Caltex’s magazine for employees, franchisees & resellers
Issue 45 Oct – Nov 08
Article Highlights
The Caltex Teaching Award which recognises outstanding achievements in the teaching of chemical engineers was also presented at the Chemeca conference. Caltex Managing Director Des King made the award to Jeffrey Mayne of BP’s Kwinana Refinery near Perth.
In this issue:
Recognising a fine career
Dr David Dolan, director of process engineering at Fluor Australia, presents Alex Strang (right) with his award on 30 September.
Engineering award for Alex Strang and Caltex. A longstanding member of the Caltex leadership team has won national recognition for leadership in chemical engineering.
Alex Strang, Caltex General Manager Supply & Distribution, was winner of the Fluor award for leadership in chemical engineering at this year’s Chemeca. The Fluor award is one of a dozen chemical-engineering awards, mostly industry-sponsored, made each year at Chemeca, the annual conference for the profession hosted by the Institution of Chemical Engineers in Australia, Engineers Australia, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and the Society of Chemical Engineers New Zealand.
The award recognises exceptional management and leadership talent that has directly resulted in sustained corporate success over a significant period. It can include line management and project management in either the public or private sectors.
Alex’s 36-year career is an example of the diverse and impactful career a chemical engineer can enjoy.
He says he was surprised to be nominated for the award – and just as surprised to win it. It’s as much a reflection on Caltex as on himself, says Alex.
“It demonstrates the positive image the company has and the achievements I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of. That’s also what’s being recognised here.”
Significant corporate successes
Guests at the presentation heard that Alex has been instrumental in two corporate successes that have changed the face of Caltex and Australian refining and marketing. These are the merger of Caltex and Ampol in 1995 and the present alliance between Caltex and Woolworths that began in 2004.
His leadership roles at Caltex have included Manager of Strategic Planning, Corporate Treasurer, Group Controller, General Manager of Manufacturing and his current role.
Caltex’s Supply and Distribution division has responsibilities that span the buying of crude oil, production planning at refineries, scheduling finished petroleum product movements, distributing products to terminals and delivering them to customers.
Having a safe and reliable supply chain is critical for Caltex achieving its marketing growth targets, says Alex. In essence this means ensuring it always delivers high-quality products to customers when they need them. “The supply chain must be sufficiently flexible to handle potential disruptions, such as when unreliability affects a refinery and we then have to go to alternate sources of supply,” he says.
Alex joined Caltex at Kurnell refinery in Sydney in 1972 and worked in a number of engineering and production roles in Kurnell and on secondment in New York. From 1982-1997 he worked in various finance, project and planning roles in Sydney and again in the USA, in Dallas, Texas.
He has enjoyed the journey. “Chemical engineering training is a good mix of the fundamentals of chemistry and engineering. It’s a discipline that gives you a very good understanding of how a refinery works. Starting from that position, if you do well it really opens up opportunities.”
The Caltex Teaching Award which recognises outstanding achievements in the teaching of chemical engineers was also presented at the Chemeca conference. Caltex Managing Director Des King made the award to Jeffrey Mayne of BP’s Kwinana Refinery near Perth. As well as holding a full-time position at Kwinana, Jeffrey has lectured in core subjects in the chemical engineering course at Curtin University for the past 10 years.