WASHINGTON -- The board of directors of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) has elected Bill Klesse, San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp.'s chief executive officer, president and chairman, as chairman of the association.
Klesse has been with Valero and the former Ultramar Diamond Shamrock and its predecessors for 40 years. Prior to serving as the company's CEO, he was Valero's executive vice president and chief operating officer, overseeing all of the company's refining and marketing operations.
Early in his career, Klesse held various managerial [image-nocss] positions in engineering, petrochemical feedstocks, planning and development and marketing. After the 1996 merger of Ultramar Corp. and Diamond Shamrock, which formed Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS), he served as executive vice president of the company's refining operations.
"It's a privilege for me to serve as chairman of NPRA at such a critical time for the domestic refining and petrochemical community," Klesse said. "I look forward to working with the other members of NPRA and the association's hardworking staff to ensure that our views are considered as new federal policies are crafted and implemented."
Bill Finnerty, executive vice president and COO of Tesoro Corp., San Antonio, will serve as the association's vice chairman. Finnerty joined Tesoro in 2003 as vice president of crude oil and logistics and has served as senior vice president, supply and distribution. Previously, he was vice president of trading North America crude for ChevronTexaco. Finnerty was also senior vice president at Texaco Trading & Transportation Co. and senior vice president of trading and operations, for Equiva Trading Co.
Richard Meeks, senior vice president of refining of Lion Oil Co., has been elected NPRA's treasurer. Upon graduation, Meeks joined the TOSCO Corp. in El Dorado, Ark., where he began his career in product and technology development for shale oil refining as a research engineer. In 1982, he left the Commercial Development Group and was transferred to the Lion Oil Refinery as a process engineer. From 1982 until 1998, Meeks held the positions of senior process engineer, senior project engineer and manager of planning and economics. In 1998, he was promoted to the corporate office of Lion Oil's parent company, Ergon Inc., as vice president of economics and planning.
Serving as vice presidents on NPRA's Executive Committee are: Past NPRA chairman James Mahoney, executive vice president of operations excellence and compliance, Koch Industries Inc.; Paul Eisman, executive vice president of refining and marketing operations, Frontier Oil Corp.; Greg Garland, president and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP; Vince J. Kelley, senior vice president of refining and supply for Sunoco, Inc.; Joseph Lee, vice president of fuels for LyondellBassell Industries; Dennis Seith, CEO of INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA; Jerry Wascom, director of Refining Americas, Exxon Mobil Corp.; Jerry C. Welch, senior vice president of refining for Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC; and Lawrence Ziemba, president of U.S. refining for ConocoPhillips.
NPRA members include nearly 500 companies, including all American refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as building blocks in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.
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