Process People and Skills Tracker: Feb 2012
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SNC-Lavalin has announced that Riadh Ben Aïssa, executive vice-president, and Stéphane Roy, vice-president are no longer with the company. A group statement indicated that the departures related to issues concerning business conduct. Charles Chebl has been appointed executive vice-president of the company’s infrastructure and construction business unit. Chebl has more than 25 years of experience with the company in the infrastructure and construction sector, and has led some of the its largest projects.
Aberdeen-based subsea engineers Jee Ltd will increase the size of the workforce at its Aberdeen and Tonbridge offices to 100. MD Trevor Jee said: “We are looking for industry experts in installation, process and flow assurance, corrosion, and structural subsea engineering, as well as cables, and later on in the year, engineers with riser and flexible experience … We are also able to convert civil engineers into subsea specialists through our conversion programme.
Dorita Weissfuss has joined Flexitallic’s applications team, supporting both the Flexitallic and Novus Sealing brands. Weissfuss has several years of experience of providing engineered solutions to a wide range of industries, including aerospace, packaging and power transmission technology. After working as a draftswoman in Germany, she moved to the UK in 2005, where she started studying for her degree in engineering. Weissfuss also holds a diploma for ’design and innovation’.
Penspen Group has appointed Ibrahim Washash as its new regional manager of integrity services in the Middle East. Penspen provides integrity services throughout UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Iraq from its principal Middle East office in Abu Dhabi. Washash joins Penspen from Wood Group’s facilities integrity management consultancy for both greenfield and brownfield projects. Having worked for a number of UAE-based operators, published papers and codes of practice, he has over 30 years’ experience in technical audits and evaluations, failure assessments, corrosion prevention, cathodic protection, intelligent pigging, risk assessment and integrity management systems. He is a chartered engineer, a professional member of the Institute of Corrosion, a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and a NACE-certified coating inspector
BP is increasing its annual UK graduate recruitment by 50%, to nearly 250 graduates, in 2012, the company announced 2 Feb. “BP is hiring more bright young minds than ever before and I’m sure the UK’s young science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) community will be pleased to hear we are ramping up our recruitment again this year,” said Emma Judge, head of UK graduate recruitment at BP.
Fluor Corp. has elected David Seaton as its new chairman. Seaton, who was named chief executive officer and company director in February 2011, will hold both the chairman and CEO positions. Alan Boeckmann has retired having served the last year as the non-executive board chairman and the previous nine years in the role as Fluor’s chairman and CEO. Seaton is a board member of The Mosaic Co. and the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative within the World Economic Forum. He is also a board member of the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council. Seaton serves as co-chair of the B20/G20 Task Force on Corruption and as co-chair of the World Economic Forum?s Global Agenda Council on Corruption.
Hi-line Industries Ltd, a manufacturer of compressed air treatment, conditioning and purification equipment, has appointed Mark Baily as a service & production co-ordinator. Baily has both UK and overseas experience of the co-ordination functions required following nearly 25 years working for a major filtration company. This experience included stock control and purchasing as well as overseeing contracts and planning for technical personnel operating within the customer servicing environment. He started his career having passed with distinctions and merits in BTEC - HNC business & finance as well as NEBOSH health and safety management.
Adrian Lee has left his position as UK and Europe managing director of air handling specialist Gast Group Ltd to start his own company - Absolute Air & Gas Ltd - specialising in compressed air and gas systems. Lee has more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, having established JUN-AIR in the UK in 1995 to supply the dental, laboratory, industrial and automotive markets. Following JUN-AIR’s acquisition by Gast Manufacturing in 2007, he became MD for the European business of both Gast & JUN-AIR brands.
Ian Ritchie, managing director of Brammer, has been given an expanded remit to lead the recently acquired industrial tools, maintenance and health & safety product distributor Buck & Hickman. The £27.6m acquisition is intended to create a ’one-stop shop’ for industrial MRO supply, operating from around 120 locations across the UK. Ritchie has been MD of Brammer UK since December 2003.
CompAir/Gardner Denver has appointed Colin Mander to the newly-created post of aftermarket sales director across the whole of Europe, Middle East and Africa. This promotion follows Colin’s three years as managing director of CompAir in the UK.
Chris Hall has been appointed sales director of CompAir UK. Hall has worked in the compressed air industry since 1985 and was previously CompAir’s Sales and Service Manager - East, a position that he has held for the last four years.
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has signed a resource protocol for the recruitment of employees from Magnox Ltd to Jacobs’ UK operations. The deal gives Jacobs access to a skilled pool of talent to augment and develop its various teams of experts serving the industry. This protocol also increases the career choices available to Magnox staff who wish to continue to develop their careers in the nuclear industry. By providing future employment opportunities for its staff, Magnox can better retain essential skills at its sites. Don Nightingale, Magnox transition director said: “This type of agreement provides options for our employees who wish to remain in the UK nuclear industry, whether in nuclear decommissioning, nuclear power and electricity generation, or defense projects.”
Siemens Industry Automation and Drive Technologies has appointed two new recruits to its sensors and communication division to strengthen its support for the power and aggregates industries. Ian Elsby and Raj Kandasamy take on two newly created roles, covering the north and south respectively to provide dedicated expertise for this key area of industry. Elsby joins Siemens from Endress+Hauser, with over nine years process instrumentation expertise. Having been with Siemens for over four years, Kandasamy moves into the new role to apply his 15 years’ industry experience to enhance Siemens’ expertise and reach in the environmental power, mining, aggregates and cement industries.
Thorite has announced two appointments at LL Fluid Power, its recently opened West Midlands sales and service centre, based in Brierley Hill near Dudley: Stephen Lawrence becomes general manager of the new venture. He has spent over 36 years in the pneumatics business with companies including Air Systems, Nichols Hydramatic, Minett Fluid Power and LL Pneumatics. Joining Lawerence as key account manager is Kevin Slyde, who has extensive pneumatics industry experience.
Dhiresh Mistry has joined Leuze as an electronics salesman. He brings 22 years experience selling to a broad range of Midland’s industries from his time with RS Components. As the latest member of its ’sensor people’ team, Mistry joins Leuze as it celebrates its 150th anniversary, having started out as a textile company near Stuttgart, Germany.
Stephen Taylor hasjoined Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies as business development director for industrial outsourcing.Taylor has over 20 years’ experience in a number of markets including industrial, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, energy, food/drink and chemicals. He joins Veolia from a large international engineering consultancy and service company where he led their sales and marketing functions. He also has relevant experience in process and project engineering.
Adept Technology Inc. has appointed John Boutsikaris senior vice president of sales and marketing. Boutsikaris brings over 30 years of experience in global sales, marketing and channel management in high technology and capital equipment markets. In his role with Adept Technology, he will be responsible for setting the company’s global sales, marketing and post-sales operational strategy.
PowerPerfector has appointed Mike Carr as a non-executive director. Carr has experience and expertise in technology and research management. He is currently a member of the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB), vice president, trustee and fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. From 2001 to 2008, he was chief science officer and director of research and venturing at BT.
BEKO Technologies Ltd has hired Michael Williams to take over the role of regional sales manager for the South of England. Michael has extensive experience in the compressed air industry in the UK and his native South Africa. He has worked for Ingersoll Rand and more recently MBAS, a large multi depot distributor of compressed air products. Williams is a millwright by original training, going on to take an Engineering Diploma then a business studies qualification.
Sanderson, a publicly-owned UK provider of manufacturing and supply chain IT solutions to the food and drink industry, has appointed sector specialist Mike Gallagher to head up new business development for its UnityF8 business. Gallagher joins Sanderson from Maxima plc. Prior to this he was sales manager at Solarsoft Process Manufacturing Systems / SSI. One of a select number of Microsoft-certified dynamics sales professionals in the UK, he has an MSc in IT for manufacturing from Warwick and a BSc (Hons) from Manchester University.
Advantech Europe BV has appointwd Tony Milne to head its power and energy market business dvelopment. Milne has over 20 years experience of developing new businesses: he spent eight years at Ricoh Co Ltd, the leading copier company, as it went through the revolution caused by digital and networking technologies, overseeing a variety of sales, marketing and training roles at European level. He has lately worked eight years in the industrial sector which has also gone through a significant change with the adoption of Ethernet and TCP/IP technologies, the Web and wireless communications.
Invensys plc has appointed Mike Caliel as president and CEO of Invensys Operations Management with effect from 1 Jan, 2012. Caliel was previously with Invensys from 1993 to 2006, latterly as chief executive of Invensys Process Systems, the largest of the predecessor companies that were brought together to form Invensys Operations Management in early 2009. He has over 25 years experience in the industry and was until recently CEO of Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. Caliel is taking over from Sudipta Bhattacharya who joined the group in 2007 as president of the Wonderware Software division and has been the leader of Invensys Operations Management since February 2009. Sudipta is taking up a new role outside Invensys.
Adrian Lee has left his position as UK and Europe managing director of air handling specialist Gast Group Ltd (formerly JUN-AIR and Gast Manufacturing) to start his own company - Absolute Air & Gas Ltd - specialising in compressed air and gas systems. Lee has more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, having established JUN-AIR in the UK in 1995. Following JUN-AIR’s acquisition by Gast Manufacturing in 2007, he became MD for the European business of both Gast & JUN-AIR brands.
Fluor Corp. has announced that Kirk Grimes will assume the role of group executive for operations overseeing the company’s construction, procurement, project risk management and sustainability functions, as well as project execution services, ’project excellence network’ and strategic planning. He is also to lead a business-change process across all five Fluor business groups. Grimes has served as president of Fluors Global Services Business Group since 2003.
Fluor Corp. has appointed Garry Flowers as group president for global services, which includes its operations & maintenance business, TRS temporary staffing and AMECO equipment rental business. Flowers previously served as senior vice president for health, safety & environmental; corporate security; and industrial relations. He will retain oversight of these functions. Flowers was previously president and CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions - Fluor-led partnership that oversees the management, cleanup and operations at the US department of energy’s Savannah River Site.
Cogent SSC and the National Skills Academy for Nuclear are to hold their fourth collaborative Skills Awards evening for the industry. The event will be held in Manchester on 22 March. Representatives from a wide-range of high-profile organisations will attend the event including major corporates, contractors, academics, funding authorities, regulators, training bodies and other key third parties.
Thorite has appointed Mark Wilson to the position of key accounts manager, based at the company’s Bolton office. Wilson joins Thorite from Bosta UK and will now be responsible for developing major manufacturing and processing industry accounts throughout the north west of England.
Keith Wiggins of Dow Chemical Co., has been elected the new president of the Chemical Industries Association. Wiggins graduated in chemistry at Imperial College, before embarking on his career with ICI. He worked in various technical roles for six years, before joining Dow Chemical in 1990 to pursue an international commercial career which included senior regional and global business positions. In 2007, Wiggins relocated to the UK, assigned as regional general manager for Dow in UK, Ireland and Nordic, in addition to his global business director responsibilities. He has since led both the region and business through a period of restructuring as part of Dow’s strategic transformation. The ’importance of manufacturing to the economy’ and the ’criticality of the chemical industry to the growth agenda’ will be key themes of Wiggins’ leadership during his term of office.
Offshore oil & gas industry organisation Oil & Gas UK has appointed David Ripley as its the new supply chain director. He replaces Brian Kinkead, who moved on earlier in the year. Ripley has over 25 years of experience in the upstream oil & gas industry in areas including: geological evaluation; drilling and completion fluid technology; and well engineering technology. He has also occupied senior technical, business development and operational roles - as well as working as a consultant and a managing director.
As part of an international expansion, mobile SCADA software company Schad, has opened a new office in London, and appointed James Hannay as its senior vice president, global sales & marketing and managing director UK. Hannay was previously senior VP northern Europe, at system integrator Zetes. Before that, he was sales & operations director of Peak Technologies.
Shaun Prinsloo has been appointed regional director for Control Techniques’ drive centres in the UK and Ireland. Prinsloo, who has relocated from South Africa, reports directly to Phil Sewell, executive vice president, sales and marketing. Prinsloo completed his electrical engineering degree at Durban University before moving into sales of electrical equipment and components. He has 15 years’ experience in the drives industry having worked as a sales director, a sales manager and, most recently, as a business development manager responsible for developing the reseller and end user business. His experience encompasses the steel, mining, water and HVAC/R industries and includes OEM projects, servo systems and upgrades of drive systems.
Atlas Copco Compressors has appointed Paul Clark as business line manager of its industrial air division in Great Britain. Clark started his engineering career as a qualified toolmaker first in the UK, and then in the US, before returning back to the UK to take up a sales role for a compressed air distributor. He then took up the position of sales manager for a dryer manufacturer before his appointment to MD of air dryer and filtration specialist, Hankison UK. Following the company’s acquisition by SPX, Clark was employed as sales director for its air treatment division with responsibility for establishing business line goals and strategy. After this, he joined Atlas Copco Compressors within business development, before being promoted to business line manager.
Ray Tregale is to take over as managing director at VEGA Controls, replacing Mel Henry, who is stepping-down from his role after 29 years. Tregale has been Vega’s southern regional sales manager of 13 years. He has over 33 years’ experience in the instrumentation business, in roles from apprentice to technical sales and into management.
Peter Silk, formerly a technical advisor to Firebuy and assistant divisional officer with the London Fire Brigade (LFB), has joined Draeger Safety as manager of its new southern safety centre. With four years’ experience in the specification and evaluation of firefighting equipment in line with the Firebuy framework, Silk also spent five years with HM Fire Service Inspectorate where he was involved with product development and technical issues relating to operational fire and rescue service equipment. Previously with the LFB where he began as a firefighter before becoming station commander at various stations and assistant divisional officer, he has also had experience of running the BA Workshops and Service Centre as part of the LFB protective equipment group.
Monitran, a developer and manufacturer of transducers for measuring vibration, proximity and displacement, has promoted Andy Anthony to managing director. Anthony joined the company in 2006, as operations director, having previously worked in the papermaking industry. In this role, he revamped Monitran’s manufacturing processes, implementing ’lean’ practices across operations ranging from raw materials through to delivered products. Anthony has helped the OEM to also move into ’turnkey projects’ said the company, citing its role in a recent maintenance overhaul of the Thames Barrier.
People & Skills Tracker July - Dec 2011
