Cliff Hardaway Email & Phone Number

United States

Northbrook, Illinois

Oversaw nine manufacturing sites in North America (N.A.), having combined annual processing costs (excluding raw materials) exceeding $230M and a capital budget of $300M in 2022. Led approximately 800 employees, including nine direct-report plant managers and two direct-report technical leaders. Accountable for manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, logistics, quality, and EHS functions. • Created and implemented focused initiatives to achieve best-in-class occupational safety and… Show more Oversaw nine manufacturing sites in North America (N.A.), having combined annual processing costs (excluding raw materials) exceeding $230M and a capital budget of $300M in 2022. Led approximately 800 employees, including nine direct-report plant managers and two direct-report technical leaders. Accountable for manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, logistics, quality, and EHS functions. • Created and implemented focused initiatives to achieve best-in-class occupational safety and process safety performance, including a life-saving rule initiative, implementation of a global EHSS management system, and implementation of a risk-based approach for prioritizing improvement initiatives and projects; efforts enabled a 40% improvement in KPIs since 2019.• Developed and executed Stepan’s five-year business strategy, which included approval and execution of a $280M alkoxylation greenfield project in Pasadena, Texas.• Implemented multiple $50M-plus projects to enable a low 1,4-Dioxane capability in sulfonation sites to meet upcoming regulatory requirements for consumer products that utilized Stepan’s sulfonated products.• Served as a team member of a corporate development strategy team that led to three M&A site acquisitions and integrations to expand Stepan’s capability in support of the strategic plan; efforts supported resulted in record company profitability in 2020, 2021 and 2022.• Launched “The Stepan Way” global operations excellence initiative to improve plant effectiveness and efficiency through standard management operating system work processes and tools, utilizing industry-proven methodologies.• Worked collaboratively with Supply Chain functions to implement a robust S&OP process to reduce inventory levels and improve customer service. Finished and raw material inventory levels were reduced by 15% (with no customer service impact) through improved demand and supply planning alignment and minimization of obsolete, slow moving and non-conforming inventory. Show less

Chester, South Carolina

Vice President of Global Operations for Performance Materials and Specialty Chemicals businesses, having annual sales of over $700M. Responsible for nine ISO 9001-certified manufacturing sites, including two in China, one in France, one in Portugal, and five in North America, having combined processing costs exceeding $115M annually and a base-capital improvement budget of $20M annually. Oversaw approximately 650 operations employees, including nine direct-report plant managers and three… Show more Vice President of Global Operations for Performance Materials and Specialty Chemicals businesses, having annual sales of over $700M. Responsible for nine ISO 9001-certified manufacturing sites, including two in China, one in France, one in Portugal, and five in North America, having combined processing costs exceeding $115M annually and a base-capital improvement budget of $20M annually. Oversaw approximately 650 operations employees, including nine direct-report plant managers and three direct-report technical leaders. Responsible for manufacturing, supply chain, maintenance, logistics, engineering, quality, and EHS functions.• Developed and implemented safety culture improvements, based on hazard exposure recognition and elimination and personal safety accountability and execution of robust Process Safety Management (PSM) practices.• Created and executed a global footprint capacity utilization optimization strategy to support five-year specialty materials growth strategy in coatings, adhesives, and sealants markets; idled one plant and invested $15M to move production to another site.• Developed and implemented a maintenance turnaround improvement plan for the company's largest N.A. manufacturing site, which included proposed organizational changes to implement improved work processes and management systems, based on continuous improvement methodologies.• Implemented improved Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) work processes to improve customer service levels and optimize company working capital.• Established global technology networks to share best practices in process controls and automation, maintenance and reliability excellence, and SAP ERP business process improvements.• Implemented an Asia-Pacific operations strategy to improve China plant environmental regulatory compliance assurance and support growth in the region. Show less

Louisville, Ky

Global Manufacturing Director and Business Team Member (with P&L responsibility) for the Phenolic Specialty Resin (PSR) Business reporting to Business GM/VP. Directly responsible for eleven (11) manufacturing sites including 1 in China, 9 in Europe and 1 in North America. Global personnel responsibility includes ~900 manufacturing employees including 11 direct-report plant managers and 5 direct-report technical leaders in the areas of operational excellence, project/process engineering, quality… Show more Global Manufacturing Director and Business Team Member (with P&L responsibility) for the Phenolic Specialty Resin (PSR) Business reporting to Business GM/VP. Directly responsible for eleven (11) manufacturing sites including 1 in China, 9 in Europe and 1 in North America. Global personnel responsibility includes ~900 manufacturing employees including 11 direct-report plant managers and 5 direct-report technical leaders in the areas of operational excellence, project/process engineering, quality management and strategic growth. Directed the construction and start-up of a new phenolics resin manufacturing facility in China and well as the ongoing operations improvement initiatives in the other global facilities. Have delivered year-after-year environmental and safety performance improvement as well as 4% annual cost productivity. Show less

Director of Operations Excellence for Global Epoxy Manufacturing reporting to the VP of Manufacturing. Responsible for productivity and reliability of 11 chemical manufacturing sites in N.A., Europe and Asia. Responsible for a global team of 14 technical resources focusing on key operations excellence initiatives in reliability improvement, maintenance cost optimization, energy reduction and raw material yield improvement. Serve as manufacturing representative on the Global Base Epoxy Resins… Show more Director of Operations Excellence for Global Epoxy Manufacturing reporting to the VP of Manufacturing. Responsible for productivity and reliability of 11 chemical manufacturing sites in N.A., Europe and Asia. Responsible for a global team of 14 technical resources focusing on key operations excellence initiatives in reliability improvement, maintenance cost optimization, energy reduction and raw material yield improvement. Serve as manufacturing representative on the Global Base Epoxy Resins and Intermediates Business Management Team having P&L responsibility. Also Momentive’s Global Business Process Owner for the plant maintenance and reliability business processes covering 120+ plants responsible for the design and development of standard work processes and metrics in these areas. As Operations Excellence director, led the identification and implementation of improved work processes in the areas of plant maintenance work management, predictive maintenance technologies, reliability assessment, operator driven reliability, risk-based inspection, production loss reporting and investigation and MRO materials optimization. These initiatives are targeted at delivering over $30 million annually in margin enhancement and cost reduction. Show less

Director of Manufacturing for 8 chemical manufacturing sites in Hexion’s N.A.Phenolics and Forest Products Division’s central region. Sites are located in KY, NC, LA, TX and AK and employ over 350 employees. Also functionally responsible for energy efficiency and maintenance/reliability improvement initiatives in all 24 N.A. sites in the Division and for the total N.A. energy and maintenance budgets. Supervisor/leader for twelve (12) professional employees including 8 plant managers, a N.A.… Show more Director of Manufacturing for 8 chemical manufacturing sites in Hexion’s N.A.Phenolics and Forest Products Division’s central region. Sites are located in KY, NC, LA, TX and AK and employ over 350 employees. Also functionally responsible for energy efficiency and maintenance/reliability improvement initiatives in all 24 N.A. sites in the Division and for the total N.A. energy and maintenance budgets. Supervisor/leader for twelve (12) professional employees including 8 plant managers, a N.A. energy leader, a N.A. maintenance/reliability leader, a regional H.R. leader, and a regional Finance leader. Co-leader of the Regional Business Management Team that is responsible for all aspects of the business. Directly responsible for all aspects of plant operation including safety, environment, quality, production, maintenance, engineering, supply chain, logistics, finance, information systems, and people services. Show less

Louisville, Kentucky

Business Manufacturing Leader for the N.A. Phenolics Specialty Resins business and Plant Manager of the Louisville, KY plant employing approximately 200 employees. Supervisor/leader for eight (8) professional employees. Report to the VP, Global Phenolics Resins Business. Responsible for all aspects of plant operations.

Belpre, Ohio

Plant manager of a 485 million pounds/year continuous process polystyrene resin manufacturing plant (replacement value of $125 million) employing approximately 100 employees with an annual operating budget of $150 million in variable costs and $12 million in fixed costs. Directly supervise nine (9) professionals. Also responsible for a local capital project budget typically averaging $1 to $3 million annually. Report to the VP of Styrenics Manufacturing. Responsible for all aspects of plant… Show more Plant manager of a 485 million pounds/year continuous process polystyrene resin manufacturing plant (replacement value of $125 million) employing approximately 100 employees with an annual operating budget of $150 million in variable costs and $12 million in fixed costs. Directly supervise nine (9) professionals. Also responsible for a local capital project budget typically averaging $1 to $3 million annually. Report to the VP of Styrenics Manufacturing. Responsible for all aspects of plant operation including safety, environmental, production, maintenance, engineering, purchasing, logistics, finance, information systems, and people services. Show less

Chesapeake, Va

Corporate internal consultant role reporting to the VP of Engineering responsible for the development and implementation of improved maintenance management and reliability engineering practices at all nine (9) polymer division manufacturing sites. Advisory member of the company-wide Plant Manager’s Team.

Owings Mills, Md

Technical leadership position reporting to the VP of Packaging and Engineering supervising a staff of six (6) Reliability Engineers. Responsible for managing and coordinating the maintenance and reliability improvement efforts in Lever’s five (5) U.S. manufacturing plants.

Cartersville, Ga

Maintenance manager of a new laundry detergent plant built in 1988 employing over 220 people. Key player in the start-up of the high performance team-based “greenfield” site and involved with personnel hiring, maintenance systems development, power plant and process plant commissioning, and maintenance shop and storeroom construction. Responsible for a $6.0 million maintenance budget and a $2.0 million power plant operations budget and a storeroom inventory of $3.0 million. Supervised four (4)… Show more Maintenance manager of a new laundry detergent plant built in 1988 employing over 220 people. Key player in the start-up of the high performance team-based “greenfield” site and involved with personnel hiring, maintenance systems development, power plant and process plant commissioning, and maintenance shop and storeroom construction. Responsible for a $6.0 million maintenance budget and a $2.0 million power plant operations budget and a storeroom inventory of $3.0 million. Supervised four (4) maintenance engineers and over forty (40) craft technicians. Show less

Rock Hill, Sc

Senior engineer and later maintenance unit supervisor of the maintenance department of a specialty polymer and fiber manufacturing plant built in 1982 employing 75 people. Supervised two (2) maintenance professionals and thirteen (13) craft employees and responsible for $1.3 million annual maintenance budget

Augusta, Ca

Mechanical Project and Reliability Engineer of a new greenfield aspartame sweetener plant.

Rock Hill, Sc

Process development engineer for a cellulose acetate manufacturing plant focusing on solvent recovery and utilities process optimization.