C Engineering
Jan is a leading expert in the tank storage industry. With a background in Mechanical Engineering, he held a number of influential positions before founding D&C Engineering in the Netherlands in 1985. Although he started his career as designer and builder of storage tanks, he now acts as an advisor and knowledge centre with respect to theories behind norms and standards related to storage tanks (atmospheric, pressurised, refrigerated and cryogenic service). Since 2000, Jan’s expertise and experience has been called upon in his role as chairman of the EEMUA Storage Tanks (STC) Committee, which he first joined in 1994. During this time he has co-authored several important EEMUA publications concerning different aspects of working with storage tanks. He also chairs EEMUA’s CompeTank® Scheme Committee and lectures on both the TankAssessor™ and TankStrategies™ courses.
In 2010, Jan was appointed as convenor of Work Group 9 of the TC265 for Centre of European Normalisation (CEN) and he is responsible for the revision works to EN 14015 (ambient storage tanks) and EN 14620 (refrigerated and cryogenic tanks).
Jim Knowles
Technical Director
Applus RTD UK
Jim has been involved in Non Destructive Testing for over 40 years. He started his career in steel making and forging, later moving into NDT Structural surveys on offshore platforms and onshore instillations. He then spent over 20 years as a Senior NDT Engineer with British Nuclear Fuels, working in the development and application of inspection methods within nuclear plant and equipment throughout the UK, USA, Europe and Japan
Over the last 20 years, Jim has worked in the Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Power Generation industries, providing technical support to a number of large facilities and legacy projects. He joined Applus RTD 5 years ago, initially working in Australia to develop the Advanced Technology group and after two years, became Advanced NDT Manager at Applus RTD UK.
Jim has developed five Patents with the most recent being Long Range Phased Array imaging. He is a Fellow of the British Institute of Non Destructive Testing and has been a Director of BINDT, ASNT-NATL and the Australian Institute of NDT.
Cal Leeming
Software Engineer
For over a decade, Cal has been a security advisor and systems architect for some of the most disruptive and successful startups in Silicon Valley. As an ex-hacker, Cal was arrested at 12 years old under the Computer Misuse Act, a story which has been covered by Vice Magazine and BBC.
Cal has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences across the world and worked in public sector as a security instructor. In his spare time, he works with schools to help inspire children with an interest in hacking.
Paul Logan
Director of Chemicals, Explosives and Microbiological Hazards Division
HSE
Dr Paul Logan joined the HSE as a scientist, then trained as a specialist inspector in the biotechnology and microbiology sector. In 2007 he led the Government investigation into an outbreak of foot and mouth disease following an escape from the Pirbright laboratories. He subsequently moved into policy areas, leading UK negotiations on the GMO contained use Directive, and managing teams negotiating and implementing the European Directives covering explosives, radiation, offshore oil and gas extraction, and onshore major hazard industries.
He took up his current post as Director of HSE’s Chemicals, Explosives and Microbiological Hazards Division in April 2015, and is responsible for leading teams covering the onshore major hazards sectors, with a national network of field teams regulating GB onshore major hazards businesses in the chemicals, explosives and microbiological sectors.
Rabinder Manku
Principal Civil Engineer
Advisor in BP’s Upstream Engineering Centre
Rabinder is responsible for maintaining civil engineering technical practice and the provision of technical assurance and subject matter expertise for the civil, structural and marine design aspects associated with onshore and nearshore oil and gas projects. In addition, he is involved with BP Projects and Operations in the integrity management of both new and existing civil and marine structures i.e. their base lining, inspection, maintenance and structural assessment, using risk based techniques and tools.
Rabinder has worked in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry for the past 25 years. He has most recently deepend his knowledge on defining criticality, degradation mechanisms, remaining life assessment and asset integrity management of civil facilities. He is a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer and member of the EEMUA SCE Forum, OCIMF Marine Structures and Civil Engineering Focus Group and part of the PIANC WG 153 that published “ Recommendations for the design and assessment of marine oil and petrochemical terminals” in 2016.
Tim Marks
Association Secretariat
AEMT Ltd
Tim runs the Secretariat for the AEMT (The Association for Electrical and Mechanical Trades). He is also chair of the BSI committee for Electrical Rotating Equipment, and convenor for the IEC Maintenance Team on the Repair, Overhaul, and Reclamation of Rotating Electrical Machines. He is active on the IEC TC2 working groups covering Rating, Performance, and Efficiency Classes. He also represents the AEMT on BSI and IEC International Standards Committees covering Equipment for Explosive Atmospheres and IECEx Certified Service Facilities.
Darren Martyn
Software Engineer
Darren is a respected security engineer with many years of experience in cyber security. In 2011, he was arrested for involvement with hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous, a story which has been covered by IB Times, Independent, Wired and many others. He turned his life around, and for the last 6 years has worked to protect companies across the world against cyber attack.
Darren has been a public speaker and guest lecturer on many occasions, and works with schools to help raise awareness about cyber security and inspire a new generation of good hackers.
Kevin Millican
Senior Materials and Corrosion Engineer
Shell UK Ltd
After graduating in Engineering Metallurgy from University of Salford in 1984, Kevin began his career in Materials Testing and Failure Investigation at Oilfield Inspection Services Ltd in Great Yarmouth. He joined SLP Engineering Ltd in Lowestoft in 1989 as a Welding Engineer and was responsible for Welding and Metallurgy there on new-build offshore platforms and jackets until 2011 when he joined Shell.
Between 2004 and 2009, Kevin also worked for OCB GL and BP on full and part-time contracts in Egypt and Aberdeen. In addition to welding, metallurgy, and corrosion engineering, he has extensive computer programming and database development experience within and outside his main career.
Currently he is the Materials & Corrosion Technical Authority for Shell/NAM southern North Sea projects. He represents Shell at TWI and the EEMUA Materials Technology Committee (MTC) and has recently been involved with the drafting of EEMUA publications 158, 233 and 143.
Ian Parke
Civil Engineer
EDF Energy Renewables
Ian has practiced Civil Engineering for over forty years, working on Turnkey, Process Plant, Water, Energy and Infrastructure projects. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
After undertaking a Technician Apprenticeship and subsequently studying for a degree in Civil Engineering, Ian worked in Morocco and Mexico on the erection of steel rolling mill infrastructure. Throughout his varied career he has also taken on Project Management roles in Water and Energy, utilising his background in structural and foundation design.
At EDF Energy, Ian developed and implemented a life extension strategy for the civil and structural assets at their coal fired power stations. He now works with EDF Energy Renewables.
Andrew Pearson
Engineering Manager
EEMUA
Andrew is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He began his career as a student apprentice at Rolls Royce in Bristol and graduated from Bath University. Since then he has spent time designing gas turbine engines, conducting research and development in fluid mechanics and running a company producing engineering design software for 1-d fluid flow before joining EEMUA almost 12 years ago as an Engineering Manager.
He is currently responsible for a number of technical committees and Work Groups including the EEMUA Piping Systems Committee (PSC).
Peter Pergande
Consultant
EEMUA
Peter is Chemical Engineer who has worked for 40 years in the petrochemical industries as an on-line process analyser, product blending and product quality technical specialist. For the majority of this period, he worked for the central engineering office of a major oil company providing technical, project development and operational support to affiliates worldwide.
He is Chairman of the EEMUA On-Line Analyser Committee (OLA), a member of IEC 65B Analysing Equipment Committee and as part of his industry activities, participated in the development of International Standards and Guideline Publications covering the safety of the design and operation of on-line process analyser systems.
Peter now works as an independent consultant to the petrochemical and process analyser industries.
Neil Roberts
Senior Process Safety specialist
Dow Corning Ltd
Neil has worked within the process industry for 25 years and has been involved with pressure relief systems across all of his varied job roles. These include Operations, Manufacturing, Process Design and new Process Technology development. He now works as a Senior Process Safety specialist for Dow Corning Ltd.
Neil is also Chair of the EEMUA Pressure Relief Safety Systems committee (PRS), of which he has been a member for over 10 years, presenting on behalf of the committee at Pressure Relief conferences and seminars and either contributing to, leading, or overseeing the numerous PRS guidance publications and information sheets.
Anil Sood
HM Specialist Inspector of Health and Safety
HSE
Anil graduated from Strathclyde University, Glasgow with an MSc in Electrical Power Engineering and is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and member of IET.
With over 20 years’ experience as an Electrical Engineer, Anil has worked as an Electrical Control and Instrumentation Engineer in numerous companies, including Rolls Royce Aero Engine Ltd and the National Nuclear Corporation. He has also been involved in Design, Installation and Commissioning of EC&I systems in various industrial sectors, including Aerospace, Oil and Gas, Food, Chemical, Water and Nuclear industry.
At the HSE Anil is responsible for providing specialist input, specifically in the control/electrical disciplines, to assist in the HSE’s mission to ensure that risks to the health and safety of people from work activities in the major hazard industries are properly controlled, by ensuring compliance with the law and promoting improvements in standards. Anil has also been involved in writing operational guidance for EC&I inspectors on the topic of Cyber Security.
Graham Sorbie
Boiler Pressure Parts Engineer
SSE
Graham has worked in the power industry for over 30 years. He started out with Babcock Energy Ltd working in fluid flow and heat transfer at their Technology Centre in Renfrew and after a brief spell in the power station simulator business, Graham joined SSE in 1999. Since then he has been involved with a wide range of plant, including HRSGs, conventional boilers, shell boilers, CHP plants and ancillary systems. His main areas of activity include reviewing safety valve provision, HRSG ductwork and casing problems, tube failures, failure and RCA investigations, valve selection and expansion joints. Presently, Graham's responsibilities are principally the asset management and outage inspection programmes for existing boiler plant with technical input to specifications for new build and retrofit projects.
Stuart Paul Tilley
Senior Inspection Manager
SABIC UK Petrochemicals Ltd
Stuart is a Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the Petrochemical & Polymers business. Originally employed by ICI and now SABIC, a Saudi Arabian Chemical Company, he has a background in manufacturing, design, projects & In-Service Inspection. Stuart counts himself as fortunate to have been the Senior Engineering Manager on the design and build of the world’s largest Low Density Polyethylene Plant.
His role as Senior Inspection Manager for SABIC UK Petrochemicals Ltd involves interfacing with the Competent Authority. Stuart is also responsible for maintaining accreditation with UKAS to BS EN ISO/IEC 17020, thus has invaluable and hands-on experience in preparing for these audits.
Geert Vercruysse
Process Safety Expert
BASF Antwerp
Prof. Geert Vercruysse graduated as a Chemical Engineer in 1992 at the University of Ghent. He started his career at BASF Antwerp as a production manager for the EB/Styrene plant where he became project manager in 1998 and plant manager in 2001. As of 2004 he became plant manager at the Steamcracker, which is also located on the Antwerp site. In October 2012 he took responsibility for the Butadiene Project as Project Manager.
Since October 2010 Geert combines his professional activities as a Process Safety Expert with the role of guest professor in Process Safety Engineering at KU Leuven and University of Ghent.
Andrew Walker
Machines Engineer
SABIC UK Petrochemicals
Andrew Walker graduated from Cambridge University in 1989 and has since worked in various technical roles within the petrochemical industry on Teesside. Companies include ICI, Huntsman and SABIC.
Since 2005, Andrew has been the machines functional leader for SABIC (UK) Petrochemicals.