Richard Charlesworth, Ph.D.

He brings more than 20 years of petrochemical industry experience in all aspects of the business; financial, commercial, operations, research, design and business planning, as well as consultancy. He has led many projects across different petrochemical streams that have included market studies, feasibility studies, technology selection studies, feedstock sourcing and pricing studies, marketing strategies, logistics reviews, capital estimates, and integration assessments. He has executed numerous market and technical due diligence projects on behalf of lenders as well as full financial modeling and production cash cost comparisons of facilities. He began his career in 1996 with BP Chemicals in Hull, UK, where he worked for five years as a process engineer on acetic acid and vinyl acetate manufacturing plants and pilot plants. In 2001 he moved into the commercial side of the company and held various financial analyst positions in solvents and industrial chemicals and was logistics performance manager for BP's European polymer and solvents assets. He worked for Nexant, selling and executing single and multiclient consulting services where he worked on feasibility studies, feedstock strategy projects, independent technical consultant assignments and company refinancing projects. He also worked for Ineos Olefins' financial and planning group and was responsible for the short, medium and long term financials for all Ineos' steam crackers in Europe. During this time, he was the lead in developing the Olefins long-term strategy financials, the financial lead for due diligence for the acquisition of a steam cracker complex and led the Olefins annual financial planning process. Dr. Charlesworth graduated from University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK with MEng Chemical and Process Engineering and Ph.D. in Chemical and Process Engineering.