June 17, 2006 - Hampton, NH - The MTL Instruments Group plc is pleased to announce that Ian Verhappen has joined the group as Director of Industrial Networking Technologies. In this new role Ian will be responsible for the development and support of not only MTL's present fieldbus products but also new technologies that will be critical to the ongoing success of both MTL and its customers. “This is an exciting opportunity for me to be part of a dynamic global company at the forefront of the industrial networking arena – an obvious passion of mine, and a key part of the automation technology developments in our future," said Verhappen.
“By combining the strengths of the global centre of excellence in Alberta and our regional support teams in Europe and Asia, we will be able to provide full life cycle support for your industrial network – from the terminals on your field device through to the I/O card of your control system. MTL is no longer just an equipment provider but now also your 'industrial network solutions' source offering engineering services for system design, commissioning support, and remote diagnostics ensuring you a reliable system on which to base your automation projects."
Ian Verhappen is highly respected in the Process Automation sector and has served as project lead, engineer, designer or independent review consultant for a number of companies and industries around the world including Pulp and Paper, Mining, Food Processing, Water and Wastewater, Oil Sands processing, Petrochemicals and Refining. “Ian Verhappen's arrival at MTL reinforces our commitment to future fieldbus technologies. He will be instrumental in not only maintaining MTL's market leadership in physical layer components but also in developing our future strategies and products as this key market expands," said David Denton, President of MTL's Hazardous Area business unit.
“The End-User experience that Ian brings to MTL will ensure that the company’s growing portfolio of network solutions will keep track with even the most demanding requirements of the fieldbus community."
About MTL
MTL has been serving the process and related industries since its formation in 1971. Today, MTL Instruments Group plc, is a world leader in the development and supply of electronic instrumentation and protection equipment for the process control and telecommunications industries. Many of the world's most critical processes are monitored, controlled or protected by MTL equipment and the Group is distinguished by the quality and reliability of its products, its global network of sales-and-support centres and its acknowledged position as a thought-leader in this high technology marketplace.
With 36 dedicated sales centres in 13 countries and a further 137 MTL representatives in 64 countries, MTL's expertise in Intrinsic Safety, Surge Protection, Open System Platforms and Operator Displays is unsurpassed.
About Ian Verhappen
Ian Verhappen is an ISA Fellow, the Director of ICE-Pros, Inc. an independent engineering consulting firm, and has been working in the automation industry since 1987. Ian has been actively involved in Foundation Fieldbus technology since 1995 when he led the first Host Interoperability demonstration project at Syncrude Canada Ltd.Verhappen is an acknowledged expert in FOUNDATION fieldbus technology. He has authored numerous (>75) technical papers on the subject of Fieldbus and is a regular columnist for four industry trade journals including his “On the Bus” column for Control Magazine and DigitalFieldInsider; ColumnBus with Manufacturing Automation; Parity Check in Industrial Networking; and his industry perspective column in ProcessWest.
Ian is also the co-author, with Augusto Pereira, of ISA’s popular “Foundation Fieldbus Pocket Guide” that has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese now in its second revision/printing.
Ian is also editor of the ISA Analysis Division newsletter and editor of ICEnews, a bi-monthly electronic newsletter covering the happenings in the automation industry.Under Verhappen’s guidance, the End User Advisory Council has prepared the “Engineering Design Guide, Foundation Fieldbus document AG-181” for which he was editor, that has been translated into German, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, demonstrating how widely it is being used as the basis for many corporate and project Fieldbus specifications.Ian has been active on a number of Fieldbus specifications committees including the Safety Fieldbus Committee who are developing the standards on how to deploy Fieldbus in Safety Systems where he participated as an “outside” expert reviewer.
Verhappen is technical lead of the Fieldbus Transducer Block team, a member of the Grounding & Shielding Team and the FF Curriculum Development Team. Ian is presently the Vice-President Standards & Practices for ISA and chairman of the ISA Department Activity Board as well as a member of ISA’s Executive Committee.Ian is also an adjunct professor at Tri-State University where he is helping them establish their Fieldbus Centre of Excellence by developing both their curriculum and classroom/laboratory where he will be their engineer and laboratory director.
