Jillian Cooper has over 30 years of experience in materials engineering, with a focus on refractory materials. She has worked in both industrial and research settings, gaining expertise in refractory material selection, installation, and performance monitoring for heavy industrial processes. Her career highlights include improving campaign lengths and reducing costs at New Zealand Steel through refractory and process changes. She also has experience researching advanced ceramic materials and refractories for new steelmaking processes. Currently, she works as a business development manager providing refractory expertise and engineering services to industries in Australia and New Zealand.

1. CURRICULUM VITAE
JILLIAN WENDY COOPER
PERSONAL DETAILS
Name: Jillian Wendy Cooper
Address: 10B Locke Ave., Hillsborough, Auckland
Phone: 09 625 8021 (H) 021 211 9969 (M)
Email: cooperj@xtra.co.nz
Marital Status: Married, 1 child (12years old)
OVERVIEW:
 An extremely experienced Materials Engineer in heavy industrial environments in
both shut down and production situations. A high level of safety awareness as
required for these environments.
 Not afraid to get my hands and everything else dirty
 A great communicator at all levels.
 Experience in high temperature processing, particularly in refractory lined vessels
 Extensive knowledge of refractory/metals slag interactions and able to provide
materials selection advice for most high temperature process environments.
EDUCATION
Victorian Higher School Certificate (1981)
Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Zoology, Monash University Melbourne (1986)
Post Graduate Diploma in Materials Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne (1994)
CAREER HISTORY

2. March 2014 – December 2016
Business Development Manager, Palmer Technologies
Provide professional engineering services to industry throughout Australia and New
Zealand with particular expertise in respect of refractory materials.
Undertake client relations, promote the business, assist with on-site services and identify
new business opportunities.
I participated in the turnaround of Ballance, Ammonia Plant at Kapuni in February/March
2016 providing Refractory Expertise and Quality Assurance whilst liaising other
contractors, Fitzroy Engineering, SGS and Stebbins. This was an extremely successful
project with the project completed under time and under budget and with high quality
refractory installations.
I have developed working relationships and conducted site visits to Refining New
Zealand, BHP Olympic Dam, BlueScope Steel New Zealand Steel and Port Kembla
Steelworks, Arrium Whyalla Steelworks, Golden Bay Cement, Fitzroy Engineering and
Pyrotek New Zealand.
1995-2005
Senior Engineer (Refractories) BlueScope New Zealand Steel
 Responsible for all aspects of Refractory materials selection, installation and
performance monitoring for slabmaking, the finishing plants and ironmaking. The
position could be described as having three main functions
Supply of Refractory Materials
Liaising with suppliers to ensure appropriate and cost effective materials
selection. I worked with the supply department on price negotiation with
suppliers, materials scheduling and inventory control.
Provision of Refractory Design Expertise
I was heavily involved in refractory lining design and construction with the
suppliers to develop the most cost effective designs. I developed drawings and

3. construction plans and oversaw the installation to ensure the quality of the
finished lining.
Input into Production Scheduling and Parameters
Once the linings were in service, I then worked closely with the production
engineers and steelmaking operators to ensure that the process supported the
refractory linings to achieve their performance criteria. This included effecting in-
service repairs to the linings. I was also involved in setting materials budgets and
tracking our performance against them.
I worked primarily within a manufacturing team consisting of process, production
and mechanical engineers. Any problems in the plant were approached as a
team of equal stakeholders and, as a result, I became intimately involved with all
aspects of the process from raw materials delivery to the final output of steel.
This manufacturing team was so successful at improving the output of the main
steelmaking vessel that we were invited to give a special presentation to the
Senior Management Team explain our success.
I was involved in the planning and execution of many plant shutdowns including 6
kiln shuts, 2 melter shuts, 100 steel plant shuts, 3 metal coating line shuts and a
pipe mill shut. In all of these shutdowns I was involved in determining the scope
of work, ensuring the supply of material supported the repairs required,
supervision of the workforce and providing quality assurance and sign off on the
repaired vessels.
 Slabmaking representative on the Hazardous Substances Committee
 Responsible for ensuring that all materials being brought into the Slabmaking Plant
complied with HSNO Act. Compiled a map detailing the location and storage facilities
for all Hazardous Materials in the Slabmaking Plant. Involved in setting up spill plans
and incident investigations of spills when they occurred.
Highlights:
 I was a key member of KOBM Manufacturing team. The KOBM is the
steelmaking furnace for New Zealand Steel and all steel manufactured is
processed through the furnace. Through changes in operational and refractory

4. practices we were able to increase the campaign life from 5- 6 weeks to 7 and 8
week campaigns whilst still driving the lining costs down and improving plant
reliability.
 The refractory costs for New Zealand Steel were reduced substantially during my
employment due to a combination of cheaper/better materials selection, better
unit performance and better monitoring practices.
 Presenting a paper at the Conference of Refractory Engineers on the
construction changes in the KOBM furnace at New Zealand Steel which enabled
this improvement in performance.
 I was very actively involved in improving our safety performance and our
department achieved a massive reduction in all injury and lost time injury
frequency due to our rigorous auditing and hazard identification.
 The successful completion of plant shutdowns on time and under budget were
also career highlights.
1989-1995
Scientist - BHP Research Laboratories, Melbourne
 Research into advanced ceramic materials.
 Researching novel refractories for new steelmaking processes.
 Researching aging behaviour in low cement castables
I was primarily employed to research the possibility of producing high quality zirconia
toughened alumina ceramics at low cost. I developed the processes of mixing and
treating the raw materials and spray drying the resultant slurry in a cyclonic chamber to
produce a free flowing powder containing sub-micron sized zirconia and alumina grains

5. which could then be easily pressed and sintered into a high strength, wear resistant
product.
When the project was discontinued, I then carried out research into refractories for thin
strip casting. In particular, I was interested in the wettability of refractory materials by
molten steel and slag as this was a major factor determining the length of cast that could
be achieved.
I also conducted research into the setting behaviour of low cement castables and how
this was influenced by environmental factors. This research was initiated by BHP
Refractories as they were experiencing problems with the performance of their products
on installation. The research uncovered a three way chemical reaction between the silica
fume, the dispersants and moisture which was occurring during storage resulting in
extended set times.
Highlights:
 Successfully setting up a pilot plant to manufacture zirconia toughed alumina
ceramics. The results were presented at the Zirconia V International Ceramics
Conference in 1992. BHP ultimately decided not to pursue the area of advanced
ceramics manufacture.
 Determining the best refractory materials to support thin strip casting of steel.
 Viewing the first successful production of thin cast steel strip at BHP Research
Laboratories. This was possibly the first successful cast in the world.
1986 - 1989
CSIRO - Division of Materials Science and Technology
 Research and development of advanced ceramic materials including zirconia-
toughened non-oxide materials and zirconia ceramics for use in oxygen sensors.
I manufactured these materials from the raw powders into mechanical test
pieces, measured their properties and reported the results at several conferences
and in Materials Engineering journals.

6. Professional Memberships
Member, Institute of Refractory Engineers (2002-2007)
OTHER COMPETENCIES
 Computer skills including MS applications and Xero
 Experience in operating all manner of analytical equipment, especially DTA, TGA,
SEM TEM, XRD.
 Kepner Tregoe Problem Analysis
 Extensive Du Pont Safety Awareness training
 Hazardous Substances Training
 Incident Investigation Training
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Volunteer – OMG Tech Rangers- introducing STEM subjects to disadvantaged children.
Carpentry – I design and build furniture from recycled native timbers
Volunteer pest control in Waikowhai Park for Auckland City Council
Windsurfing – I am a sponsored team rider for Naish Windsurfing
Past Treasurer, Point Chevalier Sailing Club
REFEREES
Dr Greg Palmer
Managing Director

7. Palmer Technologies
(617) 3852 4448
Mr. William Balfour,
Refractories Manager,
Blue Scope New Zealand Steel
(09) 375 8999