Advisory Board

Pastor Michael Killagane

Past Board Member

Michael Killagane is a highly regarded has an extensive background in human resource and general management for leading domestic and international organizations operating in Tanzania. He has worked with government, private organizations as well as NGO’s including a Christian NGO. As a self-driven, self-motivated, talented, intelligent, innovative, loyal, trustworthy, and hardworking, Michael can contribute to the fullest in accomplishing organizational objectives. He has a passion for business that provides an opportunity to grow in faith-based service to others, and work as part of a team with people of diverse backgrounds to accomplish strategic objectives. He is a passionate networker and driven by the desire to make a difference and have an impact by the work he does.

Mr. Killagane earned a Bachelor of Public Administration in 2003 from Mzumba University in Morogoro, Tanzania; a Master of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Dodoma in 2010; and a Master of Divinity, (MDiv) from Ministerial Global University in 2021.

Ryan T. Eubank

Senior Advisor, Welding Training, Equipment and Facilities Planner Kirtland, Ohio

Ryan T. Eubank is widely recognized as a top leader in the field of welding instruction. He is a Certified Associate Welding Inspector with more than 26 years’ experience in the welding field. Ryan began his career at Lincoln Electric in 1996 and attended the Lincoln Electric Welding School in 1999. At Lincoln Electric, he served as the lead instructor, training worldwide students who came to his classes in Ohio to learn the latest welding technologies. He is a longtime member of the American Welding Society (AWS). He is an experienced welder and has worked in the capacity of Welding Instructor for the past 22 years. He has consulted on the design and development of over 20 welding school facilities nationwide.

Ryan is a licensed teacher in the state of Ohio in the areas of Industrial Maintenance and Welding. He is a Skills USA advisor and has had students place first in the national competition for the past two years and placed in the top 5 for the past 16 and qualify for the national welding competition for the past 18 years. Ryan has also qualified students to compete for the world welding trials and in 2022 has a student that has been selected to represent the United States in the event in October. In 2018 he was the AWS national educator of the year. In 2022 was the state of Ohio adjunct college teacher of the year.

Ryan consults with nationally recognized organizations as a Subject Matter Expert including but not limited to: Texas A & M; Boy Scouts of America; Lakeland Community College; Cincinnati State University; Experimental Aircraft Association; John Deere; Pennsylvania Institute of Technology; U-Link; Boilermaker’s Union; Electrical Union; Carpenter’s Union; 4-H; US Army; US Air Force Academy; Tulsa Welding School.

Sibusiso Mpapane

Director at GODMK Enterprise (Pty)Ltd Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa

Mr. Sibusiso Mpapane, known as “Sibu”, has over 14 years of experience in construction, specialized welding applications and automation, pipelines and storage tank construction. He started his career at Element Six (PTY) Ltd, as a metallurgical graduate in training, where he was involved in the research and development of synthetic diamond and tungsten carbide super material, focusing on failure investigation and analysis. He was at Element Six for two years. His welding career started when he joined Welding Alloys South Africa (PTY) Ltd, WASA (PTY) Ltd, in 2008. At WASA (PTY) LTD he was involved in the development, application and selling of hardfacing and cladding products, as a technical sales representative. His core clients where mines, sugar mills and steel production industries, there he trained his clients and their welders on the correct application of hardfacing and cladding.

In 2010 he started working for Lincoln Electric, a global welding equipment manufacturer, where he was trained further on welding applications and automation. He was trained at Lincoln Electric (Poland) for gas metal arc welding, Lincoln Electric France for advanced submerged arc welding and cladding, Lincoln Electric USA for advance arc welding, automation and pipe welding. He serviced and trained a number of Lincoln Electric clients in the Southern Africa Region, i.e., Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland and east coast of South Africa including the mines, sugar mills and automotive industries.

As a welding superintendent, in 2013 Sibu moved to Steval Engineering, a company that was involved in heavy engineering fabrication, construction of fuel storage tanks, power generation construction, and mining plant construction. He managed welding on several projects including some in Mozambique, DRC and South Africa. One of his highlights at Steval Engineering was to lead the team that built the first and biggest two LPG spheres in the southern hemisphere, using an automatized flux core process and achieving a 0.5% failure rate, on 100% x-rays, in just 6 months.

In 2016 he started his own business called GODMK ENTERPRISE (PTY) LTD, which specializes in welding, fabrication, and construction. The business has vast experience in tank fabrication, pipe welding, construction, structural steel fabrication and erection. GODMK ENTERPRISE also specializes in labor hire of specialized welders and well experienced artisans, boilermakers, and pipe fitters.

Sibu has been growing GODMK ENTERPRISE (PTY) LTD from strength to strength.

George G. Hlifka

Welding Engineer, Senior Welding Inspector and Welder

George G. Hlifka attended Lincoln Electric Welding School and began his career as a construction welder. It was there that he developed the passion for building things, specifically things requiring welding. He is proficient with GTAW, GMAW, SMAW, FCAW and SAW processes.

The desire to learn all that he could about welding pushed him to continue his education to become a welding engineer and graduate from the Ohio State University with a BS in Welding Engineering.

George also pursued additional training in vocational education, numerous Codes such as the ASME B&PV code, ASME power and process piping codes. He is an AWS Senior Certified Welding

Inspector with the ASME B31.1, B31.3 and AWS D1.5 endorsements. George is a member of several AWS Certification and Qualification committees and has been an active member of AWS for 30 years. He previously served on Lakeland Community Colleges welding advisory committee.

George’s welding career has given him the opportunity to see how welding is managed outside the US, having worked in South Africa, Brazil, Dubai, South Korea, and Japan, where he received the George Westinghouse Signature project of the year award. He enjoys assisting others with their welding questions and is often reached out to and consulted with in the industry.

George recently retired from the Perry Nuclear Power Plant where he was a Consulting Engineer, responsible for the welding and repair/replacement programs.

Waylon Whitehead

Managing Director, sCurve Solutions

Mr. Whitehead has over twenty years of experience in Project Management, Risk Management, Construction, Fabrication, and Project Controls leadership on upstream, midstream, and downstream projects – both onshore and offshore. He has significant experience with both mid- and large-scale LNG processes across the full life cycle of projects. He has worked for Conoco Phillips, and Anadarko Petroleum on the Mozambique LNG Project, the largest LNG project on the African Continent at the time. Waylon is a graduate of the University of Houston where he received dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and government, and economics.

He also attended the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University where he received a certificate in global energy leadership, with the following areas of emphasis:

Energy Strategy Formulation
Execution & Change Management
Innovation & Managing Disruption
Leading Data-Driven Energy Corporations
Financial Decision Making
Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Global Leadership