Speaker Biographies

Bob Snell has over 30 years of international experience in business consulting, line management, technical operations, and litigation support primarily in the petroleum industry. For 15 years Bob has led Quaker in serving clients primarily in the energy sector advising clients in business strategy, international arbitration, operations, marketing, and organization structure. Bob has also advised clients in related extractive and renewable industries; including clean firm energy, service, and private financial entities.
Earlier in his career, Bob had various roles at ExxonMobil Corporation in refining and marketing supply (Molecule Management Project), chemicals, and midstream. These include line management positions in operations support, economics and planning, business analysis, and project engineering. Bob has a B.S. Chemical Engineering (Northeastern), MBA (Wharton, and J.D. (Purdue).

Austin works for Wood Mackenzie as a Principal Analyst for Refining and Product Markets in North America, leading the short-term and long-term refined product market outlooks for the region. He graduated from the University of Colorado with an MS in chemical engineering, and he has worked in a variety of refining and petrochemical process engineering roles prior to his time with Wood Mackenzie.

Dinara is a seasoned professional with two decades of experience in the energy markets. With advanced knowledge of the Canadian energy industry and regulatory landscape, as well as strong technical expertise and leadership skills, Dinara has achieved numerous successes throughout her career. Previously serving as Vice President, Research at the Canadian Energy Research Institute, she led research projects within multidisciplinary teams, managed the Institute’s Research Committee, and communicated research outcomes to various internal and external stakeholders. As a Founder and CEO of 17Insight, a boutique consulting firm, Dinara advises on energy and environmental issues related to Canadian and international energy markets, decarbonization, energy transition, and sustainability. Dinara holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Economics, with specialization in time-series analysis and Minor in Finance. In addition to her professional pursuits, Dinara actively contributes to her community through volunteer work, assisting new Canadian immigrants with cultural integration, networking, and understanding Canadian work culture. Dinara serves on the Boards of the Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council and the sustainability research based VeriStell Institute.

GREGORY SHAHNOVSKY Graduated from Azerbaijan institute of petrochemistry and post-graduate school for specialty “Petrochemical processes automation” and then Haifa University for specialty “High-technology enterprises business administration”.From 1990 – service engineer, applications engineer, deputy general manager and then CEO of MODCON. From 2013 – President of MODCON Group. Under his leadership, MODCON has quickly grown to #1 market positions with its innovative line of process analyzers, optimization and artificial intelligence solutions.

Gregory Shahnovsky is a member of the International Society of Automation, author of numerous scientific publications and award-winning scientific and technical communities. Strong business development and engineering professional skilled in analytical chemistry, process optimization, multivariable modelling, AI and control systems design.

Alexandre de Oliveira Gomes, who holds a master's degree in organic chemistry, has been working at Petrobras since 1989. He provides technical support and conducts research on petroleum chemistry. Additionally, he is a member of the crude oil assay team at Petrobras' Research, Development, and Innovation Center (CENPES).

Scott M. Sayles has over 46 years of experience as a refinery manager, engineer, and consultant in the renewable fuels, petroleum refining, and petrochemical industries. His experience in leading technical due diligence for emerging technologies, alternative feedstock selection, and balancing operability/reliability for assets continues to bring successful projects online and increase client profitability.
Management experience includes all aspects of a fuel refinery, dock, terminal, and pipelines. Corporate process engineering for multiple refineries including bringing Cumene unit, LSD, and LSG projects online and under budget. Operations manager for crude, vacuum, H-Oil(tm), Texaco gasification, distillate hydrotreating, amine regeneration, and sulfur units.
Mr. Sayles holds a B.S. degree from Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, and an M.S. degree from Lamar University, Beaumont, TX; both degrees are in Chemical Engineering. 15 patents and many publications.

Ed Scardaville is a Senior Advisor in the Houston office of Baker & O’Brien with almost 40 years of downstream industry experience, including over 30 years delivering strategic, market, and technical consulting services to a wide range of clients, including operators, global energy traders, financial institutions, and national governments. Ed has expertise in all aspects of the downstream industry, including topics such as crude oil pricing and markets, refinery competitive analysis, capital project development, refinery linear program (LP) modeling, and regulatory compliance impacts. Ed began his consulting career at Purvin & Gertz, Inc. and joined Baker & O’Brien in 2022.

Asok Kumar Tharanivasan is an R&D Senior Consultant with KBC (A Yokogawa Company), specializing in fluid property engines for KBC's Multiflash(r) and Petro-SIM(r) simulation solutions. With 15 years of spanning the upstream and downstream oil industry, his expertise includes petroleum thermodynamics, particularly hydrocarbon PVT phase behavior, fluid characterization, physical property calculations, and flow assurance challenges related to asphaltenes and waxes. Asok holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada.

David Crochet is a Principal Chemist within Nalco Water’s Downstream RD&E division in Houston, Texas. Since 2018, David has worked as a subject matter expert in the refinery process group with a focus on desalter optimization, crude oil quality, asphaltene stability management, and emulsion breaker development. David has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Texas A&M University.

Alex Park is Marketing Manager Downstream Refinery Process with Nalco Water based in Houston, Texas with 10 years’ experience in downstream industry including refinery and petrochemical process.
With the focus in innovation, in the refinery sector, he has led several chemical development projects, including antifoulant, coker antifoam, and desalter acidification. Recently, he launched digital services for on-site crude blending, particularly for opportunity crudes.
In the petrochemical process domain, his focus has been on ethylene, styrene, and C3 derivative processes, including methyl methacrylate, acrylic acid, and acrylonitrile. His primary responsibility has been the development of antifoulants for polymerization inhibition. Notably, he collaborated with licensors of C3 processes.

Rob Gutierrez serves as a lead researcher at Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions, based at the Tomball Technology Center in Tomball, Texas, USA. Since joining the company he has developed over a decade of experience in the refining industry with a focus on phase separation, crude stability, fouling mitigation, finished fuel additives, and accompanying advanced analytics. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and his work resulted in four published patents, with multiple others pending spanning the entirety of the refining industry.

Didier Lambert, Ph.D., Doctor in Sciences, is Chairman, CEO, and founder of Topnir Systems Company. He has over 30 years of experience in Refining and Petrochemicals, including International Project Management and Business Development through various Management positions at BP and ABB Group. Didier is the inventor of more than 30 patents and the recipient of the 1989 Petroleum Engineer's Award for Octane Number prediction by NIR.

Dr. Pranab Kumar Rakshit leads the process development group of Bharat Petroleum Corporate R&D Centre which focusses on designing, optimizing, and implementing processes for refining and petrochemical industry. His group has been actively involved in developing processes related to petrochemicals and refining units as part of the company’s vision towards portfolio expansion and improving efficiencies.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Major projects handled
1. Development of reactors and their internals for Multi-phase reactions 2. Development of mathematical models for refining and petrochemical processes 3. Development of digital tools for crude oil scheduling and mitigating compatibility issues.

Patents and publications
1. 5 granted US patents and 9 international patents.

Prizes, honours and awards
1. Recipient of Best Innovation award from Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India
2. DX awards for best innovation in Digital space

Invited keynote and speaker addresses
1. Petrotech 2012 speaker on Refinery optimisation strategies
2. International Symposium on Fuels and Lubricants, 2008
3. Energy Technology Meet 2020

Rajeev is working as Chief Manager (R&D) at Corporate R&D Centre of Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., India. His research interests are development of new products / processes, modeling of refinery processes and alternate fuels. He holds a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from BIT Sindri, M. Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and PhD in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He has published over 25 research articles/papers in journals like AICHE, Fuel, Fuel Proc Technol, Hydrocarbon Processing, Petroleum Technology Quarterly etc. He has filed 17 patent applications (Granted-08) in India/International.

Sam Lordo is an Advisor for Becht Pono Group. Sam has over 45 years of experience in refining and petrochemical industries. Sam is involved with desalting and corrosion control technical and technology developments. Sam has been a member of AMPP for 26 years, author of several papers on corrosion control & monitoring, desalting, and Opportunity Crude Processing. Sam has help develop 4 patents. Sam is active in Crude Oil Quality Association (COQA) and the Opportunity Crude Conferences presenting on a wide variety of topic regarding crude oil processing. He is an active member of and American Fuels and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). At AFPM was a member of the 2002 AFPM Q&A Panel, worked on the screening committee (>15 years) and received the 2016 AFPM Lifetime Achievement Award. Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Nigel Hilton
Dorf Ketal

 

Attila Gajdacsi
Emerson

 

Randy Segato has over 36 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, with 13 years at Shell Canada, where he specialized in Refinery Process Engineering, Online Optimization, Petrochemicals, and West Canada Product Supply. His 23 years at Suncor encompassed various roles, including LP Planning, Crude Oil Trading, Crude Quality, Marketing, and Engineering. As Suncor's Top Crude Oil Quality Specialist, Randy played a pivotal role in market optimization, technology development, and the management of upgrader and refinery operations.

He contributed significantly to the development of the Canadian Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) by assisting Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) with Crude Pathway Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Throughout his career, Randy has led numerous industry-wide crude quality initiatives, actively participating in the Crude Monitor, Equalization, Royalties, and CAPP committees, and has spearheaded efforts on diluent specifications and commodity pooling.

In his capacity as President of the Canadian Crude Quality Technical Association (CCQTA) and as a board member of the U.S. Crude Oil Quality Association (COQA), Randy has worked to align crude quality principles on a global scale. Currently, he collaborates with Haverly Systems on Crude Oil LCA modeling and serves as President of QC2 Solutions, where he provides consulting services throughout the hydrocarbon value chain.

Paul Cannizzo has more than 35 years of experience in the oil industry. He is a Chemical Engineer with an MBA and extensive experience in Planning and Optimization, Logistics, Strategic Plan Development, and Mergers & Acquisitions. During his career, Mr. Cannizzo has worked for Super Majors, Independent Refiners, and Consultants on projects in North and South America, The Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Cannizzo has a proven track record of delivering results as a Refinery Process Engineer, Director of Planning and Economics, Director of Strategy and Business Development, and Asset Development Engineer. Since November of 2020 he has worked for HSB Solomon Associates as Vice President, Sustainability and Strategic Insights.

Henrik Rasmussen graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1989 with a degree in chemical engineering before relocating to the United States in 1991. He has worked at Topsoe for more than 35 years and has held many technical and management positions for all Topsoe’s business units. His technical expertise covers the Ammonia, MeOH and Hydrogen plant industry and specifically the refining industry for both catalyst and technology. In the last few years, Henrik has been heavily involved with Topsoe’s green and blue process technologies for the production of renewable fuels, green and blue Ammonia, MeOH and hydrogen.

Henrik’s current role is Managing Director & SVP for The Americas responsible for Topsoe business in North and South America with offices in Houston, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Washington, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Dr. Yi Zhang joined CanmetENERGY-Devon, Natural Resources Canada as research scientist since 2015. He is a Registered Professional Chemist in Alberta, Canada. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from East China University of Science and Technology and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently Dr. Yi Zhang is leading several research projects including demonstration of pre-commercialized technologies through engineering, economical evaluation and piloting for industrial scale up and development of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) technology to improve competitiveness of opportunity crudes, which includes Alberta’s oil sand products, shale oil, and biocrudes.

Haralambos Panagopoulos is a senior LP Planning Engineer at Hellenic Petroleum Refining, Supply & Trading of Oil Products & Petrochemicals S.A., which is the main subsidiary of HelleniQ Energy Holdings Group. He has been working in the Oil Downstream Sector for nearly 11 years, with experience in a variety of different functions spanning from physical crude oil/oil products supply & trading and paper hedging, to refinery production planning, scheduling, process simulation and optimization. Due to the Group's Transformation Plan to a Low-Carbon Energy Company aspiring to reach to Net Zero by 2050, he supports strategic internal initiatives (Vision 2025) by investigating - through LP model development - the potential of pilot-scale and new processes for renewable fuels production, for integrating renewable energy to refinery processes in the system of Hellenic Petroleum refineries and for every additional action that reduces Scope-1, Scope-2 and Scope-3 CO₂ emissions.

He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and a MSc in Financial Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).