Alejandro Granado began his career in the oil industry in 1981 with Intevep's Processes Development department and has held different supervisory and managerial positions over the course of his 26 year career in the oil industry. Most recently Mr. Granado has worked at PDVSA as Managing Director of Domestic and International Refining, and Vice President of PDVSA. Also in early 2005, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of CITGO Petroleum Corporation. On May 2007 he was appointed President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corporation and retained his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mikhail Antonov is Head of Refining with LUKOIL, responsible for business development, production planning and refining economics in Russia and worldwide. He’s been with LUKOIL since 2002. His previous position within LUKOIL included strategic development and investment analysis of downstream sector (2002-2006). Prior to LUKOIL he worked as a CFO of a large Russian holding company (Concern «SOBY» 1996-2002), and held a position of portfolio manager with the investment bank (RNCB/ Paine Webber 1995-1996).

Paul joined Chevron's El Segundo Refinery in 1980. He became Manager of Process Control at Chevron's Research and Technology Company in 1987. He has held a number of plant operational assignments including: Cracking Operations Manager in Chevron's Pascagoula Refinery, Plant Manager at Chevron's St. James Chemical Plant in Louisiana, General Manager of Chevron's Hawaii Refinery and General Manager of Caltex's Cape Town Refinery where he was also a member of Caltex South Africa's board of directors. He was Managing Director of Chevron's Technology Marketing Company from 1996 to 1999 and is currently the Vice President of Chevron's Energy Technology Company and General Manager of Process, Analytical and Catalysis Technology. Paul sits on the board of directors for Ameriven (a joint venture between Chevron, ConocoPhillips and PDVSA).

Oil and gas is keeping a strict eye on the White House as Democrats target billions in subsidies oil and gas companies now receive, initiate price gouging initiatives and pioneer a policy focus on global warming. It is no surprise that refiner Tesoro, one of the largest independent oil companies in the country, has opened up its first Washington office with former Dutko Worldwide lobbyist Stephen Brown at its helm. Brown is a natural fit for this role, having represented Tesoro for the past two years while at Dutko. He was also former legislative counsel to Energy and Air Quality subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) The number of legislative issues that concern Tesoro has risen along with its revenues. He says that the creation of the new office had less to do with the changeover in Congress than the company's rapid growth. Brown knows the White House backroom dialogue and will address US Energy Policy, where its headed, and its implications for the refinery.

As part of Alberta's Value-Added Strategy, the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI) and an industry consortium identified a slate of technologies with 'breakthrough' potential for upgrading Alberta bitumen and heavy oil to refined products and petrochemicals. The study screened 100 technologies based on a variety of criteria ranging from breakthrough potential to technical and economic feasiblity and environmental risk. A number of process schemes using new technologies were rigorously evaluated for processing 200,000 bpd of bitumen. A second phase of the study evaluated the technical and economic feasibility of capturing CO2 from stand-alone upgraders as well as integrated field-based upgraders. Based, in part, on these studies, the Alberta government committed $100 million towards a Hydrocarbon Upgrading Demonstration Program, to futher develop and demonstrate advanced 'clean' upgrading technologies in partnership with selected process developers and first commercial adopters. The paper will discuss the results of these studies and describes the technologies selected for further development.

Mark is a Vice President of Gulf Publishing Company and the Publisher of Hydrocarbon Processing in addition to being the publisher of the official OTC Conference Newspaper. He has over 25 years of industry-related experience. He has been the Co-Publisher of Pipe Line & Gas Industry, Director of International Sales for Hydrocarbon Processing, World Oil and Composite Catalog. He is a frequent speaker addressing hydrocarbon processing industry, (HPI) issues at seminars, conferences and users groups. His extensive travel schedule includes attendance at the major HPI meetings around the world. One of his primary functions is the production and writing of the annual HPI Market Data Book, a well respected forecast for capital, maintenance and operating spending in the industry.

Don serves as CEO of VeraSun Energy Corporation, the leading producer of renewable fuels in the US. As head of VeraSun, Mr. Endres draws on more than 20 years of experience in building, operating and managing successful businesses. In addition to his role at VeraSun, Mr. Endres has a long history of making valuable contributions to the alternative energy industry at large and continues to actively participate in the growth of this sector. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committees of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), Alternative Fuel Institute (AFI), and the Enterprise Institute at South Dakota State University. Previously he served as co-founder and Vice-Chairman of Glacial Lakes Energy, an ethanol production facility in Watertown, South Dakota; and was an investor and Board Officer for Badger State Ethanol LLC in Monroe, Wisconsin.

Dr. Whitman is a Policy Analyst in the Office of Policy and International Affairs of the Department of Energy. For the last 15 years, he has been involved with energy policy analysis and forecasting, including analysis of restructured electricity markets and climate change policies for the Energy Information Administration. He also has performed market analysis for the Independent Market Monitor of the Midwest ISO, an electricity regional transmission organization, and is currently performing analyses of transportation energy and climate change issues including alternative and low carbon fuels.

Lisa Epifani was sworn into office by Secretary Bodman on September 4, 2007, as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy where she oversees the promotion of Departmental policies, programs and initiatives through liaison, communications, coordination and interaction with Congress, State, Tribal, City, and County Governments, other Federal agencies, stakeholders, and the general public. Prior to being confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Assistant Secretary, Epifani most recently served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council, where she advised on domestic energy issues. Before working at the White House, Epifani served as Staff Counsel for the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she advised then-Chairman Domenici and committee members on electricity, oil, and natural gas policy, and worked extensively on the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Before joining the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Epifani was Senior Legislative Advisor at the Department of Energy and the Staff Director to the Department’s Electricity Advisory Board. Earlier in her career, Ms. Epifani was an associate attorney at Dewey Ballantine in Washington, DC. Her practice included representing electric, oil, and natural gas industries in federal regulatory matters.

Iris Evans is Alberta’s Minister of Finance and Enterprise. MLA for Sherwood Park since 1997, Ms. Evans has held the portfolios of Municipal Affairs, Children’s Services, Health and Wellness and, most recently, Employment, Immigration and Industry. As Minister of Finance and Enterprise, Ms. Evans will focus on ensuring Alberta continues to be globally competitive, developing and implementing policies to stimulate scientific research in Alberta, working to help Alberta businesses be more productive, and strengthening the government’s long-term fiscal position. Prior to joining the Alberta government, Ms. Evans had a successful 18-year career in municipal politics and was reeve of Strathcona County, Alberta’s third largest municipality.

Mr. MacGregor is a successful, independent businessman with over 30 years of business creation and development experience. He founded and co-founded several businesses including: Abax Energy Services, an oilfield engineering and construction company; Solex Energy, a private oil and gas company; and White Pass Capital, a private investment company. His primary interests and responsibilities lie in the areas of finance, new and existing business development, and asset and business turnarounds, improvement and optimization. Mr. MacGregor has considerable experience in creating economic value in conjunction with large partners such as PanCanadian Energy and Brooklyn Union Gas. Mr. MacGregor continues to have significant interest and involvement in numerous Alberta-based companies.

As the world economy grows, it is expected an increase in the fuels demand. In the other hand, there is a public denounce against the harmful of gas emissions from the mineral fuels, especially the emission of greenhouse gases. Based on this scenario, there is a growing search for renewable fuels as an alternative for the present world energetic matrix. Therefore the biofuel has conquered more and more participation in the economy as a clean grow-your-own fuel. It is not only a renewable fuel but also a way to reduce CO2 emission. The use of this kind of fuel can bring environmental, social and economic advantages. So, a feasible proposal for the near future could be the performance of a binomial and dynamic model that takes place in the integration between biorefining and conventional refining. Biorefining is similar in concept to the petroleum refining industry, except that renewable biomass materials or vegetable oil are the feedstocks rather than crude oil. An important incentive to the integration of these two concepts is the alternative to process the majority of the conventional refining residue or by products in the biorefining. It is possible to produce high quality low emission fuel from co-conversion of biomass and petroleum residue.

Dr. Othman Taha is Senior APC engineer and technologist with Saudi Aramco and is responsible for the design of advanced process control solutions for process operation optimization and energy efficiency. These innovations have led to several pending patents for oil and gas processes. Prior to joining Saudi Aramco, Dr. Taha worked with several advanced control research and engineering groups such as “Electricite de France” Research Centre, Clamart, France and Noranda Technology Centre, Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada.

Nitin joined Reliance in September, 2006 after 25 years with ExxonMobil Chemical Company and is responsible for developing growth opportunities in the Americas in the area of petrochemicals. In his previous experience with ExxonMobil Chemical Co he held positions in Corporate Planning, Supply Chain Management, Aromatics Business Manager and Joint Ventures Development. Prior to ExxonMobil, he was a director with Booz, Allen & Hamilton in their Technology Management Services. Nitin has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from India and MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Dr. Song is the Director of the EMS Energy Institute and a Professor of Fuel Science and Chemical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include catalysis and adsorption for fuel processing, adsorption desulfurization of fuels and reforming of hydrocarbons and biofuels for fuel cells, shape-selective catalysis for chemicals, CO2 capture and utilization, heavy oil upgrading, and conversion of coal and biomass to liquid fuels and chemicals. He has published over 160 refereed papers and edited 16 books and journal special issues. He served as Chair of Petroleum Chemistry Division and Fuel Chemistry Division of American Chemical Society, and is on the advisory board of seven research journals including Energy & Fuels, and Catalysis Today.

The debate on environment has witnessed a dramatic turn from cynicism to proactive involvement. The challenge is to address near and long-term concerns in mitigating GHG or carbon emission while continuing to provide affordable energy to meet the growing needs of the world. The global refining industry has the responsibility to deliver energy to the world while implementing technological innovations to reduce emissions. The greater challenge however, requires a broader partnership between various stake-holders. Changes in these innovations are creating new opportunities for new markets, new products, first-mover advantage, and strategic maneuvering. Such strategies and proactive approaches to climate change, allow businesses to translate the threat of climate change into opportunities and competitive advantage through the development of preventive and adaptive solutions. This paper will highlight examples that support innovation and entrepreneurship as powerful forces for positive environmental change in the global refining industry.

President of HRI Inc. Roger is an expert in high temperature repair. In 1987, Roger and a team of co-inventors began extensive research and development of a personal protective system designed to give workers in extreme situations the ability to make repairs safely and efficiently. Once the system had been developed, he joined his brother, Curt in founding HRI in 1993. Since receiving a patent, the personal protection system has evolved to include more safety features and added user-friendliness. The system allows HRI to venture into uncharted territory to make repairs. Roger has been featured on CNN and PBS, and was invited to Washington by the homeland security commission following the events of September 11. He will cover the steps to achieve increased plant productivity and safety while performing online repairs and critical path strategies developed to tackle the complex logistics that must be addressed when performing repairs.

Herve Buisson is currently the Vice-President of Process Engineering for Veolia Water – Solution and Technology for North and South America. With Veolia Water since 1996, he was previously Managing Director of Veolia Water R&D centre near Paris. He has been involved in process development and innovation for water and wastewater treatment over the past 20 years, with a specific expertise in Membrane Processes. Long time NAMS, EMS, EDS, IWA member, he is acting as an expert advisor for organisations such as AWWARF, WERF, EEC, MEDRC. Registered as a Process Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Charles is currently Vice President of Solomon Associates and has over 25 years experience in the professional engineering and consulting industry, Mr. Reith possesses in-depth knowledge of strategic planning, business development, risk management, team building, budgeting, and financial management. His experience includes oversight of large, complex consulting projects with multi-disciplined project teams deployed at sites around the world. At Solomon, Mr. Reith’s primary responsibility is for the provision of performance improvement consulting services to all the energy clients that Solomon supports.

Robert Jablonski is General Manager of Metegrity, an asset management company for the process industry. Its flagship product Visions Enterprise is considered the leading and most-proven lifecycle management software product on the market. Mr. Jablonski has over 18 years’ background in business management, Information Technology and software development and is the author, designer and developer of the premier Visions Enterprise product which incorporates a risk-based inspection basis to ensure profits and top facility production. He has extensive experience in overseeing the IT operations of large companies as well as intricate knowledge of the specific requirements and details of the process industry and plant operations. With the unique expertise of Mr. Jablonski and other Metegrity team members, Visions Enterprise is flawlessly implemented at renowned client installations while incorporating each company’s unique requirements and requests.

Mr Kelemen's professional carrier started at the Technical University in Budapest, Physical Chemistry Department, where he worked as a professional assistant in chromatography and air pollution monitoring field till 1992. Between 1992 and 1997 he worked for ALLCOM Trading Co. (American/Hungarian JV) as a Director of Fuel Sales, earlier trader of LPG and Petrochemicals. In 1997 he joined MOL Rt. where he occupied various leading positions in Wholesale Division and SCM. In 2003 he came to SLOVNAFT, where he took position of director of Refinery & Marketing. Until the end of 2007 he was the director of Supply Chain Management of MOL Group, from January 2008 he is the Director of Refining of MOL Group. Mr Kelemen is a member of Board of Directors of Slovnaft. and represents MOL Group in several European Institutions, e.i. EUROPIA, IEA, and some others.

Rick Birnbaum is a chemical engineer and has over thirty years experience in the use of amines to remove acid gas contaminants from natural gas, refinery gas and flue gas process streams. In 1974, he began work at Union Carbide’s plant in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he supervised operations in the alkanolamine and fine chemicals production units. From 1981 to 2005, Rick worked for Union Carbide and then the Dow Chemical Company to provide sales and technical support to their specialty gas treating product businesses throughout North America. During this time, Rick spent five years helping to develop the CANSOLV SO2 Scrubbing System technology. From 1993 until he left the Dow Chemical Company, Rick served as the technical service engineer for UCARSOL Gas Treating Solvents to refiners in the northeastern United States. In 2005, Rick joined CANSOLV Technologies Inc. in Montreal to provide Process Engineering and Sales Management support for CANSOLV’s SO2 and CO2 Scrubbing Technologies.

David Maguire had over 20 years’ experience as a corrosion specialist with Shell Canada before joining the Metegrity team and is a member of NACE, National Association of Corrosion Engineers, in Canada. At Shell, he was the corporate lead in implementing Metegrity’s premier product, Visions Enterprise and training users in it at all Shell Canada sites. His extensive expertise in plant management software, facility corrosion, and the production and financial challenges faced in his industry, made his introduction to Visions Enterprise more meaningful. It impressed upon him the results a highly successful risk-based inspection management product can have on a process facility’s profits, operations and equipment lifespan.

Mike Leister has worked for Marathon Oil, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, and now Marathon Petroleum Company for 30 years. Mike has been involved in Refinery modeling, computer automation and process control and supply and maintenance systems. He has been an IT manager, an Operations Planning Manager and is currently the Manager of Fuels Technology for MPC. Mike is currently a member of the board of the Coordinating Research Council. He chairs the American Petroleum Institute Fuels Committee, is a member of the API Economics work group, and belongs to the National Petrochemical and Refining Association Fuels Advisory subcommittee.

For North West Upgrading, Mr. Pearce and a team of experienced professionals are developing an independent upgrading business in the Edmonton area to process significant increases in bitumen production from Alberta’s vast oil sands resources. North West has regulatory approval for all three phases, and completed early site preparation while seeking project financing. Mr. Pearce is an experienced executive with deep exposure to corporate financial issues, including: the debt and equity capital markets, strategy and planning, acquisitions and divestitures, risk management and investor relations. He was the General Manager & Treasurer of PanCanadian Energy Inc., until that firm’s merger with AEC to form EnCana. In his various roles at PanCanadian, Mr. Pearce was highly involved with numerous major capital projects and transactions.

As Vice President Refining and Marketing, Bill Hatch is responsible for CITGO operations including the supply of crude and intermediate feedstocks into the CITGO refining system, the distribution of products to CITGO's terminals and CITGO's 750 MBPD Refining capacity. He also oversees the company's marketing efforts. Hatch is a graduate of Tulane University with a degree in chemical engineering and McNeese State University with a master's of business administration. He joined CITGO in 1975, beginning his career at the Lake Charles Refinery as a process engineer and then advancing through several technical and operations supervisory and management positions. Hatch became vice president supply and distribution in September 2004.

Claudia has been working in research and process development since 1985 in PETROBRAS R&D Center. She joined PETROBRAS in the Research and Development Center as a process engineer in 1985, taking part in the thermal cracking process development group, working with pilot plant data analysis. From 1996 to 1999 she worked as the coordinator of the Pilot Riser group which is in charge of process development and technical assistance in catalytic cracking area. In 2007, she has started working in Dowstream area as Process and Technology Manager.

Paul is in the role of Regional Business Information Manager for BP’s Carson and Cherry Point Refineries. Paul has over 20 years experience in technical engineering & management roles in worldwide production and refining. He currently leads Information Technology delivery to BP’s West Coast Refineries in North America. He is accountable to deliver high availability information technology and services to various North American Refinery locations which manufacture over 10% of the United States of America refining capacity. Successfully delivered over $20M of manufacturing business computing applications and client server hardware. Developed the refinery Information Technology 5 year portfolio to provision over 3,000 business consumers with world class applications. Performed as the Global Lead BIM in the development of new industrial wireless mobility solutions and support for hazardous combustible gas locations using handheld computer technology. Provided various enterprise solutions utilizing common centralized architecture, SAP Backbone Interfaces, and Business Warehouse reporting. Managed the delivery of applications in the areas of Health, Safety, Security, Environmental, Refinery Optimization, Electrical & Mechanical Maintenance, Planning, Scheduling, Financial Management, Communications, and other business essential Operations. Applied enterprise based disaster recovery concepts to several mission critical applications.

Mr. Sweto holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, a BSc(Honours) in Mining Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe, and a Diploma in Business Computing ( College Campus). He is a certified Unix systems administrator. Sweto joined Soekor (later merged with other entities to form PetroSA) in 1999 as a Geoscience applications analyst. He has worked in various commercial capacities in Upstream, Operations and Midstream, progressively assuming broader managerial roles across the petroleum industry value chain, playing significant role in key strategic domestic and international investment initiatives. He has also worked for multinationals like BHP Billiton , Lonrho and RTZ in various planning and production roles

Luis Francisco is the Refining and Petrochemicals Development Director within Ecopetrol. He is in charge of structuring the new projects and business opportunities for Growth and Modernization of the Ecopetrol Refineries and petrochemicals Plants. He holds a B SC in Chemical Engineer from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and a MBA from Universidad de los Andes from Bogotá. He has been in Ecopetrol since 1994, with 14 years of total experience in different positions such as, refinery process engineer, projects development and economics and planning engineer. EcoPetrol is the largest company and the principal petroleum company in Colombia. Because of its size, Ecopetrol belongs to a group of the 35 largest petroleum companies in the world and it is one of the four main petroleum companies in Latin America. They have the largest share of the transportation and refining infrastructure in the country

For more than 20 years, Daniel Oh has led a diverse range of business and management organizations. Currently, Oh serves as the chief operating officer of Renewable Energy Group®, Inc. (REG), a biodiesel industry sales leader and is a full-service biodiesel company offering plant management, risk management, raw material procurement, plant construction management, and biodiesel production, sales and marketing services. REG’s network of biodiesel production facilities includes wholly-owned biodiesel plants and management of third party-owned plants. Renewable Energy Group, Inc., markets biodiesel to fuel distributors and customers in many industries including on-highway fleets, original equipment manufacturers, maritime, military, home heating and agriculture industries.