Name: James Kappel
Age: 41
Position: Vice president, refinery operations, Tesoro Hawaii
First job: Gas station attendant, New York City
Favorite pastimes: Tennis, time with family
James Kappel supervises Tesoro Hawaii's refinery in Campbell Industrial Park and 220 employees. Tesoro bought BHP Hawaii in May and recently announced new senior managers. Kappel came to Hawaii 14 years ago, after Chevron USA transfered him from Perth Amboy, N.J. Refining the operation
at Tesoro Hawaii"They sent me here on business and later I moved over to BHP Hawaii because I liked Hawaii as a place to live," Kappel said. "The people and the climate are great."
He has 20 years of industry refinery experience and most recently was BHP Hawaii's refinery maintenance manager. Kappel joined the refinery as its operations manager in February 1991 and the following year was named technical manager.
Kappel is past vice chairman of both the Clean Islands Council, an oil spill response cooperative, and the Hawaii Pipeline Corrosion Control Committee.
By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin