Introduction
The 2025 American Chemical Manufacturing Summit (CMS) concluded in Houston at the JW Marriott Houston by the Galleria on December 9-10, closing out the 2025 summit season on a high note.
Chaired by our expert leaders, Dan Key, SVP and Chief Operations Officer at Solenis, and Lyndee Brassieur, VP of Environment, Health and Safety at PPG, the summit brought 140+ senior chemical manufacturing leaders and solution providers together for two days of candid, practical discussion on operational excellence, supply chain, quality, compliance, and sustainability.
Across Manufacturing & Operations and Quality & HSE programming, CMS explored what is reshaping the modern plant, from agentic AI, digital twins, and connected worker enablement to the real-world implications of TSCA reform.
Day 1 opened with a keynote from Rebecca Teeters, Ph.D., SVP of Business Supply Chain and President of Chemical Operations at 3M. She positioned operational excellence as a leadership discipline rooted in accountability and servant leadership, reinforcing that quality and delivery improve fastest when ownership is embedded at every level.
Björn Jackisch, Ph.D. of Henkel followed with a plenary, offering a pragmatic look at Industry 4.0 inside established production environments. He showed how digitizing mixed equipment and varied machine types across existing sites can create “smart factory” capabilities that support more prescriptive operations and more consistent performance.
The morning then continued with a fireside chat featuring Mark Holden of Indorama Ventures and Sundeep Ravande of Innovapptive, focused on how connected worker platforms are reducing downtime and boosting productivity across multi-site operations.
Between sessions, the exhibition hall buzzed as attendees connected with solution providers and continued conversations through the summit’s pre-arranged 1-2-1 meetings.
Breakouts, Workshops, and Hands-On Problem Solving
As attendees returned from the networking and refreshment break, the summit shifted into two focused streams: Manufacturing & Operations and Quality & HSE.
The Manufacturing & Operations stream featured Kristina Kassabri, VP, Business Process Improvement and Lean Transformation of Airgas, an Air Liquide company, who shared an approach for embedding Lean transformation across multi-site networks while maintaining consistency, local ownership, and adoption.
In the Quality & HSE stream, Lyndee Brassieur, VP, Environment, Health and Safety of PPG, reinforced the importance of building safety into every layer of a global organization, positioning EHS not as a trailing metric but as a true business driver that shapes culture and performance.
A workshop added an interactive layer to the day with Jeff Irvine, VP, Sustainability, Energy and Climate Change of WSP Global, exploring how climate policy, particularly California’s SB 261 and related requirements, can drive stronger operational governance and measurable performance rather than checkbox compliance.
Over lunch, the Lunch & Learn Roundtables created space for smaller-group dialogue led by Arcwood Environmental, Argano, Genpact, and Innovapptive. Discussions stayed centered on urgent industry priorities, including PFAS risk, resilience planning, and the role of digital twins in strengthening supply chain performance.
Afternoon Conversations: Regulation, Data Foundations, and the Culture of Quality
The afternoon sessions addressed the complex regulatory and technical hurdles facing chemical manufacturers. Kimberly Wise White, Ph.D., VP, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, from the American Chemistry Council, delivered an update on TSCA reform and science-based policy, offering timely context for leaders navigating changing expectations. Loan Ngô, VP, Quality, Americas of Henkel, then highlighted how Total Quality Management and statistical quality control can detect abnormalities early—before they develop into costly failures—by strengthening discipline, governance, and data-driven decisions.
The program then moved into two workshops. Yaniv Butel, Chief Revenue Officer from Fixefy, shared a case study on margin leakage, describing how improving data integrity created a path toward autonomous freight audit and stronger cost control. Andrew Douglass, Director, QualityOne Strategy from Veeva Systems, complemented this with a perspective on scaling generative AI responsibly inside quality systems, emphasizing traceability, governance, and repeatable frameworks that support compliance.
As the afternoon progressed, the focus shifted into the final main-stage programming of the day—two plenaries a closing panel, and an evening drinks reception.
Peter Shearstone, VP, Global Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Thermo Fisher Scientific, opened with a personal approach to championing quality—sharing how to embed a consistent quality culture across businesses, countries, and teams through replicable practices and individual behavior change.
In the next plenary, Will Simmons, Senior Director, Delivery at Argano, joined Alex Pierroutsakos, Industry Executive Advisor at SAP, to share how AI-driven smart manufacturing is connecting shop-floor and top-floor systems to improve OEE, maintenance, and sustainability performance.
The final panel of the day featured
Together, they shared how operational excellence and continuous improvement programs are driving measurable performance gains—while candidly addressing the culture, leadership alignment, and change management required to sustain Lean and Six Sigma at scale.
The day wrapped with closing remarks from the summit chairs, offering gratitude to speakers and attendees before opening the doors to the evening networking drinks reception, sponsored by TrendMiner.
Day 2 began with one of the most highly anticipated sessions of the summit: the Women in Leadership panel, led by women leaders, including:
Across their stories, a clear theme emerged: talent grows faster when leaders choose to champion others. The panel emphasized visibility, mentorship, and sponsorship—not as abstract ideals, but as deliberate actions that build confidence, expand opportunity, and strengthen the industry’s pipeline of future leaders.
From there, the program moved into a forward-looking keynote from Andrew Stewart, Global Executive and President, Specialty Mining Chemicals of Orica, who explored global growth through the lens of integration and scale. He shared how Orica is bringing specialty chemical acquisitions into a cohesive operating model, while using IIoT to strengthen visibility and coordination across cross-continental supply networks. Robert Roop, Ph.D., SVP and Chief Technology Officer of Axalta, followed with a look at the evolving coatings landscape, focusing on the push to eliminate PFAS and heavy metals from formulations and what that shift means for innovation, customer expectations, and regulatory readiness.
The morning then continued with a plenary from Ernie Walker, President at Arcwood Environmental, who explored how chemical manufacturers can strengthen operational resiliency through safer, smarter, and more sustainable environmental solutions—helping teams stay focused on production while managing non-core risks with reliable, compliance-driven support models.
A refreshment break followed, giving attendees time to network with peers, partners, and solution providers in the exhibition hall for more informal, candid conversations before sessions resumed.
Late Morning Sessions and Discussions
Late morning sessions then returned to practical execution. Lacy Wood, VP, Health, Safety, Environment, and Product Stewardship of Solstice Advanced Materials, focused on empowering frontline supervisors and reinforcing safety-first habits that hold up under daily operational pressure. Samuel J. Ponzo, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer of Qnity, discussed how mature Lean systems can be reinvigorated with new AI tools, helping organizations uncover fresh gains even in long-optimized environments. Rob Crawford, Associate Partner of Chartwell Consulting, rounded out the block with a structured approach to identifying step-change improvements on established production lines—proving that meaningful performance jumps are still possible, even in plants running decades-old systems.
After Chartwell’s plenary, the program moved into concurrent sessions across both streams. In Manufacturing & Operations, Dana Dawsey, Global VP, Environment, Health and Safety at Pentair, highlighted how embedding EHS into core operations strengthens performance, accountability, and compliance. In the Quality & HSE stream, Dimas Marchi, Senior Director, Global Manufacturing Excellence at Orion Engineered Carbons, focused on plant optimization—sharpening execution discipline, prioritizing reliability-driven maintenance investments, and sustaining continuous improvement to meet evolving market demands.
After a series of insightful sessions and plenaries, the day shifted into lunch with the Lunch & Learn Roundtable Discussions, led by Johnathan Weatherly (Solstice Advanced Materials), Florangel Perez, Ph.D. (Axalta), Sunita Rai Singh (Albemarle Corporation), Gary Johansson, Ph.D. (Corteva Agriscience), Lisa Williams (Dow), Mary Jane Hibben (Sherwin-Williams), Alex Kruglov, Ph.D. (Solstice Advanced Materials), and Kevin Cadien (Dow).
Final Afternoon Conversations
After lunch, Dan Key, SVP and Chief Operations Officer at Solenis, delivered a plenary on crafting a best-in-class, integrated end-to-end global supply chain—sharing what excellence looks like in practice, along with lessons from strategic planning, change execution, cost reduction, and network optimization. He also highlighted the role of employee engagement, development, and organizational structure in sustaining enterprise-wide performance.
The afternoon then moved into a final panel discussion on attracting, retaining, and developing top talent for the future of chemical manufacturing, featuring:
Together, they addressed the talent shortage head-on—sharing strategies for attracting high-caliber professionals, strengthening training and upskilling, and cultivating transformational leadership to build a resilient, future-ready workforce.
The day concluded with closing remarks and a survey prize giveaway from the summit chairs.
Over two days in Houston, the American Chemical Manufacturing Summit brought together leaders to focus on what will define the next chapter of the industry: stronger operational performance, smarter compliance strategies, and resilience built through people, processes, and technology. From plant-floor execution and digital transformation to TSCA, PFAS, and the leadership required to sustain a quality culture, CMS 2025 showed how much progress is possible when the community shares real lessons and practical approaches.
Thank you to every speaker, sponsor, and attendee who contributed their time, insights, and energy to make this final summit of the 2025 season such a success. We look forward to continuing the conversation and welcoming everyone back for the 2026 American Chemical Manufacturing Summit, returning on December 9-10, 2026, in Houston, TX.
We are also pleased to introduce our new European affiliate, the European Chemical Manufacturing Summit, taking place April 20-21, 2027, in Düsseldorf, Germany.
For those who missed this year’s incredible summit, the time is now to register for next year: chemmansummit.com
“Insightful, relatable, valuable info regarding industry trends and challenges.”
Doug Bleaum CEO @ Interstate Chemical
“The American Chemical Manufacturing Summit exceeded my expectations. The topics and speakers resonated significantly. It has been great to also have the opportunity during the breaks and 1:2:1s to meet with vendors and network with the other participants. I look forward to future summits and strongly urge senior leaders in the industry to attend.”
Kristina Kassabri, VP Business Process Improvements and Lean Transformation @ Airgas
“This was my first Generis event, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I made great contacts with industry peers and met some amazing vendors that can provide me with solutions for my plant. Thanks.”
Christian Pollastro, VP of Manufacturing @ OCI Alabama
“I enjoyed the diverse presentation topics. I do like the scheduled meetings with the booths.”
Lisa Clapp, VP of Colors Technology @ Sun Chemical Corp
“Very good and engaging. Extremely well organized and coordinated. The lunch and learn tables were an excellent experience, the app and encouragement for the 1:2:1 was fantastic.”
Gabrielle Grills, VP of Manufacturing Technology @ LSB Industries
“The small number of attendees is good for networking and discussion. Was pleased to have conversations with vendors, as I think we discussed a good solution for a problem at the MCA production unit.”
Rodney, Director of operations & maintenance @ Mitsubishi Chemical Group Soarnol
“Great insights from speakers and a great opportunity to network with impactful and interesting leaders.”
Shawn Masarath, Opex Director @ BASF
“Great mix of qualified speakers, 1-1 meetings with vendors, and networking.”
Julie Zielke, Manufacturing and Engineering Director @ Dow Chemical
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