Sasol has appointed a BP Alumnus to oversee its growing operations outside of Southern Africa, including Sasol’s US mega-projects in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States. Stephen Cornell, currently the UK major’s Global Head of Major Projects and Chief Operating Officer for US Fuels will, from 1 February 2014, take charge as Sasol’s Executive Vice President: International Operations. He will report directly to David Constable, the company’s Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Cornell’s job: ‘a focused operations position at the Group Executive Committee (“GEC”) level’, comes in the context of Sasol’s new structure, which takes cognizance effective from 1 July 2014.
Sasol had earlier indicated the creation of this job, given the growing importance of its international businesses, particularly in the United States, the company says in a release.
Cornell has extensive US domestic and international experience in petrochemicals, refining and logistics, having worked in the industry in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has significant business improvement experience, having reshaped BP’s US fuels business over a six-year period, through improved work processes, divestiture of key assets and by driving the significant expansion of the 413 000 barrels per day BP Whiting refinery. In addition, within often complex operating environments, Cornell has first-hand experience in large-scale capital projects, ensuring substantial safety improvements and in embedding manufacturing excellence.
Constable said, “At a time when we are striving to enhance our own performance levels at Sasol, it is exciting to have a leader join our team, who is known for passionately driving high performance through talent and capability development across all areas of the organisation. With over three decades in the industry under his belt, Steve is highly regarded by his peers as a commercial and strategic leader with substantial chemical engineering experience”.
