AIChE Salutes Corporate Leaders for Excellence in Advancing Process Safety

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) honored Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation; Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company; and Mark J. Costa, chairman and CEO of Eastman Chemical Company, for excellence in advancing process safety at an awards gala held in New York City on Tuesday, November 3.

According to AIChE Executive Director June C. Wispelwey, the gala, built around the theme, “Leading the Way to a Safer World,” raised more than $600,000. “These funds will support the global expansion of process safety education in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum,” she said. The event also celebrated the 30th anniversary of AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS).

One of the gala chairs, S. Shariq Yosufzai, vice president for global diversity, ombuds, and university affairs at Chevron, who is also vice chair of the AIChE Foundation, said that the undergraduate process safety education initiative is a core priority of AIChE’s “Doing a World of Good’ campaign.  He explained that the effort has inspired companies and academic leaders to come together to improve and accelerate process safety education in universities around the world.  “The Initiative will benefit industry, students, universities, and, ultimately, society by focusing on creating curriculum content and delivery in many languages and media, on building faculty competence, and on conducting undergraduate process safety boot camps,” he added. Yosufzai noted that AIChE is leveraging its network of 235 student chapters, and its 22,000 undergraduate student members at schools around the world, to implement the program.

In addition to Yosufzai, the event’s dinner chairs were: Neil A. Chapman, president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company; James (Jim) R. Fitterling, vice chairman and chief operating officer, The Dow Chemical Company; Mark K. Cox, senior vice president and chief manufacturing and engineering officer, Eastman Chemical Company; Thomas M. Hayes, corporate vice president, operations, Cargill; Andreas C. Kramvis, vice chairman, Honeywell; and John Y. Televantos, partner, Arsenal Capital Partners.

In presenting the award to Tillerson and ExxonMobil for its process safety leadership, Kramvis saluted Tillerson’s leadership in ExxonMobil’s “strong, historic commitment to the safe and responsible practice of engineering and consistent focus on advancing process safety.” He cited ExxonMobil’s renowned Operations Integrity Management System, along with its pledge to an incident-free workplace and a global safety and health goal of zero injuries, illnesses and environmental impacts, as tangible demonstrations of the company’s deep commitment to process safety. He also noted that Exxon Chemical Company was one of the founding members of CCPS.

Televantos honored Liveris and Dow for the way in which process safety has been integrated into the company’s sustainability goals, which is resulting in “further dramatic progress in process safety.” “Dow’s continued identification, reduction and management of process safety risks through all levels of the organization must be considered an industry best practice,” he said.

Televantos also thanked Dow for its long history of representation in AIChE’s leadership and programs. Dow “was not only a founding member of CCPS 30 years ago, but AIChE benefited so much in its early years from Herbert Dow’s service as an AIChE director from 1919 to 1921, followed by Willard H. Dow’s stint as a director from 1932 to 1934,” he noted. He added that Dow also has shared its ground-breaking Fire and Explosion and Chemical Exposure indices through AIChE with chemical engineers everywhere and continues to be part of AIChE’s leadership through the Institute’s 2015 president, Cheryl I. Teich, an employee of Dow.

While a prior engagement kept Liveris from attending, he expressed Dow’s continued commitment to AIChE’s process safety efforts. “We could not be prouder to play a part in your critical, ongoing work. After all, chemical process safety is about far more than simply earning our license to operate. It enables our true purpose of solving humanity’s most pressing problems.” Fitterling accepted the award on Liveris’, and Dow’s, behalf.

In his presentation of the award to Costa and Eastman, Hayes spoke of Eastman’s distinguished, global achievements in environmental, health, safety and security performance, along with the company’s strong commitment to continuously improving its practices. “That commitment is demonstrated in many ways, including your recognition as Responsible Care Company of the Year in 2013, and Eastman’s ‘ALL IN FOR SAFETY’ initiative,” Hayes reported. He added that Eastman, too, has a long history of representation in AIChE’s and CCPS’s leadership and programs, with Eastman’s process safety experts continuing to lead many CCPS committees and projects, “sharing their insights and expertise with colleagues around the world.”

In accepting the award, Costa said, “the commitment to design, operate, and maintain our facilities in a safe manner is…far more than a business objective – we consider it an obligation of our company and each of our employees. It is an expectation that is woven into our culture and is part of our DNA.”

For more information on AIChE’s 2015 Annual Gala, its sponsors, or for photographs of the event, visit www.aiche.org/gala.