Over a long career at ArcelorMittal, Tom held a number of senior roles, moving through Operations Manager, GM Primary Division, VP Manufacturing and COO of ArcelorMittal Dofasco, the 4 million tonne steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has also trained hundreds of key personnel involved in maintenance, technology, purchasing, refractory manufacture, and refractory installation.
In addition to contributing a number of technical articles on refractories, in 2016 Tom also authored “Refractory Material Selection for Steelmaking”, a practical textbook for the steel and refractory industry. In 2018, he established his own independent consultancy – Strategic Refractory Consulting (www.strategicrefractoryconsulting.com), in which capacity he served as Strategic Advisor to a refractory company CEO in India, provides marketing studies for refractory companies and raw material suppliers, and designs refractory applications for steel plants.
In 2020, Tom received the T J Planje Distinguished Achievement Award from UNITECR founding member ACerS (American Ceramic Society), and he is a Distinguished Life Member of UNITECR itself.
On 28 October, Tom will deliver his keynote presentation on the subject of “Refractory Usage Trends in a Constantly Changing Marketplace”. The usage rates of refractories have evolved over time and will continue to do so as customer demand continues to change rapidly, and unpredictably in many cases! In the areas of steel, cement, glass, non-ferrous etc, the pressures and challenges of “green production”, hydrogen usage, sustainability demands, AI, and supply change variability put continuous pressure on researchers, designers, and management of refractory industry companies. This paper will attempt to show the trends and predict the future for key refractory products/industries and the impact of all of these forces on refractory usage and raw material requirements going forward in the next 10-20 years.
The UNITECR 2025 organizers ALAFAR also announced that an App for the event, sponsored by NUTEC Group, would be rolled out mid-October. This App will include a number of key features, such as:
- Program details – view the full agenda and flag your top picks
- Speaker roster – find out about your expert contributors
- Networking facility – connect and network with other attendees
- Exhibitor list and booth floor plan
- Venue info – find your way around the event
- General information – stay in the know with real-time updates
- Main Sponsors and Marketing & Media Partners
- Committee
- Top news
- Notes page
The UNITECR 2025 App will be available on both the App Store and Google Play.
