GROWING BUSINESS VALUE
WELCOME TO OTC
We are a team of experienced consultants with complementary competencies specialising in the development of industrial scale projects and we:
- confirm that business objectives can be achieved;
- are passionate about, understand and can balance owner needs;
- identify risk areas and opportunities and propose mitigating plans;
- add most value when we work from a position of trust, as part of the owner’s team, during the early stages of project development.
OTC consultants comprise a group of business managers, functional specialists, senior engineers, project managers and experienced general managers. Each prior to joining OTC were employed in executive, senior and specialist positions at major companies, leaving them with an extraordinary depth of business, project and technical acumen.
The cumulative, relevant experience of the consulting partners exceeds 300 years, with many more specialised disciplines represented through our network of independent consultants and associates.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help owner teams and business managers become more effective by supplying expert advice, toolkits, training and support.
We help you create business value:
1. Owner organisations wanting to develop industrial scale projects are looking for access to experienced resources who intimately understand the industry, can mobilise quickly and have proven project execution capabilities.
2. Entrepreneurs are also looking for a partner willing to share some of the risk during project development, who has access to a wide network and who can assist with securing project finance.
3. Financiers are looking to mitigate their exposure to risk by tapping into the knowledge of independent professionals who understand the practicalities of developing an industrial scale venture and running it successfully.
No matter the stage of the project development or operations, in order to create a successful new business you will need to use the best proven methodologies for:
- Business case evaluations and benchmarking.
- Business development services.
- Process and technology know how.
“Success” is much more than delivering a project on time and on budget. The resulting business needs to be profitable and sustainable. This requires close attention throughout the life-cycle:
- Digitisation and automation related services.
- Business and operations optimisation.
- Independent audits and reviews of internal processes.
- Analysis and troubleshooting.
Looking for a partner that specialises in the following?
- Project Development Services.
- Prefeasibility and feasibility studies.
- Project Specific Consulting Services.
- Programme management support.
- Project reviews.
- Specific project services (including owner team roles).
- Mentoring and training.
- Guide owners that are implementing projects while fulfilling specific owner roles on industrial scale projects throughout the project life-cycle.
- Provide tools, guidance, coaching, training, facilitated workshops and subject matter expert led activities.
- Developing and licensing technologies for the beneficiation of coal, biomass and gas resources into synthetic fuels and energy.
- Develop projects together with prospective developers/owners.
- Analyse projects, existing businesses and/or operations to identify improvement opportunities and then guide owners in the implementation of these.
- Marketing analysis and sales.
- Business and financial modelling.
- Project development: using a proven feasibility framework, stage-gate and value assurance process.
- Risk management.
- Fulfilling the owner roles throughout the product life-cycle.
- Strategic partner management.
- Technology development (xTL) and other.
- Provision of specialised subject matter expertise.
- Information product development.
- IP management and licensing.
- Business management consulting.
- Optimisation of existing businesses/operations or identification of improvement opportunities.
- Audits and reviews of both projects and established businesses.
OUR PEOPLE
Christine Render
Consulting Partner
Christine holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and has over 35 years experience in the energy and petrochemical industry, specifically in front end concept engineering, process design and multi-disciplinary engineering management. More...
Charl Buys
Consulting Partner
Charl has over 40 years experience in engineering and business management. He has worked in the steel industry and over 30 years in petrochemical and xTL sectors. More...
Freek Van Heerden
Consulting Partner, Director
With over 40 years experience, Freek has expertise in project & engineering management, front end engineering, project development and integration. He has worked extensively in gas/coal to liquids and chemicals. More...
Anton Putter
Consulting Partner
Anton holds a Chemical Engineering degree together with a number of advanced business qualifications in accounting, business economics and enterprise management. He has been closely involved with synthetic fuels ventures. More...
Koos Taljaard
Consulting Partner, Director
Koos has over 38 years experience in multidisciplinary mining, mineral beneficiation and the cement industry in various executive, projects, operational, engineering, business development and consulting roles. He is a registered professional engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. More...
Davida van der Walt
Consulting Partner
Davida is an industrial psychologist with more than 20 years’ experience. She has extensive experience in framing / alignment, change management and stakeholder communication on megaprojects, as well as corporate social investment and community engagement in the petrochemical and mining industries. More...
Jurie Steyn
Consulting Partner
Jurie holds a BEng(Chem)Hons and an MBA. He has more than 37 years of engineering, operations management and functional management experience. He started, developed and managed the Environmental & Risk Engineering group in Sasol Technology for more than 14 years. More...
Kevin Mattheys
Consulting Partner
Kevin has been in Project Controls and inter-related fields for more than 30 years. He has an Electrical Engineering qualification from Wits Technikon as well as a BCom degree and Project Management Diploma. More...
Gavin Halse
Consulting Partner, Director
Gavin is a graduate chemical engineer with 27 years’ experience in R&D, process engineering, manufacturing systems and information technology. He has held several executive roles including CEO, CIO and Director of Product Strategy. He founded and led a successful software business with global clients in mining and manufacturing. More...
Corne Thirion
Consulting Partner
Cornè is a graduate electrical engineer with a Certificate of Competency from the RSA Department of Manpower. His career of over 38 years started in the steel industry before he moved on to the petrochemical industry. More...
Deryck Coetzer
Consultant
Deryck Coetzer has more than 33 years of experience in projects at various stages of development in the petrochemical industry. He started his career in the Sasol Research and Development Departments and then moved on to the production environment, honing his skills in plant optimisation and troubleshooter. More...
Andre Kok
Consultant
Andre holds a BSc, MBA and an advanced diploma in project management. He has more than 30 years experience in power, oil & gas with positions in project and programme management. He has specific expertise in industrial modularization. His experience includes project management and execution from pre-feasibility through construction and hand-over. More...
Herman van Heerden
Consultant
Herman is a process development consultant with over 40 years experience in petrochemical, metals processing and diverse chemical industries. He has extensive experience in value assurance and assurance reviews having facilitated and led reviews on small and megaprojects, locally and internationally, on both wholly owner and JV projects. He is familiar with both IPA and CII review tools. More...
Chris Venter
Consultant
Chris is a business consultant with 37 years experience in Petrochemical and Chemical industries. Experienced in technical support and project development including technical support, commissioning support and de-bottlenecking studies. Experienced in local and international business development in synthetic fuels and renewable energies. More...
Riaan van der Merwe
Consultant
Riaan holds a B.Eng (Mining) and MBA. He has 38 years experience in mining, holding several positions in Anglo American (Gold and Coal), and CoAL (now MC Mining). These ranged from Section Manager, General Manager and Chief Operations Officer. His skill set includes executive- and general production management, director’s duties, optimisation, mine design and project management, DD and feasibility studies, as well as safety/risk management and auditing.
Chris Frank
Consultant
Chris has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois (USA) and an MBA degree from DePaul University (USA). He has thirty-one years of experience in the oil-refining and petrochemical industries and has worked for UOP, BP, and CVR Energy. Chris has worked with clients in twenty different countries on design projects and technical consultation, and is currently engaged as a senior consultant in the pharmaceutical industry for a US-based company.
PARTNERS AND ALLIANCES
We proactively seek out and build alliances with the best in the industry to strengthen our offering to clients. All our partners have specific regional, industry and functional expertise.
SAIYL
SAIYL creates value through developing successful projects. SAIYL’s vision is to build a sustainable business that pushes industry boundaries through innovation, expertise, energy and drive. Our services include engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction, project management and operations improvement.
Growing Operations Advisors
Growing Operations Advisors is a small innovative consulting house based in Germany, specialized in sustainable and substantial productivity improvement for small and medium enterprises in the industry and service business. We optimize your current operations, create leadership capabilities, improve investment projects, introduce automation and digital operations.