Stefan Chapman joined Euro Petroleum Consultants in 2008 and currently holds the position of Vice-President relating to consulting and conference business units.
Stefan began his career with Foster Wheeler as a Process Engineer – he later joined Axens in 2003 where he held the position of Project Manager specialising in FCC Gasoline Desulphurisation.
Stefan graduated from Loughborough University in the UK, with a Bachelor of Engineering degree (BEng) in Chemical Engineering.
Walter Pfeiffer is the global leader for Oil & Gas business in the Roland Berger competence center for Oil & Chemicals. With more than 25 years of professional experience he has been driving Roland Berger's oil industry practice to cover the full spectrum of the industry including upstream, refining & marketing and petrochemicals.
On the strategy side he was involved in definition and execution of several refining business strategies. His projects include M&A, joint ventures, concepts for new refineries and new units - as well as radical restructuring. In addition, he has worked on performance optimisation and structuring of refinery organisations, e.g., operations and maintenance. This also includes support in transforming the company culture, e.g., to substantially improve reliability. He also monitored large CAPEX programs for delivery in time and budget.
Walter Pfeiffer holds a degree in mechanical engineering and business administration and has worked in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Americas.
In 2013 Dorothee Arns was appointed Executive Director of Cefic’s Petrochemicals and Plastic Additives Programme as well as of Petrochemicals Europe, the Association of Petrochemical Producers in Europe, formerly APPE. In a first assignment to Cefic from 2006 to 2011 she headed the solvents’ cluster as Director General of ESIG, the European Solvents Industry Group.
Her professional career in the chemical industry started in 1995 when she joined the marketing & sales trainee programme of BASF in Ludwigshafen. In the course of the years she held senior management positions in various areas of BASF‘s chemicals business, notably in marketing, sales, eBusiness and controlling.
Dorothee completed her university studies in Saarbruecken (Germany), Dublin (Ireland) and Granada (Spain) with two Master degrees: in Applied Languages & Linguistics and in Business Administration with special focus on Marketing, International Management and private law.
Stephen has over 13 years’ experience gained through diverse advocacy and stakeholder engagement roles representing the oil and gas industry in the UK and overseas.
Just prior to joining UKPIA, Stephen established and led the UK upstream industry’s Efficiency Task Force in response to the sharp increases in cost, decreases in efficiency and a fall in production volumes that left the UK Continental Shelf exposed to the decline in oil price. Stephen also has significant experience in sustainable association management.
Stephen has worked on projects for the UK Government's Department for Education and spent five years leading the communications department of a European scientific organization in Barcelona.
Stephen is a Board member of OPITO, a skills body for the energy industry. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Imperial College, London.
Gábor Kis is a chemical engineer with solid economic background and comprehensive knowledge in the supply chain of oil industry. He is an expert of organic/ inorganic strategic business development having 15 years’ experience in project definition, project proposal preparation, project approval, project implementation and project post evaluation. Gábor is also experienced in top level company management practice and daily asset management.
Gábor has been an employee of MOL Group since 2002. His major project related carrier milestones include: Gas oil blender project (2002-2004), NIR analyser TEAM (2004-2006); Hydrocracking project (2006-2009); Butadiene, LDPE projects (2010-2011); SSBR project (2013-2015); MOL 2030 strategy – Facing towards Petrochemicals (currently). He has occupied positions from DS development engineer through professional assistant of DS SVP, DS Development Support leader, DS Asset Management leader.
Gábor holds a MSC in Chemical Engineering from Pannon University, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Engine Oil Additive Development in 2006. He has altogether 7 years of experience in scientific research with 13 professional journal publications and 33 conference presentations. He is a lecturer at Pannon University and MOL Internal Academy.
Richard Smith is a manager in the UOP Integrated Project Solutions group within the Guildford office UK.
His group works closely with customers to support the development of large scale refinery and petrochemical projects, from early inception and project scoping to detailed configuration studies. He has worked at UOP for 15years and has a
Richard has a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham.
Antoine Fournier is Area Sales Manager in charge of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe for Axens Licensing business.
He has more than 15 years of experience in the refining industry and has occupied various positions within Axens. Before moving to the Sales department in 2015, he was the Business Line Group Manager in charge of catalyst activities for Light Ends and Middle Distillates.
Antoine has a strong background in the field of hydroprocessing, including Naphtha, Kerosene and Diesel Hydrotreatment, Cat feed pretreatment and Hydrocracking technologies. His experience also includes project management, process design, start-up and technical assistance.
Antoine is a graduate from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in France with a Degree in Chemical Engineering.
Steve Beeston joined Wood in 2008 and he is currently managing business development for the proprietary technology and fired heater business line.
Steve has 37 years of experience involving technology applications for refining and petrochemicals projects. He has worked for BP as a process engineer supporting refinery operations, for UOP where he licensed UOP’s refining and petrochemicals technologies worldwide and for 3 Houston based engineering companies - Mustang, Washington Group International and SNC-Lavalin.
Steve is a graduate from the University College of London and holds an honors Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.
Mike Whitling is the Group Manager of Asset Operations Consulting within the Process Technology & Consulting group, based in Reading, UK. Mike provides Operations, Maintenance and facility Management input to studies and mainstream projects across Wood’s global portfolio.
He has gained considerable operations and facility management experience in an operating environment, having previously worked for Conoco Ltd in the UK. Mike has driven the plant assessment and operational & maintenance best practice/ facility management Human Issues business over the past 24 years at Wood. He has conducted over fifty studies ranging from buyers and sellers due diligence, baseline/ benchmarking to greenfield site assessments and management integrity and energy/ profit improvement projects for a wide range of clients in the oil, gas and chemicals sectors.
He holds a BSc (Honours) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is a Fellow of the IChemE.
Atilla Kiss is a passionate reliability and operational excellence professional with a decade of experience in maintaining and improving the uptime of manufacturing equipment and processes in the oil and gas industry. As a Certified Reliability Leader (CRL), Atilla is committed to combining sound reliability principles and processes with the latest technology to improve asset performance and uptime.
Besides leading various international asset reliability improvement projects, he has dedicated the past years to learning, experimenting with data mining, machine learning, prescriptive maintenance PoCs, and pilots in the asset reliability area.
Currently, he is focusing on developing and delivering an innovative approach to minimize unplanned downtime by merging transparent Operational Risk Management process in production facilities with (annual) financial budgeting process to ensure that his company spends its resources where it brings the most value.
Atilla holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Budapest Business University and pursued his MBA at Cotrugli Business School in Zagreb. He has business consulting experience in financial planning and process reviews with an emphasis on optimization and cost benefit analysis at Deloitte.
He also acts as a visiting lecturer at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Pannon University and as a speaker at a variety of reliability conferences.
In his spare time, he likes exploring potential future use cases of Blockchain technology (in the manufacturing industry (IIoT)) and learning about the whole Blockchain ecosystem.
Matti Koskinen currently holds the position of Senior Technologist, Licensing at the Sales department in Neste Engineering Solutions and he works for technology sales and process development.
Originally employed in 1985 as a process design engineer to Neste Engineering, his almost thirty-year career has included various process design, process development and project management activities for petroleum refining and petrochemical technology transfer activities. He has been involved in various clean fuel and advanced separation technologies, process development projects and various forms of troubleshooting work for heavy hydrocarbon industry.
He is co-author of several patents and technical papers in the area of cutting-edge automotive fuel production processes and is currently located in Neste Engineering Solutions' Head Quarter in Porvoo, Finland.
Matti holds a Master of Science Degree from Helsinki University of Technology.
Hervé Ferraris has 23 years of experience in the process gas industry. Since 2014, Hervé has been Head of Process Compression Solutions at HOERBIGER in Vienna. He coordinates HOERBIGER’s activities for the design of component and control of large compressors at design stage of new refinery units.
From 1999 to 2014, he developed HOERBIGER as a global player in compressor upgrades and revamps, bringing in his technical and business development expertise. He is one of the inventors of HOERBIGER’s REE, reliability and efficiency assessment process.
Hervé has a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Hautes Etudes Industrielles.
Eva Andersson has over 20 years working experience with Alfa Laval as Heat Exchanger expert within various industries and senior roles which includes: Global market development & support manager for Refinery Business, Regional refinery manager for South East Asia and Global business development manager for aromatic business.
She graduated from Lund University in Sweden and holds Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University, Canada. Eva has a lot of industry publications on heat recovery and heat optimisation among other topics.
Patrick Bourges is Senior Technologist at the Heavy Ends Hydrotreatment and Conversion Business line of Axens Catalysts and Adsorbents Business Unit.
Patrick started his career as a Research Engineer in the Catalyst Department of IFP in 1995. He has been involved in new hydrocracking catalysts development. He joined Axens in 2007, where he is now in charge of proposals for catalyst replacement in existing units and technical assistance in the field of VGO hydrotreatment and conversion.
He holds an Engineering Degree from the Ecole de Chimie de Mulhouse, and a PhD Degree from the Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg.
Lewis Kenyon is a Gasoline and Hydroprocessing technical specialist based in the United Kingdom. In this role he provides support to units operating with UOP catalysts by assisting with reloads, routine monitoring and troubleshooting performance issues.
Lewis joined UOP in 2012 as technical specialist working with many customers across EMEA region. Prior to joining UOP, he worked for Chevron and Murco refineries as an operations process engineer in multiple technologies.
Lewis holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bath.
Joseph Gentry is Vice President – Licensing and Technology, for GTC Technology US, LLC, headquartered in Houston, Texas. He previously worked for ARCO Chemical Company, and Lyondell Petrochemical Company as a process engineer in the olefins and aromatics areas.
Joe is a registered engineer in the state of Texas and has authored several papers on licensing process technologies in refining and petrochemical applications. One of the original employees of the former Glitsch Technology Corporation, he is a specialist in GT-BTX and GT-Styrene, working in all area of Technology, Licensing and Business Development. He is the inventor of several patented separations technologies and has specialized in the application of these for the petrochemical industry.
Joe earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University and an MBA from the University of Houston.
Ronan Rocle is Business Development manager at Global Bioenergies.
He joined the Business Development team of Global Bioenergies in March 2014. Before that he has worked for Total, in the Refining & Chemicals branch.
Ronan has a scientific training in Chemistry at Ecole Normale Supérieure and in Economics at the Paris School of Economics, followed by a MBA from Collège des Ingénieurs, Paris.
Laurent Ferrari is Senior APC Specialist at TOTAL, Belgium. He has 21 years APC experience in both Refining and the Petrochemicals.
Laurent started his career with EXXONMOBIL Chemicals in 1997 and joined TOTAL central Engineering in 2001. After a few years in the UK, he is now based in Belgium where he supports the deployment of APC applications across the Refining and Chemical branch. Laurent also leads TOTAL’s APC Network and works to spread best practices throughout the organisation.
Y. Zak Friedman is a principal consultant with Petrocontrol. He has practiced APC (advanced process control) for most of his career, specializing in the use of first principle models for inferential process control, and has developed inferential models to fit many hydrocarbon processes.
Zak’s experience spans over 40 years, working with Exxon Research and Engineering, KBC Advanced Technology and since 1992 with Petrocontrol.
He holds a PhD degree from Purdue University.
Steve Hall is the Director of Engineering Solutions at Process Systems Enterprise (PSE).
He has over 25 years’ experience in process improvement projects in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical and chemicals sectors. His areas of expertise include conceptual process design, heat integration, process simulation/ optimization and combining process optimization and dashboarding technologies for operational improvements.
Steve has a PhD from UMIST in the UK, has written papers on process improvement and has patents in areas of dehydrogenation and hydrocracking. He is involved in the promotion and application of advanced chemical engineering technologies in industry, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK).
Alexey Sachik is Project Management Consultancy Leader at ASE Engineering Company.
Since 2006, he has participated in the development projects of the Russian SCADA system for the needs of the nuclear industry, working in Rosatom. Since 2008, he worked on the development of the engineering and requirements management system, was responsible for the development of system engineering and the ISO 15288 standard within the nuclear industry. Since 2010 he has worked in several companies - contractors of the ASE Group, who developed a Multi-D project management system. Based on the research that was carried out by his team, the requirements for modern technology were formed and the technology platform was chosen.
Currently Alexey is engaged in the worlwide business development and sales of this technology in the largest engineering company in the Russian nuclear industry called ASE.
Alexey received a higher education in MEPhI, graduating from the Department of Automation and Electronics in 2009.
Glen Hay is Vice President of Business Development with Virtual Materials Group Inc., Alberta, Calgary, Canada.
His experience is focused on reactors, heat transfer units, and overall plant modelling and optimization.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary and a Master's in Advanced Process Control.
Valentin has more than 10-year experience working on strategic and capital projects in refining and petrochemical industries. Valentin had started his career with TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil company in the mid-2000s. Besides EPC he worked with such companies as Tatneft, the sixth largest oil company in Russia, and KBC Process Technology. Valentin specializes in providing the following services to the clients - development of production and supply strategies, market and strategic studies, feasibility studies, due diligences and evaluations. His recent projects with EPC are: PET and staple fiber complex in Russia, acrylic acid complex in Russia, new refinery in Uganda, refining upgrade in Russia, petrochemical complex expansion in Belarus.
He graduated with honors from the State Academy of Oil and Gas in Moscow, Russia, where he majored in "Oil and Gas Processing". Valentin also studied “Project Management” in the George Washington University and got additional training from the Deloitte Academy and the EY's Business Academy.
Tristan Suffys is the Secretary General of Eurofuel, the European Heating Oil Association, an umbrella organisation representing the interests of the complete home heating supply chain, from oil companies of various sizes through to independent fuel traders and distributors, heating equipment manufacturers and heating installers.
Tristan joined Eurofuel in July 2016 after heading the EU energy and environment practice of Hanover Communications in Brussels. He has a long experience with European public affairs and association management, having worked in renowned international consultancies and supported many trade associations for 13 years.
Tristan graduated in European politics from the Lille Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Lille) and holds a Master of European Studies from the Center for European Integration Studies of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn.
Since September 2017, Delphine Le Bars is Technology Team Manager in Deep Conversion segment in charge of four technologists.
Before attaining this current position, Delphine started her career in Axens as Technologist for Axens in 2012, mainly in charge of heavy oil conversion through various processes such as H-Oil, SDA technologies.
Brett Silverman is the lead chemist on HTI’s HCAT® Commercialization team and aided the integration of the HCAT technology at both Neste and Slovnaft.
Brett began his career within the nanotechnology division at HTI in 2005 and transitioned into the heavy oil group in 2008. His research interests include organometallic catalysis, nanoparticle synthesis and asphaltene chemistry. He is the co-author of many patents, publications, and international presentations.
Brett received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University, New Jersey, USA, and his undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA.
David Mc Namara is Criterion’s Senior Principal Researcher for Residue Upgrading based in Shell Technology Center Houston, USA. In his current role, he focuses on developing customized catalysts for application in fixed and ebullated bed residue upgrading units.
He has 27 years of refining catalyst experience. His early career was spent in Shell Chemicals R&D in Amsterdam responsible for development of both diesel hydrodesulphurization and environmental control catalysts. From there he moved to Criterion where he has held various technical and marketing positions spanning Naphtha to VGO hydrotreating. He moved into Criterion’s Residue Upgrading global team in 2005. Prior to his current role, David spent 7 years in Singapore as Technical Manager for Residue Upgrading for the Asia Pacific region.
David has a Ph.D. in Heterogeneous Catalysis from University College Cork, Ireland & a Diploma in Process Technology from University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Martin de Wit is FLEXICOKING Technical Sales Manager for ExxonMobil Catalysts & Licensing GBU. He is based at the ExxonMobil Rotterdam Refinery. He has 40 years of operational experience, working as a ships engineer, offsite operations, onsite operations, turnaround preparation, execution and preparation of turnaround reviews, project startup, licensing support and implementing the ExxonMobil Global Manufacturing Training on the Rotterdam site.
He has been involved in the Rotterdam FLEXICOKER for over 25 years, 10 years of this as Process Day Supervisor responsible for daily operation as well as long term improvement plans and equipment strategy.
He was part of the ExxonMobil Start Up team that assisted in the Start Up of the Hellenic Petroleum FLEXICOKER in Elefsina, Greece.
As a FLEXICOKER operations specialist he is also involved in design reviews, design HAZOP and training of Operating Staff for FLEXICOKER Licencees.
Marvin Petit-Homme is the NAFTA Sales Manager for IPCO AB (formerly Sandvik Process Systems, LLC) and is based in Totowa, New Jersey. Marvin has been employed with Sandvik for over 24 years. During his tenure at Sandvik, Marvin has worked on several domestic & international capital projects in the Petroleum, Petrochemical & Specialty Chemical industries.
The solutions offered by IPCO and Marvin’s area of expertise deal with the granulation of chemicals from the melt phase into a free flowing solid form. The solutions also include the effective handling & storage of the solid particles. Marvin has worked with several leaders in the Downstream Industry to develop effective solutions to manage asphaltene / pitch streams from various residual upgrading technologies.
Marvin is a Chemical Engineer that studied at The New Jersey Institute of Technology in the United States. Prior to joining Sandvik he worked in designing various unit operations in the Flavors & Fragrance industry.
Jan Steegstra is Director, Technology Marketing for Chevron Lummus Global, responsible for licensing of CLG’s technology and catalyst portfolio in the EMEA region.
Jan has more than 25 years’ experience in the refining and petrochemical industry, first for CB&I and since 2001 for CLG. He has held international assignments including to the Lummus Technology offices in Bloomfield, USA, he worked as lead process engineer on various projects and was technology manager on Shell Soaker Visbreaker technology.
Jan holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Twente University in The Netherlands.
Hemendra Khakhar is Global Director, Refining Technology for KBR Technology & Consulting located in Houston.
Prior to joining KBR, Hemendra was Technology Manager for Hydroprocessing business with UOP Honeywell and has scott held a variety of leadership positions with Technip USA and Reliance Petroleum.
He has twenty years of Technical Sales, Licensing, Technical Service, Process Design, Development, Engineering and Operations experience in refining and petrochemical industries.
Hemendra holds a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Gary R. Brierley is the Project Development Manager for Heavy Oil in UOP’s Process Technology and Equipment (PT&E) business. In this role, Gary is responsible for leading a team of technology specialists in providing technical sales support, proposals, tactical and strategic planning to meet the needs of UOP’s heavy oil customers. He also supports hydroprocessing sales for shale oil and synthetic crude projects.
He was formerly the Manager of Hydroprocessing Catalyst Sales in UOP’s Catalysts, Adsorbents and Specialties business unit, where he was responsible for all hydrotreating and hydrocracking catalyst reload projects in the Americas, Far East, and India. He joined UOP in 1996. Prior to joining UOP, he worked for Syncrude Canada Ltd. for sixteen years in both operations and project development roles.
He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto.
Yang Zhigang is Regional Representative of SINOPEC. stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. He is mainly responsible for Refining and Petrochemical technology marketing, client’s liaison, technology promotion, seed and frontier technologies scouting, industrial news collection within the territory of Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
In continuation to his career as Senior Engineer in hydrogenation catalysts and processes at SINOPEC Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry (BRICI), he joined SINOPEC's European Representative Office in January, 2017.
Yang graduated from the University of Petroleum, Beijing, in 2001 with the major of chemical engineering.
Matthew is a Process Engineer for Quadrise Fuels, based in London.
He joined Quadrise in 2016 as part of the engineering team, where his responsibilities range from FEED and EPC activities for Quadrise’s various projects throughout the globe, as well as providing technical and operational support to Quadrise’s production facilities via unit monitoring and troubleshooting. He also works on short and medium-term development projects as well as business development activities.
Matthew has previously worked for Foster Wheeler on various refinery FEED and EPC projects, and Tata Steel where he worked on day-to-day optimisation of the site blast furnaces as well as process improvement projects.
Matthew has a First-Class MEng degree in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.
Paul Szymborski started his career as a Research Resin Chemist for Sherwin Williams in Chicago before joining Norton Chemical Process Products Company as a Sales Engineer in 1981.
Paul has moved through many commercial positions with greater responsibilities within Norton which became Saint-Gobain NorPro. He gained global responsibilities as Director of Sales & Marketing of NorPro’s Catalytic Products and Process Ceramics product lines in 2003 which he continues today – supplying ceramic solutions to the Chemical & Hydro Processing Industries.
Paul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.
Filomena Del Greco is Senior Process Engineer with 15 years of experience at Fluor Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
She has been leading several projects ranging from feasibility studies to detailed engineering in refining. Filomena is specialist in hydrocracking technologies.
She holds an MS degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Bologna, Italy.
Bob Poteet He is Vice president of Sales for Gayesco international and was Vice President of Sales for Daily Thermetrics before that. Bob has over 30 years’ experience in selling to the energy industries.
At Daily, he was one of the inventors of the CatTracker, Catalyst Tracking System.
He is a 1982 graduate of Texas A&M in Industrial Distribution.
Scott Kafesjian is currently the Director of Sulphur Technologies for Wood, formerly Amec Foster Wheeler. Scott has over 27 years of experience in the technology, design, commissioning, startup, troubleshooting, and revamp of sulphur recovery projects worldwide.
He has been with Amec Foster Wheeler since 2010. Along with his sulphur experience, he has a diverse background encompassing crude oil distillation, hydrotreating, gas plant revamps, gas compressor stations, and other industrial processes. He is also the Manager of Process Engineering for the Salt Lake City office of Wood.
Scott has a BS degree from UCLA, and ME and PhD degrees (all in Chemical Engineering) from the University of Utah.
Stephen Bowers has over 39 years of experience in the oil and gas, refining and petrochemical business in a number of roles. He originally started his working life for a Schlumberger company as a mud logger, in oil and gas exploration and production before moving on to the selling of refining process chemical aids for Nalco Chemical. He has worked for 3 years Jubail Saudi Arabia in the refining and petrochemical complexes. After returning to the UK he worked in the refining sector, gaining an in-depth knowledge of most of the UK refineries until 1990.
He them moved to a chemical distributor, based in London as the product manager for hydrocarbons solvents until the company was acquired by Univar and thereafter moved to his current employer, Evonik Performance Materials in 1999.
During his time at Evonik Stephen has worked for 8 years in the Sales and Marketing of C4 products in Europe and North America, and for 9 years in the Global Projects group. He is now working as a Feedstock and Petrochemical Technologies Manager for Evonik Performance Materials. This involves all aspects of base chemical feedstocks and technologies for the production of feedstocks, olefins and aromatics and his experience is used across the company
Stephen is a regular speaker at conferences and has a unique insight to oil and gas production, refining, and olefins production. He received a BSc (Honours) Chemistry from King’s College London in 1978.
Jumal Shah is the Hydrogen Technologist for Johnson Matthey and based in Billingham, UK. His work focuses on the development of catalysts, technologies and services that could bring advancement to hydrogen production.
Jumal joined Johnson Matthey in 2003 and his previous roles have included Technical Support Engineer, Services Development Engineer and European Technical Manager. Through these roles he has acquired significant experience in catalyst design, handling, startup, performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
Jumal Shah graduated from the University of Bradford with a MEng in Chemical Engineering in 1999.
Igor Novoseltsev currently holds the position of Multi-D Commercialization Department Expert at ASE – the largest engineering division of Rosatom - the largest Russian state-owned atomic energy corporation.
In 2007 he started working at the Sales Department of AMS (precision farming system) at John Deere's representative office. Two years later he moved to NOVATEK petrochemical company and in 2014 he took on management positions in engineering institutes, specializing in oil, gas and petrochemical industries. He has also been responsible for commercialization and development of BIM and worked with the largest Russian oil, gas and petrochemical companies.
Igor holds a degree from Samara Technical University.
Valentin has more than 10-year experience working on strategic and capital projects in refining and petrochemical industries. Valentin had started his career with TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil company in the mid-2000s. Besides EPC he worked with such companies as Tatneft, the sixth largest oil company in Russia, and KBC Process Technology.
Valentin specializes in providing the following services to the clients - development of production and supply strategies, market and strategic studies, feasibility studies, due diligences and evaluations. His recent projects with EPC are: PET and staple fiber complex in Russia, acrylic acid complex in Russia, new refinery in Uganda, refining upgrade in Russia, petrochemical complex expansion in Belarus.
He graduated with honours from the State Academy of Oil and Gas in Moscow, Russia, where he majored in "Oil and Gas Processing". Valentin also studied “Project Management” in the George Washington University and got additional training from the Deloitte Academy and the EY's Business Academy.
Claudio Albanese is the Licensing Vice President for Eni R&M.
Claudio is a Chemical Engineer who, after university studies, worked for four years in Technip in Italy and Saudi Arabia as a process engineer and as a start-up engineer.
He then had the privilege of working for 26 years in ENI as a technology expert, technology manager in Taranto refinery, shareholder representative in Bayernoil, PCK and Ceska Rafineska and Technology VP for Eni Downstream activities.
His current responsibilities include the commercialization activities, the production of studies and Basic Engineering, and Technical assistance related to Eni technologies. He collaborates with Eni R&D in the development of new processes.
Marcelo Kascheres is Business Development Manager for Alfa Laval.
He has spent the last 17 years engaged in the Energy and Chemicals sector, providing technical solutions to improve processes with a focus in the areas of Heat Transfer and Separation. Marcelo has been active in the development and implementation of retrofit, revamp, and new build projects in the refinery sector within the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
He has earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University in the USA.
Since 1997 Victor has been an integral part process design and developmental downstream solutions for hydrocarbon recovery.
Working in support of key players in the industry his current position allows for new development of filtration and separation systems. He is principally involved in the technical development and training with EPC and FCC/RFCC Licensors worldwide. Experience includes program development for commercial applications, scoping studies and commissioning.
He holds a MA Degree from the University of San Diego and has worked for more than 20 years in the design and implementation of hydrocarbon filtration systems.
Jiří Hájek started in UniCRE in 2014 and brought with him the experience that he gained as senior process engineer in Česká rafinérská ( HCU revamp, VBU optimisation, refinery catalyst management) and managing director of Euro Support Manufacturing Czechia.
He graduated at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, where he studied technology of oil processing and refining of petroleum. He completed a one-year internship at the Technical University of Denmark which was focused on oil mining. In connection with his specialization he graduated at Chapman University, where he reached MBA. Currently focusing on advance biofuels production and hydrogen mobility deployment in Czech republic.
International Sales Manager, Charles “Chuck” M. Walker, has been with MOGAS Industries since July 2000, and in the valve industry since 1979. In his position, he is responsible for overseeing the specifications, quotations and sales of MOGAS valves and skids for international markets and managing major projects pursuits worldwide. He is also involved with all types of gasification, heavy oils refining and slurry transport projects.
Chuck has also contributed to the development and design of the MOGAS modular letdown station and filter switching approach to ebullated bed unit design. He has been named on several design patents relative to this exciting technology.
He is a member of the US Department of Commerce President’s Export Council, Instrument Society of America and the Gasification Technology Council.
Mathijs van Es is a Senior Director Technology at CB&I with more than 25 years’ experience in the process engineering industry, with a focus on project development, feasibility studies, basic design and FEED execution.
Mathijs has a Master’s degree in Chemical Technology from the Technical University Eindhoven. He has worked and lived in the United States, France and Italy.
Richard Kolodziej has over 35 years of experience in process/ project engineering and the technology development in the refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, and gas processing industries. Rick’s process technology development efforts have also included a number of new to market technologies. He is responsible for bringing some new GTC Technology initiatives to market, including the GT-SACT technology. Rick also helps seek out, evaluate, and develop new process technology and business development initiatives for GTC. He has US and international patents in hydrotreatment technology.
Richard Kolodziej holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and an MBA degree in Finance from DePaul University, and is a registered engineer in the state of Illinois. He is also the current elected Chairman of the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Vladimir Gagić currently holds the position of Refining Director of Pančevo Oil Refinery.
Vladimir started his career as a process engineer in the Atmospheric Distillation Unit in Pančevo Oil Refinery. in 1996. He was then promoted to the position of Atmospheric Distillation Unit manager, at which he was very successful in the extremely difficult conditions of economic sanctions. He was continuously extending and improving his considerable theoretical knowledge though practical application and exchange of experience with his colleagues from different professions working in other refinery units.
Having gained significant knowledge and experience with all segments of refinery processes in practice, he took on important tasks under Refinery Modernisaton Project in the Development and Investments Sector. After that, he was first appointed the Director of Pančevo Oil Refinery and then the Acting Director of Pančevo Oil Refinery. Vladimir attained the position of the Refining Director in October 2015, after notable achievements at the position of the Director of the Technical Department.
He graduated from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, in 1995.
