Being a part of J.M. Huber Corporation, Huber Advanced Materials is a global leader in halogen-free fire retardant additives, specialty aluminas, organic matting agents and carriers, and thermal management solutions. Serving global customers around the world, our products are used in markets such as transportation, building & construction, electrical, electronics & infrastructure and industrial. Huber Advanced Materials operates 6 manufacturing plants, 2 R&D centers and 3 customer care centers across the US, Germany, Austria and China.

The past several years with Imerys have been an exciting and fulfilling experience. This $6B global functional minerals company has really stretched me to grow both professionally and personally. Imerys has given me great opportunities to lead and grow four different divisions ranging from $100 to $500M in turnover with 300-1500 employees. It is a good example of a results-oriented company that uses its strong financial resources to grow both organically and through acquisitions while operating in a flat, organizational structure. The culture and structure has created a lot of growth space for our employees to challenge their skills and expand outside of a traditional one-track role. With this decentralized business model, I have expanded my broader leadership skills and experience. As a General Manager within Imerys, I have had the experience to have full P+L responsibility, which includes all business functions from operations, sales, marketing, strategy, R+D, and overall people development. We have been very successful in using our strong financial and market position to grow our business within our core markets through new product development and operational excellence programs while, in parallel, extending our business to new areas with market extension programs and strategic acquisitions.

Responsible for Marketing, Strategy, Product Mangement and Product Development and Innovation

I was recruited by DuPont to manage their $150M global digital ink business. We developed an excellent R&D team and product pipeline that allowed us to grow to a solid leadership position versus our competitors. We worked closely on development projects with large multinational customers in the consumer electronic space such as HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and Brother. We leveraged our polymer dispersant and surface treatment technology to create high value, aqueous inks. I was able to expand our business to leverage this same technology base into applications outside of digital printing. We were able to grow this business rapidly from $3M to $20M over the course of 3 years. DuPont was an excellent experience, as it stretched my skills to lead, motivate, and coach a global commercial and technical team spread across the Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, it provided me with a direct interface with DuPont’s executive suite as we pitched for additional funding to grow. This was challenging at times since this was a young and quickly growing business surrounded by large, mature pillar businesses that had evolved over the years to a risk adverse, and sometimes bureaucratic, environment.

The opportunity with Fabricolor came when I was recruited by a former Vice President from Ciba. I was able to exercise my entrepreneurial itch to help a $35M bankrupt chemical company through transition with the goal of maximizing the value to the creditors. My time was dedicated to leading the commercial strategy with a focus on high value and unique products that were developed internally, as well as to work with an external partner based in Eastern Europe. The challenge was to grow these high value products to the fullest extent while managing the erosion of me-too commodity products that were being diluted by the entrance of Chinese and Indian suppliers. This role truly pressure-tested my ability to work in a lean, and sometimes trying, business environment.

BASF (Formerly Ciba Specialty Chemicals) The opportunity to work with Ciba Geigy was an excellent training ground for a recent graduate. Ciba had a significant technology platform in materials and additives, along with a broad resource pool, which allowed me to learn a lot about material interaction in numerous applications. I was able to direct these learnings toward the commercial and product development functions and exploit them to grow the business. They provided me with an excellent business foundation, and the opportunity to progressively grow to manage a $75MM pigment and additives business.