CITGO appoints Jerry Dunn to succeed Art Klein as Refining VP

CITGO Petroleum Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., has appointed Jerry Dunn as the company’s new vice president of Refining effective March 4, 2022.

Dunn, who succeeds Art Klein, who will retire after more than 40 years of service, previously served as vice president and general manager of the Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex, a position he has held since 2018. He will oversee operations at the company’s three refineries located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lemont, Illinois, and Corpus Christi, Texas, in the United States. 

In addition to the three refineries, CITGO wholly and/or jointly owns 38 active terminals, six pipelines and three lubricants blending and packaging plants. With approximately 3,300 employees and a combined crude capacity of approximately 769,000 barrels-per-day (bpd), CITGO is ranked as the fifth-largest, and one of the most complex independent refiners in the United States. 

CITGO also named Sterling Neblett, currently general manager of Engineering and Business Services at the CITGO Lemont Refinery, to replace Dunn as vice president and general manager at Lake Charles. Succeeding Neblett at the Lemont Refinery is Renee Atkins, currently Corpus Christi Area Manager East Plant II.

“Jerry Dunn has been an outstanding leader at CITGO Lake Charles, overseeing outstanding operational performance and safely guiding the complex through many challenges, including multiple hurricanes and COVID-19,” said CITGO President and CEO Carlos Jordá. “His experience and dedication to operational excellence will prove valuable across the entire CITGO operating footprint.” 

Dunn joined the CITGO Lake Charles Refinery in 1989 as a project engineer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Neblett returns to the Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex, where he began his CITGO career after graduating with a chemical engineering degree from the University of Arkansas in 1990. He has served as general manager of Engineering and Business Services at the CITGO Lemont Refinery since August of 2021, after having held a series of engineering leadership roles at the corporate level and the Lake Charles Refinery.

Atkins also began her career at the CITGO Lake Charles Refinery after graduating as a chemical engineer from Louisiana Tech University in 2004. After working in various engineering roles within the Lake Charles Refinery, in 2016 she transferred to the Corpus Christi Refinery as area manager.

In addition, CITGO recently named Joe Carroll as chief information officer (CIO). Carroll leads one of the largest organizations at the corporate headquarters, and has responsibility for IT, Information Security and a portion of the company’s Operational Technology. 

Carroll began his CITGO career in 1994 as a systems engineer and held several IT managerial positions before being named general manager, IT and Information Security in 2019. Along the way he also earned several professional certifications and currently serves as a director on Oklahoma State University’s Computer Science Industry Advisory Board and on the University of Houston’s Gutierrez Energy Management Institute.

Carroll holds an MBA from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Oklahoma State University.