Movers & Shakers: Fluor Corporation names new CEO; Topsoe scientist receives innovation award

May 21, 2019

New hires and appointments from around the process industries

Flour Corporation names new CEO, board member

Fluor Corporation‘s board of directors appointed Carlos M. Hernandez as chief executive officer and named him a member of the board of the company. Hernandez was named as Fluor’s interim chief executive officer on May 1, 2019, in line with the company’s established succession plan following David T. Seaton stepping down. The board of directors also named John R. Reynolds as the new chief legal officer of Fluor.

Hernandez has an engineering and legal background and has successfully served in executive leadership roles at Fluor for 12 years. Hernandez said he will work closely with the Fluor senior management team to conduct a comprehensive strategic review of the company’s business and operations, a process which is now underway. Fluor expects to share the results of its strategic review in conjunction with the announcement of its second quarter 2019 financial results scheduled for Aug. 1.

As Fluor’s executive chairman, Alan Boeckmann will provide leadership for Fluor’s board of directors. In addition, building on his long-standing history within the company, Boeckmann will serve as a strategic partner and advisor to Hernandez, with availability to provide counsel around issues of strategic importance including client and investor relationships and long-term succession planning.

Tru-Tech Valve names new CEO

Tru-Tech Valve, a Pittsburgh-based diaphragm valve manufacturer, appointed Chetan Chothani as the company’s CEO. Tru-Tech is celebrating its 60thyear as a manufacturer of diaphragm valves as one of the original licensee of the Arco-Wynn diaphragm valve design.

Gasbarre names new business development manager

Gasbarre Products Inc. hired John Blauser as business development manager for precision tooling. Blauser is responsible for maximizing tooling sales as well as developing a strategic plan for the acquisition of new customers and the retention of existing customers.

Blauser comes to Gasbarre with many years of experience in the powder metal industry, his prior role nearly 17 years alone. He is a current APMI West Penn chapter member and past chairman, and on both the APMI Tech Board and the APMI Conference Committee.

Gasbarre is a full-service international OEM offering equipment and services for powder compaction, thermal processing and design and manufacturing technologies.

Air Products appointments managing director of Prodair Air Products India

Air Products appointed Anand Chordia as managing director of Prodair Air Products India as well as head of Air Products’ Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) center in Pune, India.

Anand joins Air Products from Larsen & Toubro, where since 2017 he was global delivery head. Anand holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from M.S University, Vadodara, India.

Air Products provides industrial gases and related equipment to dozens of industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing and food and beverage.

Chroma Color Corporation appoints VP for sales and business development, new technical director

Chroma Color Corporation, a specialty color and additive concentrate supplier, brought on Bishop Beall to the company’s executive team as vice president sales and business development.

Beall served as director of global business development at Technimark, a custom injection molding and contract manufacturing company. Prior to joining Technimark, Bishop had a successful sales and business development career in the plastic raw materials sector with an emphasis on color concentrates, pre-colored compounds and elastomeric materials. Bishop also founded and managed a specialty resin sales, compounding and distribution company that he sold in 2004.

Chroma Color Corporation also appointed Dr. Andrew E. Smith as technical director for the Leominster and Clinton color concentrate manufacturing locations. As the technical director, Smith is responsible for technical service, R&D, quality, ISO and regulatory programs.

In 2010, Smith earned a doctorate in materials chemistry from Oregon State University

NAVAC hires regional sales manager

NAVAC North America appointed Andrew Greaves to the role of regional sales manager. In this position, Greaves will ensure proper training and tool use by overseeing all relationships with distribution channels and managing the company’s representative network.

Greaves is a Kentucky master licensed HVAC mechanic with extensive experience in the HVAC service industry. Prior to joining NAVAC, he worked as a factory-trained service mechanic at Johnson Controls.

NAVAC is a global manufacturer of industrial vacuum solutions and HVAC/R tools.

Weldcote expands sales team

Weldcote, a division of Zika Group,  added two new members to its sales team: Troy Galvin, territory sales manager, and Michael Maxon, territory sales manager/process and applications specialist.

Headquartered in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Weldcote is a manufacturer and wholesaler of welding supplies distributed through welding distributors in the U.S. and various parts of the world.

Galvin joins Weldcote as territory sales manager with more than 10 years of industrial sales experience. He is responsible for sales and customer support in Florida and Georgia. Before his position at Weldcote, he held the positions of branch manager, outside sales and vice president of sales and operations for MagneGas, a welding supply and gas distributor company.

Bringing more than 35 years of industry experience to his role, Maxon provides nationwide technical support and product evaluation and testing, as well as sales management in the five-state region of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, portions of Iowa and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Previously, Maxon held roles in distribution, automation and technical sales at the district, regional and national levels.

Plumbing Manufacturers International names new board member

Martin Knieps, director of technical marketing for Viega, has been selected to join the board of directors of Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI).

Knieps will serve a two-year term on the seven-member board. PMI is the not-for-profit association of plumbing product manufacturers and advocates for plumbing products and technologies meeting high safety and performance standards. Group members produce 90 percent of U.S. plumbing products and represent more than 150 brands.

Knieps, who joined Viega in 2006, has been active with PMI since 2015. He most recently served on its Advocacy/Government Affairs Committee. Michael Martinez, product compliance manager at Delta Facuet Co., also was named to the board.

Awards

Topsoe scientist receives award for electron microscopy advances

Topsoe scientist Stig Helveg has been honored with the 2019 Innovation in Materials Characterization Award for his accomplishments in electron microscopy advances in catalysis.

Helveg received the award for his pioneering work on atomic-scale transmission electron microscopy under reactive gas environments, leading to groundbreaking insights in catalysis, crystal growth and corrosion.

Helveg has a doctorate in physics from Aarhus University, Denmark. He joined Topsoe as a postdoctoral researcher and later became a staff scientist in 2003. Today, he serves as a fellow and leads the company’s activities on in situ electron microscopy in Catalysis R&D.

Measurement, Control and Automation Hall of Fame names inductee

Hoffer Flow Controls founder Ken Hoffer was inducted into the Measurement, Control and Automation Hall of Fame. The group recognizes people whose body of work has contributed to the instrumentation and control industry in a significant way.

Founded in 1969, Hoffer Flow Controls specialized in cryogenic flow measurement systems and pioneered the use of the turbine flowmeter in cryogenics. Today the company manufactures high precision turbine flowmeters, not only for the cryogenic industry but for the measurement of clean liquids and gases throughout the processing industries.

Hoffer’s technical achievements include thepioneered useof self-lubricatedball bearingsin turbineflowmeters.

AVEVA announces winners of competition for chemical engineering students

AVEVA, a provider of engineering and industrial software, announced the winners of its first competition for senior-year chemical engineering students in North America.

The competition involved 56 students from 20 universities in North America remotely using AVEVA’s industrial simulation software platform, SimCentral, to solve a challenge: design, optimize and operate a process to produce dimethyl ether — a gas that can be used as automotive fuel — for electric power generation and in domestic applications such as heating and cooking.

The purpose of the challenge was to introduce students to new skills and techniques in preparation for careers that increasingly rely on Industry 4.0 and the use of modern applications for engineering process design, simulation and optimization.

The results, as judged by AVEVA technical experts were:

Advanced group

  • First place and $3,000 cash prize – Team West Virginia University (Saeed Kuzmar, Ronald Alexander, Zachary Kilwein and Dennis Loevlie)

Beginners group

  • First place and $3,000 cash prize – Ryan Muir of the University of Cincinnati
  • Runner-up and $1,500 cash prize – Team 2 University of California, Riverside (Jason Kuo, Aaron Chi, Benjamin Rammelsberg and James de Graw)

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