HIMA, the leading provider of smart safety solutions for industrial applications, launches the first ever HIMA Users Conference Asia Pacific 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand, from October 24 to 25, 2018, at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers (Bangrak, Bangkok).
The inaugural Users Conference provides deep industry insights on topics such as Cybersecurity, Industrial Safety, and trends of the Oil & Gas Industry in Asia Pacific. Among the top speakers are Steffen Philipp, Managing Partner, HIMA, Sankar Ramakrishnan, CEO, Taweelarp Pornkul, VP, PTT Energy Solutions, and Bob Gill, GM South East Asia, ARC Advisory Group.
"Safecurity" for the Industrial Sector
While industrial facilities and infrastructures are adept and adequate just by being functionally safe, the field has transformed to require both safety and security today.
"Safecurity" is a natural evolution of HIMA's laser focus on bringing Smart Safety and Security together for industrial applications. While the world defends and protects against hackers in e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, government and other sectors, the industrial sector is often neglected in terms of cybersecurity.
HIMA has pioneered the convergence of managing both safety and security together, so that plants and infrastructures will always work well under pressure, and will not succumb to cyberattacks. Already, nine out of ten of the biggest gas companies and ten out of ten of the largest oil companies in the world rely on HIMA technologies. Standards are everything, and HIMA covers the world's highest safety standards, ensuring that customers will comply with regulatory requirements and be ready for the future.
Leading analyst group Frost & Sullivan recognized HIMA in June 2018, with the "Asia Pacific Process Safety System Growth Excellence Leadership Award", a gratifying recognition for 110 years of excellence at HIMA.
Inaugural entry to Thailand with knowledge platform
"Thailand hosts one of the region's most developed and advanced oil and gas and industrial chemicals markets, and has practitioners from the Kingdom and the region thirsting for practical and actionable knowledge. Industrial facilities and critical infrastructures are also becoming incredibly complex, with the advent of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). With the encroachment of cybersecurity and legal compliance into the industrial space, there is now a critical need to not only ensure industrial plants and critical infrastructures work around the clock without fail, but also ensure hackers are kept at bay from crippling or holding at ransom these plants and infrastructures," says Friedhelm Best, Vice President, Asia Pacific, HIMA. "Having installed more than 35,000 TÜV-certified safety systems worldwide over the last 45 years, we have pioneered the actionable systems philosophy of 'Safecurity', where Safety and Security are tightly intertwined to provide fail-safe systems at plants and infrastructures around the world. At the Users Conference 2018 in Bangkok, we have gathered a panel of practitioner-speakers to ensure that our colleagues from diverse industrial fields come together to learn and share together the mission-critical knowledge and actionable insights of 'Safecurity'." With an estimated 70% of attendees coming from Thailand's major oil and gas industries, practitioners and experts alike are converging at the inaugural HIMA Users Conference Asia Pacific 2018 to find practical solutions to specific challenges to the industry, especially with fast changing processes and value chains, including safety and cybersecurity. With bottom lines and profits becoming razor-thin especially against volatile resource pricing and cross-border tussles worldwide, there is a greater need to find better ways to profitability and sustainability. The Users Conference brings together the best minds to define better profitability and sustainability scenarios and cases. It is also the best singular platform to network with new colleagues and partners. Conference Highlights
HIMA Users Conference Asia Pacific 2018 features some of these mission-critical and actionable insights from these speakers:
1. October 24 (Wed)
- 0915 hours
Opening Address: A New Era in Process Safety
Steffen Phillip, Owner & Managing Partner, HIMA
- 0930 hours
Keynote: Are Professional Engineers ready for the New Industry Norm?
Taweelarp Pornkul, VP, PTT Energy Solutions
- 1100 hours
Functional Safety in today's Connected World
Dr. Alexander Horch, VP R&D & Product Management, HIMA
- 1330 hours
Safety Becomes Smart
Stefan Basenach, Head of Business Segment Process, HIMA
- 1530 hours
Process Safety Systems - Market Trends & Strategies
Bob Gill, ARC Advisory Group
2. October 25 (Thurs)
- 0830 hours
Live Hacking demo of how Industrial systems and Industrial IoT can be hacked.
Thomas Querk, Redcon Security Advisors
- 0900 hours
Keynote: How Assets manage Cybersecurity and its Effectiveness
Sharul A Rashid, Principal Engineer, Instruments & Controls, Petronas
- 1030 hours
Holistic Approach for a Secure Last Line of Defense
Sujith Pannikar, Director Consulting APAC, HIMA
3. October 25 - Breakout sessions
- CapEx Reduction for more Profitable plants
- Asset Life Studies of Safety Systems
- Yield improvements for Oil & Gas industries
- Control and Protection of Compressors and Turbomachinery
- Control and Protection of Furnaces and Boilers
- Control and Protection of Pipelines, and Leak Detection
- High-Integrity Pressure Protection Systems (HIPPS)
For more details on the HIMA Users Conference Asia Pacific 2018, visit https://uc-apac.hima.com/en/users-conference/.
About HIMA
The HIMA Group is the world's leading independent provider of smart safety solutions for industrial applications. With more than 35,000 installed TÜV-certified safety systems worldwide, HIMA qualifies as the technology leader in this sector. Its expert engineers develop customized solutions that help increase safety, cyber security and profitability of plants and factories in the digital age. For over 45 years, HIMA has been a trusted partner to the world's largest oil, gas, chemical, and energy-producing companies. These rely on HIMA solutions, services and consultancy for uninterrupted plant operation and protection of assets, people and the environment. HIMA's offering includes smart safety solutions that help increase safety and uptime by turning data into business-relevant information. HIMA also provides comprehensive solutions for the efficient control and monitoring of turbomachinery (TMC), burners and boilers (BMC) and pipelines (PMC). In the global rail industry, HIMA's CENELEC-certified SIL4 COTS safety controllers are leading the way to increased safety, security and profitability. Founded in 1908, the family-owned company operates from over 50 locations worldwide with its headquarters in Bruehl, Germany. With a workforce of approximately 800 employees, HIMA generated a turnover of EUR123 million in 2017. For more information, please visit:www.hima.com
Biographical Briefs
Steffen Philipp, Owner & Managing Partner, HIMA
Steffen Philipp is HIMA's Managing Partner and heads the family-owned enterprise in its fourth generation. With an openness to the new and a knack for solid economic action, Steffen Philipp, art and jazz enthusiast, banker, and economist transformed HIMA into the world's leading enterprise for safety technology. And today, he charts the company's strategic course into the digital age.
Sankar Ramakrishnan, CEO, HIMA
Sankar Ramakrishnan has been CEO of the HIMA Group since 2013. He places people at the center of the enterprise culture – not in spite of HIMA's status as a leading technology enterprise, but because of it. Sankar has more than 30 years of extensive industry experience and can draw upon his international background and intercultural competence from professional positions in America, Asia and Europe. Before joining HIMA, he worked as Vice President Product Management and Head of Rail Automation India at Siemens.
Dr. Alexander Horch, Vice President, R&D & Product Management, HIMA
Since April 2016, Dr. Alexander Horch is Vice President Research, Development & Product Management at HIMA. Before he worked as Principal Scientist at ABB Corporate Research in Germany with a focus on process plant optimization and plant asset management. Between 2007 and 2016 he held different management roles in the areas of process control systems and automation of electrical grids, smart grids, manufacturing plants, robotics as well as Industrial Internet (Industrie 4.0) for ABB Germany and ABB Switzerland. Dr. Horch is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Automation Professional (CAP) of the ISA. His R&D work was complemented by publications and seminars, regular lectures at university of Stuttgart and ETH Zuerich as well as work for some standardization organizations.
Friedhelm Best, Vice President, Asia Pacific, HIMA
Friedhelm Best is Vice President of the Asia Pacific Region at HIMA. He previously worked as Sales Director for Europe and Africa at HIMA and Director of Global Key Account Management Industry in the Electrical Sector of Eaton Corporation. Friedhelm began his career as a sales engineer at HARTING in Germany, and was subsequently key account manager for Automotive Production. He earned degrees in precision engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Wilhelmshaven and in industrial engineering and management. Friedhelm Best also is a certified Functional Safety Engineer.