Digital transformation · Operational technology · Process industries

Turning industrial technology into measured value

Global Lead for Business Consulting at Honeywell Process Automation, based in Dubai. I work with companies in oil and gas, refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, and metals and mining on operational improvement and digital transformation.

Current · Business Consulting, Honeywell
Based in · Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Focus · Industrial AI and autonomous operations

View CV · Publications · Get in touch

What I do

Value creation
Operational improvement programmes in refining, chemicals, and metals and mining. Non-capital levers first: capacity utilisation, energy consumption, maintenance cost, and manning. Programmes typically target 2 to 12 percent EBITDA improvement, with payback within two years.

Digital and OT transformation
Autonomous operations, advanced process control, predictive maintenance, digital twins, and industrial AI assistants. Business case, deployment, and post-implementation measurement.

Strategy and corporate development
Commercial strategy, market entry, go-to-market design, and commercial due diligence for acquisitions in industrial technology.

Background

I studied mechanical engineering at Imperial College London and stayed for a PhD in metal forming. The research concerned forging bi-metal gears: combining steel and aluminium into a single component in one forging operation, reducing component weight without sacrificing tooth strength. It produced peer-reviewed papers, an EPSRC scholarship, and commercialisation funding from Imperial Innovations.

I joined McKinsey & Company in Dubai in 2017 and spent four years there, working mainly on large capital projects in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Australia: mega-city masterplans, greenfield power systems, fiscal policy, and special economic zones. The work was analytical and financial, including: hourly demand models, generation-mix optimisation, integrated project economics delivered to government and corporate leadership.

I moved to Honeywell in 2021 and built the business consulting team from a standing start. The team runs operational diagnostics, builds investment cases for technology deployment, and measures realised value after implementation. Programmes typically target 2 to 12 percent EBITDA improvement through non-capital levers.

How I see the problem

Industrial technology is rarely the binding constraint. Most plants already generate more data than they act on, and most vendors can demonstrate a working pilot. What limits value capture is the absence of a defensible link between a technical intervention and a financial outcome an operator will put their name to — and the absence of any mechanism to check, eighteen months later, whether that outcome occurred.

That link is what my team builds. It requires the analytical rigour of strategy consulting and enough engineering literacy to know which levers a plant can actually pull.

Outside work

I spend most of my time with my 2 wonderful children. When I find the chance, it's home DIY, race cars, off-roading, homelab infrastructure, and self-hosted services.

I am Australian and Greek, grew up in Dubai, studied in London, and came back.

Get in touch: nicholas@nicholaspolitis.com