Beyond the Technical: Cultivating Process Development Professionals

Session Chairs:

• Anna Opella, The Dow Chemical Company
• Jennifer Larimer, The Dow Chemical Company

Session Description:

All process development professionals are enabled with keen technical skills, though most often a “softer” skill set is needed to grow ones’ career.  These softer skills allow an individual to successfully navigate through diverse team dynamics, manage stakeholder expectation and become positive mentors, just to name a few.  This type of expertise is not easily taught in a classroom setting and one must cultivate them from their own personal experiences.  This session will focus on several of these softer skills with approaches to improve one’s communication, teamwork, business acumen and leadership being discussed.

*All session and speaker information is subject to change pending finalization

Schedule:

Abstracts:

Beyond the Technology: All the "Stuff" I Wish I Would Have Known Sooner

Shawn D. Feist, The Dow Chemical Company

To be an effective process development professional, one has to master a wide range of chemistries, engineering disciplines, unit operations, and technical tools.  This diversity of skills makes process development professionals some of the most versatile and sought-after engineers and scientists in the industry.  Part of the beauty of a process development career is that one can be exposed to such a wide range of technical challenges and opportunities all while experiencing the journey of technology from its inception through its commercialization.  More often than not, the pitfalls of advancing technology through the commercialization process have less to do with technical skill and much more to do with all the other “stuff.”  A process development professional often sits at the interface of not only technology development and scale-up but at the interface of multiple functions, businesses, geographies, companies, and various styles of people as well.  It is this interface of people and functions that can often be the make or break of a technology, and a well-placed process development professional can often help change an immiscible grouping of people into a miscible one.  To do so often relies on experiences and skills that can’t be found in a book.  This talk explores one person’s viewpoint on the other “stuff” that influences technology advancement and how to use it to one’s advantage in driving technology to commercialization. 

Optimal Employee Motivation: Flexing Your Leadership Style To Fit The Situation

Adam Peterson, The Dow Chemical Company

We spend millions of dollars building and optimizing our chemical processes and often neglect the process of managing people.  Organizational theory has changed dramatically over the past two generations but many of our HR systems have not effectively implemented the best practices.  This session will cover the acknowledged best practices in managing people at different development stages with flexible leadership styles with the goal of optimal employee motivation, resulting in improved process and business performance.  Attendees will learn basic diagnosis of development level and the importance of varying directive and supportive leadership behaviors.  Personal and business examples will be provided to illustrate this model.

 Industrial Process Development:  Strategies for a Technical Career Path

Joseph Powell, Shell

Process development careers in industry offer the opportunity to become an “intrapreneur” and follow a technology from inception through commercialization.   Unlike pitching an IPO as an entrepreneur, to be successful in industry one must be both an advocate for the potential of new technologies, and a critical challenger to evaluate and make recommendations relative to technical, business, and commercial risks, where the end game is deployment.    Technical skills in the fundamentals of  research and development as well as scale-up must be augmented by managerial and people skills in leading and progressing projects through the organization.   Opportunities for career advancement are provided via filling white spaces or gaps in resourcing, and thereby learning new skills and capabilities.