Consultant

Jacques began his career in the power industry in 1990 after graduating as a mechanical engineer from the University of Johannesburg. Initially he worked on the commissioning team of six 686 MW coal-fired power plant units, and later joined the process control and optimization team. While working full time, he continued with his education part-time and completed his master’s and doctorate degrees in engineering, focusing on process control. He was contracted by IDC Technologies in Australia as a part-time senior instructor, and used his vacation time from his full-time job to present process control workshops to engineers and technicians in South Africa, Canada, and England.

At the end of 1997, Jacques moved to Cambridge, Canada where he cofounded ControlServe, Ltd., a company that specialized in control loop optimization services and software. While Jacques provided loop optimization and training services, he also presented process control training courses to many small and large Canadian firms. During this time, he also developed the TuneWizard control loop diagnostics and tuning software package, which became one of the most widely used software tuning tools in industry.

In 2001 Jacques moved to the United States when PAS in Houston, Texas (now Hexagon) acquired TuneWizard from ControlServe and hired Jacques as the director of their process control business unit. At PAS, Jacques developed the ControlWizard control loop performance assessment software package, which became one of the top software packages in its class. Jacques held several positions at PAS, including Vice President of Technology, and Chief Technical Officer.

In 2009, Jacques founded OptiControls Inc (Houston, TX), a company that provides process control consulting and training services. OptiControls serves customers in the United States and abroad. Jacques regularly publishes technical papers and speaks at technical conferences. He posts informational articles on process control and loop optimization online at blog.opticontrols.com, and has authored a very successful book on controller tuning and control loop optimization, titled Process Control for Practitioners. He also developed control loop simulation software that practitioners can use to experiment with controller tuning, control loop optimization and problem diagnostics.

Jacques has dedicated his career to improving process control through services, training, and software. He is a leading authority on process control, controller tuning, troubleshooting, and control loop performance monitoring. His process experience spans a broad range of industries including power generation, refining, chemicals, oil & gas, food & beverage, pulp & paper, steel, and mineral processing. Jacques is a senior member of ISA and a licensed Professional Engineer.

Jacques’ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsmuts/