Emerson Exchange 365

Four exciting keynote speakers will open Monday’s general session of Emerson Global Users Exchange. Following the traditional welcome address from this year’s conference chair, Tracy Waller of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, you’ll hear from the Emerson Process Management leadership as Steve Sonnenberg, president, highlights business results and direction and Peter Zornio, chief strategic officer, outlines advances in technology. The morning session concludes with a presentation by our special guest keynoter, Mark Thompson, CEO and cofounder of Virgin Unite Mentors, Sir Richard Branson’s network for executive coaching and entrepreneurial innovation.

Our 2013 chairman for the Exchange, Tracy Waller, has more than 20 years control system engineering experience and currently is on a rotational assignment as lead process control engineer for the Savannah River Site’s Waste Solidification Building Project. He has previously served as manager of the Tritium Projects and New Missions group at the Savannah River Site’s Tritium Facilities in Aiken, S.C., where he was responsible for the upgrading of an aging air monitoring system to the DeltaV system. Tracy also has worked at H Canyon and the H Tank Farm Facility at the Savannah River Site. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of South Carolina in 1992.

Steve Sonnenberg leads the Emerson Process Management business, which posted sales of $7.9 billion in fiscal 2012. He was appointed as Emerson executive vice president and president of Emerson Process Management in October 2008. Sonnenberg joined Emerson in 1979 as a marketing analyst with the former Brooks Instrument business. His career progressed rapidly as he assumed a number of marketing and general management positions in Germany, the U.K. and the Asia Pacific region. In 2000, Sonnenberg was appointed president of Emerson Process Management Asia Pacific, and in 2002 he was appointed president of Emerson Process Management’s Rosemount business unit. During his tenure, he has also been responsible for several Emerson acquisitions, including Rosemount TankRadar (formerly Saab Marine), Mobrey, Damcos and Metran. Sonnenberg holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Georgia Tech and a master’s in business administration from the University of Virginia.

As chief strategic officer for Emerson Process Management for the past six years, Peter Zornio has responsibility for overall coordination of technology programs such as PlantWeb and Smart Wireless across the Process Management business unit, as well as the company’s group-level marketing team, standards and product direction. He also has direct responsibility for the product definition and development organizations for DeltaV, Ovation, Syncade, Machinery Health and AMS Suite. Zornio also is engaged in the overall business and acquisition strategy for Process Management. Prior to joining Emerson, he spent 21 years at Honeywell, most recently as director of product marketing with product management responsibility for distributed control systems, paper quality control systems, safety systems and software for advanced control, asset management and operations management (MES). Zornio has extensive experience with field measurement products, fieldbus technologies and systems architecture, as well as acquisition strategy and integration. Zornio holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of New Hampshire.

Our guest keynote speaker, Mark C. Thompson, is CEO and cofounder of Virgin Unite Mentors, Sir Richard Branson’s network for executive coaching and entrepreneurial innovation. A leadership coach, bestselling author, venture capitalist and Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, Thompson brings real-time solutions to today’s leadership challenges. He is Charles Schwab’s former chief of staff, chief customer experience officer, chief communications officer and cofounder of the Schwab Foundation. He also served as executive producer of Schwab.com, which services assets of $1.4 trillion. Forbes magazine called Thompson one of “America’s top investors with the ‘Midas’ touch.” He also served on the boards of directors of Best Buy, Korn Ferry and Interwoven (now owned by HP) and was chairman of Rioport, which popularized the MP3 player prior to the iPod and iTunes and led the integration effort when it was acquired by Silicon Labs.

Our next issue will report on these speakers' presentations – and much more.  Watch for it in your inbox.