- 26.09.2023

Introducing our staff spotlight series where every few weeks we’ll be shining a light on the people behind Leighton O’Brien who make the company tick. Read on!
I’m the Global Engineering Director at LOB. I oversee the full product development lifecycle of our Field Technologies portfolio which includes designing new tank and line testing and cleaning equipment and overseeing existing equipment, maintenance and construction.
The majority of what I do involves transforming our CEO Reed Leighton’s vision for the company into commercially viable, go-to-market solutions in a timely manner that meet the required certifications and fulfill our customers’ needs.
The key challenge is designing a product for conditions in the real world. It’s ok for the equipment to work in a laboratory environment and achieve good results, but in the field there are many other factors that can influence and affect a result. It’s crucial for the equipment to work well under all types of conditions and achieve accurate results for our technicians and partners worldwide.
The best part about my job is seeing our solutions achieve the correct results and outcomes for our technicians, partners and customers. It’s rewarding when a partner comes up to me at a trade show and says, “My guys love it.”
The advances in technology over the last 20 years are amazing – when you think about the acceleration of technology, the internet, data speeds and ability to solve issues online in real time no matter where you are in the world.
With technology advances, we can literally see a live tank or line test and the leak rate on screen anywhere in the world.
Another huge industry development has been the change from steel tanks and lines to composite/flexible systems. It makes testing more complex due to flexibility of these systems, which makes the maths more complex when determining a volumetric leak rate.
Our line test, called the PM2, because it’s beautiful in its simplicity and works very well – and it’s the world’s most accurate test. Our technicians get instantaneous feedback on site when doing a line test and they know ‘it just works’ – they can accurately see a real-time leak.
That’s a tough one but I would go with Peter Garret, Nelson Mandela and Ayrton Senna.
“What are you waiting for?” By that I mean just go and do it. It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees.