ICIS Training Course Leaders

Mark Brumbaugh

Mark Brumbaugh, registered professional engineer, started his professional career with Exxon in 1973 at the Baytown refinery in the US. He held various technical, supervisory and management positions both there and at Exxon’s Houston headquarters. Mark’s latter positions included heading engineering design, process operations, crude trading, and as an advisor in corporate planning.

He transferred to FINA Oil and Chemicals in 1992, where he was general manager of planning and engineering. In this position, he was instrumental in designing a joint venture with BASF which led to the construction of the world’s largest single train steam cracker in Port Arthur, Texas.

For the past 10 years, Mark has been an independent consultant specializing in due diligence and litigation support. He regularly works for SAIC and 5 Degrees North, a novel and effective process improvement firm, as well as many individual clients both large and small. His engagements have included financing of a billion dollar heavy oil upgrader, technical analysis of new startup technologies, midstream gas processing, various petrochemical ventures, and valuation of refinery and chemical plants. He has written articles and teaches a course in process industry short-range economics.

Mark graduated from Rice University with a BA and Masters degree in chemical engineering.

Courses Mark teaches

Paul Cherry

Paul has 20 years experience in the petrochemical industry working for Lyondell Basell and its predecessor companies, Basell, Montell and Shell Chemicals.

Paul’s early career was spent in laboratory, technical service & product development, manufacturing, sales and procurement roles in Australia.

From 2002 to 2010 he was based in Hong Kong and was responsible for supply chain and procurement activities in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent.

After leaving Lyondell Basell, Paul has been working with Officium Projects, a company offering consulting and engineering services to the petrochemical industry as well as the ICIS training business.

Paul has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree and a Doctorate of Philosophy majoring in polymer science both from the University of Melbourne.

Courses Paul teaches

Amy Caxton

Amy Claxton, P.E. is a registered professional Chemical Engineer and owns a consulting company called My Energy. Her clients include publicly traded and privately held oil, gas, lube and wax companies, as well as law firms and other energy-consulting firms. Amy speaks regularly at industry conferences and presents timely updates on topics of interest to the lube, wax and gas-to-liquids industries.

During the Exxon - Mobil merger, Ms. Claxton provided lube and wax training tutorials for senior officials and lawyers at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Exxon, Mobil, and outside law firms. Her lube and wax expertise includes raw materials selection; manufacturing processes and economics; global supply and demand; and competitor analysis. In addition, she has 2 decades of experience involving gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, economics, and intellectual property and licensing.

Prior to starting her own company in 2001, Ms. Claxton worked for Dow Chemical, Exxon, and ExxonMobil. Her assignments included plant engineering and managerial positions in chemical plants and refinery fuels, lube and wax units. She managed technical services for Exxon’s 500,000 barrel per day refinery in Baytown, Texas, with oversight of 100 employees including chemical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineers. Her senior staff assignments included crude supply and trading, as well as lube, wax, and GTL global market and project planning.

Courses Amy teaches

Nigel Davis

Nigel, a chemist by training, is Insight editor with ICIS and contributes regularly to the 24-hour online chemicals news service.

Nigel has written about the chemical industry in many publications since 1979, including news and company magazines, encyclopaedias and specialist reports. For 13 years he wrote and edited the newsletter Chemical Insight.

He presents regularly at conferences and training events and has widely shared his understanding of the sector.

He has helped develop global chemical industry scenarios and has been involved with UK government reports on chemicals sector sustainability.

He has been part of the ICIS training team since its inception.

Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and through the RSA takes a general interest in industry and business matters.

Courses Nigel teaches

Heather Doyle

Heather McGuire Doyle is the Managing Editor, Americas and works in the ICIS bureau in Houston.

Heather supervises editors covering all ICIS Americas petrochemical and oil reports. She has covered base oils, paraffin wax, acetone, phenol, cumene and methyl methacrylate (MMA) markets, and has also contributed more than 1,500 news articles to the ICIS news wire and "ICIS Chemical Business" magazine. She often hosts the daily ICIS TV bulletins. She also writes a regular column for "Compoundings," the magazine of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA). As well as representing ICIS at major industry events around the world, Heather has been a regular speaker at conferences, including the World Soda Ash conference in Nice, France; the Global Oleochemicals conference in Houston; the ICIS Pan-American base oils conference in New York; the NPRA Lubes and Waxes meeting in Houston; and the Southeast Chemical Conference in South Carolina. She is an active member of NPRA and ILMA. Heather earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from The University of North Texas and worked in the newspaper industry before joining ICIS in 2004.

Courses Heather teaches

Malini Hariharan

Malini Hariharan has over 20 years of experience in tracking and analysing the petrochemicals industry.

She is currently responsible for content development of the training business at ICIS and delivering the petrochemical courses globally.

She also regularly writes about the chemicals industry with a special focus on Asia and the Middle East. She has interviewed many of the movers and shakers in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Malini was previously deputy editor of Asian Chemicals News. She started her career with Indian Petrochemicals Corp (IPCL) in India, engaged in sales and marketing of commodity polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride and chemicals such as benzene, toluene and linear alkyl benzene.

Malini has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from Gujarat University.

Courses Malini teaches

Barbara Ortner

Barbara Ortner is Head of Market Reporting at ICIS pricing, the market-leading on-line price reporting service for the petrochemical industry. She is responsible for ensuring ICIS' global price reporting consistently hits the highest quality benchmarks. She works on the development of the company's reporting methodology, and handles direct communication with the market on price reporting standards.

She was previously Managing Editor of the ICIS pricing London editorial team, and has reported on fertilizers, olefins, glycols and aromatics in the European markets, and various chemicals in the Asian markets. For the past four years she has also written the ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog.

Barbara has a degree in English and German from Kent and Vienna Universities. She previously worked in market analysis at British Plastics and the Commodities Research Unit.

Courses Babara teaches

John Richardson

John is a highly experienced journalist, who has been covering the chemicals industry for more than 15 years.

Based in Asia-Pacific, John has deep knowledge of the companies and people who have transformed the region into the world’s major production and consumption region. His aim is to provide insightful, factually based analysis of the key issues facing the industry. His views are highly valued by senior executives, who appreciate his balanced and independent approach.

Since 2006, John has been Director - Asia of ICIS training, in which role he has successfully launched the ICIS training business in Asia.

John is also co-authoring a new e-book, Boom, Gloom and the New Normal, with Paul Hodges of United Kingdom based consultancy, International eChem. The book, currently being published by ICIS, examines how demographic factors and events in financial markets have reshaped the global economy.

His Asian Chemical Connections blog has a wide regional and global readership and he also writes regularly for ICIS Insight and ICIS Chemical Business.

Previously John was Editor of Asian Chemical News. Prior to joining ICIS in 1997, he had roles working for both the BBC and the UK national press.

Courses John teaches

Peter Taffe

Peter Taffe, a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Leeds in Britain, has over 30 years of experience in analysing the chemicals industry.

Peter has been part of ICIS training since its inception. Besides training, Peter is also part of the ICIS Data & Analytics team, which provides context to pricing and news. His present position is Intelligence Editor with responsibilities including Plants & Projects and Chemical and Company Intelligence reports. The Chemical reports look primarily at the market and pricing dynamics of individual petrochemicals as well as the processes used to make them.

He is also involved in generating weekly margin reports such as those on ethylene, polyethylene and polypropylene. These reports analyse the profitability along different petrochemical chains to help companies develop business strategies in regard to pricing.

He has previously worked as a journalist and an editor for Process Engineering, Chemical Age, Processing, Asian Chemical News and European Chemical News.

Courses Peter teaches

Dr. H. Ernest Henderson

Dr. H. Ernest Henderson received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Windsor in 1977, after which he spent 19 years with Imperial Oil and Exxon in technical and managerial positions involving Research, Marketing, Logistics, Supply Chain and Technical Services with their North American and International lubricants business.

In 1997, he joined Petro-Canada as a Research Advisor with responsibility for their Group III Fluid development, while managing the Analytical and Specialty Fluids areas.

In 2001, Dr. Henderson joined Syntroleum Corporation as Research Director for their Gas-to-Liquids upgrading programs. He later became the Technical Manager for the YUBASE Group III base stocks that were marketed in the Americas by SK through their local agent. In 2008, Dr. Henderson joined CITGO as their Fluid Technology Manager with responsibility for R&D activities in the automotive, industrial, base oil and specialty areas.

Dr. Henderson is currently with Lubrication Technologies Inc. leading a research group with responsibilities in formulation development, engine testing, quality control, fluid analysis and compliance management support.

He has a broad range of base oil expertise, including Group I, Group II, Group III and Group IV (PAO), and re-refined. He is a Fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers and the Chemical Institute of Canada, a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and an active participant in API, NPRA and ASTM activities.

Courses Dr Henderson teaches

Terry Hoffman

Terry Hoffman is a base oil marketing and operations oriented professional with over 40 years of experience.

He owns a consulting company called thoffmanllc and his clients include publicly traded and privately held refining and marketing companies.

Prior to starting his own company in 2011, Terry worked for Sunoco and Valero Marketing and Supply. His assignments included operations, sales, product management, marketing and logistics positions concluding with Director of Base and Process Oils Sales at Valero Marketing and Supply.

In addition to his professional responsibilities with two major oil companies Terry has been a member of the NPRA Statistics Committee, NPRA Lubes and Waxes Committee including a term as Chairman, presented papers on Group I refineries and their future. Terry has also been a member of Question and Answer panels at ICIS, ILMA and NPRA industry meetings.

Terry has spoken at industry conferences and presents informative updates on topics of interest to the base oil marketers and refiners.

Courses Terry teaches

Antonella Harrison

Antonella has been researching and analysing the fertiliser industry for the last 20 years.

Antonella joined CRU/British Sulphur publishing company in 1993 as an Editor of their fertilizer newsletter. Her first assignment was to follow the Ammonia market, which she has continued to research and study for the past 19 years, together with the other fertilizer products.

In 1998, Antonella set up her own partnership company, Decyfer, to publish The Market – Fertilizer News and Analysis and other forecasting reports on the fertilizer business.

Antonella ran the company successfully for 8 years before it was acquired by Reed Business Information/ICIS in December 2005. Antonella now works for ICIS as Product Director Fertilizers.

Antonella graduated in International Economics and Politics at the university of Turin, Italy.

Courses Antonella teaches

Andrew Powell

Andrew Powell is a Senior Consultant at Nexant, a management consultancy focusing on the petroleum and petrochemical industry.

He is currently responsible for the cost of production, profitability and pricing components of the ChemSystems program, which provides data, analysis and forecasts of the global petrochemical industry. He prepares the Quarterly Business Analysis publications which review current competitiveness of the industry. Andrew also leads the development of long term profitability forecasts and pricing projections for commodity petrochemicals.

Prior to joining, Nexant, Andrew worked with automotive manufacturers BMW and Ford, focusing on enery effcienty of vehicles. Andrew has a degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge, and a Masters degree in Engineering Business Management.

Courses Andrew teaches

Raul Arias

Mr. Raul Arias is Senior Consultant and Manager for Latin America in Nexant’s Global Chemicals consulting practice.

He has managed and participated in multiple projects covering hydrocarbons-based as well as renewables-based chemicals. In this function, he has supported industry leaders in the world and in particular in Latin America. His fields of expertise include strategic planning, market intelligence, competitiveness analysis, pricing mechanisms and feasibility analysis.

Courses Raul teaches

Günther Eberhard

Günther Eberhard merges a thorough knowledge of the chemical industry, its technologies, structures and channels-to-market with a keen business sense and a well developed awareness for cross-cultural issues.

Before joining DistriConsult as a Senior Partner in 2009, Günther spent over 25 years in line and project management roles in basic and specialty chemicals manufacturing, materials technology and chemicals distribution. Starting off in R&D at Dow Chemical he later moved to technical sales, strategic planning and marketing. During several years he was involved in defining the company’s approach to channel-management and selection of distribution partners. He subsequently became the head of corporate development at Von Roll, one of Switzerland’s industrial leader in the foundry and engineering industry, executing a number of strategic acquisitions and divestments. After several years in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advisory at KPMG, Günther worked as Director of purchasing & logistics for Prochem AG, a successful privately owned Swiss specialty chemical distributor that realized significant growth by broadening its supplier and product portfolios. Most recently he helped integrate the company into NRC, a leading European specialty chemical distributor group.

A seasoned practitioner in many aspects of strategic planning, business development, project management and M&A, he is also an expert in channel management, with an high reputation in the chemical distribution industry. He is aware of the different needs and approaches of both types of companies: large corporate firms and small and medium sized family-owned enterprises.

Günther is a German & Swiss national who holds a Master in Chemical Engineering / Diplom-Ingenieur (Univ.) from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen-Nürnberg (1983) as well as a Master in Industrial Engineering / Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur from Fernuniversität GH Hagen (1996). He is also an alumnus of IMD in Lausanne, having completed the ”Leading Technology Enterprise” program for senior executives in 1999. A fluent speaker of English and German he is based in the Zurich area and has already worked on projects on both sides of the Atlantic.

Courses Günther teaches

Paul Gooch

Paul is an internationally recognized Supply Chain expert with more than 30 years experience in Supply Chain, Logistics, International Trade, Customer Service, Work Process Reengineering, and M&A Project Management in the oil and chemical industry. He is Founder and Managing Director of The Logical Group, a Supply Chain practice providing consultancy services and interim management to the Chemical and Logistics industries, focusing on delivering practical support for development of Supply Chain strategy, improvements in work process and network design, sourcing decisions, and working capital productivity improvement. He has an extensive global network in the Logistics industry.

Prior to creating his own business, Paul was a 29 year career executive with The Dow Chemical Company. After Business Supply Chain roles in Specialty Chemicals and Plastics, and Regional leadership roles in the United Kingdom and Benelux, he became European Logistics Director, and Logistics Process owner. This was followed by Global Director roles for Dow’s international trade and marine container activities, European Customer Service leader, and Global Leader for Dow’s Shared Services Implementation Center (leading teams engaged in work process and systems implementations for M&A, divestitures, new legal entities, and ERP implementations. This included the Celanese acquisition, and JV projects with Kuwait PIC).

Paul has also been a frequent speaker on Logistics at Industry Conferences including Chemical Week, Marichem, EPCA, Environment Northern Seas, InterModal, European Commission Conference on Quality Shipping (Chair: Commissioner Neil Kinnock), and CEFIC Security Conference. Recently he spoke on Specialty Chemical Supply Chains at the SABIC STM8 conference, on the importance of the Supply Chain for Petrochemicals in the Province of Alberta chemical cluster at the Canadian Energy Research Institute and on the future of chemical markets at the Antwerp Oil & Chemical Logistics Network Event.

Courses Paul teaches

Neil Burns

Neil Burns has over 25 years of experience in the chemicals and surfactants business.

He is the managing partner at Neil A Burns LLC and the founding CEO, investor and board member at P2 Science, a surfactant technology company. Neil offers strategic advisory services with a focus on surfactants and oleochemicals.

He also runs the North American business for Desmet Ballestra Italy, a surfactants and oleochemicals technology company.

Neil started his career with the chemicals group at Rio Tinto Zinc plc where he was responsible for international sales, business development and marketing.

He was later associated with Oliver Wyman Consulting, Pilot Chemical Co, VVF Ltd and Oxiteno.

Neil successfully created two US businesses for VVF, an Indian oleochemical and consumer products company. He started and ran a $40m US subsidiary for Oxiteno subsidiary of Brazil-based Ultrapar.

While at Pilot Chemical, he was an investor and key executive in the management buyout of this middle market surfactant company. He also created the supply chain function and developed global sourcing of the company’s largest raw materials.

Neil has presented at numerous conferences worldwide and currently partners with ICIS to produce surfactants conferences globally.

Neil holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of York, and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Neil is based in New Jersey in the US.

Courses Neil teaches