Dr. Goble has over 30 years of professional experience. He is widely recognized as an expert in programmable electronic systems analysis, safety and high availability automation systems, automation systems new product development and market analysis. He developed many of the techniques used for probabilistic evaluation of safety and high availability automation systems. He was formerly Director, Critical Systems at a successful North American safety company. His principle work responsibilities included strategic planning, market analysis, promotion and business management. Dr. Goble previously held positions in research and development including computer design, software design and development and engineering project management. Dr. Goble also teaches reliability engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written two widely used books on topics of safety and reliability modeling including “Control Systems Safety Evaluation and Reliability.” He teaches many of the exida.com courses and ES35, an ISA professional course on safety and reliability. He is a fellow member of ISA. He has published many papers and magazine articles. Dr. Goble has a BSEE from Penn State, a MSEE from Villanova and a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Mr. Faller has over 30 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. He is widely known as the world’s top safety and reliability expert. After graduating from University, Mr. Faller began working for MAN Technology where he co-developed a driverless bus for public transportation. In 1985, he joined TUV Bayern where obtained the position of Referent (chief engineer) for safety of computer systems. Several years later, Mr. Faller became a Manager at IQSE, the Institute for Quality and Safety in Electronics and then Department Manager for “Industrial Electronics” at TUV Product Service. Also during this time, Mr. Faller was named Chairman of the German DIN/DKE committee on “Computers in Safety–Related Applications”.

In 1998, he became Business Unit Manager of “Automation, Software, and Electronics”. This position provided him with worldwide responsibility. Most recently, Mr. Faller is the co-founder and principal partner for exida.com, LLC. Mr. Faller is a member of many different international standardization committees. His signature appears on most of the world’s equipment safety certifications. He is frequently sought after for speaking engagements and publications based on his unparalleled expertise.

Chris O’Brien is a Partner with exida. He has over 25 years of experience in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of process automation, reserve power systems, and safety related equipment. His main focus includes supporting new and existing customers with their implementation of the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 functional safety standards, as well as reliability analysis for mechanical devices.

Mr. O’Brien is the author of “Final Elements and the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 Functional Safety Standards” and has been awarded 5 patents, including a patent for the industry’s first safety rated pressure transmitter.

Iwan van Beurden, CFSE is the Chief Technology Officer, Director of Product Development at exida. He supports exida’s end-user services, exida’s manufacturer services, and exida certification activities. He has over 20 years of professional experience in the Functional Safety field. Mr. van Beurden is responsible for the development, maintenance, and certification of the exSILentia® integrated Safety Lifecycle tool and associated products. Mr. van Beurden also performs IEC 61508 development support, Functional Safety Assessments, and a variety of reliability analyses. He supports all safety lifecycle tasks, ranging from the Process Hazard Analysis, Layer of Protection Analysis, SIL Selections, and SIL Verifications, to proof test specification and operational event recording. Mr. van Beurden also performs process gap analyses to determine the level of effort companies need to undertake for compliance with IEC 61508 or IEC 61511. He gives training for exida and is also an ISA fellow and instructor.

Mr. van Beurden previously worked for Yokogawa Industrial Safety Systems in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. He worked both in the R&D and in the Operations department as a Safety Assessment specialist. He was involved with the implementation of IEC 61508 within Yokogawa Industrial Safety Systems dealing with SIS reliability calculations and the safety education of engineers. Mr. van Beurden is a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) and a member of ISA. He has published various papers and magazine articles. He holds a Master of Science degree from Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, where he majored in reliability engineering and graduated cum laude.

Steve Gandy joined exida in 2012 as VP of Global Business Development, from Metso, bringing with him 35 years of experience of industrial controls and safety experience. Steve was responsible for sales and operations in Asia for Metso, setting up their India subsidiary and China energy and process team. Steve was also responsible for managing Metso’s VAR partners in the region, as well as developing new markets in Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, Ukraine, Tanzania and Guam. Steve was involved in securing a highly successful and profitable collaboration with BHEL in India, the leading supplier to the India power market, as well as negotiating a JV with one of the leading IPPs in China.

Prior to Metso, Mr. Gandy spent 15 years with Industrial Control Services (now part of Rockwell) in the UK, initially as one of the designers of ICS’ early safety systems (ICS2000, SFD200 and FGS2000) then as GM responsible for setting up ICS Technology to develop the flagship Trusted ICS. As part of this role, Steve had to present papers at the IEE and Safety System Symposium on risk management.

Mr. Gandy’s earlier career started as a Student Apprentice at Marconi-Elliott in the UK, developing software for the Nimrod communications system.

Michael is a Functional Safety & Security expert responsible for incorporating industry best practices for the safety and security development lifecycles into a common process. He is certified to perform Achilles certification tests on industrial controllers. He consults with clients on improving their product development process to become compliant with IEC 62443, IEC 61508 and ISA Secure SDLA (Security Development Lifecycle Assurance). Michael holds a Masters in Business Administration from Penn State University, a M. S. in Computer Engineering from Villanova University and a B. S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

Jonathan Moore is the Director of Advanced Systems with exida Consulting LLC. He has over 20 years of automotive and robotics experience in systems engineering, failure mode avoidance and standards based software development. He focuses on supporting new and existing customers with their implementation of functional safety standards.He has a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering from University of York and a Master of Science Electromagnetic Compatibility from University of York.

Mr. Aschenbrenner has over 25 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. After graduating from University, Mr. Aschenbrenner began working for Gustav Klein, where he was responsible for software and hardware of programmable electronic systems.

In 1995, he joined TÜV Product Service GmbH where he became responsible for machinery safety devices. In 1998 Mr. Aschenbrenner joined TÜV Product Service Inc. in the USA to set up a functional safety department for the Americas. During this time he became Business Unit Manager of “Automation, Software, and Electronics” at TÜV Product Service with worldwide responsibility.

In 2000, Mr. Aschenbrenner joined exida and became a partner in 2003. Mr. Aschenbrenner developed and is responsible for the exida FMEDA tool SILcal. His primary focus is on the assessment of field devices in the process industry (transmitters and final elements) and in safety analyses support (e.g. FMEDA, FTA) according to ISO 26262, IEC 61508 and other functional safety standards. He is author of several papers and articles for magazines and technical conferences. In 2007 he became CFSE. Since 2020 Mr. Aschenbrenner is Chief Executive Officer at exida.com GmbH.

Mr. Alexander Griessing joined exida in 2014 to work as a Principal Safety Expert with focus on automotive and semiconductor applications. With more than 20 years of experience in the specification, implementation and analysis of safety-related automotive systems and SoC, he supports leading semiconductor and automotive Tier1 companies worldwide through consulting, training, and as a functional safety assessor. Mr. Griessing also set up the exida Safety Systems (Shanghai) office in China and has expanded the exida automotive business throughout South-East Asia and North America. Since 2020 he holds the position of Chief Operating Officer at exida GmbH.

Mr. Griessing started his professional career in 1996 as a design engineer for DRAM and logic IC design at Siemens / Infineon Technologies. Since 2003 he led multiple large-scale automotive microcontroller and embedded software development projects in North America, Asia and Europe. At the same time he was responsible for functional safety management and safety analysis for automotive hardware and software design.

Mr. Griessing holds an M.S. degree (Diploma) in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Dresden, Germany. Since 2016 he is a certified functional safety expert (CFSE).

Patrick O’Brien has five years of experience as a Safety and Cybersecurity Engineer at exida LLC. He leads a variety of functional safety and cybersecurity consulting services and training courses for end user industrial facilities. He specializes in gap analysis, risk assessment techniques, and subsequent safety/cybersecurity lifecycle tasks. He has significant experience as a project lead for multiple PHAs/HAZOPs, LOPAs, SRS, SIL verifications, functional safety management, cybersecurity risk assessments, and cybersecurity management across many industries including oil and gas, specialty chemical, machinery, and robotics.

He is a coauthor of Implementing IEC 62443: A Pragmatic Approach to Cybersecurity one of the first book published on industrial cybersecurity. Additionally, he has developed training courses, parts of the Certified Automation Cybersecurity Expert (CACE) exam, a suite of functional safety and cybersecurity management templates, and user tutorials for the exSILentia® software platform, including significant work with the exSILentia Cyber™ tools. Patrick holds a BS in Chemical Engineering & German Language and Culture from the Pennsylvania State University. Patrick represents exida on the International Society of Automation Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA).

Kate Hildenbrandt works for exida as a Product Manager, responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for exSILentia software and associated products as well as development of customer accounts and outbound marketing activities. She is also focused on providing training and application support to new and existing customers utilizing exSILentia®. She graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. She has over 8 years of professional experience in the gases and chemicals industry, with roles in Process Safety, Project Management, Plant Process Engineering and Project Development.

Ted Stewart is a Program Development & Compliance Manager with exida. Previously working for Lockheed Martin and Harris corporation, he developed 10+ years of expertise in safety and high availability automations systems, manufacturing and lean process improvement.

Ted is located at the U.S. corporate office (Sellersville, PA) and focuses his efforts around business relations and new program development within functional safety and Industrial Automation Control System (IACS) cybersecurity.

Casimir-Alvin Musa is a safety engineer at exida who supports the company’s functional safety, alarm management, and cybersecurity services. He is also a part of exida’s SILAlarm software development team. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas at Tyler.

Dr. O’Brien is a Senior Safety Engineer who performs System FMEAs, Electrical FMEAs, and Electrical FMEDAs for exida Certification. She also performs Hardware and Software certification assessments. Molly is part of a team of experts at exida who are developing a certification scheme for Safety Functions that include Machine Learning. Molly defended her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, and her doctoral thesis focuses on predicting Neural Network performance in novel operating domains. She has research experience in perception, robotics, and medical imaging. Molly received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in French and Francophone Studies from Pennsylvania State University.

Denise Chastain Knight P.E., CFSE, CCPSC has 31 years’ experience in engineering design, process improvements, process risk analysis and safety instrumented system implementation. Her recent responsibilities included coordination of risk management, process safety management, combustible dust and functional safety programs for a global consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management firm. She has been technical lead for IEC 615811 compliance projects in the oil& gas, chemical and power industries for clients in multiple countries. Denise holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and is an inductee of the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni. She was voted Georgia’s Young Engineer of the Year in 1994, past chair of the NCEES PE Chemical Engineering Exam Development Committee, chaired the AIChE Body of Knowledge Development Team, and an AIChE Fellow. Denise represents exida on the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) Technical Steering Committee.

Jim Jenkins, CFSE, is a Senior Functional Safety Engineer at exida Consulting, LLC. He has 31 years’ experience in the Process Industry with 26 years as an end user and 5 years in Functional Safety consulting. His end user experience consisted of 3 years in Instrumentation Maintenance, 16 years in Process Control and 7 years as an Instrumentation Reliability Engineer. Jim currently helps end users with analysis, design, implementation, validation, operations and maintenance of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). He developed and teaches “Applying IEC 61511 to Burner Management Systems (BMS)”. He also has expertise providing Alarm Management services in creating an Alarm Philosophy, Alarm Rationalization and training end users. Jim is also an ISA84 Safety Instrumented Systems Expert, a member of ISA-84 committee (Functional Safety) and ISA-18 committee (Alarm Management).

John Grebe has over 26 years of experience in industrial and medical instrumentation. He has a wide breadth of experience encompassing New Product Development (both hardware and software), Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing Test, Quality Control, Process Definition, Process Improvement, Field Service and Customer Support and specializes in services and products to assist companies in cost effective development of safety-related products. He was formerly the Senior Director of Product Development for a firm creating decision support software for the Chemical Process Industries. Previous experience also includes over 10 years with a North American firm in the process control industry holding a variety of positions including Director of Systems Engineering, which he founded, and Director of Embedded Products. As an engineer his areas of expertise include functional safety, low-level analog signal acquisition, microprocessors and software architecture. Additional industry experience includes flow meter design for an industry leader. He holds nine U.S. patents on products in the process control industry. Mr. Grebe has taught for the ISA professional courses on safety and reliability. He also teaches topics in Engineering Management as an Adjunct Instructor for Drexel University’s Masters Program in Engineering Management. Mr. Grebe has a BSEE and a MSEE from Drexel University and a MBA from Villanova University.

Glenn Wightman leads the Office of Project Management at exida and serves as the Deputy Quality Manager. A Chemical Engineering graduate from Bucknell University with an MBA from Lehigh University, Glenn is a licensed Professional Engineer and Project Management Professional with over 30 years of experience in engineering and information technology roles at Lucent Technologies / Nokia.

Based in the Sellersville, PA USA office, Mr. Wightman supports the exida management team with the planning and execution of internal process and quality initiatives and provides project management expertise to drive the completion of major customer projects.

Rudolf P. Chalupa has over 30 years of experience in electronic design, software development, and reliability analysis. He has a B.S., in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and is a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE).

Dave has over 30 years of experience in systems and product development in the industrial controls, telecommunications and medical device industries. He currently provides independent evaluation, technical training and support to industrial automation vendors in the areas of functional safety, reliability and industrial automation security. He is responsible for product assessments and certifications for functional safety standards including IEC 61508, ISO 26262, EN 50128 and API 580. As part of this work, he also performs gap analysis, software criticality analysis, and proven-in-use analysis.

Dave has a wide breadth of knowledge in all phases of product development, with a strong focus on software. He has experience in software development, system testing, quality assurance, UML modeling, communications protocol design, automated software testing, configuration management, process development and process improvement. He led a team in the development of an advanced configuration software application which provides a sophisticated interface to configure and monitor distributed control systems, fully supporting IEC 61131-3 configuration languages.

Dave holds an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Villanova University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University.

Mr. De Los Santos has over 13 years of professional experience on the Oil & Gas business on safety process & control. As a Senior Safety Engineer at exida, he is responsible for performing process hazard analysis (HAZOP), PHA, SIL Selection, Safety Requirements Specification creation, SIL verification, Safety System installation verification, Project administration, and supports end user training. Mr. De Los Santos has previously worked in Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Algeria by Lasmo and ENI Oil company as a Safety Process Control Engineer in the project and operations department. He supported and led the construction, commissioning, and start-up of more than 12 facilities in the automation, safety process control, and project discipline.

He has a bachelor degree from the Bicentenaria de Aragua university (Venezuela) like System Engineer and he has completed a Master degree on Project Manager of the Catolica Andres Bello university (Venezuela). On parallel looking for the PMI (Project Management Institute) Certification. He is also Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) & ISA Member.

Peter Mueller has over 15 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. After graduating in 1992 from the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim, he began working for TUV Südwest where he developed the measurement and control software for the automated EMC test equipment. During this time, Mueller started to work in the field of functional safety, electrical safety and environmental testing at TUV Südwest. He was qualified as ISO 9000 auditor. In 1997, after the merge of TUV Südwest and TUV Bayern to TUV Süddeutschland , he moved to the department IQSE, the Institute for Quality and Safety in Electronics, as a Senior Project Manager. In the beginning of 2000, r Mueller became Department Manager at IQSE with the responsibility of the German market. In late 2000, he overtook the worldwide responsibility. In 2001, Mueller overtook in addition the technical leadership of the department for electronic systems and devices in the automotive section of TUV Süddeutschland. In 2002, he joined exida GmbH in Germany, and in 2007 he was named as an exida partner.

As a Principal Functional Safety Consultant, he is working in the team of technology specialists at exida.com GmbH and consults leading companies to implement functional safety and cybersecurity related systems primarily in Automotive but in the Process Industry too. This includes interpretation and application of the relevant standards, development of concepts, trainings, audits, and assessments. He started his career at Deutsche Telekom and after several years working in the IT area he started to study Electronics at the University of Wuppertal. After graduating from University with a Dipl.-Ing., Mr. Nolte started to work for Coroplast GmbH & Co KG. where he was responsible for the development of a dissipative cable type for vehicle safety applications.

In 2005 he joined ABB Automation Products and developed hardware, but mainly firmware as well as software for Process Industry Transmitters. Besides the project leadership for an international software team, in 2010 he has been nominated as Software Functional Safety responsible within the local Electronics Development department. He was part of the tasks force related to the Stuxnet computer worm inside the ABB department responsible for the Flow Transmitters and continued to increase the cybersecurity knowledge during the following years. In 2012 Mr. Nolte joined exida.com. Since 2014 he is responsible for the development and organization of trainings related to functional safety at exida.com GmbH

Mr. Serwa has over 10 years of experience and extensive knowledge in the safety and reliability field. He has an extensive experience in system and software specification, design and implementation and its verification. He has also an extensive experience in AUTOSAR, from the side of its design, its implementation and usage.

After graduating from INSA Lyon as industrial engineer, Mr. Serwa began working at the Institute of Telematics of University of Karlsruhe and then Institute of Mathematics as a researcher, while completing another master degree at the University of Karlsruhe as computer scientist. In 2005, he joined exida working as a safety expert, where he participated in several projects in the domain of automotive, automation, process industry and nuclear. Since 2005 he has been also an active member in AUTOSAR consortium on behalf of BMW.

Mr. Desmond has over 27 years’ professional experience in Chemical, Petro-Chemical, Oil & Gas, Subsea, Metals and Mining, Power Utilities, Railway and Machinery Industries. He is the Managing Director and Senior Safety Engineer at exida Asia Pacific. Currently he is involved in alarm management, functional safety and cyber security projects (IEC 62682, IEC 61508, IEC 61511, IEC 62443) and also acts as evaluating assessor on IEC 61508 and IEC 62443 certification projects.

Familiar with methodology like HAZOP, Alarm Management Studies, FMEA, FMEDA, FTA, Software Software SCA/HAZOP and HAZOP, LOPA, SIL classification, SRS development, SIL verification, SIS validation, Functional Safety and Security Assessment, Functional Safety Management development.

He is an experienced trainer in Alarm Management, IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 Functional Safety and IACS Cybersecurity. Desmond has a Bachelor Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University and Executive Diploma in Directorship, from Singapore Management University. He is a Certified Functional Safety Expert, CFSE, exida Cybersecurity Practitioner, CSP and IRCA Certified ISO27001:2013 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) Lead Auditor / Implementer. Desmond is also ISA standard committee member of ISA18, ISA84, ISA96 & ISA99. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Senior Member, National Fire Protection Association Member.

Dr. Scharpf has over 30 years of professional experience and is widely recognized as an expert in process and machine safety, efficiency analysis and optimisation. He has led many safety lifecycle projects in chemical processing, energy and machine automation applications. He has developed and teaches several of the exida functional safety engineering courses and is the technical lead for the consulting business in Australasia. He has published numerous reviewed journal articles as well as leading textbooks on SIL target selection, LOPA, risk analysis, and HAZOP. He developed several of the cryogenic gas processing, combustion, and separation techniques currently used for hydrogen, synthesis gas, and power generation. He was formerly a Process Chemical Engineer with a Fortune 200 gas and chemical processing company.

His principal work responsibilities have included research and development, project execution, and operations / manufacturing efficiency, safety, and reliability improvements in the bulk gas and specialty chemicals industry. He previously conducted research and development for a major international oil production and processing corporation. He also teaches several process, energy, and safety related courses at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He has authored more than 15US and international patents. Dr. Scharpf has a B.Ch.E. from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, both in the United States.

Sam Holden, CFSE is the Operations Manager & Principal Safety Engineer for exida Australia. He has over 20 years of industrial experience in functional safety from both a theoretical as well as a practical background. Mr. Holden is an experienced EC&I and Functional Safety Engineer with industrial experience in specification, design, commissioning, modification, and maintenance on instrument and control systems. He has worked many projects within the petrochemical, refinery, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and chemical industry.

Mr. Holden previously worked for DNV GL as a Subject Matter Expert and Functional Safety focal point within Australia and South East Asia. Mr. Holden is a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE). He is the Australian representative for the IEC 61511 committee and the chair of IT-006 (TC65 mirror committee) for Standards Australia. Mr. Holden graduated from Blackburn College, in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Sudhir Pai is a CFSE and CACS with over 32 years of experience with the Controls and Instrumentation Industry in India. He has an Instrumentation engineering degree from Bangalore Institute of Technology and done a Corporate Management program from IMD Lausanne. In 2019 he received a Doctorate in Professional Entrepreneurship from European Continental University.

Dr. Sudhir Pai has joined exida from Metso Automation where he served as Country Head of Metso Automation India for 15 years. He has also worked with international organizations including Uhde India Ltd., Chemtex Engineering Ltd., Tata Honeywell and Foxboro.

Dr. Sudhir Pai is operating from Mumbai and is focused on spreading awareness on Functional Safety and cybersecurity across relevant Industries in India.

Mr. Sonoda has over 30 years of professional experience. He is recognized as an expert in functional safety equipment certification, instrumentation design, new product development and product management/marketing. He was formerly Digital Solution Group Manager, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, a manufacturer of DCS, Safety PLC and instrumentation. His principle work responsibilities included strategic planning, global market analysis, business management and product certification. Mr. Sonoda previously held positions in research and development including hardware design and development and engineering project management. He has published papers and magazine articles on functional safety.

Mr. Gao has about 20 years’ experience in functional safety, cybersecurity, automation control system and embedded software in different areas, including Industrie 4.0, robotics & AGV, machinery safety and process industry. He is currently the director and senior safety engineer at exida Asia Pacific, involved in functional safety and IACS cybersecurity (IEC 61508, IEC 61511, IEC 62443, ISO 13849) and acts as evaluation assessor on IEC 61508 and IEC 62443 certification projects. He has in-depth knowledge in FMEA, FMEDA, SCA/HAZOP, Functional Safety Assessment and training.

Jack is a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) and a Certified Automation Cybersecurity Expert (CACE). He has published an IEEE paper on drone application, won Innovation Award from Rockwell Automation and award from Agilent Technologies. He completed his Master and Bachelor’s Degree in NTU Singapore with a 1st Class Honor after he was awarded scholarship from Singapore government.

Mr. Chung has over 20 years’ of experience in the specification, design, engineering, commissioning and project management for the implementation of industrial control and safety systems for regional and multinational companies in the petrochemical, refinery, oil and gas, and chemical industries. He is currently the senior safety consultant at exida Asia Pacific, as the chairman and assessor in alarm management, functional safety and IACS cybersecurity (IEC 62682, IEC 61511, IEC 62443) projects.

Mr. Chung has a Mechanical Engineering Degree from National University of Singapore. He is also certified and competent in providing lifecycle consultancy and assessment services in accordance with functional safety (IEC-61511), cyber security (IEC-62443) and alarm management (IEC-62682 / ISA-18.2) standards.

Ms. Cecilia has more than 9 years of experience and knowledge in the process safety field. She is heavily involved in SIL selection, SIL verification and alarm rationalization tasks as a scribe. Ms. Cecilia is a Certified Functional Safety Practitioner since 2019. She is also responsible for coordinating all trainings as well as managing the Quality Management system of exida Asia Pacific.

David Fournier has over 35 years’ design analysis, control system product and application, and safety system experience in the nuclear industry, primarily in Canada but also in the U.S. and overseas. Because of his use of 61508 concepts in nuclear applications, Mr. Fournier joined exida as partner after retiring from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, where he had been Principal Engineer (I&C), and company expert in real-time system design, categorisation (nuclear equivalent of SIL selection) and project manager for various large software projects. Mr. Fournier was a key design leader for control and safety systems currently operating in more than 12 CANDU plants, 5 BWRs and 4 PWRs.

Since joining exida, he has coached manufacturers to develop programs and products to readiness for certification, and participated in numerous SIL determinations and SIL verifications per 61508/61511.

Alejandro Esparza has over 18 years of experience in process instrumentation, control and automation, safety instrumented systems design and project execution. In his current role, he supports exida’s end-user services for the process industry, like hazard & risk analysis, SIL selection, SIL verification and SIS validation; he also gives training for exida. He previously worked for Foxboro & Moore Products. He is a graduate of La Salle University in Electro-Mechanical Engineering. He is a Certified Functional Safety Expert.

Mr. van der Merwe has over twenty-five years of professional experience. For the past eighteen years he has been involved in consulting, engineering design and management of safety related systems for various industry sectors, including oil & gas, nuclear, petrochemical and pharmaceutical. Currently he is a Senior Safety Engineer with exida South Africa, where he provides safety lifecycle consulting services based on the IEC functional safety standards, mainly within the sub-Saharan African and Middle East regions. Formerly he was lead engineer for one of the major instrumented protection systems for the PBMR nuclear project and following this he led consulting engineering teams in the risk analysis, design, procurement, development, testing and validation of HIPPS systems for the major gas distribution lines from Mozambique to clients within Southern Africa. In this capacity he provided specialized technical leadership for process hazard analysis and functional safety design.

Mr. Greg Chantler has over 20 years of professional experience. For the past 12 years he has been involved in consulting and engineering design of safety related systems within the process industry. Formerly a lead engineer of the Safety Management Systems group within Honeywell South Africa, he was responsible for the application of the FSC Safety Shutdown systems in a suite of typical mainstream industries (Refining, Pulp and Paper etc) where they are used to safeguard potentially hazardous processes. Subsequently, he worked for a company that provides advanced control solutions to the industry, where his duties made him responsible for the entire project lifecycle of safety systems. He was also actively involved in the design of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. As an exida employee, he provides consulting services based on the IEC functional safety standards mainly within the Southern African region. For the past 15 year has implemented and maintained secure office IT network at various companies.