Chief Customer Officer

APERIO Systems

Jane Arnold is a seasoned industry executive with over three decades of experience in chemical, discrete, and additive manufacturing. As a digital leader in Industry 4.0, she is dedicated to enhancing the impact of manufacturing through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Throughout her career, Jane has held executive positions at Stanley Black and Decker and Covestro, where she was responsible for spearheading digital transformations. Jane has her own advisory business and serves as a board member. Most recently Jane joined Aperio as Chief Customer Officer where they are focused on the industrial data quality problem.

Director, North America

OPC Foundation

Process Control Engineer

ExxonMobil Corporation

David DeBari is an R&D Team Leader and innovator within Automation and Process Control Engineering for the ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. He has many years of automation experience in both continuous and batch processes and has built, migrated, or replaced a variety of automation systems in numerous projects. David is the ExxonMobil Open Process Automation (OPA) Program Technical Team Leader and one of the original members of ExxonMobil’s OPA Program Team formed in 2012. He has provided technical leadership for the proof of concept, pilot unit prototype project, and the Test Bed Facility and currently guiding the OPA Field Trial Project R&D activities for the ExxonMobil Program.

Director, Digital Manufacturing Transformation

Celanese Corporation

Piya Dey is leading the Digital Manufacturing organization at Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, with an annual net sales greater than $9 billion. Celanese is on an accelerated digitalization journey to develop Manufacturing ‘Plants of the Future’ that will pave the way to a digital business. In her current capacity she is instrumental in driving the successful implementation of the Digital Twin program at Celanese. Prior to joining Celanese, Piya held various leadership roles at Eastman Chemicals, KeyBank and Progressive Casualty Insurance. Piya holds an MBA with a major in Asset and Wealth Management from both Carnegie Mellon University, USA and The University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She also holds a Master’s in computer application from OU, India. Piya resides in Dallas, TX. Piya is deeply passionate about emerging digital innovations and driving large scale digital transformations. Outside of work, Piya enjoys dance, music and volunteering for multiple organizations and local schools.

Compliance & Support Manager, Plant Barry

Southern Company

Steven Ford is currently the Compliance & Support Manager at Alabama Power's Barry Steam Plant located in Bucks, Alabama. He also serves as the chairman of the Southern Company Technology Leadership Team tasked with ensuring system-wide cost-effective, reliable, and efficient technology solutions supporting the business unit strategy. Steven has worked in leadership roles with increasing responsibility across multiple plant sites in Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Alabama Power. These roles include Operations Manager, Maintenance Manager, Engineering & Planning Manager, and Plant Manager. He has leadership experience in both coal & natural gas-powered generation, including supercritical, combined cycle, and co-generation technologies supporting some of the state's largest chemical plant customers. In the Spring of 2020, Steven supported the Generation fleet as the COVID Pandemic Coordinator engaging cross-functional support from Supply Chain, Human Resources, IBEW Leadership, Disability Management, and Corporate Compliance to meet the evolving needs of employees working at our generating facilities. Steven believes that being a part of the Alabama Power Generation leadership team allows him to foster a safer working environment, create meaningful professional developmental opportunities for his team, and find ways to improve our generating product through integrated technology. Steven graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering, Georgia State University with a Master's in Business Administration, and Birmingham School of Law with a Juris Doctorate. Steven is married, has four children, and lives in Fairhope, Alabama. In his spare time, Steven enjoys working on cars, playing golf, and spending time traveling with his family.

Executive in Residence-McCrary Institute

Southern Company

James currently serves as the Southern Company Executive in Residence at Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. In this role he works closely with industry, academia, and federal partners, including national laboratories on electric grid cyber security strategies. James also served as a senior fellow at the McCrary Institute, a prestigious group of nationally renowned cyber and critical-infrastructure security experts. With more than 28 years of service at Southern Company, James co-led an initiative to implement an enhanced Operations cyber and NERC-CIP program support model and has held various operational and engineering support leadership positions. Prior to joining Southern Company, James served in the U.S. Marines. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Auburn University.

Data Analytics Baytown

Covestro

General Manager, Generation Solid Fuel

NRG, Energy

Steve has over 30 years of experience in the power industry working in plant operation & maintenance, new plant construction, plant engineering, and 20+ years as plant manager at various power plants. For the past 3 years, Steve has developed data & analytical products for various areas of NRG mainly supporting plant operation and market operation. Steve has a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Houston.

Director Generation Technology: Fossil, Solar, Storage

Vistra Corporation

Sr. Delivery Manager

Novity

Preston Johnson is the Solutions Manager for Industrial IoT at CBT, with a technical focus on Predictive Maintenance solutions and systems. Preston builds on 28 years in industrial instrumentation and machine condition monitoring systems at National Instruments, and 4 years at Allied Reliability building predictive maintenance programs with digital technologies. Preston draws from his broad functional background in people and project management, technical and domain expertise in asset monitoring applications, and business development to create and implement comprehensive business strategies for new product development, market introduction, and growth. At CBT, he works with the business development and operations teams to deploy condition monitoring systems and services, reliability solutions, training, and hardware/software systems that improve machinery uptime, reliability, and ultimately, production capacity. Prior to joining the CBT team, Preston held roles in Applications Engineering, Field Sales, Sales Management, Product Management, and Business Development.

Director, Process Control Technology

Air Liquide

Marty is an international technical leader in the field of control system automation,advanced process control, operational technology for Air Liquide. He is a regular presenter at control industry forums and conferences, covering topics that focus on practical operational technology and process control applications. He has spent the past 39 years in the process control and automation field providing unique and innovative solutions for the air separation, biotech (applying batch and advanced control solutions for mammalian cell culture bioreactors), and specialty and commodity chemical industry sectors. His recent focus has been on sustainable OT solutions to support ongoing operational excellence efforts within Air Liquide. Marty received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland and MSc coursework in Computer Science from various universities. He was honored by Smart Industry as one of the top 50 Digital Innovators for 2017.

Director- Performance & Reliability

Southern Company

Randy Mullinax is responsible for the Southern Company retail M&D Center, remote operating center, equipment performance testing and maintenance strategy development for the generation fleet. He is currently leading the Performance and Reliability group’s effort focused on a digital maintenance program. Randy brings with him extensive industry experience including contractor management and productivity. He also oversees the regional maintenance program. Randy spent 10 Years in the Foundry/Cast Metals industry and held various positions including Operations Manager, Production Manager, Technical Manager, and Plant Manager. After his career in the Foundry Industry, Randy spent the last 22 years in Power Generation. He has worked in multiple plants in the Southern Company System with various generating technologies. Randy has held many plant positions including Engineering Manager, Maintenance Manager, Regional Planning Manager, and is currently the General Manager for Performance and Reliability. Randy Mullinax is a Graduate of the University of Missouri Rolla (Missouri S&T) with a bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering. He also has a master’s degree in Business Management from Troy State University.

Senior Manager, Manufacturing Process Optimization

Arxada

Digital Manufacturing Manager at Huntsman Polyurethanes

Huntsman Chemical

Deputy Head Function Evonik Digital

Evonik Digital

Yves Gorat Stommel is currently the head of the IT unit Data & Analytics, with a strong focus on enabling the company through both managed analytics and AI applications, as well as data, analytics, and AI platforms. Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology, and positive change.

Fellow Engineer

Siemens Energy

Bill is an automation engineer with nearly 30 years’ experience in pulp and paper, industrial energy, pharma, and power generation. His professional interests include automation of engineering tasks, legacy system migration, alarm management, and novel solution development. When not at work, Bill enjoys reading, sudoku, and training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Education – BSME, MIT 1986 Data Science Micro Masters, UC Davis (ongoing)

Linde AG