Wolfgang Alan Dempsey's career started with an apprenticeship in the Royal Navy before moving onto Nuclear Submarines.  As a Charge Chief responsible for the maintenance of propulsion equipment, nuclear systems and hotel services he was also a senior nuclear chief of the watch in a senior role for operation of the nuclear steam raising plant on a variety of submarines. In his naval roles, he gained a lot of experience in the management of personnel, quality and maintenance including planning and managing overhaul periods for submarines. Wolfy graduated late in life in 2000 from Glasgow Caledonian with a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering with Electronic Systems. He left the navy and UK in 2002 to pursue a career down under as the Reliability and Rotating Equipment Engineer at the New Zealand Refining Company, New Zealand’s only refinery. While in New Zealand, he gained experience in typical pumps and compressors used in the petrochemical industry. The reliability at the refinery is one of the best in the Asia Pacific group of refineries and to improve on that has been a significant challenge.  The refinery supported Wolfy through a Masters from Monash University in Maintenance and Reliability engineering. Significant challenges ahead include the roll out of a significant project to not only improve and sustain the current high reliability and integrity at the refinery but to improve and develop a strategy for functional safety management, major accident hazards management and operational excellence. These studies all involve and revolve around people; many of the reliability challenges at the refinery have involved people. As a result of this, Wolfy is now studying for a graduate diploma in psychology hoping to achieve ultimately a Masters degree in psychology. Wolfgang Alan Dempsey, Reliability and Rotating Equipment Engineer, The New Zealand Refining Company Marsden Point, Private Bag 9024, Whangarei New Zealand can be reached at tel. +64-9-4328311 extn 8710   fax. +64-9-4328035  mob +64-212722512