INVISTA’s Bryan Wooten leads with innovation, shaping tomorrow’s leaders

INVISTA Houston is a world-scale producer of polymer grade propylene and the first facility of its kind in the U.S. to make on-purpose propylene from the conversion of propane.

Joining the site originally as the operations manager in 2021 and later being promoted to the plant manager, Bryan Wooten said the culture was a huge draw for him.

"I was at a point in my career where I was looking for a new challenge and seeking a company culture that was consistent with my own values. Over my 28-year career in petrochemicals and refining, I have been fortunate to work for multiple companies, all with different cultures. INVISTA has a demonstrated record of supporting employee growth, allowing for experimentation and continually seeking to help people selfactualize to be the best version of themselves. The innovative ideas that come from our Houston team to tackle tough problems never cease to amaze me."

In addition to his plant leadership responsibilities, Wooten serves on the Board of Directors for the East Harris County Manufacturers Association, the Children’s Museum Houston and the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region. "The company’s encouragement to participate in these organizations is a great example of how INVISTA supports both employees and the communities in which we operate."

Since taking the role as plant manager, Wooten has been leading the site to advance its vision of becoming the most competitive propylene business in the world. After completing a significant debottleneck project and turnaround, Wooten came into the plant manager role at a time when much of the leadership team was relatively new to their positions. "My initial focus was to work with the team to collaborate and develop a shared vision where everyone could connect the work they do to how it supports advancing the vision." Wooten also challenged his teams to seek diverse perspectives and inputs to solutions, empowered people and then "got out of the way."

Wooten says recognition goes a long way to support the many accomplishments the teams are delivering and when employees perform well, he and the leadership team are firm believers those employees should be recognized. "Our team does a great job in recognizing our employees and we continue to challenge ourselves to do even more of that."

Wooten also brings a sense of calm to his team when challenges arise and works to balance change with the organization’s ability to adapt. "As new concepts are implemented, you must also consider how they will be sustained. This is even more important now, with the transformative aspects of AI and the unprecedented pace of change that has become the norm in our industry, as we adopt new technologies and new tools with significantly more data and analysis available to us. If you are not continually transforming, you will not stay competitive. This is a longheld principle within INVISTA."

A key to INVISTA Houston being successful and competitive is instilling a "stable and reliable" culture at the site — meaning the plant is running well and meeting the needs of the business. This allows employees time to focus on long-term initiatives that will continue to transform the business and create additional value.

One of the ways Wooten advances its stable and reliable culture is by encouraging and expecting employees to highlight challenges, making them visible to the site, aligning on priorities and empowering employees to capture the opportunity and mitigate the risk. "We utilize our resources by seeking knowledge from both within our operating site as well as across our company worldwide to implement the best solutions possible."

Another key for the site is the application of "lean" manufacturing concepts — leveraging digital tools to visualize the work so teams can clearly see what actions are necessary to progress. Teams are organized to seek the most efficient flow of work, making it easier for people to act and get things done more efficiently. Wooten notes, "At times the ‘lean’ concept challenged us to reduce the number of things we were working on all at once, but we soon realized we can get much more accomplished and deliver more value over the long term with the lean approach."

INVISTA also adopts a team-based approach where the primary objective of any team member, regardless of their role, is to advance the cause of the team. This may mean they can work outside of their current role if they have the skills and desire to do so, which helps the team progress. Wooten notes that this is empowering and fulfilling for employees, as they can participate in new ways and see the impact of their actions. It also creates significant value for the site.

"By implementing these key strategies, it helps us advance our stable and reliable performance and has allowed us to continue to run well and respond to market challenges when our customers need us. This is valued by our customers, and in turn, our business gets rewarded."

Paramount to meeting this goal is HSE performance. "Good HSE is not only the responsible thing to do; if you do not perform well, you will not have a very successful business."

Recently the Houston site achieved five years without a recordable injury. This outcome is reflective of INVISTA’s culture to always focus on safety along with the dedication of its employees and contractors. INVISTA Houston has been on a journey of adopting principles of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) to continue to improve its safety performance. "HOP has been a paradigm shift in how we respond and learn from unexpected incidents."

"Ultimately, we want to instill a robust ‘learning’ culture where all employees continually seek to improve their performance, proactively mitigate risks and demonstrate stewardship in all we do," Wooten explained.

As a key focus of its environmental and community stewardship, INVISTA knows mutually beneficial relationships and being a good neighbor are essential for long-term business success. Building and sustaining positive partnerships with employees, customers, contractors, suppliers and the community are central to INVISTA’s values.

INVISTA Houston was recently recognized by the East End Chamber of Commerce with the 2024 Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award, an award based on direct nominations from the community. Wooten says many of INVISTA’s employees donate their time and resources to support local elementary schools through various initiatives throughout the year. "Our employees seek opportunities to help those less advantaged, such as donating new athletic shoes and socks for students and fulfilling the wishes on local children’s Christmas lists through the YMCA’s Angel Tree Program. They also volunteer at family science nights partnering with the Children’s Museum Houston to bring STEM-related activities directly to students and their families."

INVISTA gives back to the community in many other ways, including its scholarship program, food pantry and back-to-school events each fall, as well as collaborating to renovate a nearby popular park. Grants are given to local emergency responders for safety training and equipment through the Helping Heroes Program. The company also focuses on building strong relationships with neighbors through the Houston Citizen Advisory Panel, which helps provide transparency to the community on activities at the site and gives everyone an opportunity to give feedback and address any concerns.

As a board member of the Children’s Museum Houston, Wooten is most proud of INVISTA’s sponsorship of the "How Does It Work?" exhibit at the museum, which is focused on STEM-related learning for children.

"INVISTA is a company of engineers, innovators and problem solvers. We know how important the STEM fields are to all industries, and we also know how important it is to make science fun for kids so they take an interest and grow up to become innovative problem solvers themselves. This exhibit helps make science fun."

Through his commitment to fostering innovation and supporting STEM education, Wooten is not only driving excellence at INVISTA Houston but also inspiring the next generation of leaders and problem solvers in the community.

For more information, visit invista.com.

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