OUR TEAM

Mark Kuppe founded Acero in 2006 and remains the Chief Executive Officer. 

He has over 25 years of Oil and Gas experience in Project Engineering and Management. Mark has been involved with various sizes of projects that range from wellsite installations to facility optimizations to international EPFs, CPFs, terminals and more. 

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta (1990) and is a registered member of APEGA, APEGS and APEGBC. 

Mark stays involved in the day to day operations of Acero while occasionally still providing Project Management and Engineering support where needed.

Salim Zaghmout has been a part of the Acero team since 2011. He brings over 20 years of extensive international project engineering experience in the energy industry; from design through to and including, construction and commissioning. 

Salim is technically involved in the day-to-day details of on-going project execution; whether directly dealing with clients or providing support to the senior managers. 

Salim is the bridge between the frontline workers and the resources needed to allow them to most effectively execute their work.

Mike Krebs has been a part of Acero since 2011. He has over 28 years of international and domestic Oil and Gas experience in both equipment fabrication and EPCM environments. As a Project Manager, Mike has spent the last 19 years managing oil and gas facility upgrades, well-site tie-ins, pipeline projects, and the design and engineering of heavy oil equipment packages and heat exchangers. With his penchant for “Quality”, Mike is not only a Senior PM at Acero, but also a Director and the VP of QHSE and Project Services. Since 2013, Mike has been responsible managing and improving the Acero Health and Safety program, consistently achieving COR audit scores above 95% year after year. Mike has also been leading the team for achieving and maintaining ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certification and implementing ISO 45001:2018 into the well-established Safety Program at Acero.

John Fayad brings to Acero a technical background as well as a Project Managerial and business acumen that stretches from the Middle East and Africa to North and South America. John spent several years as an EPC contractor in the United Arab Emirates before immigrating to Canada. At Acero, for over a decade, John has acted as Project Manager, Project Director and as well, as Acero’s VP of International Operations managing and sponsoring Acero’s work in South America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

 John’s experience affords him both technically and commercially awareness of all aspects of his projects. John is currently MENA President and General Manager of Acero’s Branch in the UAE. He holds a Master of Science in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).

Rola Bittar joined the Acero team as the V.P of Finance & Administration in 2011. Since 2008, her experience has been in private accounting (primarily financial and managerial) within in the manufacturing, telecom and oil & gas industries. 

Her current responsibilities include analyzing financial information, preparing financial reports, performing financial forecasting, transmitting and approving domestic and international payments, insuring accounts receivable and accounts payable, increasing efficiency and improving workflow through creative process improvements, and insuring Acero’s human capital. She also sets goals, business metrics and standards, comparing analyzed results to ensure departments meet their milestones. Rola has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Mount Royal University.

Ahmad El-Sayed has over 20 years of experience working for Producers, EPC’s and Vendors in the oil and gas industy. His technical background working with compressors, rotating equipment, and as an engineering technologist, has provided him the skills to understand the technical details of projects that he runs. 

Ahmad has worked at Acero as a Project Manager for approximately a decade now. He has been primarily involved in facility expansions and debottlenecks, wellsite tie-in programs as well as batteries, pump and compressor station installations and/or revamps. 

Ahmad has recently become Acero’s VP Projects where he manages / coordinates Acero’s Project Management resources while continuing to act as PM on special client engagements.

Richard Enns has over forty (40) years of experience in Oil and Gas process design and engineering. His experience includes conceptual design, detailed specification, commissioning and start-up of land-based and off-shore oil and gas production facilities, gas plants, refineries and petrochemical facilities, as well as multiphase and dense phase pipeline systems. 

Richard is an expert in the handling, processing and measurement of oil and gas. Richard has completed numerous hydraulic designs, assessments and debottlenecks, etc. static and dynamic; he is an industry expert at dealing with the most challenging of process situations.

He has been published in technical journals, taught technical seminars and has contributed presentations to both clients and professional societies.

Ken Olshaski has over 29 years of experience in civil structural design and team lead management in the oil and gas industry. His experience ranges from conceptual and detailed design to involvement in the development of project studies (FEED), DBM's, project scope and specifications, budget estimates, manpower loading and scheduling. 

Projects worked on include well tie-ins to oil batteries, large compressor stations to process facilities and many other brownfield and greenfield installations. Ken holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (1988) from the University of Alberta and is registered with APEGA, EGBC and APEGS.

Doug French has over 32 years of mechanical design experience in oil & gas, LNG, and shipbuilding. His experience also includes creating Design & Drafting procedures, implementation of CADD standards, onsite field engineering, plant walk down, redlining, construction support, and start-up.

Doug is primarily focused on managing the workload, personnel, and technical resources, while also supporting design checking, ensuring that the quality of all documentation issued meets Acero’s (ISO certified) quality standards.

Randy Unrau brings over thirty five (35) years of experience in the design, construction, modification and troubleshooting of gas processing and oil production equipment, usually in the role of Project Manager and/or Project Engineer.

His responsibilities have included equipment procurement and sizing, development of budgets and schedules, management of engineering and mechanical teams, as well as the coordination of construction contractors and consultants, cost control, and FEED studies. 

Randy received his B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Calgary.

Kristy Eastwood is an experienced Human Resources Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the oil & energy industry. 

At Acero, since 2018, Kristy has been intimately involved in solicitation of talented technical staff, on-boarding/off-boarding, contract preparation, compensation assessments, benefits management and all other aspects associated with the management of Acero’s human capital. 

Kristy works strongly with Acero’s Senior Management on a day-to-day basis.

Mohammad (“Akter”) Akteruzzaman has a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering (from University of Detroit) and twenty five (25) years of Oil and Gas experience; domestic and international. For the past 10 years Akter’s experience and locale has been with Acero, executing the Mechanical aspects of all domestic and international projects. Like most of the members of the Acero team, his experience at Acero includes compressor / gas plant installations or  Akter has extensive expertise in piping code such as ASME B31.3, ASME B31.4, ASME B31.8 and CSA Z662. Since 2017, Akter has become a member of the CSA Z662 technical committee.

Akter has been instrumental in completing the development of Acero’s in-house specs to include virtually every combination of piping class and substance that is common to Oil and Gas production/facilities.

Paul Aubuchon has sixteen (16) years of experience in the oil and gas industry; going on six (6) years at Acero. He has been involved in all manner of typical facility projects, including specialization in oil and gas handling, processing, storage and power generation facilities.

Paul has extensive experience in conceptual and detailed engineering developing ProcessDeliverables and managing client expectations. .
Paul remains actively involved in all of Acero’s major projects and critical clients, while also, running the process department – ensuring that resources (digital and human) are available as required for all current and upcoming work.

He graduated from the University of Calgary with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering in 2005 and is registered with APEGA and EGBC

Stephen Kohlman joined the Acero team in early 2014. He is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary. 

He brings with him, over 15 years of electrical engineering experience in the energy industry from various EPCM companies. 

Stephen has a solid understanding and knowledge of electrical engineering CSA, IEEE and IEC procedures, standards, codes and calculations which assists him to perform daily tasks efficiently.

Stephen is the technical go-to resource at Acero for all of the standard scopes of work.