Jim Fitterling Named CEO of Materials Science Company

The Materials Science Division of DowDuPont announced that the Materials Advisory Committee of the DowDuPont Board of Directors intends to appoint Jim Fitterling, currently COO for the Materials Science Division of DowDuPont, and president and COO of The Dow Chemical Company, to the role of CEO of the intended Materials Science Company to be called Dow, as announced on Feb. 26, 2018, upon intended separation of the company.
 
Additionally, the Materials Advisory Committee also announced that Howard Ungerleider, CFO of DowDuPont, and vice chairman andCFO for The Dow Chemical Company, will serve as president and CFO of the intended Materials Science Company.
 
Both Fitterling and Ungerleider will continue to serve in their current roles at DowDuPont until the completion of the division’s intended separation, which is expected to occur by the end of first quarter of 2019.
 
“Ensuring a thoughtful and orderly leadership succession has been a top priority for the Board and for me throughout my tenure as CEO and as a result we have had a very comprehensive succession process since the beginning of my tenure,” said Andrew N. Liveris, current DowDuPont executive chairman. “Therefore we believe that now is a good time to put in place the succession plans. Many of our mega-investments, including in Saudi Arabia and on the US Gulf Coast, have started up; the integration of Dow Corning is complete; and our plans to launch the three new spincos are almost completed, with the spin of the future Dow set for the end of the first quarter of 2019. I am confident there is no better leader than Jim, nor a better team of Jim and Howard, to lead Dow into the next chapter of our storied history.”
 
“It has been an unbelievable honor to lead Dow for the last 15 years, and I am extremely proud of the work our people have done over that time to put Dow in the position it is in today – the world’s leading Materials Science company. Dow’s future is extremely bright,” concluded Liveris.
 
“I am very excited and humbled to lead Dow into its next phase of growth,” said Fitterling. “Andrew led one of the most complex and forward-looking corporate transformations in all of industry. As a result, today Dow delivers higher and more stable returns for our investors, more innovative and collaborative solutions for our customers, and more world-class opportunities for our employees. I am committed to working with Howard, and the rest of the Dow team, to further this momentum.”
 
Fitterling joined Dow in 1984 and served in a variety of sales, marketing and supply chain positions before being named commercial director for Liquid Separations, Dow Pacific in the mid-1990s. He later was named to lead the Liquid Separations business unit and served as president and CEO of FilmTec Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow based in the US.
 
Then, he returned to Asia Pacific where he led the whole of Dow’s operations in Thailand and the SCG-Dow Group of joint venture companies, and subsequently was named CEO of The OPTIMAL Group, affiliate of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), Malaysia’s state-owned oil corporation and The Dow Chemical Company.
 
For the past 10 years, Fitterling has managed significant portions of the company and has led a number of strategic and transformative actions. He has served as president of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business; and as SVP of corporate development. In this role, he led the carve out of Dow’s styrenics and chlorine businesses, as well as $6 billion of growth projects on the US Gulf Coast. In 2015, he was named vice chairman and COO, adding executive oversight for all of Dow’s businesses and operations, and led the merger of equals with DuPont. He was named to his current role in 2016.
 
Ungerleider joined Dow in 1990. In 1997, he relocated to Dow’s European headquarters in Switzerland, where he had management responsibilities for several of Dow’s specialty polyolefin brands. Ungerleider was named business director for Dow’s global Wire and Cable Compounds business in 2000, and in 2004, he became the global director of integrated supply chain for Plastics, Performance Chemicals and Thermosets. In 2006, he was appointed North American commercial VP for Dow’s $6 billion Basic Plastics business portfolio.
 
He was named president for Dow’s Performance Plastics Division in 2011. In 2012, he was named EVP of Dow’s Advanced Materials Division and joined Dow’s senior-most executive team. Under his leadership, the Advanced Materials businesses grew to more than $11 billion in sales across more than 130 countries. He was elected as CFO by Dow’s Board of Directors in 2014 and was named vice chairman in 2015. He was appointed CFO of DowDuPont in May 2016 effective upon the close of the merger transaction between Dow and DuPont, which occurred on Aug. 31, 2017.