Joseph Robert “Bob” Mehall

AGE Refining — Bulverde, Texas

Bob Mehall was born in Wheeling, spent most of his pre-college years in Weirton and graduated from Follansbee High School in Brooke County before attending WVU on a Benedum Scholarship. He graduated in 1964 with memberships in the Order of the Grail, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Omega Chi Epsilon. During the next three years, while working as a summer engineer for Mobil, PPG and DuPont, he earned master’s degrees in chemical engineering and industrial administration from Case Institute of Technology and Purdue University.

After completing his postgraduate education, Mehall began his career with Hooker Chemical Company where he joined the startup team and subsequently was named plant manager of a PVC plastic facility in New Jersey for the next five years. He then joined Diamond Shamrock Corporation in Ohio as the technical director of the plastics division. After stints as an R&D director and marketing manager, he moved to Texas where he headed the liquefied petroleum gas operations. He was a senior vice president in charge of various activities in the oil and gas area including E&P activities in Bolivia; refining and petrochemicals in Argentina, convenience store operations in Mexico; and trading, distribution and supply operations in the USA. Upon becoming executive vice president of Diamond Shamrock Corp, he oversaw the coordination of all refining, marketing, and supply as well as petrochemical activities and various administrative functions.

Since retiring from Diamond Shamrock 10 years ago, he has been the president and CEO of AGE Refining, and an independent consultant to both U.S. and international firms. Mehall served as the chairman and CEO of the Energy Capital Group LLC, which he co-founded in January 2005. The Energy Capital group is a developer of petroleum coke and coal gasification facilities.

Mehall lives with his wife, Sandy (WVU BS ‘65), on their ranch in Texas where they have a trophy whitetail deer operation in addition to the regular ranching activities. They have three married children: John Mehall (wife-Kara), Todd Mehall (wife-Melissa) and Rachel Jones (husband-Jeremy) and four grandchildren - Robbie, Michael, Grace and Madeline.