Prior to 1996, Valero Energy was a relative unknown, with one refinery and about 250 employees. However, by betting on heavy, sour crude and making several acquisitions and spinoffs, such as Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. and Premcor, Inc., Valero Energy has become the largest oil refiner in North America, with more than 20,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding $90 billion.

As vice president of systems integration in 1996, Hal Zesch, now Valero Energy's CIO, spearheaded the successful creation and deployment of Valero's enterprise resource planning (ERP) business model using SAP. The system provides the glue that makes Valero, according to Zesch, "one company, one culture, one strategic direction, and one integrated business process focused on achieving that strategic direction."

And, because the market sets the daily price of energy, Kirk Hewitt, Valero's director of reporting and financial systems, says that "the company depends on reliable data to know what's happening in every aspect of the business each day." In fact, business intelligence has helped Valero executives sift quickly through vast amounts of data to more accurately calculate net profit on gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products.

In this interview, Valero's Hal Zesch and Kirk Hewitt talk about the incredible demands made on IT by a large and growing oil refiner, and how IT meets those demands. This includes staying ahead of the compliance curve, implementing effective governance as an important part of aligning IT with the business units, and keeping the energy (and the revenue) flowing in spite of serious, weather-related events. Join us for an opportunity to learn about the IT force that drives an energy giant.

Bio

Hal Zesch serves as vice president and chief information officer of Valero Energy Corp., a $90 billion company that ranks as the largest oil refiner in North America. During his 22 years with the company, Zesch has served as vice president of SAP systems integration, vice president of best business practices, and assistant corporate controller. Prior to Valero, he worked as an audit and consulting manager at Deloitte & Touche, where Valero was one of his clients. Zesch is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin.

Kirk Hewitt is the director of reporting and financial systems at Valero Energy Corp. He has 29 years of oil industry experience and is a certified public accountant. Since 2002, Hewitt has overseen the reporting development at Valero in areas such as Sarbanes-Oxley. During that time, Valero has gone from a $15 billion dollar company to a more than $90 billion company.

Resources

Drilling  Down: Valero Energy Strikes It Rich with BI Tools

Valero Energy

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive  Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show  Host