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• ISA announces Mary Ramsey as executive director
• ISA and The Open Group to advance interoperable process control architecture
• In memoriam
• New CAPs and CCSTs

ISA announces Mary Ramsey as executive director

ISA has appointed automation industry veteran Mary Ramsey as its new executive director. Ramsey, who has been serving as ISA’s interim executive director since January, has more than 25 years of industrial automation experience. She specializes in leadership, change management, and strategy development/execution. Before serving as interim executive director, she was senior vice president of process automation, Americas region, at Schneider Electric, where she was responsible for a $550 million profit/loss statement and 1,200 employees. She has also served as senior vice president of industry business USA and senior vice president of industry business Europe within Schneider. Before joining Schneider Electric, Ramsey held several business development roles within Matrikon International, Instrinsyc, Intellution, Inc., and GE Fanuc, among others. Ramsey holds a BSEE degree from the University of Kentucky and a MBA with a specialty in finance and strategy from Loyola University.

A search committee comprised of nine ISA members and leaders from around the world reviewed dozens of resumes and conducted a series of interviews over the past several months. “The search committee has dedicated significant time and effort to make this decision. We are confident that Mary’s leadership and extensive experience will serve the organization, its members, and the automation community well for years to come,” said executive search committee chair Steve Pflantz.

“It’s an honor to serve as ISA’s executive director,” said Ramsey. “I’m excited to work with staff, members, and leaders to bring a fresh perspective to this important organization. ISA is truly unique in its ability to bring the automation community together to solve difficult technical problems and provide leadership on critical issues facing our industries. We have a lot of work to do, and with the help and support of individuals and companies around the world, we will advance ISA’s mission and create a successful future.”

ISA and The Open Group to advance interoperable process control architecture

ISA and The Open Group have agreed to a liaison memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate cooperation in advancing and harmonizing the development of a multivendor, interoperable, and secure control architecture for application across the process industries. Activities will include sharing best practices, document review, and joint forums.

The Open Group is an industry consortium that develops open, vendor-neutral technology standards and certifications. The new liaison agreement pertains specifically to The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF), which develops a standards-based, open, secure, and interoperable process control architecture.

ISA is known for developing standards in an open consensus process accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The Geneva-based International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has adopted many of ISA’s American National Standards as international standards.

Key ISA/IEC standards on cybersecurity and enterprise-control integration are primary motivating factors in the agreement, points out Dennis Brandl, cochair of the OPAF Standards Working Group, chair of the OPAF Technology Architecture subcommittee, and long-time leader and primary editor in the development of the ISA-95 series of standards. “This MOU shows the commitment from ISA and The Open Group to develop open standards that implement the best practices in the industry,” states Brandl. “The widely used ISA/IEC enterprise-control system integration standards [ISA-95] and ISA/IEC 62443 standards [ISA-99] for the security of automation and control systems are key elements of the OPAF specifications. In addition, elements from ISA/IEC standards on alarm management [ISA-18], process safety [ISA-84], and batch process control [ISA-88] are being considered for inclusion as part of the OPAF specifications. We look forward to both groups working together.”

In memoriam

Frederick Albert Meier, PE, died on 14 July 2018 in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he was a long-term resident. Born in Morristown, N.J., Meier served in the Army Reserve Specialized Training Program during World War II. After the war, he graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., as a mechanical engineer and later earned an MBA from Rutgers University.

Meier had an interesting engineering career that took him to four continents, and he closed out his work career as the staff engineer for ISA in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He also coauthored a popular book, Instrumentation and Control Systems Documentation, Second Edition (www.isa.org/instdocument), with his son Clifford A. Meier.

His son and coauthor said, “Dad was happiest outdoors on Sunday hikes . . . He was a caring teacher, scout master, and unconditionally loving father. He was almost always the smartest guy in the room, but he was also the quietest until something needed to be said, or if he was laughing, or, to be honest, sneezing, which could be heard a block away.”

New CAPs and CCSTs

Qualifying for and passing one of ISA’s certification exams is a noteworthy accomplishment. The exams are rigorous and require a solid command of various disciplines in automation and control. Below is a list of individuals who have recently passed either our Certified Automation Professional (CAP) or one of the three levels of our Certified Control System Technician (CCST) exam. Congratulations to our new certification holders! For more information about the ISA CAP and CCST certification programs, please visit www.isa.org/training-and-certifications/isa-certification.

 

Certified Control System Technicians

Name	Company	Location
Level 1
Kirk D. Snyder	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Michael R. Murphy	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Daryl McGill	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Philip J. Bliss	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Travis L. Dieckmann	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Michael A. Romanowski	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Jordan C. Sullard	Bayer Corp Science	U.S.
Robert Craig Tompkins	Siemens	U.S.
Brandon Lee Taylor	None	U.S.
Andrew Lowell	Zeon Chemicals	U.S.
Greg J. Norman	None	U.S.
Timothy J. Nichols	None	U.S.
Jacob W. Santonas	Williams	U.S.
Timothy A. Majewski	Williams	U.S.
Richard H. Fitzsimmons	None	U.S.
Raymond J. Eye	M David & Sons Inc.	U.S.
Stanislaus M. Mrozek	None	U.S.
Philip S. Price	Ethos Energy	U.S.
Derek S. Harrison	None	U.S.
Kevin D. Whitlock	Virginia Tech	U.S.
Joel Mosebach	None	U.S.
Isai Garcia	None	U.S.
Chidiebere Kenneth Opara	None	U.S.
Matthew D. Walker	None	U.S.
Christian Humberto Perez Cruz	None	Mexico
Felipe Moniel Pascual	None	Mexico
James J. Timony	Invenrgy LLC	U.S.
Jeremy R. Mitchell	None	U.S.
Marc Nick Lubenetski	None	U.S.
Bradley A. Betzen	None	U.S.
John M. Mills	Invenrgy LLC	U.S.
Chad E. Buchanan	None	U.S.
Erik M. Sherman	Nestle Gerber Products	U.S.
Christopher E. Wilbur	None	U.S.
Scott C. Grimm	None	U.S.
Joseph C. Howes	None	U.S.
Level 2
Richard A. McIntire	None	U.S.
Brandyn D. Nelli	None	U.S.
Jose E. Mixon	None	U.S.
Jeremy D. Jones	Elanco	U.S.
Arlan I. Gozon	None	U.S.
John D. McPheron	None	U.S.
Scott M. Atkinson	None	U.S.
Lamngern Keonakhone	D.C. Water & Sewage	U.S.
Paul M. Kuebrich	Lewis & Clarke Community College	U.S.
Level 3
Donald K. Burton	BAE Systems Inc.	U.S.
Craig A. H. Johnson	None	U.S.
Brian C. Hetzel	Flint Hills Resources	U.S.
Nicholas A. Chaplin	Williams	U.S.

 

Certified Automation Professionals
Name	Company	Location
Yousef Khalil Alyousef	SABIC	Saudi Arabia
Kenneth C. Kmack	None	U.S.
Patrick D. Bunce	Columbia River Carbonates	U.S.
Jeremy W. Schlosser	None	U.S.
Matthew L. Walter	Wavid Solutions	U.S.
Andre P. Wedderburn	Champion Controls Inc.	U.S.
Kevin J. Castille	None	U.S.
Amit Kumar	None	Japan
Abdulelah Muhammad Al Shawareb	None	Saudi Arabia
Kyle Cook	None	U.S.
Kevin M. Curtin	None	U.S.
Zain Ali	Fatima Fertilizer Co. Ltd.	Pakistan

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