Lance Abbott
Fellow Engineer, System Integration, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions
Lance is currently responsible for the successful integration of the control and computing resources for the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Project at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC.  With over 20 years experience in process control, Lance’s areas of expertise range from designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining process simulations and process control systems to developing expert systems and genetic algorithms.  Lance’s focus is on creating systems that are usable, testable, maintainable, extensible, and affordable.

Rob Aleksa
Section Head, Corporate Engineering, Procter & Gamble
Rob has worked with Procter & Gamble for over 30 years.  His assignments include health and beauty care, snacks and beverage, baby care, and corporate engineering.  Rob's expertise is in machine control, process control, and MES systems.  He has led the Corporate Machine Control section since 2000.  Rob also sits on the OMAC Board of Directions with the position of Vice Chairman and is the external P&G sponsor of PackML through the OMAC Packaging Workgroup.

Mark Anderson
President and CEO, Pro Mach
Mark has more than 20 years experience in global manufacturing.  He provides strategic leadership for Pro Mach and manages overall operations for Pro Mach’s three business units and related divisions: Primary Packaging, End-of-Line Packaging, and Identification and Tracking.  He also guides Pro Mach’s initiatives for delivering excellence in product development, customer service, and distribution.  Before joining Pro Mach, Mark served as Vice President and General Manager of Tyler Refrigeration, a division of Carrier Corporation, where he continually improved operations through lean manufacturing processes.  Before that he served as Vice President of Operations for Cooper Crouse-Hinds.  Mark began his career as a manufacturing and systems engineer at Caterpillar where he held several senior engineering and management positions in the electrical products and switchgear industries.

Nils Bengtsson
Applications Engineer, Production Modeling Corporation
Nils is an applications engineer at Production Modeling Corporation Europe AB.  He is currently working as a guest researcher at National Institute of Standards and Technology.  His research interest includes discrete event simulation applicability and interoperability for industry.  His main focus is how discrete event simulation can be used to analyze and solve sustainability problems.

Rahul Bhojani
Principal Process Control Technology Specialist, Bayer Business and Technology Services
Rahul is a Principal Engineer working for Bayer since 2000.  He is responsible for the instrumentation, electrical, and control systems portion of large capital projects.  Rahul also serves as a consultant within Bayer providing expertise in the selection, design, implementation, and operation of process control, industrial automation, and safety instrumented systems.  Prior to Bayer, he worked for 3 years as an Industrial Automation and Process Control Engineer for Siemens in India.  He is a voting member on ISA100 Committee on Wireless Systems in Automation and the ISA99 Committee on Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security.

Bill Brooks
Industry Solutions Specialist, Industry Solutions Mobility Practice – Petrochemical, AT&T
Bill is responsible for providing industry expertise and focus to better identify and deliver key mobile line of business applications across AT&T’s Enterprise Business Services Group relating to the petrochemical manufacturing industry and wireless telemetry solutions.  He has held several leadership roles with service companies focused in the petroleum industry.  He gained valuable experience in the processes that oil and gas companies use to pull fossil fuels from the ground and the steps taken to refine and separate them into usable products.  With 30 years petrochemical experience and 13 years of wireless telemetry experience, Bill led the telemetry business at Dobson Communications starting with analogue alarming and evolving into packet data solutions.

Mike Brooks
Venture Executive, Chevron Technology Ventures
Mike has more than 25 years of experience in chemical plant operations management, refinery planning and scheduling, distributed control and instrumentation project implementation, advanced control application development, as well as development of process information management systems and graphical user interface products.  Mike focuses on software architecture technologies to support operational activities for all Chevron refineries and the company's supply chain.

Eric Cosman
Engineering Solutions IT Consultant, Dow Chemical
Eric’s responsibilities include system architecture definition and design, technology management, and integration planning for manufacturing systems globally.  He has held positions in process engineering, process systems software development, telecommunications, IT operations, automation architecture, and consulting.  Eric represents Dow and the chemical industry on various standards committees, industry focus groups and advisory panels.  He has been a contributor to the work of the ISA95 committee and currently serves as the co-chairman of the ISA99 committee on industrial automation systems security.  He also sponsors a Chemical Sector Cyber Security Program team focused on industrial control systems cyber security and was one of the authors of the Chemical Sector Cyber Security strategy for the US.

Christian Czauderna
Head of Global Efficiency Programs, Bayer MaterialScience
Christian began his career as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Power Systems and Power Economics at Aachen University.  He earned a PhD degree in 2000 in the issue of reliability in electrical supply systems.  From 2001 to 2004, Christian was a staff employee at the Energy Department of Bayer AG.  From 2005 to 2007, he was Head of Electricity Supply of Bayer Chempark Dormagen at Bayer Industry Services.  In 2007, he became Head of the Asset Management and Network Economics Department at CURRENTA GmbH & OHG (a joint venture of Bayer and Lanxess).  He has been in his current position at Bayer MaterialScience since October 2008.

Jerry Daigle
Senior Project Manager, Orange County Convention Center
Jerry has 30 years experience in facilities management in the public and private sectors.  He is a former Deputy General Manager for the Orange County Convention Center, where he was responsible for three operating divisions with an annual budget in excess of $30 million.  Jerry is currently semi-retired and works part-time on energy efficiency projects for the convention center.

Jim Davis
Associate Vice Chancellor, Information Technology & CIO, UCLA
Jim is the Associate Vice Chancellor Information Technology & CIO and a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA.  In chemical engineering, Jim’s research is in the area of data analysis, decision support, intelligent systems, and fault-tolerant/networked based control.  He is currently PI on a national initiative for Smart Process Manufacturing and he serves on the Executive Board of the National Programming Committee for AIChE.  In his Associate Vice Chancellor position, Jim has broad responsibility for university-wide IT technology planning, policy, investment, and deployment.  He is also responsible for UCLA’s research and education cyberinfrastructure, including grid and high performance computing and communications strategy and operations.

Ronaldo de Magalhães
Manager, Automation Technology, Instrumentation and Electric, Petrobras
Ronaldo is responsible for automation, instrumentation, and electrical areas of the 11 Petrobras Refinery business units.  His career began in 1979 as an automation engineer in REPAR Refinery’s maintenance division.  In 1988, he was transferred to company headquarters to become part of the automation team, working on different SDCD’s implementation projects in all refineries, and coordinating in particular, the implementation of REPAR Refinery’s system.

Daryl Dulaney
President and CEO, Siemens Industry
Daryl is responsible for all business activity and executive management of Siemens Industry which is comprised of five divisions including Industry Solutions, Drive Technologies, Industry Automation, Building Technologies, and Mobility. As a member of the board of directors, he oversees all business activities of the Industry Sector in the US, which includes OSRAM Sylvania, PLM Software, Water Technologies, and Siemens Industry. Additionally, Daryl is Division CEO for Building Technologies, a provider of energy and environmental solutions, building controls and fire safety and security systems. After his appointment to CEO in 2005, he guided the restructuring of the Building Technologies Division, including the successful implementation of cost containment and business process optimization strategies.

Tom Egan
Vice President Industry Services, Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI)
Tom focuses on technologies in support of PMMI’s PACK EXPO trade exhibitions plus conference programs to aid members’ business pursuits.  As staff liaison to multiple professional committees including OMAC, he is involved with technical and commercial issues of interest to all PMMI member companies.  His team plans and organizes several PMMI packaging conferences on both packaging market trends and technical issues which are an integral element of the education initiative for packaging operations professionals.

Thomas Edgar
Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas
Tom holds the George T. and Gladys Abell Chair in Engineering.  For the past 37 years, he has concentrated his academic work in process modeling, control, and optimization, with over 200 articles and book chapters.  Tom has co-authored leading textbooks, including Optimization of Chemical Processes and Process Dynamics and Control, and has received major awards from AIChE and ASEE.  Recently he carried out modeling and control research projects jointly with a variety of companies in the process industries under the auspices of the Texas-Wisconsin-California Control Consortium.  Tom is co-PI on the Smart Process Manufacturing initiative.  Previously he was Associate Dean of Engineering and Associate Vice President for Information Technology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Craig Ferris
Director Business Development, Yokogawa Corporation of America
Craig has been involved with providing automation solutions to the chemical/specialty chemical, oil & gas, manufacturing, power, pharmaceutical, and government customers for over 30 years.  He is responsible for the development of new offerings and closure of new business opportunities for Yokogawa that provide their customers with innovative and results driven business advancements.  The current initiatives that Craig is leading are Energy/Combustion Management, Department of Energy Weapons Disposal, Legacy DCS Systems Migration/Replacement and Wireless, and Nuclear Industry Initiatives.

Manuel Florez
Manager Process Engineering, LyondellBasell Fragrance and Flavor Division, Millennium Specialty Chemicals
Manuel has 24 years experience in designing, developing, and directing distillation programs (particularly batch) and participating and directing process analysis and improvement efforts.  He has worked at Millennium in the LyondellBasell Fragrance and Flavor Division for 10 years.  Previously he spent 14 years at International Flavors and Fragrances where he held positions of Development Engineer, Process Engineering Manager, and Technical Director.  Prior to that he spent 9 years with Exxon Research and Engineering.

David Frazee
Technical Director, Digital Oral Care Research & Development Lab, 3M
David joined 3M in 2005 as the Technical Director of the Software, Electronic & Mechanical Systems Research Laboratory.  The lab provides R&D technology and services in numerous engineering disciplines, including electronics, software, mechanical, industrial design, vision science, predictive engineering, rapid prototyping, and systems and solutions architecture.  He was recently named Director of R&D in a new 3M business unit focusing on the rapidly growing market in digital dentistry.  David started his career at GE Medical Systems in 1982 in CT systems and products as a software developer, implementing proprietary signal processing algorithms for CT image reconstruction, as well as new 3D visualization applications.  In 1994, he was named leader of Global Software Applications and led the global imaging software platform and medical workstation development teams.  David joined Vital Images, Inc. in 1999 as Vice President of Engineering, and led its technology organization to profitable growth as an advanced medical imaging visualization company.

Paul Galeski
CEO and Founder, MAVERICK Technologies
Paul is instrumental in managing all aspects of MAVERICK Technologies.  He is involved in strategically investing capital — both intellectual and financial.  Paul specializes in high-level operational consulting, as well as the development of overall automation and integration strategies.  Paul founded MAGNUM Technologies in 1989, providing multi-disciplined engineering services, programming, process control, and computer-aided design services.  In 1997, he and his partners sold MAGNUM to General Electric, where it became a GE Industrial Systems Division subsidiary.  Paul continued to serve as President until early 1999, and later that year founded MAVERICK Technologies.  He eventually acquired Software Architects, also an Inc. 500 company, and merged it with MAVERICK.

Parrish Galliher
Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Xcellerex
In December 2002, Parrish became Founder, President and CEO of Xcellerex, an advanced technology contract biomanufacturing and disposable manufacturing systems company.  In December 2004, he transitioned to Founder and Chief Technology Officer. As Principal Investigator, Parrish has led Xcellerex's $19M US Government DoD contract for the "Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals Program", awarded in 2007 and continued through completion of Phase 2 Live Fire Test in 2009.  Parrish is co-inventor on numerous patents in the field of biomanufacturing.

Steven Garbrecht
Commercialization Director, Invensys Operations Management
Steve is responsible for product launch, sales collateral development, pricing, packaging, positioning, and promotion of Invensys supervisory and control product offerings.  He joined Invensys in 2002 to coordinate external product marketing activities around Wonderware’s ArchestrA-based Supervisory Control and SCADA Solutions.  Steve has 25 years of experience in the high technology arena, with twenty of them in the industrial control and information automation industry.  He has also held several positions at Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control involving the delivery of hardware, software, and service products.

Greg Ginnow
New Product Development Leader, Printing and Nonwovens, Paper Converting Machine Company
Greg is a 22 year veteran at PCMC, an OEM specializing in engineering, building, and servicing machines for the tissue converting and packaging, nonwovens converting, and printing industries.  During his career he has had responsibilities in leading both mechanical and electrical engineering groups focused on the printing product line.  His current assignment includes leading product line development projects and leading the transformation of PCMC’s development process to include a foundation of Lean principles.

Russell Griffith
Project Support Team Manager, Chevron Energy Technology
Russell is currently the Team Manager for the Project Support Team and sponsors corporate initiatives with Main Automation Contracting and Design Assurance.  During his 35 year career, Russell has worked with EPC consultants, instrument manufacturers, and operating companies.  In 1991 he spent seven years in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco as an Operations Engineering Technical Lead where he led a multi-national team in commissioning and I&C support of operations.  Russell returned to Houston in 1998, where he worked with area EPC projects.  After joining Unocal in 2003, Russell focused on global E&C for international upstream oil and gas projects, particularly in SE Asia in Indonesia and Bangladesh.  After the Unocal merger with Chevron in 2005, he transferred to ETC Process Automation and was assigned the role of Technical Supervisor.

Christian Herneth
Head Supply Chain Development, Petrom
Christian's current business focus is defining and implementing a comprehensive supply chain for OMV-group/Petrom.  The vision is to enable a “Balanced Multi Echelon Demand and Supply Oil Network” through a unique four-layered architecture connecting commercial software to field technology and integrating business processes and people-organization and technology services for planning, optimization, scheduling, and execution along this supply chain.  He began his career working in the chemical manufacturing and high tech industry. In 1995, he started consulting for Ernst & Young in the Networked Value Chain group.  After three years he returned to Europe as Director of Capgemini’s Global Office of Supply Chain Technology and Global Agent Center of Excellence.  During this time, he has worked with senior executives in several world leading companies, designing and managing large scale strategic and operational supply chain transformation projects.

Neil Holden
Vice President Global Delivery, Invensys Operations Management
Neil has over 20 years of experience with Invensys in the application of automation and control systems.  He is currently part of the Global Delivery Operational Excellence organization and is responsible for leading and driving new product and solution introduction into the global projects business.  He joined Invensys Foxboro supporting the International Service Group, responsible for maintaining applications across many diverse industries and customers.  Neil then moved into application/design engineering where he was responsible for executing multi-million dollar control systems in the batch and continuous industries.  In later years he provided project management expertise, overseeing and delivering the front end design, engineering, and support for large automation projects.  During the last 10 years Neil was part of the senior management team for Invensys, and was instrumental in leading the implementation of advanced technologies for Invensys’ European customers.

Thomas Howe
Chief Architect, Global Manufacturing and Labor IT, General Motors
Thomas has over 18 years experience in the information technology field specializing in systems engineering, software development, and integration for large enterprises.  In 1991, he began his career in manufacturing in GE's Information Systems Leadership Program and Aviation business.  In 2002, Thomas was hired by General Motors and is currently the Chief Architect for GM's Global Manufacturing & Labor IT organization.  In this role, he is responsible for architecting GM’s enterprise and plant IT systems that are deployed worldwide in a footprint that spans over 20 countries across more than 150 manufacturing facilities.  Thomas has been instrumental in driving GM's systems and integration strategy, plant-floor simulation capabilities, and the adoption of industry standards including OAGIS, OPC, ISA-95, and B2MML.

David Huffman
Systems Marketing Manager, ABB
Dave has been with ABB for more than 12 years with an extended role of technical sales support and now marketing responsibilities that include SBC, fieldbuses, and safety control.  One of his key responsibilities is promoting the message on State Based Control (SBC) utilizing ABB’s System 800xA.  Dave is the author of a white paper on the operational excellence benefits of SBC and is a contributing author to Martin Hollender’s recent book, Collaborative Process Automation Systems published by the International Society of Automation.  His 21 year background in process engineering and advanced controls implementations with Shell and Koch Refining (now Flint Hills Resources) provided him direct, hands-on experience at automating direct control response to abnormal situations.

Dennis Inverso
Principal Consultant, Electrical & Instrument Control Systems Group, DuPont Engineering
Dennis is a Principal Consultant and Alliance Manager in the DuPont Electrical & Instrument Control Systems group.  His background has mostly been project engineering and control systems related, working in all project activities from requirements definition through and including startup and commissioning.  Dennis is a Six Sigma Green Belt, with more than 40 years’ experience in positions of increasing responsibility and is the company’s resource in process control technology.  Dennis also has experience in manufacturing execution systems, including SAP implementation experience in warehouse management and supply chain integration.  Dennis has served on many national and international standards committees and is a recipient of the prestigious DuPont Engineering Excellence Award.

Barry Johnson
Reliability Advisor, Peace River Pulp Division, Daishowa Marubeni International
Barry has an extensive career in the pulp & paper industry that spans 34 years, all of it on the maintenance side.& He is responsible for reliability of all rotating equipment and continuous improvement towards improved reliability.& This includes indepth root cause failure analysis, lubrication requirements, vibration analysis of all rotating equipment, ODR review and critical equipment status, on-line vibration monitoring, and increasing equipment life (mean time between failures).

Willie Johnson
Associate Director, Global Product Supply Sustainability, Procter & Gamble
Willie is responsible for accelerating and enabling the delivery of key elements of P&G's Operations Sustainability strategy.  He joined Procter & Gamble in 1986 as a Product Technical Engineer. Since then, he has held a variety of engineering, operations, and strategic planning assignments.  In his assignments he has worked in several business areas and in many different locations globally. Most recently, Willie was the Family Care Business Unit Engineering Associate Director.  In that organization, Willie held several roles including Charmin Technical Organization Leader, New Capacity Leader, and Process Technology Owner.  He was responsible for leading new site projects, developing and launching new products, and developing new technologies.

Thomas Lange
Director Modeling & Simulation, Global Capability Organization R&D, Procter & Gamble
Tom leads P&G’s modeling and simulation efforts ranging from computational chemistry, computer aided engineering (CAE) to process, reliability, and supply chain analysis.  He joined Procter & Gamble in 1978 as a Product Technical Engineer and has spent his nearly 30 year career modeling and simulating products and production systems.  In 1994, Tom was recognized with a PRISM award (Professional Recognition of Individual Sustained Mastery), P&G's highest technical recognition award for engineering.  In 1998, he was appointed Associate Director for Computer Aided Engineering in Baby Care, and Reliability Engineering responsibilities for all P&G paper goods including Always, Charmin, and Bounty.  In 2004, he was appointed Director, Modeling & Simulation in Corporate R&D.  In 2008 he was named Director, Modeling & Simulation Global Capability Organization, R&D.

Thomas Neal Latham
Project Engineer – Energy, Mars Chocolate North America
Neal is responsible for driving and executing energy efficient infrastructure projects within Mars Chocolate North America.  He directs the Energy Champions for the region in developing and sharing energy reduction opportunities and has recently taken on the role of North American Water Champion.  He leads synergy work within the global energy group of Mars Chocolate and Wrigley.  These efforts lead to promoting and implementing standard ways of working throughout the organization.  Neal joined Mars in September of 1989 as a Utilities Technician.  He has progressed and broadened his experience with positions in reliability, operations, safety, environmental, and security.  Prior to joining Mars, Neal served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear mechanic aboard a fast-attack submarine.

Rick Lichtenfels
Deputy Director Control Systems Security Program, National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security
Rick has over 12 years of engineering and management experience within both the public and private sectors, working at GTE Government Systems as a network modeling engineer and later at Booz Allen Hamilton as an associate.  Prior to his current position, Rick spent the previous four years at the DHS’ National Communications System (NCS) where he led the NCS’ Modeling, Analysis and Technology Assessment branch.  In this role, he developed the NCS’ Internet analysis capability and led efforts to model the effectiveness of various priority services mechanisms within carrier networks.

Michael McEnery
President and Co-Founder, McEnery Automation
Michael has been designing and delivering process automation solutions since 1993.  Through McEnery Automation's long term relationships with clients in multiple industries, Mike has the valuable perspective of seeing a variety of control systems evolve through their lifecycle.  His experience as a control system engineer, manager, salesman, and business owner allows him to assist clients in implementing solutions that balance use of industry standards and new technology, cost of ownership, reliability, and ease of implementation.  Mike is currently Vice Chairman of WBF, the Organization for Production Technology.

John Michaloski
Computer Scientist, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, NIST
John works in the Intelligent Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  His work focuses on promoting and developing machine control technology and standards.  This work has lead him to chair and participate in numerous standards committes, as well as develop software and publish numerous papers related to manufacturing technology.

Daniel Miller
Director Industry Solutions Practice, AT&T
Dan is responsible for providing industry expertise and focus to better identify and deliver key mobile line of business applications across AT&T’s Enterprise Business Services group.  He works closely with the Mobility Application Consultants across the country to provide insight into the emerging trends and technology in the industrial and manufacturing segments.  Dan’s attention spans all aspects of a manufacturer’s business and includes telemetry/SCADA, sales force automation, field and plant service automation, location-based services, proof of delivery, and custom mobile applications.  Dan has held several industry focused roles in the wireless industry.

Troy Miller
Vice President, Glenmount Global Solutions
Troy joined Glenmount Global Solutions through the acquisition of the Tegron organization, assuming his current position in October 2008.  Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Tegron, driving the company’s significant compounded sales growth and supporting the development of one of the industry’s premier brands.  Troy is an automation and engineering industry veteran with extensive experience serving the Fortune 500 in energy optimization, power and utilities, oil and gas, and food and beverage manufacturing.

Charles Mohrmann
Vice President of Sales, Invensys Operations Management
Charles has more than 25 years experience serving clients in the process industries.  He has expertise in several fields, including reliability, software, IT services, and process automation.  He joined Invensys Operations Management after SAT Corporation was acquired by Invensys in 2008.  Before that, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company serving Fortune 100 clients in the oil & gas and chemicals industries.  Prior to joining McKinsey, Charles held senior management positions with SAIC, Gensym, Honeywell, and Compressor Engineering.

Rich Morihara
Senior Engineer, Boeing Research & Technology
Rich joined Boeing in 1989 and has been working for the advanced central research and development unit of The Boeing Company integrating numerous control and data acquisition systems.  He has automation experience in composites, forming, machining, cell control, and process controls.  In addition, Rich has been working to integrate the use of portable metrology equipment into the manufacturing process in order to improve quality.

Chester Mroz
Executive Vice President, Wireless Fibre Systems
Chester has global responsibility for WFS’ oil and gas activities and is President of their US subsidiary, WFS Subsea.  WFS provides underwater and underground electromagnetic communications and sensing products, serving customers in the oil and gas, defense, and environmental industrial markets.  In recent years as an independent consultant, Chester provided strategy, business development, and M&A advisory services to ABB, Honeywell, Emerson, Yokogawa, Aspen Technologies, SAP, KBR, SAIC, Washington Group, Baker Energy, Shell Global Solutions, Amerapex, Siemens, T.D.Williamson, and Theromoelectron.  He has previously held senior executive roles with ABB, C-Bridge Internet Solutions, Texas Instruments, Foxboro, and Mobil Oil.

Berry Mulder
Global Program Leader - Wireless, Shell Global Solutions
Berry has spent his career in various engineering disciplines and plant information management, lately heading the Shell Global Solutions' Process Automation section that is responsible for qualification and project assurance of new automation technologies like smart instrumentation (predominantly Foundation Fieldbus), asset management, and wireless technology.  He is Shell’s Global Program Leader for ‘Wireless Technology in Process Control Applications’ and chairman of the Wireless Workgroup of the International Instrument End User’s Association ‘WIB’.

Betty Naylor-McDevitt
Director DCS Business, Invensys Operations Management
Betty recently celebrated her 36th anniversary with Invensys Operations Management.  Her career at Invensys began as an applications engineer, responsible for the implementation, testing, and startup of many large client projects for the chemical, oil, and gas industries.  She was later Development Manager for the introduction of the I/A Series DCS system.  At present, Betty manages the Marketing division for the Invensys Operations Management DCS Business.

Yahya Nazer
Manufacturing and Engineering Consultant, Process Automation, Dow Chemical
Yahya has been with Dow Chemical for over 20 years.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Center for Engineering Design at McMaster University in Canada.  Previously he served as Senior Application Engineer for ESSO Chemical Canada and as a Research Associate at Newcastle University in England.  His technical expertise includes design and implementation of process automation, definition and implementation of unit based control for continuous and batch processes, advanced control and optimization, simulation, plant assessment, and operability and controllability in chemical processes.

Nelson Ninin
President and CEO, Yokogawa South America
Nelson has more than 30 years experience in industrial automation.  He joined Yokogawa in 1993 as Sales & Marketing Director.  He was promoted to President and CEO of Yokogawa South America in 2000 where he is responsible for the operation in South America.  Nelson has volunteered in several associations and is President of ISA, International Society of Automation, in 2010.

Thomas Nonhof
IT Director, Cameron
Thomas is a Global Process Lead for manufacturing execution at Cameron, an upstream oil and gas equipment supplier.  As part of his responsibilities, he is currently involved with the global deployment of a Manufacturing Execution System.  Additional responsibilities are tooling management, CAM, shop floor time management, and machine utilization.  During 32 years of his career, Thomas has been involved in the discrete and continuous process industries as a machinist, engineer, process consultant, IT specialist, and a 6 sigma process improvement specialist.

Keith Nosbusch
Chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation
Keith was appointed CEO in February 2004.  He is also the chairman of the company’s board of directors.  Prior to this appointment, Keith served as President of Rockwell Automation Control Systems and an officer of the corporation, positions he held since November 1998. He previously served as Sr. Vice President for the Control and Information Group, where he was responsible for the launching of LogixTM, Rockwell Automation’s premier integrated control and information platform.  Keith's career began in 1974 when he joined Allen-Bradley as an application engineer, and since then he has had numerous positions of increasing responsibility.

David Odendahl
Model Based Definition Engineer, Boeing
David has worked in the development, application, and support of factory automation equipment since 1981.  His primary emphasis has been on CNC machining.  He has been involved with the development and application of STEP-NC since 2002.  David presently works for Boeing on the 787 program.  He is developing and implementing strategies for utilizing CAM data on the manufacturing floor.

Raj Patel
Project Manager, CNAEP Mobile Data Collection, Chevron
Raj has more than 20 years experience in development and execution of advanced process automation, manufacturing automation, and ERP solutions.  He has extensive engineering and IT project management experience and holds ITIL Service Level Management and Financial Management Certification.  Raj currently provides project management support for Chevron North America Exploration and Production’s mobile data collection program for facilitating operator driven reliability, production data collection, compliance, safety and other initiatives.   He is involved in development of the global upstream handheld technology roadmap, product enhancement, production support, and ensuring establishment of effective organizational capability.

Stephen Perry
Partner and Managing Director, Perry Schlegel
Steve is a Partner and Managing Director at Perry Schlegel, a food, beverage, and consumer package goods industry consultancy.  He currently serves as Project Lead for the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s new member initiative, GMA UpStream.  Prior to starting Perry Schlegel, he spent seven years as executive vice president of the Food Processing Suppliers Association whose members include food processing equipment manufacturers, packaging equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and ingredient suppliers to processors, manufacturers and consumer package goods companies in the broad-based food, dairy, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.  He spent thirteen years at the Food Marketing Institute, an international trade association representing the retail and wholesale supermarket industry, as Vice President of Education.

David Prybylowski
Sustainability Director, Mars Chocolate North America
Dave is the Sustainability Director for Mars Chocolate North America.  In this role, Dave coordinates efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water, and packaging use through their supply chain.  He has over 25 years experience in the confectionary industry in a variety of leadership roles including engineering, product development, and raw material development.

Eric Rearwin
Program Manager, Global Manufacturing Mobile Field Worker Program, Chevron
Eric has more than 20 years experience providing IT systems and solutions in Chevron’s Global Manufacturing Control and Information Systems group.  He provides architecture design and production support for Chevron’s mobile computing platform that facilitates refinery equipment surveillance.  The system schedules work, enforces standard work processes, and verifies compliance activities.  In addition, vibration monitoring provides early warning of rotating equipment failures, which reduces repair costs and down time.  Eric is responsible for developing the handheld technology roadmap, deploying upgrades, providing production support, and ensuring that effective systems and organizational support are providing value by integrating with other Chevron Manufacturing initiatives.

Kevyn Renner
Senior Technology Consultant, Chevron
Kevyn has a chemical engineering background with more than 20 years combined experience in process design and operations, advanced control and instrument systems, vertical industry marketing, and information systems with companies including PetroCorp, Mobil Oil, Foxboro, Emerson and Sun Microsystems.  Kevyn is presently focused on the integral use of refining system automation and petroleum downstream enterprise information, within an interoperable infrastructure, to drive enhanced value from the downstream petroleum value chain.

Don Richardson
Director, Global Innovation and PLM Industry Strategy, Business Architecture, Platform and Solutions Group, Microsoft
Don is responsible for defining Microsoft's business strategy to address global innovation management and PLM industry markets.  Don led the definition and development of Microsoft’s Innovation Process Management solution which enables organizations to effectively manage the ideation lifecycle.  In addition Don is responsible for identifying and developing solution strategies across multiple industries.  He also works with leading Global Independent Software Vendors (GISVs) to architect and develop solutions that take full advantage of the Microsoft® Operating System, Server System, Office System and other core Microsoft technologies.

Jose Rivera
Senior Vice President Strategy, Industry Business, Schneider Electric
Jose moved into his current position in 2008 and relocated to Paris, France.  Previous to this position, Jose joined Schneider Electric’s automation business in the US in 2006.  Prior to joining Schneider Electric, Jose held various management positions at Emerson Electric’s Process Management Group where he spent 11 years in various positions and countries, including Regional Sales Manager for the Caribbean Region, General Manager of the Germany subsidiary of a recently acquired Swedish company, and Director for EMEA (located in England and later Germany).

Tariq Samad
Corporate Fellow, Honeywell Automation and Control Systems
Tariq's career with Honeywell has spanned 23 years, during which time he has contributed to automation and control technology developments for applications in the process industries, building management, unmanned aircraft, electric power systems, automotive engines, and clean energy.  His research interests relate broadly to automation, intelligence, and autonomy for complex engineering systems.  He is a Honeywell Star Inventor with 16 patents awarded and others pending.  Tariq is the 2009 President of the IEEE Control Systems Society.  He was the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Control Systems Magazine from 1998 to 2003 and is currently on the editorial boards of Control Engineering Progress and the new Journal of Mind Theory.  He also serves as a member representative on the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute and he is a member of the Governing Board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel.

Michael Sarli
Plant Automation Technology Program Leader, ExxonMobil Research & Engineering
Mike manages the Plant Automation technology portfolio, including the R&D program, broad deployment strategies for new technology, intellectual property management, and relationship management with major automation technology providers.  Prior to his current assignment, he held a number of technical, supervisory, and management positions within ExxonMobil Research & Engineering and several of its predecessors since joining Mobil in 1975.  He holds over 30 U.S. Patents in the area of petroleum refining and has authored or co-authored eight technical papers on various aspects of refining technology.

Tobias Scheele
Vice President Advanced Applications, Portfolio & Strategy, Invensys Operations Management
Tobias joined Invensys more than three years ago as the Vice President for Advanced Applications segment within the Portfolio & Strategy group.  He has more than 13 years of professional experience in the process industry and had held several senior positions within Aspen Tech and Degussa.

Patrick Schweitzer
Measurement and Automation Projects, ExxonMobil Research & Engineering
Patrick currently leads a team for special projects centering around wireless and instrument diagnostics.  He has 30 years of industrial experience ranging from precious metals, refining, and chemicals to downstream oil & gas refining.  Prior to joining ExxonMobil, he was Business Development Manager for Intergraph Corporation and Senior Control Systems Engineer for KBR.  He is Co-Chair of ISA100 Wireless Technologies and a non-supplier voting representative to the Board of WCI.

Martin Schwibach
Senior Automation Manager Industrial Communication, BASF
Martin has been with BASF for 20 years.  He is responsible for the technical expertise and services of industrial communication technologies at BASF, mainly for the Ludwigshafen site.  This includes networked automations systems, wireless automation and radio systems, camera systems, public adresss systems and fire and gas panels.  Martin started his career as a control engineer, and gained experinces with fieldbus technology, manufacturing execution systems and performance management applications.  Additionally, he is Chairman of the NAMUR Working Group 4.15 Wireless Automation.

Constantino Seixas
Senior Executive, Resources Operating Group, Accenture
Constantino is responsible for the development and management of service capabilities and innovative solutions.  He also has oversight of vendor alliances.  Constantino assists clients in the mining, steel, cement, and ethanol industries to develop master IT production plans and architecture, leverage IT solutions for sustainability, and meet regulatory requirements.  Prior to joining Accenture, Constantino was an executive of ATAN, a Brazilian provider of industrial IT and automation solutions, which Accenture acquired in 2008.  While at ATAN, he pioneered the introduction of several technologies such as MES, OPC, IEC 61131-3, ISA 95, and ISA-99.

Werner Setzwein
Vice President Automation & Electrical Engineering, BASF
Werner has been with BASF for over 20 years.  He is responsible for the technical expertise of automation and electrical engineering for BASF projects worldwide.  This includes all areas of process control, automation technology, process analytical technology, field device technologies, and electrical technologies.  Werner began his business career as a design engineer, commissioning engineer, and construction manager for power plants. He has over 30 years of experience in project engineering and project execution.

Pete Sharpe
Director, Industry Solutions for Refining & Chemicals, Process Systems and Solutions Division, Emerson Process Management
Pete manages a group of consultants that specialize in advanced process control and process control consulting.  He started his career with Exxon Chemicals has over 30 years of experience in the process control industry.  Pete has worked in both technical and management roles, covering consulting engagements as well as implementation projects for a wide variety of processes and plants around the world.  He has led consulting studies to help refiners, petrochemical manufacturers, utilities, and polymer plants design and justify major automation projects and control system upgrades.  He has authored or co-authored more than 20 technical papers, and holds 3 patent applications on abnormal situation prevention techniques.

Laura Sheets
Systems Integrator, PDC Project, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions
Laura has over 20 years of engineering experience, including 15 years of process control work at multiple facilities at the Savannah River Site, part of the US nuclear weapons complex.  Her most recently completed project was the automation of the Tritium Extraction Facility, a one-of-a-kind, $506 million greenfield project.  Laura's focus is to efficiently configure control systems of the highest quality, which are "easy to operate".  Her current task is the automation of another one-of-a-kind facility, the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Project.  A phased implementation is planned for this project, with the final start-up in approximately 10 years.

Swarandeep Singh
Manager Lead Competency Center for Terminal Solutions, Oil Gas and Petrochemicals Business Unit, ABB
Swarandeep is responsible for managing and globally coordinating ABB’s terminal management business.  He has been working with ABB for the last 10 years and has been involved in sales and project management of large electrification and automation projects.  Previous experiences include senior engineer with MMC Oil and Gas Engineering, Malaysia and Engineers India Limited.  He is a voting member of the ISA SP95 Enterprise/ Control Integration Committee and a member of SP99 Security Standards Committee.

Stephen Slade
Senior Director Applications Marketing, Manufacturing and Asset Lifecycle Management, Oracle
Stephen is responsible for the product messaging and marketing direction of Oracle’s asset lifecycle management, service, and manufacturing products.  He has 25 years of experience working in logistics, service, operations, and program management.  Prior to Oracle, Stephen held senior marketing and sales positions at Siebel and was Vice President of Global Account Management at RTS/Viryanet Software.  He was also Director of Field Service at Siemens-Oce USA, Vice President of Operations at Cordura, and Operations Manager at ITT Avionics Industries.  Stephen has extensive experience working with firms engaged in Lean, 6-sigma, ISO 9000, CRM programs, and quality compliance initiatives.

Skip Smith
Technology Director, Indiana Veneers
Skip joined Indiana Veneers, North America's oldest sliced veneer mill, in 2007 and is responsible for all information technology, integration, and electronics.  Most recently he implemented a new automation manufacturing platform that allowed Indiana Veneers manufacturing and sales management the ability to utilize real-time data from their shop floor to determine profitability and satisfy customer expectations.  Prior to joining Indiana Veneers, Skip was a Network Engineer at Locke Reynolds.

Steven Sonnenberg
President, Emerson Process Management & Executive Vice President, Emerson
Steve leads Emerson’s process management business.  He was appointed as Emerson Executive Vice President and the Business Leader of Emerson Process Management in October 2008.  Steve joined Emerson in 1979 as a marketing analyst with its Brooks Instrument division.  His career progressed rapidly as he assumed a number of marketing and general management positions in Germany, London, and Asia Pacific.  In 2000, Steve was appointed President of Emerson Process Management Asia Pacific, and in 2002 he was appointed President of Emerson’s Rosemount division.  During his tenure, he has also been responsible for several Emerson acquisitions including Rosemount TankRadar (formerly Saab Marine), Mobrey, Damcos, and Metran.

Luis Sousa
Senior Process Engineer, Nitriflex
Luis has been working in process engineering at Nitriflex for more than 23 years.  H has developed several new processes and designed improvements in technologies related to special polymers production, mainly in Nitrile Rubbers.  Luis began his career on a special team in his company assigned to design a whole new automation program capable to lead the company’s technology to a new age of competitiveness in the special polymers area.  His focus areas are emulsion polymerization (batch) and monomer recovery systems.

Dave Staples
Business Development Manager, SKF Reliability Systems
Dave has over 20 years of industrial experience specializing in asset reliability technologies and asset management services.  He has excellent knowledge of plant-wide maintenance reliability strategies for rotating machinery across many industries.  For the past 6 years Dave has been focused on helping customers implement and sustain operator-driven reliability programs and has presented and published several articles on related topics.

Maryrose Sylvester
President and CEO, GE Intelligent Platforms
Maryrose has been President and CEO since February 2006.  Prior to her current role, she was President of GE Quartz, which develops, manufactures, markets, and sells fused quartz and boron nitride products for semi-conductor, lighting, electronic, fiber optic and industrial applications.  She was named President of GE Quartz in May 2002 and a GE Company Officer in December that same year.  Maryrose started her GE career in 1987 working for GE Lighting’s Sourcing organization.  She progressed through various positions of increasing scope and complexity, including Manager of Worldwide Direct Materials for GE Lighting Worldwide Sourcing, Director of Sourcing for GE Lighting Europe, General Manager of Worldwide Sourcing, General Manager of High Intensity Discharge Products, and President and CEO for GE Lighting Systems.

Daniel Tadie
Manager of Remote Energy Plants, Colorado Springs Utilities (retired)
Dan worked for Colorado Springs Utilities for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2008.  For the last four years he was manager over the utility’s fleet of hydroelectric generating plants, peaking power, and emergency generating stations and a NG peaking plant.  He also managed the recent migration from legacy DCS to their newest control system at one of the plants, establishing it as the future standard for all remote sites.  Much of his career has been focused on maintaining and optimizing power plant control systems at many of the utility’s power plants.  He oversaw the controls modernization for several generating units, upgrading from pneumatic-based controls to DCS with in-house staff.  Dan also established remote site monitoring and control for the hydro plants, and guided construction of new state of the art control rooms at two plants.

Bruce Taylor
Manager Business Process Integration, Suncor Energy
Bruce is a senior management professional with more than 35 years of experience in delivering business benefits through the innovation of leading edge information technologies in the real-time process manufacturing industry.  He joined Suncor in 2006 to manage their integrated ERP deployment after which he accepted an expanded leadership role in Suncor’s Operational Excellence organization.  Bruce’s experience spans numerous global industries in which he has architected and implemented a broad set of complex integrated business and operations applications.  He is an active member of the NPRA Process Automation and Decision Support Committee, the Open O&M/MIMOSA Owner Operator Leadership Committee, and the MESA Process Industries SIG.

Bob Tilove
Laboratory Group Manager and Research Fellow, Virtual Manufacturing Group, General Motors
Bob joined General Motors in 1981 as a research scientist working in the areas of solid modeling and off-line robot programming/simulation.  He has spent most of his career in the development and implementation of computer modeling/simulation tools for GM’s Virtual Vehicle Development Process.  Bob is currently responsible for Virtual Manufacturing R&D and is engaged in many global collaborative research activities.  In 2006, he was on special assignment in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to define a vision and strategy for the next generation of Smart Assembly Systems.

Rick van Dyke
Group Manager, Control & MES Systems, Frito-Lay
Prior to joining Frito Lay, Rick worked for Procter & Gamble for 15+ years in a variety of engineering positions in the different global business units and corporate engineering.  While at P&G he was an active member of OMAC. He has been the PackConnect leader for the last 4+ years and is now the Chairman of the OMAC Packaging Workgroup (OPW).

Sandy Vasser
Facilities Electrical and Instrumentation Manager, ExxonMobil
Sandy has more than 30 years experience with Exxon and ExxonMobil in a variety of project and management positions.  In his current position, he manages a team of engineers responsible for the design, installation, and commissioning of electrical generation and distribution, process control, and instrumented safety systems for major upstream oil & gas capital projects worldwide.  This team is also responsible for developing, promoting, and implementing strategies for successfully executing project instrument and electrical activities.

Steven Venema
Associate Technical Fellow, Networked Systems Technology, Boeing Research and Technology
Steve has extensive experience with robotics and control systems, network systems architecture, wireless security protocols, and real-time embedded systems.  His current activities at Boeing include the development of new standards-based communications, network security, mobility, and location protocols and services, with a focus on implementations for the Boeing enterprise and its customers.  As part of his duties, he is actively participating in public standards development activities at ISA (ISA100.15 WG), the Trusted Computing Group (TNC WG), and The Open Group (the Security Forum and the Real Time Embedded Systems Forum).

Sid Venkatesh
Associate Technical Fellow, Boeing
Sid joined Boeing Manufacturing Research and Development as an engineer in 1986 in Advanced Manufacturing & Controls.  He has worked on several automation projects resulting in successful implementation at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Integrated Defense Systems sites.  In 2002, he was selected to the Boeing Technical Excellence program as an Associate Technical Fellow.  Presently, he is leading the OMAC implementation of Standard for Exchange of Product Model Data-Numerical Control (STEP-NC).

Mike Vernak
Global Program Manager, DCS Migration, Rockwell Automation
Mike is responsible for all phases of process system migrations, including developing enablers that allow phased migrations based on customers’ growing needs and available technology.  Prior to joining Rockwell Automation, Mike worked for GE and MK-Ferguson on a series of projects that included GE Series 6, Honeywell TDC, Westinghouse WDPF, and Foxboro systems, in a wide range of applications.  His industry experience includes metals, mining, food, specialty chemicals, life sSciences, transportation/aircraft, pulp & paper, and water & wastewater.

Michael Williams
Senior Asset Manager, Dow Chemical
Mike represents the manufacturing information technology client base for a global portfolio of businesses in Dow with an installed base of over 100 manufacturing facilities.  These facilities cover diverse chemical technologies from large scale continuous to small scale batch processes.  Mike’s 34 year Dow career has spanned numerous leadership roles in research, manufacturing, and engineering.  Since 2000, Mike has participated in several due diligence teams supporting mergers, acquisitions, and divestures focused on manufacturing information system assets.  His current efforts are concentrated on capital investment planning and global migration of the legacy control and information systems.

Bill Wray
Engineering Consultant, Polyols Plant, Bayer MaterialScience
Bill's responsibilities include configuration and maintenance of various programmable electronic systems, process engineering, IT support, and project management and execution.  He has worked as a process and process control engineer at the Channelview site for 30 years.  Except for a brief stint as a Y2K project manager, Bill has been involved with batch automation since 1988, designing, configuring, and starting up batch automation systems for plants in the US, Europe, and Asia.  Bill has been active in the WBF since its birth, serving as its first Secretary (1994-95) and then as Chairman (1995-97).  He has served on the WBF Board of Directors in various capacities since 1997, and is currently Vice Chairman.  Bill has also been active in other professional activities, as a member of the SP88 committee and as Chairman of SP95.

Hartmut Wuttig
Business Unit Manager Oil, Gas, & Petrochem, Process Automation Division, ABB
Hartmut joined ABB in 1998.  Since then he has held a variety of management positions including Business Unit Manager for Chem/Pharma, Division Technology Manager, and R&D Manager for Automation Systems.  Prior to joining ABB, he worked for Elsag Bailey in a variety of leadership roles including product development and marketing.  He was also General Manager of the Automation Systems Business of Hartmann & Braun. He began his career as a commissioning engineer for power plant control systems.

Dennis Yieh
Assistant Manager, Control Systems Group, Sterling Chemicals
Dennis' group is responsible for providing technical support of DCS, PLC, safety interlock systems, advanced process control, and process and environmental information systems provided by companies such as Emerson, Foxboro, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Schneider Electric, and OSIsoft.  He has more than 30 years of chemical industry experience ranging from process design, technical support, production, and process control.  He has managed and successfully implemented many APC and environmental applications since 1994 to reduce product variability, increase production, and reduce manufacturing costs.  Dennis began his career as a chemical process engineer with Monsanto and his interest in process control led him to the process control position to provide the most impact to plant operation improvements.

Stephen Zitney
Director, Collaboratory for Process & Dynamic Systems Research, U.S. Department of Energy
Stephen currently serves as Director of the Collaboratory for Process & Dynamic Systems Research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).  NETL implements a broad spectrum of energy and environmental research and development programs.  Before joining NETL in 2004, Stephen held senior consulting and R&D management positions at Fluent, a provider of CFD software; Aspen Technology, a supplier of process simulation software; and Cray Research, a provider of supercomputing tools to the process industries.

Sloan Zupan
Marketing Manager Controller & HMI, Mitsubishi Electric Automation
Sloan is Marketing Manager of Controller and HMI products for manufacturing operations and enterprise IT integration.  Before joining Mitsubishi Electric, Sloan held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at various automation suppliers and channel partners and was an Electrical Engineer for several years at a telecommunication battery manufacturer.  Over the past 15 years Sloan has extensive experience working with customers to maximize returns related to automation control infrastructures and manufacturing information management.

Phil Zylberman
Refining Automation Migration Team Leader, Chevron
Phil has 30 years experience with Chevron in various organizations.  A majority of this time has been spent in the area of instrumentation and process control, including engineering, project execution, procurement, and program management in this arena.  For the last three years Phil has been engaged in Chevron’s Refining 00#1 Program, overseeing the Automation Migration component.