The Asia Turbomachinery and Pump Advisory Committee is a group of dedicated industry experts who volunteer their time to oversee the success of the symposium. Advisors are respected leaders in their companies and fields who select the technical program for ATPS each year.
Dag O. Calafell, II has 46 years of experience in management, engineering, projects, and operations in O&G with Exxon, Praxair, Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, and key machinery OEMs. In 2017, he retired as the Chief Machinery Engineer at ExxonMobil Upstream. Dag has his B.S. and M.S. from Clarkson University and post-grad studies at Columbia University. He is the Chair of Asia Turbomachinery & Pump Symposium (ATPS) and the TPS Advisory Committees (Turbomachinery and Pump). He has been on TAMU’s Multi-Phase Pump Users Group Advisory Board and on American Petroleum Institute (API) committees for machinery standards. Dag has served as Associate Editor for the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), as a member of the Hydraulic Institute (HI), the Society of Reliability Engineers (SRE), the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has published papers on machinery and flow phenomena and holds several patents. He was a keynote panelist at the 2017 ASME Turbo-Expo and a panelist at the Global Power & Propulsion Forum in 2018.
Nick Ahrens With 36 years experience, Nick Ahrens has worked with pump and turbo-compressor manufacturers such as Weir, Howden, and SPX as a Design Engineer, Technical Support Engineer, and is now Senior Technical Trainer with Sulzer Pumps. Nick’s role within the Sulzer Academy focuses on training pump operators, maintenance staff and rotating equipment engineers to ensure they understand how to operate and maintain their systems in a safe, efficient, and reliable manner.
Eyad Al-Khateeb is a Senior Turbomachinery Consultant having 30 years of experience with the world’s largest oil & gas production company: Saudi Aramco. For over 17 years, he managed Saudi Aramco’s Compressors, Gears & Steam Turbines Standards leading the responsible committee as vice chairman then chairman positions. He also led innovative developments and piloting of several relevant technologies that have been successfully deployed company-wide, with career savings exceeding $1B. He is also a member in a number of Intenational Committees on machinery standards and decarbonization specifications, including API’s Subcommittee On Mechanical Equipment (SOME). Dr. Al-Khateeb earned a Bachelor of Science degree with highest honors in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Arabia) and a Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University (USA).
S. P. Asokan is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering with over 43 years of extensive industrial experience. He began his career in the petrochemical sector, where he spent 15 years specializing in design and development, as well as equipment erection and commissioning of large-scale process plants. He later transitioned into the mechanical seal industry, where he has spent the past 28 years honing his expertise in mechanical seals and systems. His passion for innovation and engineering excellence has led to the successful design and execution of over 1,000 dry gas seal systems, serving a wide range of compressor and pump seal applications. Currently, Mr. Asokan serves as the President of Flowserve Sanmar Pvt. Ltd., India, where he leads operations related to API seal systems, dry gas seals, and gas panels, based in Chennai. His leadership continues to drive advancements in sealing technology and system reliability across the industry.
Urs Baumann has a diploma (Mechanical Engineering, 1987) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1996 Urs Baumann joined Sulzer Turbo (today’s Everllence). He was the Manager of the Calculation and Development department of MAN Energy Solutions in Zurich. His responsibilities included the aerodynamic and mechanical development of turbo compressors and associated components. It also comprised a Product Development Group mainly focusing on high-speed motor driven, magnetically suspended compressors. Currently Urs Baumann is Senior Principal Engineer at Everllence in Zurich. In this role he is the technical authority for the technology of the core machines.4
Vasanth Bhat is a Reliability Manager at Singapore Refining Company (a joint venture refinery between Chevron & Petro China). During his last 6 years with SRC, his main role has been support all technical and asset management issues with regards to rotating machinery in the refinery. Prior to this, Mr. Vasanth has over 19 years of experience in various roles as consultant , sales , reliability & maintenance engineer in organizations in India, Middle East and Singapore. Mr. Vasanth has a B.E. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1989) from Manipal Institute of technology – India and is a certified Category IV Vibration specialist by Vibration Institute USA.
Mantosh Bhattacharya is designated Subject Matter Expert on Turbo-machinery in Petrofac Intl. located in UAE. A graduate Mechanical Engineer from India with more than 30 years of experience, he is entrusted to evaluate of design and selection of rotating machinery with view to machinery stability and criticality. He also renders support to analyze and solve machinery related issues to various projects at site and OEM works. He has good skills in machinery dynamics as certified vibration analyst as CAT IV a chartered engineer CEng (MIMechE-UK),Int. PE (UK), a member of ASME, Vibration Institute and ISCM – (BINDT UK).. He is the member of Hydraulic Institute standard committee – HI 9.6.4, 9.6.5 . 14.5.1 .He has published and presented several technical papers in journals and conferences and holds 3 U.S. patents.
Klaus Brun is the Director of Research & Development at Elliott Group where he leads a group of over 60 professionals in the development of turbomachinery and related systems for the energy industry. His past experience includes positions in product development, engineering, project management, and executive management at Southwest Research Institute, Solar Turbines, General Electric, and Alstom. He holds nine patents, authored over 350 papers, and published three textbooks on energy systems and turbomachinery. Dr. Brun is a Fellow of the ASME and won an R&D 100 award in 2007 for his Semi-Active Valve invention. He also won the ASME Industrial Gas Turbine Award in 2016 and 11 individuals ASME Turbo Expo Best Paper awards. Dr. Brun is the chair if the 2020 Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles Symposium, past chair of the ASME-IGTI Board of Directors, the ASME Oil & Gas Applications Committee, and ASME sCO2 Power Cycle Committee. He is also a member of the API 616 Task Force, the ASME PTC-10 task force, the Asia Turbomachinery Symposiums Committee, and the Supercritical CO2 Symposium Advisory Committee. Dr. Brun is currently the Executive Correspondent of Turbomachinery International Magazine and Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Gas Turbines for Power.
James Bryan After graduating from Univ. of Ark. 1979 with BScME, James began his career with Brown in Root in 1980 in marine engineering. This led to a long career focused mainly on offshore turbomachinery evolving to large and high pressure pumping and compression equipment. James has worked for various contractors in many countries with the later part of his career in SE Asia. His current position is a consultant contractor role at T.EN Malaysia as a rotating equipment advisor and Lead Rotating Equipment Engineer for a large Total Energies Suriname FPSO.
Siva Kumaran Chidambram has a Mechanical Engineering and a MBA from University of Malaya. He has over 22 years of experience in mechanical engineering, and has worked with OEMs, EPCs and operators in the oil and gas industry. Siva is the Technical Authority Level 1 for Rotating Equipment Engineering for Upstream Deepwater and Conventional Oil and Gas facilities for Shell Malaysia. He has played roles as Design and Engineering Lead and also Start Up Lead for offshore facilities. He has published papers in Offshore Technical Conferences (OTC) on compressors and gas turbines energy efficiency and incipient surge testing offshore. He is also the professional engineer with practice registered with Board of Engineers, Malaysia and a corporate member of Institution of Engineers, Malaysia.
Adolfo Delgado is an associate professor of mechanical engineering. His research focuses on rotordynamics, structural vibration, energy dissipation mechanisms, thin film lubrication and fluid-structure interaction applied to the design, modeling and improvement of rotating machinery systems and components. Prior to joining Texas A&M, Delgado was a research engineer at the General Electric Global Research Center where he led and worked on multiple initiatives involving improvement of existing rotating equipment and development of new rotor-bearing system architectures and turbomachinery components, such as variable geometry bearings, annular seals, dampers and oil-free bearings.
Venkatesan Gopalakrishnan is a lead rotating equipment engineer with KBR Singapore. With 27 years of experience he has handled API 617, API 618 & API 619 process compressors, gas & steam turbines and pumps from major suppliers in oil and gas industry including petrochemical, refinery, power, chemical and pharmaceutical projects. He has handled projects for BP, Chevron, Maersk, ADMA, ONGC in the upstream offshore; and SABIC, Oil & Energy majors in India in the downstream area. Chevron, ADMA.have extended appreciations to Venkat for his excellence in technical work and leadership.
Armando Guerrero is currently the Managing Director of Petronasia Energy based in Singapore. His position includes for providing consulting services to both process machinery users as well as governmental bodies involved in the importation of specialty cryogenic liquids and gasses. He has over 30 years of experience within the turbomachinery industry including senior positions within Atlas Copco, Mafi-Trench and Philadelphia Gear. Mr. Guerrero managed both the sales and service operations for a major turbomachinery supplier where he successfully executed field assignments in more than 25 countries. He presented at the first METS conference, published in Turbomachinery International, and is actively involved as an international member of the Gas Processors Suppliers Association.
Minhui He is a Machinery Specialist with BRG Machinery Consulting LLC, in Charlottesville, Virginia. His responsibilities include vibration troubleshooting, rotordynamic analysis, as well as bearing and seal analysis and design. He is also conducting research on rotordynamics, hydrodynamic bearings and annular seals. Dr. He received his B.S. degree (Chemical Machinery Engineering, 1994) from Sichuan University in China. From 1996 to 2003, he conducted research on fluid film journal bearings in the ROMAC Laboratories at the University of Virginia, receiving his Ph.D. (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 2003). He is a member of ASME and STLE.
Girish Kamal is currently working as Custodian (Rotating Equipment) with the Integration Value Assurance Division of PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. He has more than 33 years’ experience in the Oil and Gas industry with diversified experience on all aspects of Rotating Machinery Management for midstream, onshore, and offshore applications including specification, selection, design approval, witness testing, inspection, commissioning, installation, maintenance, and technical services. Prior to joining PETRONAS Carigali, he worked with Dolphin Energy Gas Plant in Qatar as Head of Machinery Reliability. He later joined PETRONAS Carigali in the Peninsular Malaysia Office as Unit Head for the Condition Based Maintenance department. He also worked with Engineers India Limited as Deputy Manager (Rotating Equipment) and with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited in India as Executive Mechanical Engineer. He holds a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA qualification. He is also a Certified Reliability Professional. Girish has authored and presented many technical papers on Rotating Machinery Condition & Performance Monitoring and Reliability improvements in number of International and Regional Conferences including Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia (TPS)-Houston, Middle East Chapter-METS as well as the Asian Chapter-ATPS.
Pankaj Karia is Working with SBM Offshore, Malaysia office as a Department Manager- Mechanical Equipment. He is graduated in Mechanical Engineering and has more than 24 years of experience in the field of Upstream, Midstream and Downstream projects in various countries such as India, Middle East, Thailand and Malaysia. His main experience is the selection of the Rotating equipment, Technical bid evaluation, negotiations with vendors, vendor documents review, inspection and testing. Also providing technical support during the construction, commissioning and root cause analysis of the Rotating Equipment failure.
Arun Kumar is with HPCL‐ Mittal Energy Ltd., India, serving as Head of Operational Excellence at Guru Gobind Singh Refinery and Petrochemical complex located at Bathinda, India. He has over 35 years of experience in erection, commissioning, maintenance, equipment reliability, inspection, turnaround planning and execution, troubleshooting and performance improvement of Rotating Equipment driving best practices and managing a wide spectrum of machinery and utilities. Arun is a mechanical engineering graduate with post‐graduate studies in business administration. As part of a digital transformation journey, he has implemented multiple-asset performance management system and digital solutions from blueprint to go-live. He has presented many technical papers at international venues and lectured at Turbomachinery and Pump Symposia, including panel discussions. Arun is also member of the Turbomachinery society of Japan
Rainer Kurz retired as the Manager, Gas Compressor Engineering, Solar Turbines Incorporated, with responsibilities for the design, research and development of Solar’s Centrifugal Gas Compressors, including aerodynamic, rotordynamic, and mechanical design. He is now the Principal of RKSBenergy LLC. Dr. Kurz attended the Universität der Bundeswehr in Hamburg, Germany, where he received the degree of a Dr.-Ing. in 1991. He has authored numerous publications about turbomachinery related topics, is an ASME fellow, a member of the GMRC Board, and a member of the Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee and the Asia Turbomachinery and Pump Symposium Advisory Committee. He also won the ASME Industrial Gas Turbine Award in 2013.
Wai Lam LOH, PhD, is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of National University of Singapore and also the Programme Manager (Subsea Systems and Transportation) for the Centre of Offshore Research & Engineering (CORE). He has been involved in the oil & gas industry for more than 25 years. Before joining NUS in 2006, Prof Loh has worked for more than 16 years in the UK for several Oil & Gas and related companies, in the capacities of Senior Project Engineer, Project Manager, Consultant and Head of R&D. During this time he has led and managed numerous multi-disciplinary consortium R&D projects for the Oil & Gas Industry relating to Oil & Gas production, processing and transportation, etc. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He has also successfully invented, patented and developed numerous novel devices and systems for the Oil & Gas Industry. Through his innovative work, Prof Loh has received several prestigious international awards including THE ROYAL SOCIETY Esso Energy Award and Gold Medal in 1998 and the Special Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation at the OTC 1999 from Hart’s Petroleum International, USA, in 1999. Prof Loh graduated from University of Manchester in UK, for his BEng, MSc and PhD. His research areas are Subsea Processing, Multiphase jet pumps, Multiphase pumping, Multiphase flow metering and Multiphase oil/water/gas separation.
Hideaki Maeda is presently the general manager of pump engineering 1st department, engineering division with Torishima Pump Mfg. Co., Ltd. in Osaka, Japan. He joined Torishima in 1993 and has been worked in R&D department until 2015, and mainly researched in regard to the improvement of pump performance, the vibration issue due to cavitation in mixed flow pump and the impulse turbine performance improvement for wave power energy conversion. He received Dr. Engineering degree for the research result of the improvement of impulse turbine performance for wave energy conversion in 2002. From 2009 to 2015, He organized R&D department as general manager and developed several the high performance pumps.
Gaspare Maragioglio is currently leading the Engineering and Product Management Teams at Baker Hughes Power Transmission. He has 19 years of experience in rotating equipment and shaft line integration for turbo-compressor, motor-compressor and turbo-generator units. His experience embraces technical selection and design verification of flexible and rigid couplings, load gears and auxiliary equipment (like torque converters – clutch – turning gear – GT starting system), as well as train rotor-dynamics, torsional and lateral. In this role Mr. Maragioglio is responsible of the multi-year products life-cycle strategy for gearboxes and couplings, and the development of new products, with special attention to industrial applications arising from the Energy transition. His responsibility is also providing technical support to the manufacturing/test department for no load and full load string test, as well as to the site commissioning activities and troubles shooting. He is currently a member of API SOME and ATPS Advisor Committee, since July 2014.
James McDougall is an Engineering Director for Torishima Service Solutions Europe (TSSE).
Greg McLorg is a Project Applications Engineer with Solar Turbines in Singapore.
Wei Sing Ng is a Complex Machinery Engineer in ExxonMobil Singapore and he has 14 years of experience in Rotating Equipment Engineering across both Refinery and Chemical Plant. His key responsibilities encompass machinery troubleshooting and diagnostic, root cause failure analysis, machinery design improvements, turbomachinery overhauls and GTG commissioning. He holds a Postgraduate Doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Leeds. His study focused on non-linear modeling of squeeze film damper and their impact on the rotodynamic characteristics of aero engines.
Eric Petersen is the Director of the Turbomachinery Laboratory at Texas A&M University. Petersen has been with the Turbo Lab for 10-plus years and is the Nelson-Jackson Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research encompasses gas dynamics, propulsion, combustion, shock waves, chemical kinetics, optical diagnostics and spectroscopy, laminar and turbulent flames, and rocket combustion. He has authored more than 400 journal and conference papers in these areas. He is vice-president of the Institute for Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems (IDERS) and an associate editor of the Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power and the Journal of Propulsion and Power. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), The Combustion Institute and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Petersen holds three degrees in mechanical engineering: a bachelor’s from the University of Central Florida (1988), a master’s from the University of Florida (1990) and a doctorate from Stanford University (1998). Before coming to Texas A&M, Petersen taught at the University of Central Florida. Prior to becoming a professor, he was an analytical engineer in the combustion group at Pratt & Whitney for three years, and a research scientist in the propulsion science group at the Aerospace Corporation for four years.
Srithar Rajoo is an associate professor at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). His research interest is in the areas of turbocharging, internal combustion engines and waste heat recovery – with specific focus on low carbon technologies for transport applications. He works closely with Imperial College London and major turbocharger industry leaders on research collaborations and publications. More information can be found at www.utm.my/locartic
Andrew Sanderson started his career at Sulzer Pumps, Leeds, UK in 1982 as an apprentice engineer and now has 37 years of experience within the industry. He moved into the applications and tendering role during 1986, predominantly for the Oil & Gas markets of Upstream, Midstream and Downstream. In 1992 he transferred to Sulzer Singapore in various roles but all related with applications, tendering and sales primarily in the Oil & Gas markets as well as the Power Generation market. Besides Sulzer he worked with ClydeUnion Pumps from 2008 to 2016 in various sales and tendering roles. The last position he held at ClydeUnion Pumps was Sales Director for APAC for new business and aftermarket. Andrew returned to Sulzer during 2016 and is presently the Head of Tendering APAC for the Energy Business Unit.
Sunil Sharma has a Post Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Roorkee, India, and has 45 years of working experience in the field of rotating equipment applied to the Oil & Gas industry and Ammonia/Urea plants. Sunil has worked with various engineering companies involved in conceptual, FEED and Detailed Engineering work of upstream oil & gas and fertilizer production facilities. Present role with Aker Solutions is development of standardised procurement specifications for gas compressors and gear units for use by O&G operating companies worldwide in future under Joint Industry Programme, JIP33, of IOGP.
Keiji Tajiri is currently serving as the Director of Global Engineering at Ebara Elliott Energy where he plays a pivotal role in leading engineering and drafting efforts for compressors, turbines, and cryogenic pumps on a global scale. He has been an engineering leader with over 25 years of experience in the field, specializing in aerodynamics for centrifugal compressors. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, and earned his Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2003. He served as an associate editor for the Gas Turbine Society of Japan, contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and advancements in gas turbine technology. He is also a member of the Turbomachinery Society of Japan, where he continues to collaborate with industry peers and experts to drive innovation and excellence.
Akinori Tasaki is the General Manager of engineering and design division in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corporation (MCO), responsible for compressors applications including mechanical drive steam turbines, auxiliary equipment and control systems. He has extensive technical knowledge over more than 20 years’ on upstream and downstream applications for various oil and gas projects. Tasaki-san has comprehensive experience in engineering service for machinery maintenance, diagnosis, on-site trouble-shooting, repair and reliability improvement. He has B.S and M.S degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. He joined the Advisory Committee beginning 2022.
Woon-Lip Teo graduated from National University of Singapore with a Mechanical Engineering Degree in 2003. He started his Career in the Manufacturing Industry and later joined ExxonMobil Singapore as a Machinery Engineer and had supported several business units across both the Refinery and Chemical plant over the last 19 years. He is experienced in machinery troubleshooting and diagnostic, root cause failure analysis, machinery design improvements, development of reliability improvement strategies, turbomachinery overhauls and major project commissioning. He is currently the Singapore Complex Machinery Principal Engineer.
Jiun Horng Teoh is a Rotating Equipment Section Head at Technip Energies Malaysia.
Jason Wilkes is Manager of the Rotating Machinery Dynamics Section at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. His experience at SwRI includes design and construction of various test rigs, predicting lateral and torsional rotordynamic analyses, bearings and seals, and auxiliary bearing dynamics following failure of AMB supported turbomachinery. Dr. Wilkes holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University where he worked at the Turbomachinery Laboratory.
Karl Wygant is Sr. Manager of Advanced Technology Programs at Elliott Group. Dr. Wygant holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Norwich University. His engineering experience over the last 25 years is related to a development of new turbomachinery products, including: rocket turbopumps, automotive turbochargers, industrial compressors, steam turbines, gas turbines, and novel turbomachinery applications. His management background includes: project management, multi-group management, business management, and leading new product development from inception to market delivery.
Jack (Jianguo) Xu is the Asia Sales Manager of Altra Industrial Motion Company’s Ameridrives and Bibby-Turboflex turbomachinery couplings. Jack has 12 years high performance coupling experience, and has previous 5 years turbomachinery engineering experience at PTEC. Jack has a bachelor degree of Thermal Power Engineering at Tsinghua University, and a master degree of Fluid Mechanical at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Jihoon Yoon is sales director of Dongyang Chemical Pump Co., Ltd. He has 20 years experiences in pump industries. His main area in DYCP is oversea sales, market research, and product development.
John Yu is currently based in USA with Baker Hughes Company. In 1998, he joined Bently Rotor Dynamics Research Corporation, a subsidiary of Bently Nevada that was merged into GE in 2002 and into Baker Hughes in 2020. He has performed rotor dynamic research and machinery vibration diagnostics for customers worldwide and has been Global Technical Leader of Machinery Diagnostic Services at Bently Nevada since 2011. He has served as associate editor of the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and has over 80 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Yu received the 2001 John P. Davis Award by ASME IGTI. He currently serves as an Advisory Committee member to the Asia Turbomachinery & Pump Symposium. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Alberta and is an ASME Fellow.
