Robin Lowery, Process Automation Engineer

Robin Lowery - Process Automation Engineer

Robin has more than 20 years experience in automation engineering with several companies in North Carolina. After graduating from North Carolina State University, he worked as a process engineer and area leader with Weyerhaeuser Paper Company in Plymouth, NC.   While working on his master’s degree at NCSU in January 2000, he joined Bayer Corporation in Clayton, NC as an automation engineer on a major production line expansion. After completing his master’s degree he continued working with Bayer until 2004, when he joined Wyeth (now Pfizer) Biotech in Sanford, NC as a senior automation engineer. Robin was responsible for providing automation support for the commissioning and qualification of Wyeth’s full scale development facility. After three years with Wyeth, Robin’s entrepreneurial drive led him to join Castle Hill Technologies, Inc. (CHT), and for the past ten years he has helped CHT provide engineering consulting support for NC-based biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. Robin was named operations Manager of CHT’s NC office in 2014.   

Jay Pritchett, Director

Jay Pritchett, Director

Jay has more than 30 years of engineering, operations, and maintenance supervision experience with chemical, environmental, nuclear, pharmaceutical/biotech, power/cogeneration, and pulp & paper companies in the conceptual design, engineering, construction, start-up, commissioning, validation and maintenance of electrical and process control systems. His specific experience includes control system architecture design; control system program design, implementation, commissioning, and validation; operator interface design and implementation for both continuous and batch processes; cybersecurity program implementation; commercial nuclear design and modification of safety and non-safety systems; mission critical system development; electrical and instrumentation design of process and material-handling systems; electrical distribution systems for commercial and industrial environments; fire protection systems; packaging systems; bio-pharmaceutical process systems; building management systems; control center and network operations center design; HVAC systems; laboratories and laboratory systems; and construction management in pharmaceutical/biotech environments, heavy industrial, and commercial installations. Jay is also a licensed professional engineer and a licensed electrical contractor. 

Chris Osmeña, Principal Engineer

Chris Osmeña, Principal Engineer

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and has more than 15 years of experience providing process automation and process engineering services to the pharmaceutical and food industries. Chris is an accomplished process automation engineer and is proficient in DeltaV and Foxboro I/A applications. He has served as an owner’s representative engineer for pharmaceutical biologics facilities for more than seven years and has provided project engineering and manufacturing engineering activities. Chris is an accomplished pharmaceutical engineer with expertise in automation and process operations for both upstream and downstream operations.

Mark Brameyer, Automation Project Manager

Mr. Brameyer has over 28 years of automation experience with 12 years of experience in leading the automation design and integration for large capital projects in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. Mark has experience overseeing integration teams on complex multi-faceted projects.   Mark also has significant experience with the regulatory requirements and practices of the pharmaceutical industry and has extensive experience with developing automation related specifications, and standard operating procedures for this industry.

Georgianna Holmes, Director of Business Operations

Ms. Holmes serves are the Director of Operations for Castle Hill Technologies overseeing the day-to-day management of the company.  She ensures that CHT is a well-coordinated and successful firm by developing, documenting, and managing all processes and employees facilitating the growth and success of each CHT individual and CHT client.  Georgianna’s management and leadership skills play a key role in making sure that the company goals are met.  She is also experienced in managing projects in various organizations and is accustomed to adapting to the clients’ tools and processes.  Georgianna’s experience includes project initiatives on both the process and automation sides of a facility.  This includes product transfers, 300+ Automation Change Controls, and Document Management of over 400 specification documents.  She has experience working across various support groups within the pharmaceutical business including QA, Validation, Engineering, and procurement.

Jason Young, Senior Automation Engineer

Jason Young, Senior Automation Engineer

DeltaV Senior Systems Engineer (23+ years) with experience in legacy systems conversion projects and direct site services to Merck in the Carolinas. Work well within a regulated cGMP environment and continually strive to find solutions to increase productivity and consistency in all areas of Engineering and Production.

Has been given the opportunity to grow into a leadership role with an organization that supports a healthy and safe environment both for the corporation and professionally.

Specialties: Direct customer relations, Systems Configuration and Design, Systems Validation, Systems Testing and Process Simulation. Primary systems are RS3 and DeltaV.

Bill Landahl, Sr. Automation Project Engineer

Mr. Landahl has 15 years of experience in the design, application, and integration of PLC control systems, HMI and SCADA systems and DCS control systems. He is experienced with the regulatory requirements and practices of the pharmaceutical industry and has extensive experience with the writing of User and Functional Requirement Specifications, Design Specifications, and Standard Operating Procedures for this industry. Bill holds a Master of Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Degree and a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from North Carolina State University.

John McNeish, Sr. Project Manager

PMP certified project manager that has successfully executed engineering design projects in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. The foundation of my experience is an Electrical Engineering degree and an Automation and Instrumentation Certificate. Projects executed require a firm understanding of scope management, work breakdown structures, budget management, scheduling, commissioning and qualification activities, risk analysis, document life cycle, and design reviews.


Key attributes of my project experience: planning is critical, change must be managed, quality built in, good communication, and the project executed with deliberate and clear direction.

Natalie Pulley, Business Operations Manager

Natalie has 29 years of combined experience and support in the disciplines of Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Staff Management, Change Management, Scheduling, and Planning. Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable. Although today her primary focus is on the AR/AP responsibilities of Castle Hill, Natalie continues to provide Castle Hill and our clients with the necessary skills and experience to support and promote our company as the premier provider of services. She is detailed oriented and her strong communication, organization, and self-motivation skills make her a valuable part of the CHT family.

Dan Santarsiero, Director BD/Sr. Project Manager

A passionate professional specializing in developing, managing, and leading effective multidisciplinary teams to success. Experienced in the fields of quality control, compliance, manufacturing, laboratory operations, organizational design, and resource management. Capable of motivating and leading others efficiently by focusing on accountability and responsibility towards business projects and targeted goals. Highly motivated to produce results and exceed expectation.

Rick Merritt, Automation Engineering

Rick Merritt, Automation Engineering

Rick has more than 20 years of automation, project engineering, and commissioning experience. His automation experience includes design, design review, programming, implementation, and testing for pharmaceutical and commercial applications. System experience include building automation systems, and manufacturing automation systems (both PLC and DCS) found throughout pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. System specifics include clean utilities, plant utilities, HVAC systems, particle monitoring systems, and commodity processing systems. He has project engineering experience to include project design review, specification review, electrical/PLC control panel design review, vendor submittal review, installation supervision, software performance testing, and has served as a customer representative for all phases of both new construction and building retrofits to provide vendor oversight and coordination with general contractors, engineers of record, and customers.

Rick’s commissioning experience includes protocol generation and protocol execution both at vendor sites (FAT) and customer sites (SAT, IQ, OQ) in order to demonstrate compliance per specifications. Additional experience includes startup of skid-based and distributed systems, troubleshooting of systems using applicable meters and diagnostic tools, testing of multiple bus systems (Profibus, BacNet, ModBus, etc.), and managing the installation and testing of Ethernet communication systems.

Trevor Burns, Automation Engineering

Trevor Burns, Automation Engineering

Trevor has 20 years experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing, beginning with seven years of design and supervisory experience in pharmaceutical vessel fabrication. Since then, Trevor has engineered, programmed, tested, and performed troubleshooting on various process and utility systems for the pharmaceutical industry. He has managed automation project teams and been responsible for bringing plants online according to project schedules and budgets. An experienced engineer, Trevor is comfortable operating, troubleshooting, and qualifying upstream and downstream processing equipment, such as chromatography equipment, centrifuges, and preparation vessels for biotech processes, as well as the utilities required to support them. Trevor also has expertise with data historian systems and design, and can provide guidance in developing data collection strategies for site operations. His programming background includes expertise in the Emerson DeltaV system and configuration experience with OSI process intelligence (PI). 

Saurabh Deshmukh, Automation Engineering

Saurabh Deshmukh, Automation Engineering

Saurabh has more than eight years of experience as an automation engineer, including commissioning of instruments and control systems, operations support, and managing electrical and automation activities involving multiple projects in the pharmaceutical, cement and mineral industries. Saurabh has expertise in control system & instrumentation design, execution and commissioning of process instruments, networking components, controls/DCS systems, electrical MF/LV variable frequency drives, servos and SCL safety relays. He is proficient in SQL/ORACLE database management system, scripting languages VB and Python. His other areas of expertise include system virtualization, computer system validation, lean manufacturing and design for Six Sigma. As an automation engineer with Castle Hill Technologies, Saurabh supports projects in fields of manufacturing, controls and process optimization. He is an ASQ-certified Six Sigma Green Belt professional and holds a masters degree in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University.

Aaron Corder, CQV Engineering

Aaron Corder.jpg

Aaron Corder, CQV Engineering

Aaron has more than 25 years of experience performing programming, commissioning, validation, and qualification activities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries at every level including project management, validation technical lead, and engineering support. In these roles, he has programmed and commissioned HVAC systems, building management systems, SCADA, and process automated systems involving several types of industrial packages. He has both led and supported the design, construction, commissioning, and validation phases of many large scale projects. He has authored requirements, specifications, protocols and procedure documents for the use and operation of those systems within the regulated industries, in addition to scheduling and reporting as part of his project management portfolio.