PEP Hosts Industrial Automation and Technology Seminar

Bradley N. Ojard, P.E. was born in Duluth, Minnesota on May 4, 1957. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1981. He became registered Professional Engineer from the state of Minnesota in 1986 and earned his Master of Business Administration degree from University of Minnesota in 1989. In 1981, he began his career with U. S. Steel at the Minnesota Ore Operations in Mountain Iron, Minnesota, serving in numerous engineering and maintenance capacities. In 1986, Mr. Ojard transferred to U. S. Steel’s marine transportation subsidiary USS Great Lakes Fleet in Duluth, Minnesota. There, he served in various operational, commercial and engineering capacities. In 1997, Mr. Ojard was transferred to Mobile, Alabama to play a major role in the management of Warrior & Gulf Navigation company and it’s subsidiary Mobile River Terminal, culminating in being named Senior Director Operations with operational responsibilities expanded to include Birmingham Southern Railroad and the Fairfield Southern Company. Mr. Ojard joined the Alabama State Port Authority in 2007 as the Vice President Operations. Operation responsibilities include the McDuffie Coal Terminal, the Bulk Materials Handling Plant, Terminal Railroad and the Pinto Island Slab Handling Terminal. Mr. Ojard serves on the Board of directors of the Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway Association, as well as numerous professional organizations.

Michael B. Tew founded SJ&L Civil Contractors, Inc. in 1978 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. A native of Mobile, Michael began his career working in the family plumbing business; starting his own company, SJ&L Civil Contractors, Inc. at the age of 25. Over the past 39 years, he has experienced and performed every facet of the business as it has grown from a small start-up company to its current present day capacity. Michael remains very active in the daily operations of the firm.

Buddy Averett is currently the Smart Construction Manager for Tractor and Equipment Company TEC). Buddy’s 27 year career with TEC has included many different roles, including Shop Tech, Field Technician and Service Management. In 2013, Buddy assumed the position of Technology Manager for the intelligent machine control operations covering Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. As demand has increased, and the Smart Construction division expanded, Buddy was recently named the Smart Construction Manager of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Matthew Burton, P.E. is the Director of Automation Technology and a founding member of Hargrove Controls + Automation, LLC. Matthew has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Louisville (1993), and has been a board licensed Professional Engineer in Control Systems since 2002 in Alabama. He also holds state professional licensure in Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alaska.

Matthew started out working for Louisville Gas and Electric as a co-op in college, and then later as an Information Technology Engineer designing and implementing wide and local area IP networks. After moving to Sony in Nashville, TN, and then Evonik in Theodore, AL, he entered the contract controls systems industry with Precision Engineering, Inc. (PEI) in Mobile, AL. After a few years at PEI and a company restructuring, Matthew and others left to start Advanced Control Engineering, LLC in 2000. ACE merged with ENGlobal in 2008, and in 2010 Matthew joined Rockwell Automation as a Process Control Systems consultant. In 2012 he then joined Hargrove, and in January 2013 was part of starting Hargrove Controls + Automation, LLC. Hargrove C+A now has 70 control systems engineers and specialists spread across 8 of the 10 Hargrove offices.

Matthew is an avid volunteer in the community. From 2006 to 2012 he was a member of the North Baldwin Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team and worked in roles as a Public Safety Diver, Search and Rescue Technician, and as the Public Information Officer. During the same time Matthew also operated in searches with KlassKids Foundation, PANSAR K9 search team and helped train with his wife their K9 Zeta who was a certified NASAR human remains detection dog. Matthew has been a reserve law enforcement officer since 2008, and currently mentors at Gilliard Elementary School in Mobile, AL with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Mike Wilson is the Engineering Manager at BASF in McIntosh, AL where he has worked for the past 35 years in both Engineering and Maintenance along with other special assignments.  This includes a 3-year role as Engineering Manager at the BASF site in Lampertheim, Germany.  He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama.  Mike is a native of Mobile and is married with 2 daughters and likes to fish and play golf.  He is on the Board of Directors of Jubilee BEST Robotics and helps organize the annual competition that introduces students through High School to the Engineering, Science and Technical fields as part of workforce development.

Claudia has 10 years of experience in sales and marketing and 3 years of experience in engineering design as an Associate Engineer. She received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a minor in Business Marketing from the University of South Alabama. She has three years of experience as an Associate Engineer.

During her time at GSE, Ms. Bjork has gained experience in a broad range of commercial, government, and heavy industrial projects. Additionally, she overhauled all marketing material for GSE, which includes website, brochures and various other marketing materials.

Prior to joining GSE, Ms. Bjork worked for a major transportation firm where she gained experience in roadway and pavement design, stormwater collection, signal warranting, and bridge hydraulic analysis and worked for a fortune 100 company where she gained valuable sales and business development experience.

Matthew has over 17 years of experience with a portfolio ranging from the standard lot survey to layout of multi-billion dollar industrial facilities. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Geomatics from Troy University in August 2004.

His experience includes the surveying, 3D laser scanning, and field engineering of various and diverse range of governmental, commercial, and residential facilities. Matthew has performed boundary, topographic, construction, control, As-Built, Easement, Elevation Certificate, Laser Scanning, Volume and ALTA/ACSM Surveys to aid in construction and document the location of multiple facilities.

As Safety Manager, Matthew’s duties involve a multitude of tasks, including safety handbook modifications, enforcing client safety requirements, ensuring all GSE personnel are properly trained when accessing a facility, etc. He is certified to the following: manlift operation, competent fall protection, MSHA, and OSHA 30.

Alex is the vice-president of Prism Systems and has over thirty-five years of experience in industrial manufacturing in the fields of software and control systems design and implementation. Prior to joining Prism Systems, a significant portion of this experience was gained with a large engineering consulting firm specializing in communications, process control, simulation, systems engineering and military command and control projects within the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

In his twenty-two years as a member of the Prism Systems’ team, Alex has completed many large factory automation projects. These projects cover the spectrum of low-level equipment control systems employing programmable logic controllers and distributed control systems to fully integrated CIM projects consisting of programmable controllers, operator interface systems and mill-wide information and quality assurance systems. This experience has been gained in several industry segments including Chemical Manufacturing, Pulp & Paper, Fiber Production, and Telecom.

Alex has led the IOT implementation of ‘Smart’ vending and Prism Systems ‘Cool’ partnership with the cellphone industry.

Todd Hassel is the Business Development Manager for Prism Systems, Inc., a Mobile, Alabama based systems integration firm. Prism Systems provides specialty engineering services in Automation and Controls programming and Software Development services to Fortune 500 manufacturing companies worldwide.

Todd graduated from The Ohio State University in 1995 with a Bachelors of Science Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation, Todd joined Armstrong World Industries Central Engineering group. Shortly thereafter, Todd was selected for inclusion in Armstrong’s technical management training program. Three states and three years later and he landed in Alabama at the former Armstrong Ceilings plant on Baker Street here in Mobile. Todd implemented process control strategies in successive operations assignments at the Mobile plant in addition to earning a patent for development of a cam feeder device for manufacturing ceiling tile. The process control improvements and data collection and reporting efforts positioned the Mobile plant as the low cost producer in the US.

In 2001, Todd joined Prism Systems, and in 2003 graduated from the University of South Alabama with his MBA. For the last 16 years, Todd has helped guide Prism Systems partnerships with Fortune 500 manufacturing. Technology is changing manufacturing for the better. There is much work yet to be done.

Christopher Williams is an associate in the firm’s commercial litigation section. Chris has a diverse litigation practice that includes construction, business and toxic tort, cybersecurity, privacy, environmental, and real property litigation. Chris has defended businesses in premises liability, transportation, personal injury, fraud, and other torts. Finally, Chris has experience defending municipalities and other governmental entities, as well as complex and class action litigation. He is licensed to practice law in Alabama and Florida.

He grew up in Mobile, attending McGill-Toolen Catholic High School and Spring Hill College. Chris was the SGA Senior Class President at Spring Hill, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English. He received his J.D., magna cum laude from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, where he was on Law Review and competed in two national trial advocacy competitions. He is a member of the Order of Barristers, and was named a Crowe Scholar upon graduation from Loyola.

Chris lives on the Eastern Shore with his wife, Creagh, who is a registered nurse, and sons Bennett and Cullen. He is an active participant in the South Alabama Volunteer Lawyers Program, volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mobile, and is a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Fairhope.

As the Wilkins Miller IT director, Andy Odle, has extensive IT support knowledge and over 30 years of experience. With a degree in technology from Southeast College of Technology in Mobile, he specializes in network design and management.

Andy is a leader for the Boy Scouts of Mobile and enjoys fishing, golfing and working with the Boy Scouts of America.