Michael McFadden joined IPA in 2000 and currently serves as Director of the Product Development Group (PDG) at IPA. In this role, he directs the day-to-day activities and develops long-term plans for the PDG. Before becoming Director of the PDG in 2010, Michael was the Regional Director of North America for IPA. Prior to that position, he was the Manager of IPA's Global Refining and Petrochemicals Business Area. Michael has also been responsible for IPA's Industry Benchmarking Consortium Conference since 2004.
As a Project Analyst, Mike focused on evaluating refining process projects. He led numerous benchmarking efforts and has conducted over 100 individual analyses of capital projects. He also led research to understand the drivers of project performance during periods of labor shortages as well as the common drivers of the truly best projects.
Before joining IPA, Mike worked for more than fourteen years in the paper and chemical industries in research and product development. In these roles he published numerous articles and presentations and holds two U.S. and European patents. Mike earned a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Chemical Engineering also from the University of Virginia.