XPE Research Advisory Board

Adam Batz

Executive Vice President, Fike Services Group, Fike Corporation

Adam Batz has a diverse background spanning over two decades in various leadership and managerial roles in industrial safety, investment banking, and branded consumer products.

Fike Corporation is the largest manufacturer of explosion vent panels in the U.S. Currently serving as the executive vice president of the Fike Services Group, Batz was instrumental in creating Fike’s Consultancy Group, which offers comprehensive services across Fike’s product lines. Fike Services Group also includes the Global Field Services team which offers global factory direct service and support to Fike products wherever they are installed.

Batz has been a member of Fike’s Board of Directors since December 2012. His roles with Fike Corporation have included test and validation, new product development, marketing, and national sales manager for strategic accounts, where he provided leadership and developed growth strategies for strategic corporate accounts, including Fike's OEM sales channel.

Batz holds a bachelor of science in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Hubert Biteau

Senior Technical Advisor, Code Red Consultants

Hubert Biteau, PhD, is a senior technical advisor with Code Red Consultants. His expertise focuses on the evaluation of fire and explosion hazards and the development of suitable mitigation solutions for a wide range of industries and applications. He has gained extensive experience with fire and explosion risk assessments related to battery technologies and battery systems, including energy storage systems (ESS). Biteau has developed, conducted and analyzed fire testing to characterize the thermal and chemical behavior of materials at various scales. 

Biteau earned his doctorate degree in fire safety engineering from the University of Edinburgh (UK) and has a master’s degree in civil engineering from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne (France). He is an NFPA Technical Committee member for NFPA 855 (Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems), NFPA 461 (Standard for Fire Protection of Spaceport Facilities), and a co-author of the chapter “BLEVEs and Fireballs” in the fifth edition of the SFPE Handbook.

Andreas Brandl

Chief Technology Officer, IEP Technologies

Andreas Brandl currently serves as the chief technology officer at IEP Technologies in Marlborough, Mass., where his professional endeavors concentrate on industrial explosion protection. With an extensive background in the oil and gas services industry, Brandl brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the realm of safety and risk management. In addition to his executive responsibilities, he is a member of the NFPA Technical Committee responsible for developing the Standard for Combustible Dusts (NFPA 660). Brandl earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology, in Austria, and his MBA at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University.

Trygve Skjold

Associate Professor of Process Safety, University of Bergen (UiB), Norway

Trygve Skjold is associate professor of process safety at the University of Bergen (UiB), in Norway. His research interests include dust and gas explosions, including hydrogen safety and strength of knowledge in risk assessments. Skjold is the scientific director at HySchool, the Norwegian research school on hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels, and chair of the International Organizing Committee for the International Symposium on Hazards, Prevention and Mitigation of Industrial Explosions (ISHPMIE).