Mr. Aschenbrenner has over seven years of experience
and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. After graduating from University, Mr. Aschenbrenner began working for Gustav Klein where he was responsible for software and hardware of programmable electronic systems. In 1995, he joined TUV Product Service GmbH where he became responsible for machinery safety devices. In 1998 Mr. Aschenbrenner joined TUV Product Service Inc. in the USA to set up a functional safety department for the Americas. During this time he became Business Unit Manager of “Automation, Software, and Electronics” at TUV Product Service. This position provided him with worldwide responsibility. In 2000 Mr. Aschenbrenner joined exida.com.
Mr. Faller has over twenty years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. He is widely known as the world’s top safety and reliability expert. After graduating from University, Mr. Faller began working for MAN Technology where he co-developed a driverless bus for public transportation. In 1985, he joined TUV Bayern where obtained the position of Referent (chief engineer) for safety of computer systems. Several years later, Mr. Faller became a Manager at IQSE, the Institute for Quality and Safety in Electronics and then Department Manager for “Industrial Electronics” at TUV Product Service. Also during this time, Mr. Faller was named Chairman of the German DIN/DKE committee on “Computers in Safety–Related Applications”. In 1998, he became Business Unit Manager of “Automation, Software, and Electronics”. This position provided him with worldwide responsibility. Most recently, Mr. Faller is the co-founder and principal partner for exida.com, LLC. Mr. Faller is a member of many different international standardization committees. His signature appears on most of the world’s equipment safety certifications. He is frequently sought after for speaking engagements and publications based on his unparalleled expertise.
Peter Mueller has over 15 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field.
After graduating in 1992 from the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim,
he began working for TUV Südwest where he developed the measurement and control software for the automated EMC test equipment.
During this time, Mueller started to work in the field of functional safety, electrical safety and environmental testing at TUV Südwest.
He was qualified as ISO 9000 auditor. In 1997, after the merge of TUV Südwest and TUV Bayern to TUV Süddeutschland ,
he moved to the department IQSE, the Institute for Quality and Safety in Electronics, as a Senior Project Manager.
In the beginning of 2000, r Mueller became Department Manager at IQSE with the responsibility of the German market.
In late 2000, he overtook the worldwide responsibility.
In 2001, Mueller overtook in addition the technical leadership of the department for electronic systems and devices in the
automotive section of TUV Süddeutschland.
In 2002, he joined exida GmbH in Germany, and in 2007 he was named as an exida partner.
Mr. Gunnmarker has more than 20 years of professional experience with hardware and software development, test, control and safety system engineering. After graduating in 1984 from Chalmers University of Technology, he began working with SW & HW design for remote controlled maritime radio transmitters at the Swedish telecom company, Televerket. After one year he moved to Spine Robotics where he worked with software development and later on, installation of robot painting cells. When Spine Robotics was bought by the consultant company Benima in 1998, he continued to work in the application field with programming in ABB Master safety- and control systems and in the UNIX based HMI system of ABB.
For a one year period he was also working with software development in a telecommunication system for Ericsson in Sweden. In 1994 he left Benima and moved to Norway and started working for ABB Energy with SCADA system engineering and installation. After one year he was transferred to ABB A/S and started implementing communication protocols for Fire & Gas panel interfaces in ABB Master Safeguard. In 1997-1999 he was designer and responsible for a safety I/O development project for the ABB Master Safeguard system.
In 1999 he became responsible for defining the architecture, safety concept and requirements for ABBs latest safety system, 800xA. In parallel he worked with implementation of an IEC 61508 compliant quality management system for ABB. After the initial design phase he was working as a safety coach for the three main development sites of this distributed development project in ABB. The safety coach responsibility included compilation of the Safety Case and managing the TU¨V certification.
After 12 years in ABB and with over 10 years of experience and knowledge in safety and high availability system design he decided to join exida.com as a partner in May 2007. In exida, he has been working as safety coach, defining safety requirements and safety concepts, and performing assessments for concept approvals.
Mr. Spiker has over 40 years experience in Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) used in the Petrochemical and Oil & Gas Exploration and Production industries.
Has fulfilled a wide variety of functions within the Yokogawa System Center Europe organization and preceding companies and was heavily involved in the development of the companies Safety Systems and has two Safety Systems patents on his name.
Via electronic development engineer, project manager, sales engineer/manager, marketing manager, managing director of the Safety Systems group in the Netherlands, president of the US safety systems office, he finished his career as ‘Senior Safety Consultant’ in the Yokogawa SCE company.
In this activity he has established a new safety patent for the use of Neural Networks in Instrumented Safety Systems and has written and co-authored several articles about safety systems and their application in the industry.
He was also involved in many presentations for the Instrument Society of America, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, WIB and Botlek group.
David Hatch has 20 years Design, Commissioning, Operating and Consulting experience in the Oil & Gas, Pharmaceutical and Chemical industries.
This experience covers blue-chip operating companies (BP, Shell & GSK), major multinational engineering contractors (Jacobs, Foster Wheeler & Stone & Webster) and system suppliers (Emerson Process Management)
Mr. Hatch has a BSc(Hons) in Chemical and Process Engineering, is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in the UK
He is a member of the IChemE Safety & Loss Prevention Subject Group and a specialist in Process Automation, Hazard Analysis and Alarm Management; authoring and presenting papers on these key subjects.
Jon Keswick has more than 15 years of professional experience working in various control, automation and instrumentation vendor companies. His expertise includes in- depth knowledge of safety standards, with specific focus on safety instrumented systems and related equipment employed in the process sector. This includes applications in Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Power generation industries. Jon was instrumental in the successful uptake of programmable electronic systems employed in safety related applications during the mid to late 90’s across Europe and the Middle East, and worked in a senior lead technical role for a safety system vendor during much of this period. He comes directly from a role which involved international responsibility for the setup and development of a process safety business stream within a major international system vendor, and brings in-depth knowledge about the market, products and systems employed in safety related applications.
Eric Byres is a senior partner in Byres Research, which merged with exida in March 2009, and CTO of Byres Security. One of the world’s leading experts in critical infrastructure security, Eric has been responsible for numerous standards, best practices and innovations for control systems security. Eric’s work spans academic and industry domains. As the founder of the BCIT Critical Infrastructure Security Centre, he shaped it into one of North America's leading academic facilities in the field of SCADA cyber security. At the same time, Eric has provided guidance to government security agencies and consulted with major energy companies on cyber protection for critical infrastructures. Eric is the chair of the ISA SP99 Security Technologies Working Group and the Canadian representative for IEC TC65/WG13, a standards effort focusing on an international framework for the protection of process facilities from cyber attack.
David Fournier has over 35 years’ design analysis, control system product and application, and safety system experience in the nuclear industry, primarily in Canada but also in the U.S. and overseas. Because of his use of 61508 concepts in nuclear applications, Mr. Fournier joined exida as partner after retiring from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, where he had been Principal Engineer (I&C), and company expert in real-time system design, categorisation (nuclear equivalent of SIL selection) and project manager for various large software projects. Mr. Fournier was a key design leader for control and safety systems currently operating in more than 12 CANDU plants, 5 BWRs and 4 PWRs.
Since joining exida, he has coached manufacturers to develop programs and products to readiness for certification, and participated in numerous SIL determinations and SIL verifications per 61508/61511.
Mr. Fournier holds a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science and M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is a Professional Engineer, registered in the Province of Ontario, and Certified Functional Safety Expert.
He is currently a Canadian delegate to the IEC TC45A Committee, member of WGA3 and WGA7, and chairing one of the working parties in WGA7. (These committees are responsible for standards such as IEC 61513, 61226 and 62138.)
Mr. Kozma has over twenty years of experience in process control and automation, safety instrumentation systems design and project execution. Mr. Kozma is a Senior Safety Specialist with exida and responsible for process safety and safety instrumented design and verification projects. In his current position, he has solid experience in SIS implementation projects for a variety of process plants, with special emphasis in the Western Canadian Oil & Gas Sector. Mr. Kozma has worked with several engineering and operating companies where he successfully implemented several projects including pipeline safety, burner management, and SIS. Mr. Kozma has a diploma in Electrical Engineering Technology from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He is also a TU¨V certified functional safety expert (CFSE).
Bob Webb is a Senior Research Associate with more than 35 years of experience leading design, construction and operation support activities for fossil, geothermal, and nuclear power plants. Bob’s experience ranges from control loop stability and measurement error analyses, to selection of valves and flow measuring equipment, to SCADA systems built from Ethernet communications among networks of disparate DCSs and PLCs. Recognizing the need to provide security for automation systems, Bob has authored and led ISA’s control systems security activities since their inception in 2002. Bob holds B.S. degrees in Physics and Electronics Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and is a registered Electrical, Mechanical, and Control Systems Engineer. He is a past President of ISA’s Northern California Section, Managing Director of ISA SP99 (ISA’s Manufacturing and Control Systems Security Standards Committee), and past Vice President of ISA’s Standards and Practices Department and Web Activities Department.
Marjorie Widmeyer is a Senior Research Associate with more than 35 years of experience in refineries, chemical plants, and fossil, geothermal, and nuclear power plants, where she has performed and led design, construction and operations support activities. Her experience ranges from control loop design and upgrades (including selection and procurement of all types of equipment) to plant electrical systems, variable speed drive applications, procedure development and safety programs. Marjorie holds a B.S. degree in Mathematics from California State University, San Bernardino, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University, and an M.S. degree in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a past Vice President of ISA’s Standards and Practices Department and a member of ISA’s Manufacturing and Control Systems Standards Committee, SP99.
Alejandro Esparza has over 18 years of experience in process instrumentation, control and automation, safety instrumented systems design and project execution. In his current role, he supports exida’s end-user services for the process industry, like hazard & risk analysis, SIL selection, SIL verification and SIS validation; he also gives training for exida. He previously worked for Foxboro & Moore Products. He is a graduate of La Salle University in Electro-Mechanical Engineering. He is a Certified Functional Safety Expert.
John Bogdan has over 30 years of Design, Commissioning, Operating, and Consulting experience in the Chemical, Oil & Gas, and Power industries, from blue-chip operating companies (DuPont) to system suppliers (Invensys Process Systems).
He is a Subject Matter Expert in alarm management and has facilitated numerous process hazards and alarm rationalization and documentation reviews, has developed and presented workshops on alarm management principles, and has written and presented papers on the subject.
He is an active member of the International Society of Automation (ISA) S18 committee that developed the standard (18.02), “Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries,” and several of its subcommittees.
His knowledge of and experience with the control of industrial processes make him uniquely qualified to facilitate alarm rationalization and documentation projects in an efficient and thorough manner.
John Cusimano is director of exida’s security services division. A process automation safety systems expert with more than twenty years of experience, John leads a team devoted to improving the security of control systems for companies worldwide. Prior to joining exida, John led market development for Siemens’ process automation and safety products and held various product marketing positions at Moore Products Co. John started his career at Eastman Kodak Company, where he implemented and managed automation projects. John has a B.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Clarkson University and holds a CFSE certification.
Dr. Goble has over 30 years of professional experience. He is widely recognized as an expert in programmable electronic systems analysis, safety and high availability automation systems, automation systems new product development and market analysis. He developed many of the techniques used for probabilistic evaluation of safety and high availability automation systems. He was formerly Director, Critical Systems at a successful North American safety company. His principle work responsibilities included strategic planning, market analysis, promotion and business management. Dr. Goble previously held positions in research and development including computer design, software design and development and engineering project management. Dr. Goble also teaches reliability engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written two widely used books on topics of safety and reliability modeling including "Control Systems Safety Evaluation and Reliability." He teaches many of the exida.com courses and ES35, an ISA professional course on safety and reliability. He is a fellow member of ISA. He has published many papers and magazine articles. Dr. Goble has a BSEE from Penn State, a MSEE from Villanova and a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
John Grebe has over 26 years of experience in industrial and medical instrumentation. He has a wide breadth of experience encompassing New Product Development (both hardware and software), Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing Test, Quality Control, Process Definition, Process Improvement, Field Service and Customer Support and specializes in services and products to assist companies in cost effective development of safety-related products. He was formerly the Senior Director of Product Development for a firm creating decision support software for the Chemical Process Industries. Previous experience also includes over 10 years with a North American firm in the process control industry holding a variety of positions including Director of Systems Engineering, which he founded, and Director of Embedded Products. As an engineer his areas of expertise include functional safety, low-level analog signal acquisition, microprocessors and software architecture. Additional industry experience includes flow meter design for an industry leader. He holds nine U.S. patents on products in the process control industry. Mr. Grebe has taught for the ISA professional courses on safety and reliability. He also teaches topics in Engineering Management as an Adjunct Instructor for Drexel University's Masters Program in Engineering Management. Mr. Grebe has a BSEE and a MSEE from Drexel University and a MBA from Villanova University.
Heidi Hartmann is a is a Senior Safety Engineer with Exida and responsible for process safety and safety instrumented system identification, design and verification projects. Heidi has 14 years experience in the Oil & Gas and Chemical industries.
Heidi has worked as a Process Engineer, Process Control Engineer and Safety Instrumented Systems Engineer for several large oil companies, including Shell Oil, Texaco, Valero and Saudi Aramco. She has extensive experience with Petroleum Coke Gasification and Cogeneration, Power and Steam Generation, Continuous Catalyst Regeneration ( CCR ) Reforming, Hydrotreating, Aromatics Extraction, Sulfuric Acid Alkylation, and Polymerization. She was the SIS Site Champion for a Shell Oil Refinery where she was responsible for implementing policies and work processes to ensure its IEC 61511 compliance. She spent approximately 5 years as a Process Control Engineer designing new and maintaining existing Foxboro Control Systems for several major refinery units.
Heidi has also worked as an Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer at the engineering headquarters of a chemical company, Invista, which was previously owned by DuPont Textiles Inc. While in this position, she was responsible for SIS identification, design, and verification on all capital projects and NFPA compliance of the company’s boilers.
Heidi has her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and 40 continuing education credits from the Foxboro Company Lifetime Learning Center.
Mr. Miller has over 17 years of experience in process instrumentation, control and automation, safety instrumented systems design and project execution with several large corporations in the Gulf Region including Honeywell, Exxon, and Siemens. Mr. Miller is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and is currently the ISA - Bluebonnet (Austin & San Antonio) President.
In his current position, Mr. Miller is a Partner/Senior Engineer with Exida and is responsible for various process safety lifecycle support applications.
Mr. O'Brien has 20 years experience in the design, manufacturing and marketing of process automation, reserve power systems, and safety related equipment. He is currently the Director of Business Development with exida. In this role, he focuses on supporting new and existing customers with their implementation of the IEC 61508 and S84 / IEC 61511 functional safety standards as well as reliability analysis for mechanical devices. He was formerly Vice President of the Power Systems Business Unit of C&D Technologies, a business that specialized in the design and implementation of high reliability back up power systems. Prior to that, he was with Moore Products / Siemens Energy and Automation where he held several positions including General Manager of the Instrumentation Division. Chris has been awarded 5 patents, including a patent of the industry's first safety rated pressure transmitter. He has a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University.
Mr. Siebert has over 35 years of professional experience in the design, installation, and maintenance of Process Control and Safety Systems. He began his work in 1974 for a new company specializing in advanced process control for petrochemical companies. He led many successful projects as a systems integrator. In 1978 he went to work for a major petrochemical company designing and installing DCS systems. He has led several PHAs, applied Six Sigma technology, installed and maintained Model Predictive Control systems for several units. For 10 years he was plant proprietary for Safety Instrumented Systems standards. He participated and was responsibility author of several company standards to implement safety life cycle stages.
Mr. Siebert has been a partner for exida since 2006. He has lead many project teams in the PHA, SIL determination SIL verification, SRS, Installation and Commissioning, and Periodic Proof Test activities.
Todd Stauffer is responsible for exida’s alarm management products, services, and training portfolio. He has over 15 years of process control experience with applications in the chemical, pulp & paper, food & beverage, and life sciences industries. He is an editor and voting member of the ISA-18.2 standards committee on alarm management.
Prior to joining exida, he worked for Siemens Energy & Automation and Moore Products in various product management, marketing, consulting, and project engineering roles. He was the company’s subject matter expert on alarm management, HMI design, and control system security – publishing several papers and articles on these topics.
Iwan van Beurden has over 7 years of professional experience. He currently is a Senior Safety Engineer with exida where he performs Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analyses, a variety of reliability analyses and SIL verifications. He also performs process gap analyses to determine the level of effort companies need to undertake for compliance with IEC 61508. He gives training for exida and is also an ISA instructor. Iwan is responsible for the development and maintenance of exida’s automated tools like the Project Manager Suite of online Safety Lifecycle tools, integrating SILect for SIL selection, SRS for Safety Requirements Specification, and SILver for SIL verification. Iwan previously worked for Yokogawa Industrial Safety Systems in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. He worked both in the R&D and in the Operations department as a Safety Assessment specialist. He was involved with the implementation of IEC 61508 within Yokogawa Industrial Safety Systems dealing with SIS reliability calculations and the safety education of engineers. Iwan is a member of ISA. He has published several papers and magazine articles. Iwan is a Certified Functional Safety Expert. He holds a master of science degree from Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, where he majored in reliability engineering and graduated cum laude.
Dr. Scharpf has twenty years of professional experience and is widely recognized as an expert in chemical process safety, efficiency analysis and optimisation. He has led many safety lifecycle projects in chemical processing, energy and machine automation applications. He has developed and teaches several of the exida.com safety and reliability analysis courses and leads the consulting business in Australasia. He has published numerous reviewed journal articles as well as the leading textbook on SIL selection. He developed several of the cryogenic gas processing, combustion, and separation techniques currently used for hydrogen, synthesis gas, and power generation. He was formerly a Process Chemical Engineer with a Fortune 200 gas and chemical processing company. His principal work responsibilities have included research and development, project execution, and operations / manufacturing efficiency, safety, and reliability improvements in the bulk gas and specialty chemicals industry. He previously conducted research and development for an international oil production and processing corporation. He also teaches several process, energy, and safety related courses at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He has authored more than 15 US and international patents. Dr. Scharpf has a B.Ch.E. from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, both in the United States.
Mr Tavener-Smith has over 20 years of professional experience. He has for the past 15 years been involved in the design, engineering and supply of safety related systems for process industries. For the past 7 years he has been a member of the senior management team of one of the leading suppliers of safety related systems globally. His former position was Divisional Manager, responsible for the strategic direction and operations for the Sub-Saharan African region supplying safety related systems and solutions. Mr Tavener-Smith also lectures process safety engineering at the University of KwaZulu Natal.