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Celanese Corporation Chairman, CEO and President Lori Ryerkerk
Celanese Corporation Chairman, President and CEO Lori Ryerkerk, a Winnie resident, was recently chosen by her peers from around the world to receive one of the most coveted awards in the chemical industry, the 2022 Kavaler Award, making her the first woman ever to achieve the prestigious honor. Ryerkerk traveled to the Metropolitan Club of New York in New York City, where she was presented with the award on April 5 at a black-tie dinner ceremony.
The Chemists’ Club Kavaler Award, sponsored by Piper Sandlin, recognizes “the exceptional performance of innovators and disruptors of the status quo in the sector.” Nominees are senior executives in the industry and are selected on the basis of a wide range of criteria including innovation, diversity and inclusivity, safety and health, as well as operational excellence and share price performance, among others. Only the top 100-125 executives from around the world are considered for the award, and they are also the ones who vote for the peer they feel most deserving of the recognition. Late Huntsman Corporation chairman Jon Huntsman, whose company has operated in Southeast Texas and internationally, previously won the award in 1994.
Out of 13 industry leaders nominated for the Kavaler Award in 2022, Ryerkerk soared to the top of the list for her exceptional endeavors at the Celanese Corporation, including initiatives on growth, inclusivity and sustainability efforts. In an exclusive interview with The Southeast Texas Business Journal, Ryerkerk explained how meaningful receiving the award is to her.
“I was really surprised and humbled to be chosen,” said Ryerkerk. “You know, there are a lot of awards out there, and you can get a lot of recognitions, but this one, since it’s voted on by your peers, is especially meaningful, because it’s 125 people who vote – people who know about the business and know what we do. When Roland reached out to me and told me, I was really just very shocked.
“It’s humbling. If you look at previous winners like Jon Huntsman, Andrew Liveris (of Dow Chemical), I mean, these folks really defined the chemical industry. I think in the early days, they were the people who saw the huge growth of the U.S. chemicals industry. These people are legends in our industry. I certainly don’t see myself in that same way. It’s humbling to be on the same list as those folks, as well as Bob Patel, a friend of mine who was CEO at LyondellBassell and has won this award twice. I am just proud to be listed among them.”
“Her selection is extremely well deserved,” said Dr. Roland Stefandl, President of The Chemists’ Club. “The Kavaler Award is extremely unique. It’s the only award in the industry where you’re selected by your peers… There’s only one winner.”
The votes are sent in by mail and concealed to maintain anonymity. Once all votes were collected and tallied, Ryerkerk’s victory was secured, and another glass ceiling breached.
“She’s the first female,” Dr. Stefandl remarked. “I’m very proud that it was a female that won it, definitely She was picked by her peers and had all the right criteria to win the award. She’s following a long on history of extremely high-caliber, very deserving people.”
Ryerkerk is an accomplished global executive with an impressive track record of creating value at large international corporations. Throughout her 35-year career, she has held a variety of senior leadership roles at petrochemical and refining businesses in the United States, Europe and Asia. Prior to leading Celanese, Ryerkerk served as Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing for Royal Dutch Shell where she was responsible for all chemical and refining assets globally and led an organization of 30,000 employees and contractors. Before joining Shell in 2010, Ryerkerk worked for ExxonMobil for 24 years where she held positions of increasing responsibility in management, strategy and operations, and at Hess Corporation. Ryerkerk earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University.
Based in Dallas, Celanese Corporation is a global chemical and specialty materials company that “engineers and manufactures a wide variety of products essential to everyday living,” according to the organization. The Fortune 500 company employs approximately 8,500 employees worldwide and had 2021 net sales of $8.5 billion. Celanese has experienced significant growth during Ryerkerk’s tenure, increasing revenues by more than $1 billion during that time and increasing the corporation’s workforce by approximately 800 employees.
In December 2021, the company continued to expand, Ryerkerk shared, and in February announced another, much larger, acquisition that will add thousands of employees to its roster.
Ryerkerk described, “2021 was a record year for Celanese, our most profitable year on record. The recovery has been really good for us. People still want automobiles, appliances, construction – and all those things that we provide products for. We’ve been putting a lot of money into our plants for growth. And, we’ve done a couple big acquisitions.
“In December of last year, we closed on a $1.15 billion acquisition from ExxonMobil on the business line called Santoprene. It’s an elastomer. When you roll up your car window, there’s a really flexible plastic seal at the top. That’s the type of material that this makes. So, that was a great acquisition for us. We closed on it in December. It was our biggest acquisition to date.
“Then in February, we announced the acquisition of DuPont Materials and Mobility business for $11 billion. We’ve been bold. We’re spending a lot of money and taking on this big business of DuPont, but it’s a really good fit for us. It will make us the largest and best polymer provider in the world, the preeminent supplier of engineered materials. We’re super excited about it. We should close on that deal toward the end of the year, and that will add another about 5,000 people to our business and make us about 50% bigger than we are today. It’s great for our employees, and it’s great for shareholders.”
Ryerkerk said the remarkable growth at Celanese has been the product of company efforts, looking ahead to the future and the creative, intelligent people who work for the expanding corporation.
“We’re all as good as the teams behind us,” Ryerkerk asserted. “You need everybody to make the company successful from the operator at the plant all the way to the CEO. It takes everybody aligned and working toward the same goal. That’s what’s great about Celanese: We have great alignment, and kind of a family spirit that extends to our folks in the plants, our sales folks, our customer service reps – everybody. That’s really what’s made us successful.”
Financial performance is just one of the criteria considered for the Kavaler Award. Another factor that gave Ryerkerk an advantage over fellow nominees was Celanese’s sustainability efforts, especially important with increased public attention on environmental concerns. Ryerkerk says Celanese strives to be a part of the solution rather than the problem, and the company provides materials for a number of sustainable products used every day.
“We’ve really improved our sustainability,” said Ryerkerk. “We make products that are used for solar panels, wind turbine engines, electric vehicle batteries and electric vehicles. Our products help the world become more sustainable.
“We make a polymer called polyacetal, that gets used in auto manufacturing and other applications, that is bio-based. Lego buys from us because they want bio-based material in their products. Lego has a very big commitment to sustainability. We were able to meet that need with our bio-based polymer.
“We sell a recycled nylon to people like IKEA, who want recycled products. We make it from airbag scrappage in Europe and fishing nets that we recover out of the Indian Ocean.”
In Celanese’s Clear Lake plant, said Ryerkerk, the company is working on another innovative environmental endeavor.
“We actually have a project now – it’s not finished, we’re still building it – which will recover CO2, which was previously vented to the atmosphere. It recovers it, and puts it back into our feedstock,” she explained. “So, basically, we can recycle CO2 to replace natural gas as a feedstock to produce methanol.
“We have also entered into an agreement with a company that’s building a solar plant in Texas, that we will receive solar energy for one-third of our electricity needs in Clear Lake. We’re trying to make our own sites more sustainable. We’re trying to make our products more sustainable, and we’re trying to make sure more of our products are going into products that make the world more sustainable, like electric vehicles.”
Ryerkerk predicts demand for materials produced at chemical companies like Celanese will only increase. She encourages more people to pursue the broadening field and leadership roles within it, especially women, who have increasing opportunities as executives in many diverse companies.
“I would encourage people to consider chemicals,” Ryerkerk said. “I think a lot of young people now think it’s a dying industry, or it’s a dirty industry. It’s not. The world needs the products we make. I couldn’t have chosen my own career better. I feel so fortunate to have worked for the companies I have. For an engineer, it’s like having the world’s biggest toy box.
“I just want to encourage women and say, don’t be put off by some of the stereotypes. This is a great industry, and a great place for women. Take the chances to take those jobs that maybe make you a little uncomfortable. Your career development is like a muscle. You have to take the jobs that are hard, and you have to take the jobs that make you uncomfortable because, like a muscle, you have to stretch and strain to become stronger. Your career is the same way. If you only take jobs you’re comfortable with, you’ll never get better. You’ll never learn new things.”
While she also keeps a residence in Dallas where Celanese is headquartered, Ryerkerk and her husband, former Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith, president and CEO of consulting firm Griffith Moseley Johnson (GMJ) Inc., live in Winnie together. Ryerkerk says she loves coming home to the ranch and spending time with her family and friends in Southeast Texas.
“Carl and I having the ranch in Winnie is my respite,” she shared. “It’s where I go to unwind on the weekend. It’s where I can go and be outside, go out to the pastures. I play with the dogs. Having that and having all of my friends and people who support me in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, is so important, because we’re not all about work. I love coming back to Beaumont, Port Arthur, where I’m just Lori. For me is it’s so relaxing. Everybody needs that because that’s truly who we are. Whenever I retire, I’m still just going to be Lori.
“I value the relationships I have in the community. I value all the people there who support me emotionally and provide their friendship, because none of us make it on our own. It’s. those people in our lives – especially Carl, my kids, my friends – that I value. They’re awesome. All of them.”
Ryerkerk is also close to her 92-year-old mother, who accompanied her daughter to the historic Metropolitan Club in New York, where Ryerkerk received the Kavaler Award.
“She was thrilled to be part of the celebration,” said Ryerkerk of her mom. “It was such a beautiful old venue – very, very lovely.”
Ryerkerk says she plans to continue leading Celanese toward a profitable and sustainable future. For more information about Celanese Corporation, visit www.celanese.com.