WHO WE ARE

OUR PEOPLE

Julie Mitchell,

Manager, Corporate Affairs

Julie is a journalist and copywriter with more than 20 years’ experience of writing and editing a wide variety of newsletters, magazines, brochures and websites for clients in the engineering, construction, transport, pharmaceutical, retail and professional services sectors. She began her career as a local newspaper reporter before moving into PR, first with local authorities and then with John Laing Construction. There Julie played a key role in promoting the Laing private finance initiative responsible for building the Second Severn Crossing.

Roger Grundy,

BSc (Hons) Mech Eng, FIMechE, Minst Pet, MAIChemE, FRSA

Partner

With 35 years’ experience in the process industries, Roger knows everything there is to know about the design and operation of oil refineries, petrochemical and fertilizer complexes and offshore installations, including floating production, storage and offloading facilities. His expertise stretches from project development, profit improvement and troubleshooting to management of operations and maintenance. Roger established Breckland Ltd, providing specialist services to oil and gas operating companies, focusing on operating efficiency, reliability and general performance of rotation machinery.

Mike Lazer,

BSc (Hons) ChemEng, MASc ChemEng, MIChemE, C Eng

Senior Partner

Mike has 30 years’ industry experience in the oil refining and associated industries. He has provided in-depth strategic, technical and commercial advice and has also worked extensively in refinery profit improvement, specialising in strategic refinery performance analysis, yield capability and process optimisation studies. As well as heading-up profit improvement surveys, Mike has also developed a number of strategic master plans, including investment requirements and refinery integration. He has been involved in a number of M&A transactions of oil ?refineries and has extensive experience in analysing crude and refined product ?markets, having run PEL (Petroleum Economics Ltd) for seven years. His expertise extends to technology development, including a refinery crude evaluation and planning system, and creating software for modelling unit operations.

Dr Chin Kin Ong,

PhD, MEng (Hons) Chem Eng, AMIChemE

Principal Consultant

Chin originally joined Pipdev as an engineering consultant. He was involved in the strategic review of a medium size refinery plant and set up a plant wide simulation platform to assess how proposed changes would affect performance. He also designed and proposed a more efficient pre-heat train to reduce fuel consumption. Previously at BP Chemicals UK Chin was involved in designing cooling systems for reactors and he also implemented a more efficient simulation system.

Adam Pengilly,

MEng (Hons) Chem Eng IChemE

Principal Consultant

Adam’s expertise covers simulation of refinery process units, refinery economic modelling and P&ID development. Previously he worked at Guy’s Hospital, London, helping to run staff examinations and was also involved in supervising and training at the Natural History Museum.

Peter Wilson,

BSc (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering, C.Eng, FIET

Partner

Peter has more than 35 years’ broad in-depth experience of the international engineering and construction industry. His career has developed progressively through discipline engineering, construction and project management to general and executive management with profit and loss responsibility. This experience includes considerable front-end economic decision-making exposure and international experience in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Peter has a particular interest in developing appropriate project execution strategies and organisation structures, with associated leadership development.

John Metcalfe,

BSc (Hons) Chem Eng, FInst Energy

Senior Partner

John is an expert in refinery optimisation and reconfiguration, as well as software applications for refinery planning and scheduling. He spent 33 years with ExxonMobil where he fulfilled a number of technical and management roles in planning and refinery engineering and operations. He was involved in standardising BP’s optimisation and scheduling software worldwide and was part of the global team that developed a non-linear refinery optimisation tool capable of working with process simulation models. John also led the study for a major expansion of the world’s largest refinery in India.

John Caine,

MBE, FRSA

Chairman

From 2000 John has pursued a ‘portfolio’ career as a non-executive director and chairman for a number of organisations, ranging from a technology start-up company and an Indian kiosk banking services developer to major financial sector firms. Previously he was director at Alliance & Leicester where he was responsible for its successful £4.5billion flotation. John began his career as a television broadcaster and is an award-winning writer. His work includes plays for television, stage and radio.

David Baldock,

BA, C.Eng, FIChemE, MEI

Senior Partner

Since he “learned the trade” with Esso more than 35 years ago, David has been involved in all aspects of refinery development and performance improvement. He has overseen the implementation of 50 profit improvement programs at refineries around the world. In addition, David developed and implemented 27 energy conservation projects in refineries and petrochemical plants. He has an extensive knowledge of business development, strategic consulting and process design. By supporting clients through the implementation phase of projects he has helped them to achieve their performance improvement goals.

Nick Palmer,

BSc (Hons) Chem Eng, FIChemE

Managing Partner

Nick has extensive experience in business development, project management, strategic consulting, profit improvement and process design in the oil refining, petrochemical and upstream sectors. In a career spanning more than 35 years, Nick has provided his expertise to sites around the world. In 2000 he founded Pipdev to deliver ‘Total Project Architecture,’ a unique approach that he devised for guiding projects from concept to start up, with the aim of achieving efficient assets with operational flexibility and for the lowest capital expenditure.

Roger Grundy

BSc (Hons) Mech Eng, FIMechE, Minst Pet, MAIChemE, FRSA

Partner

Biography

Nick Palmer

BSc (Hons) Chem Eng, FIChemE

Managing Partner

Nick has extensive experience in business development, project management, strategic consulting, profit improvement and process design in the oil refining, petrochemical and upstream sectors. In a career spanning more than 35 years, Nick has provided his expertise to sites around the world. In 2000 he founded Pipdev to deliver 'Total Project Architecture,' a unique approach that he devised for guiding projects from concept to start up, with the aim of achieving efficient assets with operational flexibility and for the lowest capital expenditure.

David Baldock

BA, C.Eng, FIChemE, MEI

Senior Partner

Since he "learned the trade" with Esso more than 35 years ago, David has been involved in all aspects of refinery development and performance improvement. He has overseen the implementation of 50 profit improvement programs at refineries around the world. In addition, David developed and implemented 27 energy conservation projects in refineries and petrochemical plants. He has an extensive knowledge of business development, strategic consulting and process design. By supporting clients through the implementation phase of projects he has helped them to achieve their performance improvement goals.

John Caine MBE

FRSA

Chairman

From 2000 John has pursued a 'portfolio' career as a non-executive director and chairman for a number of organisations, ranging from a technology start-up company and an Indian kiosk banking services developer to major financial sector firms. Previously he was director at Alliance & Leicester where he was responsible for its successful £4.5billion flotation. John began his career as a television broadcaster and is an award-winning writer. His work includes plays for television, stage and radio.

John Metcalfe

BSc (Hons) Chem Eng, FInst Energy

Senior Partner

John is an expert in refinery optimisation and reconfiguration, as well as software applications for refinery planning and scheduling. He spent 33 years with ExxonMobil where he fulfilled a number of technical and management roles in planning and refinery engineering and operations. He was involved in standardising BP's optimisation and scheduling software worldwide and was part of the global team that developed a non-linear refinery optimisation tool capable of working with process simulation models. John also led the study for a major expansion of the world's largest refinery in India.

Peter Wilson

BSc (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering, C.Eng, FIET

Partner

Peter has more than 35 years’ broad in-depth experience of the international engineering and construction industry. His career has developed progressively through discipline engineering, construction and project management to general and executive management with profit and loss responsibility.This experience includes considerable front-end economic decision-making exposure and international experience in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Peter has a particular interest in developing appropriate project execution strategies and organisation structures, with associated leadership development.

Adam Pengilly

MEng (Hons) Chem Eng IChemE

Principal Consultant

Adam's expertise covers simulation of refinery process units, refinery economic modelling and P&ID development. Previously he worked at Guy's Hospital, London, helping to run staff examinations and was also involved in supervising and training at the Natural History Museum.

Dr Chin Kin Ong

PhD, AMIChemE, MEng (Hons) Chem Eng

Principal Consultant

Chin originally joined Pipdev as a part-time graduate consultant. He was involved in the strategic review of a medium size refinery plant and set up a plant wide simulation platform to assess how proposed changes would affect performance. He also designed and proposed a more efficient pre-heat train to reduce fuel consumption. During a summer internship at BP Chemicals UK Chin was involved in designing cooling systems for reactors and he also implemented a more efficient simulation system.

Julie Mitchell

Manager, Corporate Affairs

Julie is a journalist and copywriter with more than 20 years' experience of writing and editing a wide variety of newsletters, magazines, brochures and websites for clients in the engineering, construction, transport, pharmaceutical, retail and professional services sectors. She began her career as a local newspaper reporter before moving into PR, first with local authorities and then with John Laing Construction. There Julie played a key role in promoting the Laing private finance initiative responsible for building the Second Severn Crossing.

Mike Lazer

BSc (Hons) ChemEng, MASc ChemEng, MIChemE, C Eng

Senior Partner

Roger Grundy

BSc (Hons) Mech Eng, FIMechE, Minst Pet, MAIChemE, FRSA

Partner

With 35 years' experience in the process industries, Roger knows everything there is to know about the design and operation of oil refineries, petrochemical and fertilizer complexes and offshore installations, including floating production, storage and offloading facilities. His expertise stretches from project development, profit improvement and troubleshooting to management of operations and maintenance. Roger established Breckland Ltd, providing specialist services to oil and gas operating companies, focusing on operating efficiency, reliability and general performance of rotation machinery.