Special Speakers for DOT Workshop

Bill Byrd, President, RCP: Bill Byrd serves on the Executive Committee of the ASME Safety Engineering and Risk Assessment Division (SERAD), is treasurer of the ASME Pipeline Systems Division, and is the technical chair for the Safety Engineering, Risk Assessment, and Reliability Methods track at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition. He is the consulting expert to the API / AOPL Pipeline Performance Excellence Team. In addition to serving as president of RCP, he works as an expert witness and consulting expert, and is frequently called upon to comment on current or proposed rulemakings at public and private meetings and conferences. He is a registered professional engineer in four states, and has a Masters Degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Chris Foley, Vice President, RCP: Chris Foley is a Board Certified Safety Professional and is a member of the American Gas Association Distribution, Construction and Maintenance Committee as well as a member of the Gas Piping Technology committee. He holds a Bachelors of Science from Texas A&M University in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Systems Safety Engineering. Throughout his career, Mr. Foley has developed and implemented dozens of compliance management systems for Fortune 500 companies, including RCP’s compliance management system for gas distribution and transmission pipeline operators.

Rod Dyck, Director, Office of Enforcement, PHMSA: Rod Dyck is the Director of the Office of Enforcement at PHMSA, a position he has held since joining PHMSA in 2008. From 1996 to 2008, Rod held various positions at the NTSB including Associate Director (Pipeline), Deputy Director (Pipeline), and Principal Pipeline Engineer. From 1981 to 1996, Rod held a variety of positions at San Diego Gas & Electric Company, gaining experience in gas distribution and transmission. He chaired pipeline technical committees, received the American Gas Association’s Award of Merit, and authored numerous technical publications. He graduated from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with M.S. and B.S. degrees in engineering. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in California and Illinois.

Cheryl J. Trench, President, Allegro Energy Consulting: Cheryl Trench has worked extensively with the oil pipeline industry to understand causes and circumstances of releases to enhance prevention efforts. She has analyzed the role of pipelines in energy markets and has also analyzed gas transmission and gas distribution pipelines. Cheryl will talk about recent reporting changes for the gas and liquid pipeline operators – both the infrastructure and the incident reporting: what types of information must be reported, how that has changed in the recent past, what types of mistakes operators tend to make, how / when to report, etc.

Amber Pappas, Director of Communications, RCP: Amber sits on the API RP 1162 Review Committee and was closely involved in all aspects of the review process for RP 1162. In addition, she is a member of the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) Education Committee which was responsible for the creation of the 811, Call Before You Dig Campaign as well as other popular damage prevention communication initiatives. This, combined with her 15+ years of marketing and communications experience, brings a wealth of knowledge that will benefit all participants in the workshop. She is currently working with 10 major oil and gas companies to review their public awareness programs as well as conduct effectiveness evaluations.