2024 Advisory Board

David A. Barned brings more than 30 years of industry experience in metalworking fluids with Master Fluid Solutions (formerly Master Chemical Corporation). Over his career, he has held global roles in Marketing, Operations, and Supply Chain.  Currently, as SVP & General Manager, David currently leads Master Fluid Solutions’ North American Business Unit.

David earned a BS at the State University of New York at Geneseo and completed his MBA at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas.  He is also active in advancing the metalworking industry, having served as Vice-Chairman of the Asian Lubricants Industry Association (ALIA), while also participating in the Economics & Statistics committee at the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT).

• • 2023–Heute:
    • Director OEM Key Accounts
    • Fuchs Lubricants Co. (USA)
  • 2021-2022:
    • Sales Manager Automotive Aftermarket
    • Fuchs Lubricants Co. (USA)
  • 2018-2020:
    • Business Development Manager Automotive Aftermarket
    • Fuchs Lubricants Co.
  • 2017
    • Business Development Manager Automotive Aftermarket
    • Fuchs Lubricants Germany
  • 2013-2016
    • Graduate Research Assistant at University of Mannheim
    • PhD in Economics

Rafe Britton is a Lubrication Engineer with 14 years of oil industry experience, split evenly between drilling operations and maintenance and downstream lubricants engineering. During his 12 years at ExxonMobil, Rafe worked across some of the largest, most complex capex projects in the ExxonMobil portfolio, including PNG-LNG and Gorgon-Jansz. He then transitioned into the finished lubricants business, helping industrial customers across the APAC region improve machine reliability.

In 2020 Rafe started the Lubrication Explained YouTube channel, seeking to accomplish the following objectives:

• Help provide freely available, high-quality information about lubricants technology
• Create a community of learning for the lubricants industry
• Connect a wide array of experts with each other

The channel has since expanded into a podcast (Lubrication Experts), an online training business (Lubrication Explained Pro) and led to multiple speaking engagements at industry events.

Rafe now works as an independent consultant across all parts of the lubricants value chain. This includes working with base oil and additive suppliers, lubricants blenders, marketers & distributors, as well as end-users. With connections throughout the industry, if Rafe doesn’t hold the answer to your specific problem, he likely knows someone who does.

In his role as Executive Customer Centricity Manager, Kiko is accountable for the Customer Centricity Transition to put the customer at the heart of everything Infineum does. This is a key component of the broader Infineum strategic transformation initiatives to achieve our mission: create a sustainable future through innovative chemistry.

Kiko started his career with Fiat Lubrificanti, now Petronas Lubricants International, responsible for the technical services and OEM relationships. In his 23 years with Infineum, Kiko has covered many commercial leadership roles spanning from global business management to regional/segment marketing responsibilities. He has also had extensive experience in corporate positions such as enterprise and operational risk management, customer performance and corporate communications. He has been able to expand his professional experience through expatriate assignments in UK and Asia Pacific, returning from Singapore mid-2021.

Throughout his career, he has supported the Additives industry with roles on various industry bodies and associations as an advisor and senior member. He is passionate about golf, tennis and skiing and currently chairs a well know charity association in his home town of Genoa.

Apu has been responsible for pioneering work in this area and held the position of Vice President & Chief Sustainability Officer at Fuchs SE for over 10 years.

Apu now acts as independent Sustainability Expert Adviser and Partner at Fokus Zukunft, providing sustainability consultancy to clients looking to achieve carbon reduction and sustainability objectives across a wide array of applications.

He is also Senator at the Senate of Economy in Germany, where he chairs the Commission Sustainable Economy.

Inga Herrmann has been in the lubricant industry for about 25 years and has a unique perspective from professional and strategic selling, key account management and evaluating sustainability concepts for the lubricant industry.

Inga has a bachelor’s in business administration and holds a degree as certified professional for lubricants technology.

Inga is currently head of the lubricants department at VSI – German Lubricant Manufacturers Association. She worked as industrial key account manager at Shell Deutschland GmbH more than two decades. The last years at Shell she was responsible for evaluating and gaining new business with OEMs and key customers in different segments of industrial lubrication, e.g. Power Generation, General Manufacturing, Auto Components Cement and Steel, etc. with a focus of the grease business.

In 2020 Inga Herrmann joined VSI with a responsibility for establishing a European sustainability standard for the lubricant industry and other lubricant topics like standardization of highest importance for the member companies.

In 2018 Inga joined the Earthwatch Expedition “climate change in northern ecosystems” in Churchill Manitoba in the western Hudson Bay region of Canada as a volunteer where she supported the scientific research at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.

This is a long-term research programme to understand climate-related changes in northern ecosystems. Annual data provides deeper insight into these systems and evidences the signs of global environmental change. Participants help collect data on features of permafrost, soil, tree growth, plant phenology, mammals and birds.

Annie is Director of Global Business Development for Kline’s Energy Management Consulting business, based out of Kline’s London office. Her focus is working with clients involved in the lubricants value chain and associated industries. She also is a key member of Kline’s lubricant value chain advisory and due diligence team.

Prior to joining Kline, Annie ran a global lubricants and greases performance benchmarking and analysis project. This saw her work with numerous global, national and independent lubricant companies advising on operational improvement and cost reduction through advanced data analytics.

Earlier in her career Annie worked as a process engineer primarily working to optimize biogas and energy production from wastewater treatment facilities.

Annie has a BEng (honors) in Chemical and Process Engineering, and a B.Sc (Chemistry), both from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Sanya is the Founder of Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd based in Trinidad & Tobago and operates in the capacity of Managing Director and Senior Consultant. She works with global affiliates in the areas of Reliability and Asset Management to bring these specialty niches to her clients. She holds her BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering, MSc in Engineering Asset Management and is an ICML certified MLE (Machinery Lubrication Engineer) – the first female in the Caribbean. Sanya was also the first female in the world to achieve the ICML Varnish badges (VIM & VPR).

She sits on the Editorial board for Precision Lubrication Magazine and is a digital editor for STLE’s TLT Magazine for 2024.

She is the author and co-author of five books; Lubrication Degradation Mechanisms, A Complete Guide, Lubrication Degradation – Getting into the Root Causes, Machinery Lubrication Technician (MLT) I & II Certification Exam Guide and “Preventing Turbomachinery ‘Cholesterol’ – The Story of Varnish.” She has also been assigned the Series Editor of the book series, “Empowering women in STEM with the first book being launched in Dec 2022, Empowering Women in STEM – Personal Stories and Career Journeys from Around the World. When not writing or managing the business, you can find her supporting projects to advocate for women in STEM.

Troy received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University. He has over 17 years in the automotive industry and has held various roles in Materials Engineering, Process Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Analytical Chemistry, Quality, and Laboratory Management. Troy’s technical expertise is focused on lubricants, surface treatments, and coatings with most of his career being centered around research, development, testing, troubleshooting, and product launches of organic materials used in driveline applications. He currently serves as the Chairmen and ASTM D7452 (L-42) reviewer for the Lubricant Review Institute (LRI) for all SAE J2360 gear oil approvals, and an active member of ASTM, SAE, API, and STLE organizations.

An experienced formulator of metalworking fluids and industrial lubricants. Utilizing those skills to better communicate with customers regarding their requirements for product formulations for specific applications in the lubricants industry.

Erik leads Functional Products Inc., an Ohio-based producer of polymeric and specialty lubricant additives. FPI designs formulations for lubricant blenders based on their key raw materials and technical specs. Then FPI manufactures and supplies tailor-made components that provide optimal performance-to-cost ratio for the customer.

Erik earned his Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and his Doctorate in Polymer Science at the University of Akron. He has previously been a technology scout for Fortune 500 firms and co-managed a small investment group supporting local tech startups in the Northeast Ohio region. Through his time at Functional, Erik has received the NLGI Development Author Award, NLGI Award for Academic Excellence, and the NLGI India PPC Gonsalves Memorial Award for various work on improving the understanding of polymers in lubes and greases.

Ms. Snedegar has been with Vertex Energy since 2014 and offers 23 years of business expertise in leadership and executive management, with 20 years of special focus in the petroleum industry, the procurement and sales of off-specification petroleum hydrocarbons, distillate fuels, non-hazardous chemicals, and transformer oils. Prior to joining Vertex Energy, she was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Heartland Petroleum, LLC. Ms. Snedegar has successfully built and owned several businesses over her 23 years — most notably, she was the Co-founder, owner, and Vice President of Heartland Refinery Group, LLC, which was the United States’ third successfully built Used Motor Oil re-refinery producing GR II + base oils.  Currently, Ms. Snedegar oversees Vertex Energy’s base oils, refined intermediate by-products and the branded products divisions.

Rebecca Warden is a Senior Research Engineer at Chevron Oronite, functioning as a test engineer and OEM liaison for driveline and hydraulics, with a focus on lubricant development for next generation electric vehicles. Prior to Chevron Oronite, Rebecca was the manager of Advanced Drivetrain Lubricants at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), focusing on lubricant evaluations for electrified vehicles, automatic transmissions, axles, tractor hydraulic systems, and gear/hydraulic systems in industrial applications. Rebecca has been active for nearly 14 years in the lubricants industry with over a decade of experience in driveline testing.

Jeffery has over 30 years Global Sales Management experience within these sectors, coupled with extensive experience with Georgia-Pacific Pine Chemicals. He began his lubricant career as a Sales Engineer for D. A. Stuart, selling finished metalworking fluids to the Big Three automakers in the Detroit Metro area. Jeff then transitioned to Quaker Houghton, as a Process Engineer, with heavy focus on drawing and stamping compounds for the Ford Motor Company. After Quaker, he went on to selling vegetable-based metalworking fluid additives.

Dr. Z. George Zhang is Vice President of R&D of Valvoline Global Operations (a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco) based in Lexington, Kentucky, where he leads corporate R&D, long-term strategy development, and product innovations. Dr. Zhang joined Valvoline in 1999 and held various roles within R&D with increasing responsibilities. In 2019-2020, he served an expat assignment as Managing Director of Valvoline China.

Dr. Zhang holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Nanjing University (Nanjing, China), a PhD degree in chemistry from Clarkson University (Potsdam, NY), and an MBA from University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY). He is a STLE certified lubrication specialist (CLS) and certified oil monitoring analyst (OMA I), and a certified Six-Sigma Green Belt.  He is the inventor/co-inventor of 8 US patents, and the author/co-author of 49 peer-reviewed technical publications.