Designing in Safety

About the event

Les Okonek is a 1974 Civil Engineering graduate of WSU. Les spent 41 years in the oil industry starting with Chicago Bridge and Iron designing and building above ground storage tanks before starting employment at the ARCO/BP Cherry Point refinery. Les started as a discipline engineer, and later held roles as a Project engineer, Operations superintendent, Project manager, and Engineering Authority (chief engineer). Les spent the last four years of his career with BP Exploration and Production in Alaska as Manager of the Projects and Modifications Team on the North Slope of Alaska. Les retired from BP in 2015.

This presentation is part of a semester-long seminar on the “soft”, but hard to learn, professional skills that are essential to a successful engineering career. The speakers are engineers and other members of Kitsap technology firms. Topics that will be covered in the seminar include project management, communication, ethics, process safety, divergent thinking, careers in large engineering firms, and working for global engineering firms.