John S Sieg, Jr, Group Head of Operations, BP International

John Sieg Jr, Group Head of Operations, BP International

John has over 34 years of experience in operations and operational excellence. He currently serves as Group Head of Operations - BP International. John joined BP as Vice President of Operations Excellence in March 2006 and led the creation of BP's Operating Managing System. From August 2006 through December 2007 John served as Vice President of Safety and Operations for BP America.

Prior to joining BP, John spent 33 years working for DuPont in all aspects of site and global operations performing in a wide array of site leadership and influence management positions. Activities during his DuPont career included leading the strategic planning process for DuPont's global operations and serving as Global Operations Director for the Engineering Polymers businesses.

Helping businesses achieve sustainable, transformational improvement in operations performance is John's work pleasure. John is a Fellow in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. His personal interests include sailing, old home restoration and antique watch repair.

Michael White, Operations & Plant Engineering, SunCoke Energy Inc

Mike White joined Sunoco as Vice President Chemicals Manufacturing in July 2003; in July 2008, he assumed the position of Senior Vice President of Operations & Plant Engineering for SunCoke Energy, a business unit of Sunoco.

SunCoke Energy operates underground coal mining operations producing 1.2 million tons per year and five coke plants producing 5.2 million tons of metallurgical coke per year for integrated steelmakers and a sixth plant is under construction. The operating plants are located in Vansant, Virginia; East Chicago, Indiana; Franklin Furnace, Ohio; Granite City, Illinois; and Vitoria, Brazil. Of the annual coke produced, the Brazil plant produces 1.7 million tons and converts waste heat into 139 MW power.

Previously, White has worked for Lyondell-Equistar from 1989 to 2003 where he held positions of increasing responsibility including Plant Manager (Port Arthur, Texas), General Manager Manufacturing (Morris, Ill) and Vice President Health, Environment and Safety. From 1980 to 1989 he worked for Exxon in both the refining and chemicals businesses, including a two year assignment in Italy.

White holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; he and his wife Sue reside in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mark Fitts, Plant Manager, Cooper River, BP America Inc

Mark has a Mechanical Engineering background with a BS degree from University of Alabama. He started his career with Amoco in 1988. Prior to working for Amoco, he served four years in the U.S. Army as Sergeant stationed with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. He has served in many capacities at Cooper River including Mechanical Engineer, Technical Supervisor, Process Supervisor, Innovation Manager, Operations Superintendent, and Manufacturing Manager. He was been the BP Amoco Cooper River Plant Manager since April 2008.

Mike Olbrich, Engineering & Project Services Manager, Whiting Refinery, BP Products North America Inc

Mike is the Engineering and Project Services Manager at the BP Whiting Refinery in Northwest Indiana. He has a chemical engineering background with a BSCHE degree from Michigan State University, and an MSCHE from University of Tulsa. Both of these degrees were bestowed with High Honors.

Mike began his career in R&D and has held roles as a Refinery Process Engineer, a Process Supervisor, a Capital Projects Manager, a Refining Planning Specialist and as a Global PTA Operations Planning Manager. He was an Account Manager for the Global PTA business in Lisle, IL, and has served as the Manufacturing Manager at the BP Geel, Belgium Chemical Plant and the Works General Manager at the Cooper River PTA Plant.

Mike is the inventor of 7 U.S. Patents, and has authored a number of technical papers. Mike has also served twice as President of local AICHE Chapters.

Mike lives in Frankfort, IL. He has been married to his wife Rebecca for nearly 30 years and has three sons.

Graham Cattell, Group Head of Discipline for Capability & Projects, BP Safety and Operations

Graham Cattell has a depth of business and Project Management experience across a number of major companies in the processing industry. He joined BP from the Dow Chemical Company where, as Director of Dow Design and Construction, he managed their global capital project and engineering activities.

He has a Mechanical Engineering degree, earned while working for APV International, a UK builder of process plant and equipment for the chemical, petrochemical, oil, gas and pharmaceutical industries. Graham built projects in over 30 countries during his time with APV, enjoying the challenge of working in many different cultures and learning the value of local expertise.

Graham then worked for Air Products, an industrial gases company, as their Vice President of Engineering in both the UK and the USA where he developed techniques for standardised engineered products as a means of enhancing profitability.

Graham moved to Dow Chemical/Union Carbide in the USA as Vice President of Engineering and Director of design and construction. He spent the first period of time merging Union Carbide and Dow Chemical's engineering capability as part of the overall Company merger. During this period he learned the value of the diverse knowledge and experience available as a result of mergers and the benefit in bringing them together well. He ran the combined global capability for Dow, based in Houston until joining BP in 2004.

Graham is now BP Head of Discipline for Capability and Projects in their Safety and Operations organization.

Doug Foran, Director of Innovation, PlantSuccess, LLC

Doug has spent his career taking new companies and new technologies to market. He was an early contributor to the Silicon Valley leader for integrated circuit design, Calma Corporation. He pioneered the Electronic Technical Publishing market at Information Displays Inc., which dominated this market niche and attained NASDAQ National Market status. At Xerox Corporation he started up two business teams solving problems in asset management for utility companies and technical document management for manufacturing companies, world-wide. He launched Concept Five Technologies as an early entrant in cyber security for pharmaceutical and financial services markets. Today, Doug works as part of a small team of entrepreneurs launching companies building renewable energy products and has taken a leadership role at a new venture commercializing nanotechnology innovations for treatment of cancer. Doug has taken an active role at PlantSuccess over the last five years assisting Carl Howk fulfill the vision of this important industry forum as a place where industry leaders engage in a trusted dialogue to improve operations that serve both industry and national priorities.

Steve Skarke, Senior Vice President - Operations, Kaneka Texas Corporation

Steve Skarke is the Site Manager and Senior Vice President of Operations for Kaneka Texas Corporation (KTC) a subsidiary of Kaneka Corporation in Osaka, Japan. KTC manufactures specialty polymers at its site in Pasadena, Texas and is regarded by its customers for high quality products and unmatched customer service. Steve’s primary interests include organizational design and performance, corporate social responsibility, and leadership development. He is active in the local community serving on the boards of the La Porte Chamber of Commerce, La Porte Education Foundation, East Harris County Manufacturer’s Association, Association of Chemical Industries in Texas, and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.

Alex P Kent, SERIP Base Business Advisor, Chevron Global Upstream & Gas

Alex joined Chevron in 2005 as the Reliability Advisor for Global Manufacturing/Refining after a 30+ year career in the nuclear power industry. His previous experience includes an extensive background in maintenance, operations, engineering, and leadership at Naval, research and commercial nuclear facilities. He was a team member of the Chevron Manufacturing Corporate Reliability Center of Excellence and responsible for the development and deployment of integrated reliability strategies in manufacturing. In 2009 he changed assignments to Chevron Global Upstream & Gas in a similar capacity to oversee the development and deployment of reliability practices in Chevron Upstream. Alex holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering and Science from the University of Maryland.

Dave Sauer, Operations Manager, Dakota Gasification Company

Dave Sauer, Dakota Gasification Company, has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University and has worked at the company’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant in Beulah, ND, for the past 21 years. Dave began his career at the Synfuels Plant working as a Rotating Equipment Engineer. He has worked in several capacities at the plant including Maintenance Engineer, Construction Engineer, Maintenance Supervisor, Plant Engineering Supervisor and Maintenance Manager. Dave worked with the Construction group for two years in the design and construction of the flue gas desulfurization (scrubber) unit, as well as a 1200-ton-per-day anhydrous ammonia facility. Dave moved into maintenance supervision in 1995 where his responsibilities included overseeing the maintenance side of the start-up of the scrubber unit and then transitioned into a start-up team member for the anhydrous ammonia plant. After start-up of these facilities in 1997, Dave became the Plant Engineering Supervisor and then in 1998 the Maintenance Manger for the facility for the past 12 years. Dave recently became the Process Operations Manager where his responsibilities include overseeing the operations of the Synfuels Plant. Dave lives in Hazen, ND, with his wife Deb. They have two children and in his spare time, Dave enjoys motorcycling.

Zane Barham, Director, Global Refining IT - Strategy & Projects, ConocoPhillips Company

Zane Barham is currently responsible for coordinating software strategy, project development and project delivery for ConocoPhillips Refining. He has 28 years of experience with computer applications in the oil industry primarily in refining and R&D. He holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin. Over his career, he has developed applications, led project teams, led efforts to select and implement comprehensive suites of applications for new manufacturing facilities, as well as led the software support organization for ConocoPhillips Refining covering 12 refineries in the US and three refineries in Europe.

Cliff Pederson, Manager of Production Processes, Suncor Energy Inc (retired)

Pedersen recently retired after a 39 year career in the Oil Refining Industry. Most of that time was spent with Suncor Energy Inc. (pioneer in extracting and processing bitumen from the Alberta Oil Sands) where he held management leadership positions in process control, production optimization and information technology. Cliff continues to be active in the industry as a member of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA), the International Society of Automation (ISA) and the Machinery Information Management Open Systems Alliance (MIMOSA). His work with The Open Operations and Maintenance Initiative (OpenO&Mtm) is focused on driving consensus on standards for Enterprise Interoperability and has led to a role of Industry Facilitator for the Oil & Gas Owner/Operators.

Pedersen holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta, a Master in Systems Design from the University of Waterloo and a Professional Manager designation from the Canadian Institute of Management.

Steven Sondergard, Senior Consultant, Merrick & Company and author, Climate Balance...A Balanced and Realistic View of Climate Change

Steve Sondergard has a 34-year track record for operational excellence and optimization for major oil companies both within the U.S. and internationally. He has led the planning and optimization, plus merger and acquisition efforts for several companies, most recently with Suncor Energy.

Steve was a former refinery manager and led many improvement efforts within plants. He has also managed and optimized complex supply chains, planning, trading, and sales for multi-plant operations.

Currently, Steve consults on operational excellence and continuous improvement for plants. Additionally, he helps organizations understand the impacts and establish policy on climate change issues. His book titled Climate Balance was released in November of 2009, and it is quickly becoming the go-to book for a balanced view of climate change.