Bob O’Brien has over 40 years of refining experience, in which he has demonstrated the ability to lead organizational change and process improvements while standardizing and significantly improving performance at several manufacturing sites. Prior to joining Pilko in 2023, Bob was the general manager at the HollyFrontier Navajo refineries in New Mexico. There, he oversaw all business aspects of the Navajo refineries. While in this role, the refineries improved its health and safety performance by 75%. Additionally, operating costs were reduced by 25% through focused management of both variable and fixed expenses while sustaining top quartile reliability performance.  Finally, the refineries executed the largest-ever turnaround in its history achieving the event on time, on budget, and with zero safety incidents.

Prior to HollyFrontier, Bob held many positions during a 33-year career at Shell, including Operations Excellence Team Leader, Production Manager at multiple sites, Regional Contracts & Procurement Manager, and various Technical Manager & support roles. As Production Manager, Bob consistently led improvements with his teams in safety and reliability performance while maintaining cost competitive operations.  As Operations Excellence Team Leader, Bob was instrumental in implementing and supporting Shell’s reliability framework across multiple sites.

Bob received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife, golfing, and spending time with his 3 adult children and 11 grandchildren.