Focused Solutions Group

THOMAS J. SMITH
SUMMARY OF TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

Industries diverse as Aircraft, Automotive, Chemicals/Petrochemicals, Environmental, Food, Green & Sustainable technologies, Machinery, Metals, Military, Nuclear, Paper, Plastics, Pharmaceuticals, Semiconductors, and others.

Mechanical, Electrical, and Chemical Process hands on knowledge of: Steel and machinery (structural to sheet metal), alloys from aluminum, copper, and steel to stainless steel, Inconel, Hastelloy, titanium, tantalum, and other high alloys, plastics (fiberglass, PTFE, etc.), ASME, TEMA, military, nuclear, aircraft codes, ISO-9000 Quality (also MIL-Q-9858 and MIL-I-45208), ISO-14000 Environmental requirements, Equipment (or part) weights from milligrams to 200,000 lbs, Pressures from vacuum to 10,000 PSIG, Temperatures from -192F to 2400F, Flows from 0.2 to 150,000 lbs/min, Burner systems from 20,000 BTU/Hr to 200,000,000 BTU/Hr, Electrical and control systems (relay systems, PLC systems, DCS systems, including motor controls to 1000 Hp, FM, UL, NEC, CE req'ts), diesel, natural gas, waste gas, and gasoline engines from 60 to 4000 Hp, continuous and batch chemicals (specialty and commodity); custom (job shop and engineered) though production manufacturing, and other knowledge in computer/communications networking, MRP/ERP system conversions, and Web site development.

Experience since 1976 in process engineering, design engineering, mechanical engineering, structural engineering, electrical engineering, process engineering, control engineering, and project management on various equipment and systems development projects. Early experience was in specialty chemical research and process engineering for such chemicals as defoamers, dispersants, and surfactants (solid and liquid forms). Projects in the most recent 20 years have been for gas phase chemical reactions (at atmospheric to high pressures), and liquid electrochemical processes (such as cathodic protection and sodium hypochlorite generation), and air pollution control specializing in Catalytic/Thermal Oxidation/Reduction Systems for the removal of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOx) (in the case of Selective Catalytic and Non Catalytic Reduction) from the offgas of industrial manufacturing facilities, and cogeneration facilities using gas turbines and large stationary engines. Emphasis at CSM had been on the design, manufacture, installation and test of Air Handling and Air Pollution Control equipment (most notably Catalytic Oxidation Systems) for parts conveying and fume abatement (respectively) in major processing plants located worldwide - including the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. Emphasis at Voltaix had been in ultra-high purity (6 nines) semiconductor gas manufacturing primarily sold to the major gas distributors for their worldwide operations.

Design engineering experience includes calculations, detailed designs, and specifications for the entire system, as well as all components of the system. These include: Chemical reactors (gas, liquid, solid and multiple phase), blenders, pressure vessels, ovens (electrically, combustion, oil, and steam heated, both direct and indirect), incinerators, static and dynamic mixers, centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, shell and tube heat exchangers, steam generators, steam preheaters, recuperative and regenerative heat exchangers, air flow distribution and fluid flow finite element analysis (FEA), process blowers & motors & controls (including variable frequency drives), burners and fuel trains, combustion air blowers and motors, process valves, pressure relief devices, exhaust stacks, structural supports, ladders and platforms, pneumatics, conveying equipment, carbon beds, molecular sieve beds, zeolite beds, spray dyers, tray driers, humidifiers, chillers, cooling towers, water treatment systems, boilers, chimneys (metal, plastic, concrete, and mixed), scrubbers, demisters, pipe network design, piping/structural stress analysis (FEA), vibration analysis (FEA), heat transfer design and analysis (FEA), electrical power and distribution, analytical instrumentation, programmable logic control and operator interface, system safeties and alarms, programmable logic controller/distributed control system (PLC/DCS) software development and management for the completion of all of the above noted items on specific projects. Consider the ranges of temperatures and pressures noted in the first paragraph, and that this experience covers corrosion, suitability, mechanical, structural, electrical, and thermal expansion loads for those ranges.

Project Management for the design and manufacture of systems and equipment includes: project cost estimates, budget development, schedule development, scope of work, specification review and development, component vendor interface, engineering production interface, engineering and customer interface, project tracking and reporting. Project Management experience includes supervision of single projects ranging to $5 million, with up to 40 simultaneous projects. Scopes ranged from site surveys and greenfield work through equipment and process design and construction and turn-key site installation, startup and maintenance.

Business Management experience since 1988 includes: P&L responsibility, identifying and completing Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Plan Development, Financial modeling, risk management, contract and bank negotiations, information systems development and management, business process management, turnaround management, product line extensions and development, consultative solution-based selling.

PATENTS:
Colloids (now part of Rhodia), US Patent 4,342,599 - Method of reducing water demand of alkaline aqueous suspensions and
WaterChef (when consulting with FSG), US Patent 6,348,155 – Water Purification System and Method

(Of course, the Patents were assigned to the respective companies, and “authored” by the Presidents of each.)

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

EDUCATION

B.S. Chemical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Various Management courses through AMA

MBA courses through Ellis U

PROJECTS and CLIENTS
(A sampling to indicate the range of projects and processes) Chemical, manufacturing, assembly and control processes, including: Pure Terephthalic Acid, Phthalic Anhydride, Ethylene, Ethylene Glycol, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Formaldehyde, Styrene, Petroleum refining, Alcohols, Ketones, Esters, Fats, Waxes, Air Separation, Gas Purification, Capital Equipment, Electrical and Electronic Controls, Combustion Processes and Controls, Heating, Cooling, Metal Decorating and Can Coating, Fabric Coating, Cord and Thread Coating, Painting and Finishing, Printing, Food Processing, Automotive Dynamometer Facilities, Automotive Paint Baking, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Multidimensional Fiber Board Manufacturing, ultra-high purity chemical vapor deposition gases, other semiconductor precursor gases, and many others.

Direct Clients including:

and hundreds of others.

COMPUTER PROFICIENCY

Quite a strong proponent of computers and computer use as a productivity improvement tool. Always a driver for use of computers. Comfortable with computer software and hardware, learning new systems quickly. Many of the productivity improvements discussed in the resume were the result of successful implementation of software/hardware systems.

Utilization of mainframe computers since 1981 for database analysis and reporting (ADRS) and technical programming (IBM Basic and Fortran). Later, VisiCalc, Multiplan, SuperCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, and currently Excel spreadsheets were utilized on APPLE IIe and IBM compatibles for most analytical and technical work. Word processing using Multi-Mate, Word Perfect, and Word, later linking with Access or Excel files to automate proposals.  POWER USER OF WORD AND EXCEL.  DBase, FoxPro, and Access were used for client records (sales, sales rep, etc.), contact lists, reporting. Harvard Graphics, PowerPoint, Publisher for slides, charts, and sales/marketing/technical/management presentations. Exchange and Outlook used for contact management and Email processing. Harvard Project Manager and MS Project were used for project management and control. Set up AutoCad design approach and file/block system (subordinates used AutoCad to create/edit drawings, but fully familiar with available functions and capability). Allen Bradley PLC-5 and SLC software used to program PLCs, including set up remote communication via equipment modems. Allen Bradley ControlView and WonderWare used for process control applications. Used Algor for FEA design improvements and analyses discussed above. Accounting systems set up and maintained, such as ABBA/Pick, Trendex, Quicken, QuickBooks Pro/Premier, Peachtree. Assessed suitability and made recommendations for other mid-level (PC or mini-based) accounting ERP/MRP systems such as Fourth Shift, microMax, UA Corporate Accounting, MAS90, Business Works and many others. Bulk mail system set up using MyMailList (bar coding, automated sorting, etc.). Accessories and utilities such as Norton, Arcserve, 7Zip, FTP, Agent, SyGate, etc. Operating systems - Pick, Novell, DOS, Unix, Windows 3.x/95/98/NT/2000/XP, and many other minor packages.

Set up both peer-to-peer (W 3.11/95/98/2000/XP), and client/server (NT4/2000/Novell) networks. Supervised network administrators, set password authorization levels. Upgraded/installed/debugged hardware (hard disks, floppy drives, power supplies, video, monitors/multiple monitors, sound, network adaptors, hubs, routers, switches, category 5/5e/6, gigabit and fiber optic cabling and connectors, motherboards, RAM, ROM/BIOS, fax/modems, cable modems, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, SCSI, I/O, printers, scanners, cameras).

Internet access and use since 1996. Proficient in html. Set up Web pages, domains, and links with graphics and sound. Transferred domains with minimal disruption. Used hidden meta-tag keywords for improved search response. Submitted sites to major search engines. Set up Content Management Systems (CMS) with hundreds of web pages for shopping cart/retail e-commerce use. Used CMS programs such as Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress to develop websites.  [This website was built on a Drupal shell] Used Google webmaster tools, such as Adwords, Analytics, Base, Checkout, and Optimizer. Set up and used PayPal and Google Checkout merchant accounts.

Note: Corporate names, brand names, and trademarks are the property of their respective companies.