Experience
Experience
Experience That Drives Safety, Efficiency, and Innovation.
Summary of Experience
Team-oriented manager with over 50 years of experience in various segments of the chemical, pharmaceutical, ethanol, and food and beverage industries. Experienced in the roles of process engineering manager, senior project manager, director of business development, plant manager, EH&S manager, and operations manager. Experienced in both batch and continuous processing and a wide range of unit operations, including distillation, filtration, drying, centrifugation, reactor design, and heat transfer. Certified, experienced process hazard analysis facilitator with extensive experience in all aspects of process safety management (PSM) compliance, including functioning as an audit team leader (including OSHA compliance audits), incident investigation leader, and developer of plant-wide safe work practices and programs.
Professional Experience
Sam McWilliams & Associates, Inc., Athens, GA – 2002 to Present
President and owner of SM&A, Inc.. SM&A is a health and safety, project management, and process engineering consulting firm. Services offered in the health & safety area include:
- PHA facilitation (new and revalidation) – Over 150 PHA facilitated
- OSHA and PSM audits
- OSHA compliance
- PSM related services such as incident investigation, procedures development
- Safety and Health issues including electrostatics, flammables handling, safety reviews and pressure relief design
Process engineering services include:
- FEL development particularly in the ethanol industry (both grain and biomass)
- Basic process engineering, technical support and design
Current Clients include:
- Al-Corn Clean Fuels – Ethanol industry
- Amrep, Inc. - Chemicals
- Janssen, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson) – Pharmaceuticals
- Gevo – Biomass to organic acids/ethanol
Recent Clients include:
- Skyonics – Flue gas recovery
- University of Florida -Biomass to ethanol
- Delta T Corporation – Ethanol industry
- SWAN Biomass – Biomass to ethanol industry
- Avery Dennison – Chemicals
- Global Ethanol – Ethanol industry
- Terra Wheat – Ethanol industry
- Tate & Lyle Sucralose- Food Industry
- Mead Westvaco – Chemicals
- UCB - Pharmaceuticals
- PQ Corporation - Chemicals
- NutraSweet Company - Chemicals
AMEC (Simons / ABGRA-Simons), Inc., Atlanta, GA – 1997 to 2002
Process Engineering Department Manager / Southeastern Region Pharmaceutical Coordinator/ Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Business Development Manager.
As Department Manager, managed the process engineering effort of some 20 Chemical Engineers on the following major projects:
- UCB Bioproducts pharmaceutical pilot plant and laboratory building and utilities including a modified WFI system
- Noramco API reactor upgrade to improve CIP and cGMP capability to resolve product quality problems
- Cargil Dow Polymer front end design for a lactic acid polymer plant
- Georgia Pacific Resins formaldehyde expansion including a complete redesign of the methanol / formaldehyde distillation column
- LaRoche Industries detail design of several ammonium hydroxide manufacturing plants
- General Mills expansion of several cereal and snack food lines
- Process safety management projects including process hazard analyzes, audits, mechanical integrity and MOC programs, pressure relief device verification and safe work practices development. Several presentations to the Atlanta chapter of the AIChE on process safety management
- Development of engineering procedures and standards for P&ID development based on PIP practices, process hazard analysis, PSM audits, and pressure relief device calculations
As the Southeastern Region Pharmaceutical Coordinator and Business Developer, coordinated business development efforts to win new pharmaceutical projects and clients for AMEC’s new pharmaceutical division. In the first year, won the UCB Bioproducts and Noramco projects.
Lockwood Greene International, Moscow, Russia – 1997<
Project Manager
Project Manager on a green field bottling and canning soft drink plant located outside Moscow, Russia. Responsibilities included working with Russian officials to obtain design and construction permits, detailed design, and construction management.
Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Atlanta, GA – 1995 to 1997
Senior Project Manager / Manager of Projects
Manager of Projects, with worldwide responsibility for SWAN Biomass Company, a partnership with Amoco and Stone & Webster, to develop a biomass-to-ethanol process using low-cost lignocellulosic feedstocks. Responsible for all SWAN capital projects, domestic and international, including assisting in feedstock studies, pilot plant runs, and full front-end engineering. Biomass feedstocks included corn fiber (US), wheat (Sweden), barley (US), corn (US), wheat straw (Sweden), rice straw (US), wood (Sweden), and bagasse (Brazil). Developed a complete process design package for the conversion of biomass to ethanol that included PSM compliance, utilizing pilot plant data and past design experience in producing ethanol.
Senior Project Manager on several Amoco Chemical projects. These were $10 to $20 million dollar expansion projects to an existing multi-step chemical facility.
Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, Downers Grove, IL – 1993 to 1995
Director of Business Development – Chemicals
Responsible for business development, marketing, and sales of engineering services for the Midwest region for the chemicals and polymers industries. Major clients included Amoco, Monsanto, Great Lakes Chemical, 3M, and Aldrich Chemicals.
Process Systems, Inc., Memphis, TN – 1989 to 1993
Senior Manager Process / Mechanical Engineering and Sr. Project Manager
Responsible for managing 25 chemical and mechanical engineers executing process engineering in the chemicals and food and beverage industries. Unit operations included milling, centrifugation, filtration, ion exchange, evaporation, drying, distillation, and environmental/safety issues, including safety audits (PSM and OSHA) and hazard analyses. Project Manager on several major projects, including two in Mexico (on-site). Major projects included:
- Desugarization of beet molasses for a beet sugar refinery (PM)
- Grass root edible oil plant
- Grass root 72,000 bushel per day corn wet mill including HFCS and ethanol
- High fructose corn syrup plant expansion in Mexico (PM)
- Whole grain (milo/wheat) ethanol plant (PM)
- Methyl bromide plant expansion
- Corn wet mill renovation in Mexico (PM)
- Front end design of a vital wheat gluten plant which included an ethanol plant
- Expansion of a 10 MM GPY dry mill ethanol plant to 20 MM /GPY
CPS Chemicals, Inc., West Memphis, AR – 1988 to 1989
Engineering / Safety / Environmental Manager
Managed the engineering, safety, and environmental functions for a specialty chemicals plant. Organized a new engineering department, which handled all capital projects. Implemented a new safety program in response to an OSHA compliance audit. Organized and implemented a program to bring the plant into compliance with all EPA regulations (NPDES, air, and SARA III permits).
KSH, Inc., Olive Branch, MS – 1987
Plant Manager
Managed a 120-employee plant producing 60 million pounds per year of acrylic resin and sheet. Increased production by 20%, which helped the plant set four monthly production records in one year. Installed a computerized inventory system, which reduced inventory costs and product loss. Developed a safety program that reduced injuries by 20% and was compliant with OSHA standards and a Total Quality Management (TQM) program.
Ethyl Petroleium Additives, Inc., Sauget, IL – 1972 to 1986
Plant Manager / Operations Manager / Engineering Manager
As Plant Manager, managed a direct staff of seven and 300 total employees in a 400 million pounds ($125 million) per year petroleum additives plant. Functions included labor and community relations, environmental, personnel, production, safety, quality control, maintenance, distribution, accounting, and purchasing. Organized a cost improvement program that saved $10 million during a five year period. Increased productivity by 46%. Developed a safety program that reduced injuries by 70%. Negotiated two labor contracts with the ICWU with improved contract language and management rights. Coordinated a Community
Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) program with the East St. Louis community. Developed a Total Quality Management (TQM) program.
As Engineering Manager, managed chemical and mechanical engineers, chemists, and laboratory technicians in the plant’s Technical Services Department. Directed project engineering on capital projects, including design, installation, and start-up. Coordinated process engineers and chemists in troubleshooting processes, including design experiments, plant trials, and cost improvement studies. Installed a $7 million (1975 dollars) polymer plant, which included process research coordination (in England), design, construction, and start-up. Designed and constructed a six-reactor pilot plant. Installed several utility systems (cooling towers, fire protection water, air compressors, and electrical substations). Conducted safety reviews, accident investigations, and OSHA audits.
Monsanto Company, Sauget, IL – 1967 to 1972
Production Supervisor / Senior Process Engineer
Supervised day-to-day operations of a 24 million pounds per year rubber additives production unit. Handled extremely hazardous chemicals with an excellent safety record.
