Keynote speakers announced for IChemE safety conference

An international line-up of high profile speakers has been confirmed for IChemE’s Hazards Asia Pacific process safety conference in Malaysia this September.

250 delegates are expected to be in Kuala Lumpur for the inaugural Hazards Asia Pacific event on 27-29 September where keynote speakers from China, Malaysia, the US and the UK will examine lessons learned from process operations around the world.

Dato’ Ir Dr Johari Bin Basri is Director-General of Malaysia’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health. He will provide an overview of process safety related regulation in Malaysia and examine implementation issues, successes and future challenges.

Mohd Tarmizi Munir is Head of the PETRONAS Malaysia Group HSE Division. His keynote presentation will cover the process safety challenge facing PETRONAS, one of the world’s best known oil and gas corporations.

Karon Armstrong is a senior regulatory specialist at 3M Medical in the US and will use her keynote to share views on possible directions of travel for future Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) regulation in the Asia Pacific region.

Paul Haigh is a nuclear industry expert based in the UK and was the IChemE 2011 Council Medallist. Paul will explore how the global nuclear power industry can overcome the negative publicity brought about by the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan, drawing upon his knowledge of earlier events, including the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents to illustrate that modern reactor design embraces the highest standards of inherent safety.

Professor Jinsong Zhao is Director at Tsinghua University’s Process Systems Engineering Institute in China and one of China’s leading experts on chemical process safety. His keynote address will offer an insight into the safety challenges facing China, a country that continues to undergo rapid economic growth.

Ian Travers, Head of the Chemical Industries Strategy Unit at the UK Health & Safety Executive will use his keynote to focus on the role of management and how process safety leadership is an essential requirement in major hazard industries worldwide.

Alongside the keynote presentations, there will be sessions on process safety management, cultural issues & human factors in process safety, learning from experience, inherently safer process design and safety education and training.

IChemE chief executive David Brown says the event looks set to attract an international audience: “We already have delegates registered from Malaysia, Australia, India, Singapore and the US. The event is rapidly shaping up to be one of the biggest process safety events of the year.”

The IChemE Hazards conference is a mainstay on the European process safety calendar. First staged in 1960, the conference took place for the 22nd time earlier this year in Liverpool where more than 450 delegates learned about the latest developments in process safety and environmental protection.

Hazards Asia Pacific is being jointly organised by IChemE and the Chemical Industries Council of Malaysia (CICM) with PETRONAS supporting the event as conference partner. The conference early-bird registration deadline is 15 August with further discounts available for group bookings.

Download the full conference programme

Visit the Hazards Asia Pacific website