Mr. Overgaard has over thirty years experience in manufacturing, handling, research and development of highly hazardous chemicals. Since 1985 he participated in and led a hazardous materials/fire brigade emergency response team for a large industrial chemical facility. He was project manager for a 1.8 million dollar plant decontamination, decommissioning, demolition project. He invented unique remediation techniques for control and decontamination of highly hazardous chemical materials. He participated as a member of both the steering committee and on-sight responders of Atofina Chemicals nation wide emergency response team (REACTS team). In addision, he held the position of head of security at a Liberty Shield facility. Supervised the design, construction, site preparation and installation of numerous large projects.
Professional Experience:
Mr. Overgaard has thirty-three years of experience in the operation and management of large industrial chemical facilities. The facilities used and manufactured a wide variety of organic and inorganic chemicals, including; chlorine sodium hydroxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen peroxide, anhydrous ammonia, hydrogen, calcium hypochlorite, alkyl mercaptans, ethylene oxide, amines/alkanolamines, alkyl sulfonyl chlorides/alkyl sulfonic acids. He held numerous professional positions, such as shift superintendent, research chemist, quality control and research laboratory supervisor, engineering, environmental, technical, quality and loss control manager. He managed multi million dollar engineering and construction projects. Mr. Overgaard holds nine U.S. and thirteen foreign patents for unique chemical process, operations, synthetic routes and advanced analytical chemistry techniques.
Mr. Overgaard has responded to and managed hazardous emergency incidents including reactive emergencies, railcar emergencies, derailments, compressed gas incidents, plant explosions, fires, and chemical transfers (flammable, poison and corrosive). He developed and implemented advanced railcar mitigation techniques.
Mr. Overgaard participated in the design, construction and successful implementation of the Buffer Zone Protection Plan for a Liberty Shield facility. He worked with state and federal agencies to design, build and implement a perimeter intrusion detection system that utilized microwave intrusion detection, web-based camera system along with high resolution video surveillance. In conjunction with Safer Systems Engineering, he designed, installed, programmed and operated a Safer perimeter emission calculation system. He was a member of the committee, which included Federal and Michigan Homeland Security, to develop and implement protocols for Tier I chemical facilities.
Education and Certifications:
Bachelor of Science Organic Chemistry
Post bachelor work in organo-metallic synthesis
Volunteer fire fighter (two years Redford MI)
Police department civilian advisor
Advanced large project management
OSHA 40 Hour Hazardous Materials Technician - Texas A&M
Advanced Hazardous Materials Emergency Response - Texas A&M
Advanced industrial fire fighting - Texas A&M
Advanced interior and exterior fire fighting - Lambton College
Tank Car Specialist
Confined space and high angle rescue
OSHA Incident Command System
DOT AND IOTA Hazardous Material Transportation
OSHA Risk Assessment
Det Norske Veritas Modern Safety Management
OSHA Mechanical Integrity
OSHA Process Safety Management
OSHA Management of Change
OSHA/MIOSHA Confined Space Supervisor
Trenches and Excavations, Qualified Person
Confined space rescue technician
ARKEMA hazardous materials specialist
Ethylene oxide specialist
Licensed airplane pilot
Professional Associations:
American Chemical Society
