Susan Lee

Kraig Simpson

Kraig Simpson is the Vice President of Technology for Rotating Machinery Services (RMS). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University. Prior to RMS, Kraig worked for ExxonMobil for 10 years. His professional experience has been primarily focused on turnaround, maintenance, and project support. Much of his experience is related to leveraging technology and innovative solutions to reinvent maintenance techniques for turbomachinery. He has applied the virtual assembly philosophy for numerous applications including turbomachinery overhauls and brownfield project execution.

Adrián Azpilicueta

Adrián Azpilicueta works for Nalco Water as Sr Industry Technical Consultant. He has over 37 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 11 years he has been with Nalco Water, starting in the Sales organization and moving to Marketing 5 years ago as Sr Industry Technical Consultant with special focus on Process Operations. Adrian is also an active member of AFPM Hydroprocessing Committee where he presented several topics as well as in the AMPP (ex-NACE). 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).

Modhi Sufyan Al-Duweesh

Chemical Engineer graduate. Joined KNPC in 2015 as a Process Engineer.

Duke Tran

Duke Tran is the Executive Vice President of Product Innovation and Technology at Velan Inc., with over 35 years of experience.He has served as Head of Engineering for five global valve companies and held executive roles in sales, marketing, businessdevelopment, and general manager. He hold a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA. Duke is a licensed ProfessionalEngineer in Alberta Canada and the USA with 39 US patents and publications on flow control technology.

Luc Vernhes

Luc joined Velan in 2003 and has held multiple positions over the years.He is now Director, Business Development.He holds a PhD in Engineering Physics and is a Mechanical Engineer.

Daniel Sack

Daniel Sack, P.E., is a Senior Engineering Advisor and Group Lead at Becht. Mr Sack has 20 years of structural and mechanical engineering experience in the field of petrochemical, refining, utility, and industrial power generation, with focus on structural design at elevated temperatures. He has extensive experience with the design of plate structures, utility, industrial boilers and environmental equipment.

Lautaro Cascino

Lautaro Cascino is a Chemical Engineer from ITBA in Buenos Aires, with a specialization in Process and Polymers from IFP School in France. At Axens' Digital Services Factory, Lautaro develops digital solutions for the refining and petrochemical industries, integrating advanced analytics and machine learning.

Eddie Knight III

Eddie Knight III is the Director of the Project Support Group. Eddie oversees planning and mechanical support groups for the operations team. Eddie is an experienced chemical engineer and joined ZymeFlow in 2021. Prior to joining ZymeFlow, Eddie worked as an Engineering Manager and Director of Chemical Cleaning. He trained and led a team of engineers planning refinery decontamination and created industry leading engineering and planning packages. Eddie received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston.

Ben Davis

Ben Davis is the Director of Decontamination Services at ZymeFlow. He is involved in all aspects of decon operations and oversees the successful execution of countless projects throughout the world. Ben joined ZymeFlow in 2012 and has experience in refinery, petrochemical, and offshore. Prior to joining ZymeFlow, he worked as the General Manager of Production for Epco Carbon Dioxide and as a Facility Manager for Praxair. In these roles he oversaw the production, budget, and coordination of major projects. Ben has received thorough trainings including university, numerous trade schools, including a specialization in pumps and hydraulics, in addition to receiving a UL Certification and Six Sigma.

Larraine J. Doon-Daep

- Has a total of 12 years refinery experience encompassing combustion engineering, utilities and power plant engineering, operations engineering, and refinery processes- Currently a process control specialist for 6 years specializing in DCU panel operations and control improvement- Contributed and initiated improvement projects related to DCU quenching, gas plant reboilers control, level control, antifoam optimization, etc., and has consistently recommended strategies for zero downtime- Holds a BS Chemical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, graduating as magna cum laude, and is a licensed chemical engineer

Dhari Alnkhailan

Dhari Alnkhailan is a Senior Instrument Maintenance Engineer with 18 years of experience in Automation systems and field instrumentation. He holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering (2005 - USA) and an MBA (2006 - UK). Currently, he handles instrumentation maintenance at the Coker Plant as part of the Clean Fuels Plant at Mina Ahmadi Refinery. Passionate about Automation, he excels in troubleshooting and problem-solving.

Cem Deniz

Cem Deniz graduated from Middle East Technical University in 2019. He is the DCU Production Chief Engineer at Socar Turkey for 4 years. He participated in the first Turnaround of the DCU unit and DCU revamp activities in 2024.

Kaan Yaman

Kaan Yaman is the DCU Production Lead Engineer at SOCAR Turkey. Since joining the company in 2017, he has been actively involved in key projects, including the P&ID review, HAZOP studies, and commissioning and start-up activities at SOCAR Turkey. Prior to his role at SOCAR Turkey, he contributed to the commissioning and start-up of water treatment plants, including the Tüpraş New Water Treatment Plant (NWTP).

Gary Reisen

Gary holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University. He works for 30+ years in refining/engineering and 8+ years with P66. 

Nasser Abukhdeir

Dr. Abukhdeir is the President of Continuum Engineering Inc. and an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, cross-appointed in Physics and Astronomy, at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada). He completed his BS and MChE at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA) and his PhD at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) under the supervision of Prof. Alejandro Rey. His research and professional practice is focused computational fluid dynamics and computational multiphysics simulations of processes involving both single and multiphase flows, reaction, heat and mass transport. 

Prasanth Sundaravadivelu

Process Engineer with 10 years of experience in gas processing, sulfur and amin plants, utilities system. atmospheric & vacuum distillation & delayed coking.

Grzegorz Kamyszek

Grzegorz Kamyszek is a Senior Application Engineer for Sulzer Chemtech USA where he performs complex column revamps, designs of high-capacity trays, evaluates anti-fouling designs, works on packing and internals designs.He has more than 25 years of experience with Sulzer Chemtech, having held various positions including process design, mechanical design, packed towers, liquid distributor testing. He has been a member of FRI DPC committee since 2023. Grzegorz holds a M.S. and engineering degree in Chemical Technology and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Poznan University of Technology, Poland.

Sam Lordo

Sam is a recognized industry expert and has over 40 years’ experience in refinery process chemistry/chemical treatments, opportunity crude processing and crude desalting. During his 40 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.

Redjhay Jess M. Anog

> Chief Control Engineer with over 12 years of experience in refinery control and safety systems, 9 years with DCU

> Have broad technical skills and knowledge related to Chemical Engineering, Process Control and Automation, Programming, and Refining Processes

> Handled several DCU automation improvement including steam-out automated ramping and transition to quenching, sludge processing logic forquenching, antifoam optimization and foolproofing, blowdown tower optimization, switch valve upgrade and foolproofing, and dual LIC control among others

Iain Downie

Coker Operations Superintendent at BP Whiting Refinery from 2021-2024.Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Vincent Patterson

David Engel

Dr. Engel has more than 25 years of industrial experience in a variety of areas of chemical engineering, material science and chemistry. David is the inventor in more than 20 United States Invention Patents and author of over 100 technical and scientific papers, and conferences. David has worked in several technical and business capacities for companies such as Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly, General Electric among others. David has recently specialized in process optimization, renewables and new technology development. Dr. Engel is the Managing Director of Nexo Solutions. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. David is 6-Sigrma certified and is member of several industrial committees and company board of directors.

Carson Hannah

Carson Hannah is from western North Carolina and received his Mechanical Engineering training at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has been with QMax Industries since 2014 and held multiple roles within the organization. Currently he is QMax’ Technical Director and QMax Project Development Team Leader, focusing on leading the technical growth of all QMax team members and departments.

Phillip Niccum

Phillip has a lengthy record of accomplishments in the fields of petroleum refining and petrochemicals encompassing chemical and mechanical engineering, business and operations, management and execution, training, technical service, process development as well operational and construction assistance in commercial FCC installations. At M.W Kellogg / KBR for 26 years among other roles Phillip served for 4 years as Director of FCC Technology and 8 years of Chief Technology Engineer. Immediately following graduation with a Chemical Engineering Degree in 1980, Phillip worked at Texaco for 4 years performing process design calculations and technical services for Texaco owned and licensed FCC units worldwide, followed by 6 years coordination and development of FCCU technology, catalyst and operations in six Texaco U.S.A. refineries. Phillip has been granted 17 U.S. Patents and authored/presented dozens of papers and publications at major industry conferences and trade journals.

Tom Perry

Thomas W Perry is Mechanical Engineer from Clarkson University with over 25 years of experience in industrial process heating technologies.  He is the Founder and President of QMax Industries specializing in Steam Tracing and Tank Heating.  He is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of QMax Catalytic, LLC and President of Precise Thermal, LLC.   Tom holds several patents in the field of heat transfer and has many more innovations on the way.  He is from Upstate NY and now resides in Westport, CT with his wife and three children.

Stephen Forry

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

Abdullah Alshemali

Experienced operation professional with 11.5 years in the oil & gas industry, specializing in DCU.

Grant Jacobson

Grant Jacobson has experience in design, operation, optimization of process equipment and operations management of cross-functional teams. At Valero Energy, he led multiple operational practices improvement focusing on equipment preparation and troubleshooting as well as building toolsets and polices to facilitate continued operational excellence. With ExxonMobil while supporting refinery units as a process engineer, he helped develop and lead strategic, quick payback projects to help reinforce refinery profitability during poor market conditions. He has extensive process engineering experience coupled with hands on, in the field, operational know how to drive elegant and practical solutions. Mr. Jacobson has supported or operated every major refinery process unit throughout his years of industry experience. Since 2020 at Becht, he has focused on holistic troubleshooting and improvement initiatives on fired equipment and energy optimization. He is a thermography subject matter expert with extensive experience with IR cameras/pyrometers as well as contact pyrometers (Goldcup).

Keith Magdoza

Keith Magdoza is a Delayed Coking Process Engineer at Chevron Lummus Global with 12 years of experiencein the energy industry. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.In his current role, Keith is responsible for process design and engineering, specializing in delayed coking technologies.

Evan Hyde

Evan Hyde is the Director of Field Operations for Coking.com Inc. Formerly he was president of Telaxe, a coker consulting firm. He previously was president of C2 Nano Technology where they researched surface treatments to combat fouling and corrosion issues in cokers and other petrochemical process units. He was a Senior Engineering Advisor for Becht Engineering Co., Inc. New Jersey. He has consulted on processing improvement and reliability initiatives for delayed coking clients around the world. He also participated in onsite peer assessments of Coker Units at eight refineries which included improvements in maintenance work practices, process enhancements, and turnaround scope optimization. Prior to joining Becht, Evan worked for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, as a process engineer, with assignments in research, and troubleshooting for heavy oil upgrading equipment. He holds a B.S. of Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Mitch Moloney

Mitch graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a BSc in Chemical Engineering and is a registered PE in Texas. He worked with ExxonMobil for 40 years, retiring in 2019. He has worked as a consultant with Becht for over three years as a process engineering and resid upgrading specialist.  He has been married to his wife Laura for 41 years, has two children in their 30’s and 2 grandchildren.  He started his career at Bayway Refinery in NJ, then joined the resid upgrading world in 1989, and has focused on delayed coking, visbreaking and resid upgrading for 34 years. Highlights were serving as the process start-up lead for the Venezuelan Cerro Negro Upgrader in 2001 and the Antwerp DCU in Belgium in 2018.  He enjoys delayed coking, languages (Spanish, Dutch, French), art, sports and Belgian beers, not necessarily in that order.

Elmo Nasato

Elmo Nasato is a process engineer specializing in sulfur recovery, amine treating and  sour water processing. He has more than 35 years experience in the sulfur recovery industry, including experience with design, retrofit, start-up and optimization of sulfur recovery  units, sulfur handling units, amine units, sour water stripper units, and tail gas cleanup  units. On-site field activities have included support of construction activities, turnaround  assistance and operator training. Elmo graduated from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with a B.A.Sc.  Chemical Engineering (1987) with an option in Management Science. He currently is the  president of Nasato Consulting Ltd. In addition, he is the lead instructor and serves on  the Brimstone Sulfur Recovery Symposium Advisory Committee and the Technical  Advisory Committee for the Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference, and has served  on the Board of Directors for Alberta Sulphur Research. Elmo has also taught courses in  the Chemical Engineering departments of the University of Toronto and University of  Waterloo. He has been awarded eight patents for SRU operation, oxygen enrichment and  sulfur degassing technologies, has published 42 papers and has made over 74 presentations at conferences worldwide.

Dr. Mahmod Samman

Dr. Mahmod Samman is the president of Houston Engineering Solutions. He has thirty years of industry experience mostly in damage assessment, repair, and life extension of coke drums. His state-of-the-art techniques in this field are utilized around the world. A licensed professional engineer in Texas, he has a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Duke University, he has published writing in numerous publications, and holds four issued and pending patents. He is a member of ASME and ASCE and a committee member of API 579/ASME FFS, API 934G and API 934J