Speaker Bios
Justin Riemer
Assistant Deputy Minister
Alberta Finance & Enterprise
Alberta’s Competitive Performance: Highlights of the Alberta Competitiveness Council’s Benchmarking Report
Justin and his team provide leadership to the Premier’s Competitiveness Initiative which was established by the Alberta Competitiveness Act of 2010. Under this initiative Alberta’s competitive position was reviewed in comparison to 14 provincial and international jurisdictions and across 60 economic indicators. The Report on Competiveness – Alberta 2010 includes a preliminary overview of the four sectors under review this year: agriculture (grains and oil seeds), financial services, petrochemicals/chemicals and of special importance to WMTS attendees – manufacturing.
www.finance.alberta.ca
Gary Loblick
Consultant and Senior Executive Coach
The Winslow Group
Getting Started with Lean: Fundamentals, Flow, & 5S
Gary is a Consultant and Senior Executive Coach specializing in Process Innovation, with unique skills in operational implementation of transformation, revitalization, and turnaround programs. Spending the majority of his 30 year career as an owner, President/CEO, or Senior Manager in large and small manufacturing-based industries, he has assisted with corporate expansions, manufacturing and operations improvements, and re-vitalized dying companies or divisions. President and General Manager, Gary has successfully launched lean initiatives in a number of organizations over his career.
www.winslowgroup.ca/globlick.htm
George Klassen
Corporate Risk Manager
Supreme Group
Risk and Reward
George is the Corporate Risk Manager for Supreme Group, a structural steel fabrication and construction company based in Edmonton with facilities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, and Oregon. He’s active with the local chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, and has spoken at risk management conferences.
Brian Benkendorf
Customer Service Manager
Hi-Tech Seals
Elastomers & Sealing 101
Brian Benkendorf was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. With a keen interest in math and physics, he pursued a career in Engineering and started at Hi-Tech Seals in 2000, a company that specializes in seals and service with the majority of products being rubber (elastomers) and plastics. In 2006, Brian furthered his academic growth at SKF Seal School in Utah and at NAIT becoming very well versed in materials and how they relate to sealing. With Brian’s guidance, Hi-Tech Seals has become an engineering focused company, striving to be better at finding sealing solutions for their customers. They now do custom seal design with their clients and also offer Failure Analysis to customers who rely on their expertise to determine why their parts are failing and what they can do to improve the performance in their application.
www.hitechseals.com/
Said Ammar
E.I.T., Application Engineer
Hi-Tech Seals
Elastomers & Sealing 101
Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Said Ammar graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSC in Chemical Engineering and began his career as an Engineer with Hi Tech Seals in 2006. At Hi-Tech Seals Said furthered his education in elastomer technology by completing courses offered by the American Chemical Society (Rubber Division) and completing an SKF Polyseal traning course. Said’s current role includes elastomer research as it relates to the seal industry and writing failure analysis reports, training new staff members and providing technical support and assistance to customers and staff in regards to sealing solutions. Said also writes internal educational articles explaining sealing properties such as: Compression Set testing, Low temperature properties, volume swell, hardness etc.
www.hitechseals.com
Chris Eland, CMC
Director of Management Consulting
Sierra Systems Inc.
Oil Sands Supply Chain Opportunity Analysis
Chris Eland is a Director of Management Consulting at Sierra Systems Inc. and leads the Supply Chain and Operation Services Group. Chris has over 25 years experience in Supply Chain management delivering solutions and results to a diverse range of Industries. For the last 10 years his primary focus has been on assisting clients in working toward establishing leading practices in Warehousing and Logistics, Procurement, and Asset Management. Prior to joining Sierra, he held senior executive positions in Retail, Marketing and Manufacturing companies and senior consulting positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and ProcureTask Management Inc. Chris is a Certified Management Consultant.
www.sierrasystems.com/
