Valve World Americas Expo & Conference 2027

Ayman Cheta is a Fellow of IMechE and a registered Professional Engineer in Texas. He joined Shell in Dec 2005. Prior to Shell, he worked for Total, Amoco and BP. He is currently a Mechanical Engineering Lead with Shell P&T Engineering in Houston. His 35+ year career spans roles in maintenance, reliability, inspection and integrity, as well as assets and major projects’ support. His industry leadership experience includes: Current Chair of IOGP Piping & Valve Standards SC. Vice Chair of API CRE Subcommittee on Piping and Valves 2006-2009 Chair of ASME B16 Standards Committee SC C 2014-2020 Head of US Delegation during ISO TC/5 meetings 2014 Member of US TAG (Technical Advisory Group) to ANSI on ISO TC/5 and TC/153 related matters.

Barry Hoeffner, Business Development and General Manager at Ladish Valves has over 30 years’ experience in the Chemical and Refining Industries. As a Chemical Engineer, Barry brings a unique perspective to the Flow Control space. His focus for the years in the Valve Industry has been in application engineering and development of severe service and engineered ball valves.

Bill Patrick is the Piping Technology Global Improvement Leader for the Dow Chemical Company working out of Houston Texas, leading engineers globally within the company in developing value initiatives in the area of piping technology. He has over 30 years of experience in piping materials with expertise in valve technology and their application in the chemical industry. He currently is member of API Subcommittee on Piping and Valves and ASME B16Standards Committee and subcommittees on Valves as well as Flanges. He holds a Bachelors and a Masters of Engineering Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Western Ontario and is a licensed professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Dr. Brindesh Dhruva serves as EVP, Chief Marketing & Technology Officer for Bray International in Houston, leading valve and actuator technology development worldwide. He holds a PhD in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University. Brindesh holds multiple patents and has been published in several technical journals. Prior to joining Bray in early 2013, Brindesh held several strategic management positions over a 14-year period with Schlumberger with responsibility for product development within various business units and worldwide locations.

Bronson Pate has 12 years of full-time professional experience in the valve industry, however, he explained he has 35 overall years of experience, as he was technically born into the industry. Currently the Global Fugitive Emissions Director for MagDrive Technologies, Pate is in charge of helping and leading day-to-day operations, along with driving sales domestically, as well as internationally. Pate has served as a leader for international business with China, Malaysia, Singapore, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and Europe. He has become familiar with VV, VVa, GGG, GGa, KKK, QQQ, MON, HON, API 622, API 624, TA-LUFT, and ISOM 1500 standards, and has worked with multiple facilities to develop Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) programs, which includes programs subject to U.S.A. LDAR Consent Decree (CD) requirements. For Pate, the subject of fugitive emissions control is extremely important. He has gained experience in fugitive emission source LDAR monitoring, tagging, and database management including Process and Instrumentation Diagram (P&DI) review. He has participated and lead more than 250 USA CD LDAR audits and was trained and mentored for a Lead Auditor capacity by Graham ‘Buzz’ Harris, and David Ranum. Pate also has environmental compliance experience focused on air quality compliance for refining, petrochemical, and natural gas processing industries, and is familiar with air permitting.

Carlo holds a master’s in engineering from the University of Pavia in Italy. He has 25 years of experience in the Oil & Gas Industry where he started as a process engineer progressing in various engineering and project management roles in several international locations. Carlo moved to Houston, TX, in 2005 and joined ConocoPhillips in 2012 as Corporate Valve SME supporting both Company’s Projects and Operations globally. He’s also leading the Additive Manufacturing program of the Company and he’s an active contributor of various Industry Standardization Bodies, including API, IOGP, ASTM and ASME, leading several initiatives, including the API 20S Task Group on Additive Manufacturing and Industry Joint Industry Projects.

Carlos is a senior executive with career in a top-tier multinational company, including leadership roles in the Americas and India. Full P&L responsibility for the organization in India with solid experience in R&D, operations, process optimization, costing and restructuring in multicultural environments. Active participant in international working teams with several papers published and studies championed for standard setting organizations and conferences. Analytical and strategic thinker with a drive for teamwork and emphasis on attraction and development of future leaders.

Charles Metrailer possesses 30 plus years of experience with valves and automation. He started his career at Grant supply in 1988. He held various roles with Crane, KTM Ball Vales which was acquired by Tyco for whom he worked for 19 years. Through Charles’ worldwide travel, he has learned numerous specifications and standards associated with the global valve business allowing him to gain great insight into production processes and the special valves related to the operations of those production units. Charles is currently MRC Global’s Executive Director of Downstream Valves and Automation. In this role, he utilizes specifications and global standards correctly to help engineers apply the correct valve for the required process conditions.

Ms Dwyer is a piping material engineer with Fluor and began her career with Fluor in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1988. She began as a piping designer and soon took an interest in piping material. In that office there was a variety of projects including hydrocarbon, mining and even brewery piping. After a number of years as a specialist in the Johannesburg office, she was offered a position in the Fluor office in Houston. In Houston Claire was the lead piping material engineer on numerous hydrocarbon projects and, in late 2008, became the operations supervisor for piping material engineering. In this position, she gets a good overview of all the project piping requirements. Previous experience included a few years in the material management group that involved expediting and procurement activities. Claire is now one of the representatives of Fluor at the API Refining Meeting, which is held twice a year and gives the participants a direct chance to influence the content of the valve standards.

Crystal Creppel Mire, BS Mechanical Engineering LSU, 2006. Joined Chevron in 2006 as a Facilities Engineer in the Gulf of Mexico. I have held numerous roles in the FE function including Shelf Operations, Shelf Small Projects, Deepwater Project FE, Reliability Lead, Business Planning FE, i-field technology deployment and Technical Codes and Standards Advisor. I joined Chevron Technology Company, CTC, in January 2023 and am currently the Chevron JIP33 Deployment Engineer

Dan DeVine began his more than 30-year career by obtaining a degree in Chemical Engineering, and finding a job at Union Carbide in Clinton, Iowa, as a Production Engineer. Today, he continues on the same career path as an Independent Contractor through Midland Engineering for a company called Corteva, which is a spinoff of Dow Chemical (Ag Division) and DuPont (Ag Business). In this position, DeVine is responsible for providing valve technology strategy and piping consultant services, as well as assisting with pressure vessel evaluations, repairs, and new purchases for capital projects.

Daniel Freebern brings to market over 20 years of Severe control valve experience. Advanced Valve Solutions USA Inc. has a bespoke package of dedicated valve products to solve the majority of the problems, our customers are faced with today. Daniel has worked with many OEM’s to help them move from a base loaded operation to a more reliable, quick, modulating and start stop regime. Based on specific and extensive experience in these types of operating regimes Daniel has been successful in meeting his customers’ goals. While with AVS Daniel has been able to put solutions in place that lead to reduced maintenance costs, reduce starting time and upgrade the reliability of existing installations. With many years of experience Daniel and his team work with highly qualified European manufactures supporting our goals to bring a complete solution of performance, reliability and reduced maintenance cost to our customers in the Power industries

Daniel McConnell graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio in May of 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Shortly thereafter he joined Bray where he served as a controls design engineer. He has held several positions at Bray, but for the last several years has served as the Research and Development Lab Test Engineer responsible for validation and testing of Bray’s valve and control products. In this role, he has helped expand Bray’s extensive lab capabilities including automation, programming, strain gauges, IoT, and 3D printing.

DAVID M. ANDERSON is a Director in the Score Group and is responsible for the global deployment and development of the company’s valve condition and performance monitoring products and services, which are focused on delivering emissions reductions, operating cost reductions, risk minimization and efficiency maximization for the benefit of all stakeholders. With 38 years of experience of working directly in the valve industry, David has worked in many roles. He is in his 28 th year of employment in the Score Group and has been involved in valve diagnostics and condition monitoring for over 20 years. David is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, a Chartered Quality Professional, a Member of the Chartered Quality Institute and a Member of the Institute of Asset Management. He is a time served Mechanical Engineering Technician by trade and has a wide array of Engineering and Business qualifications and is passionate about sharing his knowledge and coaching / mentoring others.

David Yakos is an inventor, artist, and mechanical engineer; developing everything from leak-free magnetically activated valves that contained cryogenic helium for NASA to to high tech toys & games for fun. He has been named inventor on over 50 patents, developed a prototype-of-the-year named by Popular Science and highlighted in Forbes Magazine as a leading creative. With over 14 years of magnetic valve research, development and application, his goal is to eliminate fugitive valve emissions in places where leaks are not an option. He is co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of MagDrive Solutions, www.magdrive.tech the pioneer of magnetically actuated valves providing emission-free solutions for oil & gas, cryogenics, petrochemical, aerospace and nuclear energy. Validated through API testing, MagDrive aims to completely eliminate fugitive emissions that can be hazardous to personnel, harmful to the environment, or costly in terms of lost product.

Dean Geraci has over 25 years experience developing products and markets in in the Medical Device, Sensor and Defense Industries with a proven record of bringing products to market, identifying solutions to customer needs to develop markets and developing manufacturing processes to create unique products for several markets Dean held leadership positions in Engineering, Technology Development, Marketing, Market Development and Management, providing unique multidisciplinary prospective in domestic and international markets for products, procedures and processes ranging from product design and development to identifying and providing key solutions for customer needs.