Par Pacific Holdings

Ryan Kelley is an accomplished and results-driven leader with broad experience across IT and Supply Chain Management with diverse industry experience, including energy, retail, and telecommunications. He has extensive experience in driving change, enabling transformation, and reducing operating costs. Presently Ryan works as the Chief Information Officer & SVP of Technology and Enterprise Services for Par Pacific Holdings Inc. In his role, he leads the Information Technology, Operational Technology, Process Excellence and Procurement organizations for the Par Pacific family of companies.

What are some of the challenges impacting energy space today?

There is a major push now to be carbon neutral and to move away from traditional types of fossil fuels. However, organizations still struggle to transition to renewable energy sources. We, at Par Pacific, are striving to be a part of global sustainability initiatives by exploring renewable diesel or sustainable aviation fuel projects. Secondly, shifting to renewable energy presents a multitude of technological obstacles. We are continuously trying to adapt the business to take advantage of those potential future markets for those renewable fuels. Moreover, one of the other things that we are focusing on within our retail space is the utilization of technology to maintain or grow the volumes within the markets that we operate in as the demand for electric vehicles grow.

What are some of the trends impacting the energy space?

There are two major trends influencing the energy industry. The first is how to preserve market volumes versus market share and the second is to determine what the market for renewable fuels is, as well as the transition period required to reach that market. 

What are some of your recent project initiatives?

The biggest initiative we have right now is to improve the foundation to embark on the technology transformation journey.

We are shifting all our physical infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS). In conjunction with this, we have collaborated with AWS to determine what digital transformation looks like within our retail and refining sectors. 

"It is critical to broaden our network and have a balanced group of individuals to bounce ideas and discuss career growth opportunities."

We have also introduced a loyalty app for our nomnom brand Pacific Northwest in the fourth quarter of 2022 and are evaluating ways to expand its each and value to our customers.

How do you envision the future of the space?

Moving forward, the technology will continue to evolve, but the challenge is to build secure and agile networks that can take advantage of new business opportunities balancing both the needs for innovation and security.

Organizations want to provide innovative solutions to their business users, which would ultimately benefit their customers, but they also want to ensure that these solutions are delivered in a safe and secure manner, in compliance with the legislation and regulations. So, what we are working on is how we continue to evolve our security posture as we try to actually get closer to our customers from a data perspective.

What would be your piece of advice for budding professionals in the field?

It is critical to broaden our network and have a balanced group of individuals to bounce ideas and discuss career growth opportunities. While developing hard skills and learning new technologies are important, we must not overlook the importance of soft skills, as everything we do is ultimately done by people. As someone moves up in an organization, leadership, the ability to motivate, and grow the skills within ones team and organization become more critical. It is essential to never stop learning to become a better leader, which will eventually lead to more opportunities in career.