Conference Papers
Ms. Vilas currently serves as CEO of BakerRisk and FORTRESS. Karen brings a rare combination of technical expertise, field-tested leadership, business strategy, and personal purpose to one of the most critical areas of industrial safety.
Recognized globally as a leader in process safety, her career has focused on helping multinational petrochemical corporations identify hazards, manage risk, and keep people safe. Most notably, she has experience in modeling consequences and risks at oil refineries, natural gas facilities, storage facilities, and olefin units. Known for her unwavering commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, Ms. Vilas provides unique risk mitigation and risk management solutions by focusing on providing high-quality, highly protective buildings in high-hazard environments.
Mr. Magraw is a member of BakerRisk’s Process Safety Group. He has an extensive career of over thirty years in safety and risk management, including over thirteen years in the oil and gas sector and over eighteen years in the nuclear industry. His work focuses on the execution of the following services: Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), Safety Instrumented Systems SIS/Safety Integrity Levels (SIL), Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), audit, insurance risk engineering, and management system development. He was previously head of environment, health, safety, and quality for an international nuclear services company. Mr. Magraw has also managed the corporate HSE management system and assurance program for a major international nuclear business with a global portfolio of nuclear and non-nuclear operations.
As the biofuels industry continues to expand in support of global decarbonization mandates and objectives, facility owners and developers are being challenged to balance production efficiency, operational reliability, and personnel safety.
As high hazard facilities, biofuels sites should focus on developing a fire protections strategy informed by performance-based analysis so strategies implemented meet the unique challenges found at each facility.