WP. Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
APAC Growth Play | Building High Performing Team | Leadership Agility & Adaptability Subsea Controls, Automation, Engineering | Project Execution & Sustainability Sankara is an APAC Regional Leader for Subsea Controls & Automation Engineering and Project Execution with over 27 years of experience in various industry verticals like Power, Chemical and upstream oil and gas industry in the Asia Pacific region. He has consistently build winning mindset for his high performing teams and delivered stellar track record in leading the business growth and effective business operation in different location like Singapore and Malaysia within Asia. In the course of recent 13 year extensive career in the Upstream oil & gas Subsea Production System projects, Sankara has been involved in tender, Front End Engineering Design study, Engineering Management, Product Management, Engineering & Package Management execution, setting up sustainable self- sufficient execution teams, business development, business operation, and project management. Multiple stakeholders were assured of his inspirational leadership, trusted building capabilities and stable hands in managing complex issues and projects. With courage, humility and discipline, his cross-business, cross-functional collaboration accelerated business development growth, cash and cost management, portfolio management while handling NOCs, resolving business operational complications, complex project management, and executions. Prior to this role, Sankara was the Controls & Automation Product Manager operating from Singapore handling tender, engineering, project execution and maintenance of major product’s servicing etc at TechnipFMC in Singapore. In his earlier career, Sankara was working as Lead Executive Engineer from Yokogawa Electric Asia Singapore. He was the Lead Project Engineer for one of the huge refinery of ARAMCO to have its first major automation package for Refinery-A of Petro-Rabigh where this kind of programmed execution was implemented and executed successfully in record time reliably and profitably. Sankara earned his B.Tech., from Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University He majored in Instrumentation Technology and majored Mathematics and earned Bachelor of Science from Madras University. He is in the process of considering an Executive Master program in the near future.
Challenged to set up and lead the team of 7 different competencies required to support Tender & Project Execution in APAC region and to support services organization as necessary during their commissioning activities. Successful in setting up a team in KualaLumpur to handle Controls scope engineering and project execution for around 4~5 projects of 50 m$ worth of Controls scope every year and support tender and after-market services Developed a Team comprising of around 50~60% of local resources to make it very sustainable, self – sufficient, efficient, and mostly independent to achieve thorough internal and external customer satisfaction. Improved talent caliber (internal & external) to adapt execution model changes, constantly coached the team for maintaining the battery limits pertaining to their scope and fully engaging on their training needs to execute beyond excellence.
Worked as Complete In command of Controls & Automation Product Line that includes Tender execution, Engineering cum Project Execution, Controls workshop for refurbishing major Control products and supporting Subsea Services organization during pre & post commissioning activities. Worked on a well laid execution strategy in having and implemented excellent Flawless Tender execution using a clear zero-defect process that completely eliminates Tender stage misses, allowing the PMs to make a very efficient execution that works towards savings on the cost budget. Drove Pre-Investment Engineering and Long Lead Items purchase strategy supporting Project team’s commitment in meeting the client schedule irrespective of their delayed Purchase decision, that improves customer retention.
Implemented On Time Delivery of Engineering document completion that was effectively used as a KPI for evaluating engineering performance and also worked on few of “Impact Quality” projects during Tender stage Engineering for eliminating misses and during project execution while evaluating the comments on the documents that is often the main hindrance for getting Engineering document approval and its closure. Effectively worked on implementing mentor-mentee arrangement for the identified Engineering Hi-Potentials for building their career and also in achieving Talent pipeline for the region; Also implemented inter-department transfers to Service organization for 1~2 years for gaining experience and be back in to Design Engineering. Performed a comprehensive market assessment around headcount, reducing headcount by 10%. Also effectively introduced new roles like Lead Engineer cum Package Manager kind of combo role that really fits in some individuals well to identify their future path and also to satisfy the brown field opportunity demands that doesn’t really require 2 separate HCs for execution.
Totally impressed Chevron’s project team (internal cost efficiency of 30%) for a very efficient and well-planned Controls scope execution on Wheatstone project both in terms of cost as well as schedule. Secured Chevron’s confidence on APAC Controls team as prior to this all the Chevron projects were executed either from Norway or from Houston. Trust and Transparency were the real secret behind this achievement together with Technical insightfulness coupled with strict adherence to engineering processes during execution. Certificate of Appreciation for the successful execution of Subsea Controls scope of Wheatstone project from General Manager (Subsea - APAC) received
Timely submission of documents and clear management on interface requirements and collaboration with Client and suppliers on a highest order resulted in timely execution of ENI-Kitan project. Kitan project was the first full-fledged Subsea Production System Project that was executed from Singapore successfully within 12~14 months