Asset Management Leadership Centre

Joseph Ashun is a Certified Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario Canada An accomplished Maintenance and Reliability Engineer, Physical Assets and Maintenance Leader with 30+ years’ experience in mining, marine, oil & gas, and manufacturing. Recognized subject matter expert with specialized knowledge in: Engineering Maintenance, Reliability and supply chain business processes, CMMS & EAM and Finance Software solution architect and implementation expert. Proven ability to reduce costs and improve overall business performance and wrench time in a center-led maintenance organization. Strong knowledge of financial implications and benefits of maintenance practices, maintenance budgeting, and maintenance cost reduction.

Blake Baca is an Asset Management professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry including mining, refining, smelting, oil & gas, power generation, foundry, manufacturing, and material processing. Blake worked for Alcoa, Inc. for the first 20 years of his career. His final role at Alcoa was Maintenance and Engineering Manager at Alcoa Rockdale Operations in Rockdale, Texas as the facility was shut down due to business conditions in December 2008. Blake has been an Asset Management Consultant for over 11 years.

Blake holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from Texas Tech University. He is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) and a Certified Reliability Leader (CRL). Blake served as Maintenance Manager for Barrick Gold Corporation (Goldstrike and Cortez Hills Mines) in Elko, Nevada from 2017-2019.

Robert is a Maintenance and Project Management professional with over 20 years of experience in the mining industry. During his career, he has developed extensive SAP expertise; and has lead capital projects for the installation and commissioning of new assets; maintenance overhauls of processing equipment; as well as, development of operational and maintenance strategies to improve overall plant production rates.

He is a certified Reliability Centered Maintenance facilitator; Project Management Institute certified; and is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional focused on delivering sustainable business improvements, and operational performance through effective asset management. Proficient with implementation and usage of many enterprise management systems, he has developed tools to address SAP master data gaps affecting business processes of work management, and budget forecasting, to enable more efficient utilization of maintenance resources.

Robert holds a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick and has worked across North America in senior-level roles.

Ed has 40+ years of Engineering/Maintenance experience in Smelting, Refining, Cast House, Mining, Aluminum Extrusion, and Power Plant Operations. Roles include Consultant, Plant Engineer, Production Engineer, Reliability Engineer, Maintenance Supervisor, Engineering and Maintenance Manager, Regional (US PP) Maintenance Manager, Engineering manager, and various other roles. He is a highly skilled craftsperson and Reliability Engineer with working knowledge in all Reliability Engineering tools.  Awarded several Stock Options for outstanding performance along with many other awards for Cost Savings and Department Safety Performance.  Skilled with team concepts including setting expectations and clear goals, driving schedules, and SPAs. He understands the need and concepts of Change Management and the importance of proper implementation of projects, initiatives, etc.

Ed is a business P and L leader with an extensive background leading a large, technically complex manufacturing business with multiple locations across the world. Ed has worked on several special assignments and has had the pleasure of being in roles such as plant manager, leadership roles in the manufacturing operations functions of global businesses. He has run full leadership of a global business with 5000 employees, over US$4BN in sales revenue, and operations in the US, Australia, Russian Federation, Brazil, People’s Republic of China, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During this time, the business expanded in multiple regions separated a corporation into two parts and developed and executed a significant growth and profit improvement strategy following the separation, growing by 25% and substantially increasing profits.

Bob started his mining career and the coalfields of Western Alberta. Starting as a washbay attendant and shortly there after completed his heavy duty mechanics ticket. Bob then became the lubrication for man where he wrote all the preventative maintenance programs for all the equipment on site. From there about became a maintenance shop supervisor, senior shop supervisor, and then the maintenance manager. Bob then took on the role of procurement manager for five years. He was in charge of the purchasing and warehouse functions of the mine site. During his time there he also was involved with the negotiations with the union as well as the suppliers.

Bob then ventured into the northern Alberta oil sands as the superintendent of mobile equipment. During his time there he was in charge of design and build of a $32 million shop and office complex. Bob was again involved in the negotiations of the union contract as well as numerous contracts with large mining equipment companies such as caterpillar, come out soon, as well as large tire manufacturers Michelin, Goodyear, and Bridgestone. Bob ventured from there to the USA to be the maintenance manager of a coal mine and power station in Washington state. Upon returning to Canada, Bob was the maintenance manager for a couple of large contract mining companies and set up all their preventative maintenance programs and field repair programs.

Bob then got the chance to become the assistant maintenance manager at a large gold mine in the middle of the Sahara desert in Africa, he was instrumental in overseeing the build of a $27 million maintenance shop. There he was in charge of overseeing the caterpillar contract. Bob returned to Canada and became maintenance manager for a large gold mine in northern Ontario again overseeing the caterpillar contracts of the large mining equipment.

Etienne is a highly experienced Maintenance practitioner with a significant understanding of all facets of mine management. His broad experience covers the provision of practical solutions and leadership in the operational, process, and systems requirements from within the Maintenance and Mine Production environments.

He has lead Asset Management programs from the development and completion of assessments and audits through to implementation of recommended improvement initiatives across multiple sites for global mining organizations. Typically such programs have consisted of topics such as: Setting up Maintenance Departments (Processes, Roles, Training), KPIs, Reliability Improvement, Operational Readiness, Budget and Cost Management, SAP PM/FI/MM improvement and coaching and mentoring all business roles (Supervisor to Manager).

He has been involved in the EPCM and start-up of a mine as part of the owner team. He was actively involved in the construction as-built sign-offs, commissioning activities, and testing of equipment. As the Maintenance Manager, he was involved in developing and implementing the business processes, hiring new staff and setting up new org structures, organizing tooling and spare part requirements, implementing the reliability programs, developing operating budgets, and managing a MARC contract on the production equipment (Sandvik).

At Detour Gold he filled the role of Maintenance Manager and assisted the maintenance teams to develop and embed a full suite of maintenance & operational management processes and reliability improvement projects (Mill Improvement, Shovel, and Drill availability). He conducted a MARC Contract Performance Review (Toromont). These activities were part of the ramp-up to achieve full production (65,000TPD Milling, +300K Tonnes Ex-Pit per day). He conducted coaching and mentoring to all levels of the organization and across all departments (Safety, Mining, Processing, Engineering, and Finance).

He also spent 7 months working at a Chilean copper mine developing and embedding maintenance best practices. A key component was the rollout and coaching of soft skills required to achieve world-class performance.

William Batt is a recognized leader in the mining industry with proven safety, operations and maintenance performance transformations.  He leads by example with a direct style of coaching using performance measures, personal lessons and team assignments.

William has over twenty five years of experience in mining and processing of copper, gold, iron, coal, minerals and platinum group metals.  He has gained expertise in the following areas: asset management, contractor management,  reporting,  strategic analysis,  safety leadership,  capital project management,  business improvement,  management of change (MOC),  engineering principles,  leadership,  team-building,  and financial controls.

William earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering at the University of Utah and a master of business administration in technology management at Westminster College.

Allan is the principal of Kangas Consulting Inc and is a mining professional with over 40 years of experience in engineering and mine management. Before joining Outliers as a management consultant, Allan was the General manager for Conuma Coal during the start-up and operation of 3 coal mines producing 5 million tonnes/year. Prior to this, Allan worked for several Canadian coal mining operations in progressive management positions with a focus on mine planning and operational discipline. Understanding the need for mine management training, he joined Outliers as a contractor to provide world-class management/supervisor training.

Allan is a graduate of Queen’s University and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C.