Thomas S. Kittle
12676 County Farm Road, Aurora, IN47001-8761 ▪ Res: 812-744-1170 ▪
Supply Chain Professional
Process Improvement /Quality Assurance / Data Mining & Analysis
Dynamic international supply chain professional with accomplished performance in developing, implementing, and managing highly effective assay, quality monitoring, and industry intelligence gathering and analysis programs. Strong and decisive leadership competencies, evidenced by sound ability to build solid teams and create positive and collaborative environments to achieve results; equally effective managing small or large projects and delivering working solutions. Exceptional problem solver driven by a desire to meet and exceed clients’ needs and expectations. Delivered increases in operational efficiencies and decreases in cost by applying strong communication skills along with excellent data mining and analysis.Served in key liaison positions to integrate business operations. Demonstrated success at breaking down barriers and eliminating resistance to change and new ideas.
Core Qualifications
- Supply Chain Logistics
- Strategic Planning
- Loss Prevention Analysis
- Multi-site Project Management
- Mentoring/Succession Planning
- Coordination & Liaison
- Data Mining & Analysis
- Quality Monitoring & Control
- Process Integration
- Laboratory Analytical Methodology
Professional Experience
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, Fairfax, VA2001–2006
$370 billion globalleader in petroleum and petrochemicals with operations in 200 countries. Largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products and the leading manufacturer of oil base stocks. World’s largest non-government marketer of equity natural gas.
Raw Material Quality Coordinator
Monitored internationallytraded crude oil streams to ensure quality and value of 6 million barrels of crude oil purchased daily and transported by pipeline and tanker to 42 ExxonMobil refineries worldwide. Effectively scheduled assay updates, gathered industry intelligence, published monthly newsletter, and delivered solutions to complex problems. Determined crude value and refining performance using complex computer models for critical supply functions of raw material acquisition and refinery planning.
Selected Achievements:
- $100 million annual cost savings reaped from revamping Market Intelligence program. Restructured process for gathering information to provide immediate informationtogreatly improve understanding of new and emerging feedstock sources. This was key to the support of one of ExxonMobil’s core strategies as it allowed the company to make a bid on first cargo at largely discounted rates.
- Managed $4 million Crude Assay Program ensuring most appropriate feedstock mix for safe, efficient, and cost-effective processing that met each refinery’s specific requirements.
- $10 million saved through rapid response to changing feedstock quality and value. Collaborated in design & development of a comprehensive database that constantly monitored and reported on crude and feedstock shipments worldwide.
- $200,000 saved annually in assay costs by monitoring quality of global crude and feedstock streams using spectroscopy—proprietary technology that produces complete crude assay at a fraction of the time and expense of traditional laboratory methods.
- Principal analytical and crude oil supply advisor on multi-disciplinary team assembled to develop methods to deal with mercury impurityfollowing contamination of refinery. Immediate and continuing raw material cost savings estimated at $50 million per year.
- Saved millions each year by avoiding or mitigating impact of contaminants and impurities on refinery feedstock streams. Key feedstock representative on several multi-disciplinary teams to address cost-effective and safe response to contaminants and impurities.
- Reduced significant contamination incidents in European refineries in 2001 by initiating large-scale testing and monitoring programs.
- Mentored high potentials in the organization to fill gaps left after seasoned key staff members departed company. Provided short-term solution by hiring recently retired staff as contractors to deal with critical issue and developed succession plan to provide long-term solution.
Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, Houston, TX1998–2001
$8 billion LLC of refining and marketing segments of Marathon Oil Company and Ashland Petroleum Company. Fifth largest refining and marketing company in North America.
Manager, Quality and Measurement
Monitored quality and value of crude oil supply chain from origin to refinery with a major focus on integration of work processes and cultures of two formerly separate companies (Marathon and Ashland).
Selected Achievements:
- More than $10 million saved annually in crude costs through leadership of industry effort to change analytical procedure for measuring water entrained in crude oil shipped via pipeline.
- Chaired committee that unified partners’ separate approaches to crude assay development and ultimately resulting in the closure of one facility eliminating $500,000 per year in operational costs.
- Administered $1.2 million crude quality program in which more than 6,000 samples at 25 domestic locations were gathered and analyzed to determine the impact of pipeline operation on delivered crude quality.
- Predicted with accuracy the relative value of crude shipped via pipeline to company refineries by developing test procedures and spreadsheet simulations of refining processes.
Ashland Petroleum Company, Russell, KY1993–1997
Refining, marketing, and transportation company commanding approximately $8 billion in assets with a network of operations stretching across 21 states.In 1998, Ashland, Inc.'s petroleum division merged with Marathon Oil to form Marathon AshlandPetroleum, LLC.
Manager, Crude Oil Inventory Control
Facilitated loss management, water-borne transportation (tankers, barges), demurrage analysis and settlement programs, and managed feedstock quality monitoring program.
Selected Achievements:
- $2 million recovered annually through development and implementation of an aggressive cargo-loss control program.
- More than $900,000 saved annually byaugmenting negotiations in savings in demurrage charges for crude shipped by sea and discovering widespread overcharging in charter contracts based on misstatement of loading and unloading turnarounds.
- Prevented $3 million in loss yearly through identification of errors in temperature calibration that caused per-barrel overcharges from a major supplier.
- $3 million saved per annum as a principal liaison to U.S. Customs Service, which granted Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) status for the company’s refineries and pipelines.
Other Work History
Ashland petroleum Company, Russell, KY
Environmental Coordinator
Manager, Bioremediation, Petroleum Measurement and Quality Control
Analyst, Petroleum Measurement and Quality Control
Chemical Technician III, Research and Development
Education
Bachelor of Science, Microbiology,IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, IN
Completed coursework towardMaster of Science in Biochemistry, University of Kansas,Kansas City, KS
Professional Affiliations