Meet the executive leading the Midwest’s largest refinery

Since the Whiting refinery opened in Northwest Indiana nearly 140 years ago, it has become one of America’s biggest refineries – and bp’s largest in the world.

Every day, the Whiting refinery produces an astonishing amount of energy for the Midwest: about 10 million gallons of gasoline, 4 million gallons of diesel fuel, and 2 million gallons of jet fuel for airports like Detroit and Chicago. The refinery is a critical part of bp’s business and, with more than 1,300 employees, an example of how the company is investing in America.

Leading the Whiting refinery into its next chapter is Chris DellaFranco. He became the refinery’s top executive in summer 2024 after more than two decades at ExxonMobil. DellaFranco, 45 years old, grew up in suburban Philadelphia, studied engineering at Pennsylvania State University, and earned an MBA from Tulane University. In a recent interview, he shared insights on the role of America’s refineries, safety, leadership, inclusion, and what institutions like Whiting must do to build trust with neighboring communities.

Here’s an edited excerpt:

1. How’d you get into the energy industry?

It’s probably more luck than anything else. As a kid, I took apart everything in the house. In school I wasn’t good in English or history. Engineering was my path when I got to college. When I graduated, the economy was bad – this was right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. I only had one job offer, and it was for ExxonMobil to move down to New Orleans.

I got into the refining business and loved it. I was an engineer supporting different parts of the refinery, with my first role in offsites and the tank field. I worked my way up through other engineering roles, and then spent time in the mechanical, operations and procurement departments. The nice part about starting off at a small plant was I got to dabble in a whole bunch of stuff. It was a great balance of not only solving technical problems but running a business and leading a team.

2. What's the most surprising thing you've learned since you came to bp?

Every refinery has great people who have a lot of passion for the facility, a lot of pride for the community, and a lot of pride in the work they do. They’re very intelligent, capable. Every refinery I've worked at has similar challenges: Aging infrastructure, trying to find a way to get competitive, trying to find ways to offset inflation, trying to find ways to compete on the global market. It's no longer, “you're just supplying energy to your backyard.”

3. What’s the key to building trust with the refinery’s neighboring communities?

The refinery cannot be a black box to the community. We have to pull back the veil. We have to show the community who we are, what we do, and we have to build partnerships with the communities that we operate in.  We need to secure Whiting as a place that generations in the community can thrive and partner with.

Now for Whiting, we operate in three different communities here in Northwest Indiana: the city of Whiting, East Chicago, and Hammond. Some of the things we've been doing to build trust include giving advanced notifications when we have major maintenance activities – people can understand why we’ve suddenly got 3,000 contractors working at the refinery. We were up front with neighbors about a recent maintenance event, so they had time to find alternative routes to avoid traffic.

We recently hosted about 40 community leaders and residents. It gave us a chance to share with them some of what we’ve been doing, and to learn from them. We’ve also planted trees in the neighborhoods around the refinery. There are about 1,300 bp employees here, and each of us can be volunteers in the community.

We continue to be impressed with our workforce development program at Ivy Tech Community College. Leveraging the students that come out of Ivy Tech is so powerful, because we’re building a legacy for people – for their kids, and their grandkids, to have a place to work.

4. Running a refinery is an extremely complex role. How do you keep it all together?

We need to run safely and reliably, and we need to meet our obligations to the government for both environmental and fuels regulations. That's it. That's the basics of how we run an effective refinery.

We're in a commodity business, and the commodity business goes through waves. And so, you need to figure out how you stay competitive in that commodity business. That's the business side. The piece I think we sometimes don't spend enough time talking about is how do you unleash the capability of the organization.

And that's when it comes down to leadership and ownership all the way down to the last person in the field. If you've got a clear strategy, know where you want to go, and then make sure every person in this facility knows where we're trying to go and how what they do day-in and day-out will help deliver that objective – we win. What I’ve seen time and time again is that when you unlock potential, amazing things happen.

5. How are you thinking about safety? And how do you tangibly infuse it into the refinery’s culture?

Our job is to be the most responsible operator. That means it's our obligation to ensure that everyone who walks in these gates goes home the same way they showed up. It also means being good neighbors – and doing our best to keep the community safe.

When it comes to safety, it's not something you can crop dust the organization with.  What I mean by that, is you need to engage with the front line, understand how work is truly done, and the barriers that prevent it from being done safely.  It is about understanding the difference between how work is done and work is imagined.  Our front-line leaders are the key to delivering world-class safety performance where we eliminate life changing injuries.

It’s important to ensure that people know what you stand for and what you value. Safety has to be a value, not a priority, because priorities can change, but values never change.

6. What does a good “speak up” culture look like?

First, we need to treat each other with respect, professionalism, and dignity. And when that doesn't happen, we need people to have the courage to speak up.  Speak-up is both in the moment to stop an unsafe act, and when we need to address when ourselves, or our team members, are not being treated according to our core values. Leaders need to support this culture, and also address situations when they arise.  

7. How do you think about diversity, equity and inclusion?

A lot of companies talk about diversity and inclusion. But the truth is that not many companies live it. What I’ve seen at bp gives me hope. Diversity isn’t about numbers. It’s more than just about race or gender – it’s about where you grew up, where’d you go to school, what kind of socioeconomic environment did you live in? Are your parents divorced? There’s so much that people go through in their lives that gives them different perspectives.

Our view is at bp, and here at Whiting specifically, is that we hire for the best people – hands down. My goal is to deliver a safe and competitive refinery. We’re going to hire the best people. But to do that, you must hire a diverse workforce that thinks differently, acts differently, that has had different experiences, because that’s the only way you’re going to get better. I’ve seen the studies and in practice – when you have a diverse team that thinks differently and includes the perspectives of everybody, you’re going to win, and get to the best solution.

I’ll use a basketball analogy: I’m not going to put all centers on a team and think I’m going to win. That’s why you have guards and forwards, and centers. And you need some people who are 7 feet tall, and some people who are 5 feet tall, to win.

That’s what we’re striving for. Are we perfect all the time? No. But that’s where we’re heading.

8. What are some of the core skills refinery workers of today – and tomorrow – must develop?

Some basic skills will remain the same: hard work, humility and honesty. You’ve got to bring all three of those in a refinery. It’s a 24/7 operation, and we must be honest when we make mistakes and learn from it. We must be humble enough to know when we don’t know something, and feel comfortable asking for guidance, because that thing you don’t know could get someone hurt.

When I think of the worker of the future, from a technical standpoint – we’re moving to a much more digitized society. Being able to blend the fundamental skills with accounting or engineering will be critical. You’ve got to be comfortable with technology, particularly AI, because we’re starting to use more data to predict – and prevent – failures. We’re using drones for inspections. But even with the technology, you still have to understand the fundamentals.

9. What would you tell your younger self about building and navigating a career, especially in the energy industry?

Grow where you're planted. That's one thing I've always told people. When you're in a job, do the best you can and learn as much about the fundamentals of that job. As you progress through your career – whether you move into leadership or become a subject matter expert – you don't get a second chance at learning the fundamentals. So do that and grow where you're planted.

10. You spent nearly two decades in Louisiana. So – Saints or Eagles?

That’s easy. Eagles. But when I lived in New Orleans was when Drew Brees was the Saints quarterback, and they won the Super Bowl. I was a big fan of Drew Brees and his leadership. But I’m always loyal to my hometown.