Craig Hesser CV

Education

I am a degreed chemical engineer (University of Kansas) with an MBA (Pepperdine University). I started in the oil business when I worked in the Sinclair refinery in East Chicago, Indiana, as part of a cooperative work-study program in university.

Early career (UOP)

From university, I went directly to UOP, where I spent 11 years, specialising in hydrocracking, distillation, and catalytic reforming as a member of the technical department. I was involved in new unit startups, troubleshooting, turnarounds and inspection, refiner assistance, and client coordination. I worked in a variety of locations worldwide and in a variety of units, essentially everything UOP had to offer at that time.

Mid-career (Coastal)

From UOP, I went to The Coastal Corporation as operations manager of the newly acquired Hercules (San Fransisco) refinery, then to another newly acquired refinery in Antwerp, then to the office in Houston as manager of projects. There I directed a new FCC-Poly-Amine complex construction project in Wichita, Kansas, another newly purchased refinery startup in ElDorado, Kansas, a multi-million dollar feasibility study for a residue conversion project in Antwerp, plus project management for a number of projects in each of the Coastal refineries.

Finally, I got "kicked upstairs" to Director of Refining, which involved throughput and production planning, engineering, project initiation and refinery operational review. I also evaluated approximately 100 refineries for possible purchase during the 11 years I was with Coastal (three were purchased).

Consulting Career (Europe) - Part 1

When I left Coastal, I went to Holborn Europa Raffinerie in Hamburg, Germany. There, as operations manager, I was responsible for the restart of the refinery. Later, I was moved to technical manager and manager of planning.

One year with the InterMaritime Group in Geneva was enough to determine that their reformer-hydrocacker project in Antwerp would not progress. I then went to Impac Offshore Engineering in Hamburg, where I was active in foreign project aquisition and management.

My next activity was with PDV Europa in the Hague as an internal consultant. I was responsible for operations evaluation for the German (Ruhr Oel) and Scandinavian (Nynäs) operations. The job developed into a major project evaulation assignment in addition to the other work.

I left PDVE after two years return to consulting for Holborn in Cyprus, the parent company of the Holborn refinery in Hamburg. My primary assignment there was a cleanup of the Swiss Tamoil's operations. The results were clear: after 7 years of continuous losses, Tamoil started a string of profitable months that continued until the end of my assignment and thereafter. I also developed the Tamoil resid cracker RCC project with IFP in Paris. I spent two years on these assignments.

From Holborn, I went to Bulgaria as commercial CEO of a privatisation project at the Plama Refinery. The technical project (restarting the refinery) was a success; the marketing project (not in our hands) was a failure.

Consulting Career (Europe) - Part 2

When my activities in Bulgaria came to an end, the refining business in Europe and most of the rest of the world was at an miserable low point. I decided to look for other ativities with which I might be able to support my wife and myself.

I learned SAP, an enterprise computer system for optimisation of operations and resources, and joined a Swiss company to work in this area as a consultant. I also found some oil consulting work, including a new consulting contract with PDVE for technical and economical project proposal reviews.

In 2004, I founded Good2004 Ltd as a vehicle for real estate investment in Bulgaria, and as a focus for my petroleum-related activities.

My wife and I are presently located in Switzerland, where I have added commercial and informational website development to my list of activities.