Cathy Culpepper has a strong belief that leaders exist to support their organizations and not the other way around. She is the kind of person who seeks out a challenge and enjoys continuously learning. These philosophies have granted Culpepper, now serving as vice president -- Manufacturing Americas for INEOS Styrolution, the privilege to recruit, hire and work with great people during her 27-plus years in the industry.
"Throughout my career, my proudest accomplishment has been being involved in people's development," Culpepper said. "I have also been fortunate to have strong, influential mentors who saw my potential and helped me develop it. They helped me gain confidence in my instincts and abilities."
Raised in Nashville by two Canadian parents -- her parents moved to the South because her father played semipro hockey -- Culpepper attended Tennessee Technological University (now known as Tennessee Tech). She spent her time in college playing fastpitch softball and earning a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering. After graduation, Culpepper joined Dow Chemical in Plaquemine, Louisiana, where she worked in an ethylene cracker. Culpepper quickly realized she enjoyed the challenge of working in manufacturing because it requires thinking on your feet, making the right decisions in a very challenging environment and collaborating effectively with different types of people -- from operators to maintenance technicians to highly technical engineers.
From Dow, Culpepper moved to Nova Chemicals, where she held numerous roles, including operations as well as site and regional leadership positions. Over the years, Culpepper has continued to progress into more challenging roles within manufacturing, working in facilities involving ethylene, polystyrene and styrene.
"I've seen the chemical industry go through some very uncertain times," Culpepper said. "During these times, I was engaged in helping set direction and morph manufacturing organizations to achieve long-term viability. These opportunities ultimately helped me to arrive at my current position.
"In my current role, I have responsibility for world-class facilities that manufacture polystyrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and specialties in the U.S. and Mexico. This role provides the opportunity for me to help develop strong international teams through leveraging best practices and resources, as well as the opportunity to create value through innovation."
According to Culpepper, there's no such thing as a "typical" day for her. Her days vary dramatically based on what's going on within the region. Culpepper's role with INEOS Styrolution involves traveling 50 percent of her time, and she is often in transit to one of the manufacturing sites she oversees.
"If I had to define 'typical,' it would usually include daily reviews of each plant's status -- HSE, production, upcoming challenges, etc.," Culpepper said. "This includes frequent dialogues with my plant teams to understand the issues. I then have to articulate these issues to my business partners and upper management. I also spend a great deal of my time in strategic meetings looking at what's next and aligning resources to accomplish it. I never know what challenges my organization will face on a daily basis; it is very dynamic. I find myself constantly challenged to think outside the box to find effective, creative solutions."
When it comes to insights she's gained from her experience and advice for the next generation of manufacturers, Culpepper stated it is important to appreciate the time you have in each of your roles.
"In reality, the further you go up the chain, the less day-to-day control you actually have," she said. "While it's rewarding being able to influence strategic direction, it sometimes would be nice to solve day-to-day technical problems.
"I've also come to realize the older I get, the more I appreciate what I don't know. As I've progressed in my career, I've come to appreciate the strengths we all bring to the table. Sometimes it's difficult to work with people who think differently than you, but it often results in tremendous innovation and outstanding results. Plus, we typically learn so much from the experience. I often spend time coaching and mentoring our young technical staff, and I really enjoy it."
INEOS Styrolution: Driving Success. Together.
INEOS Styrolution was founded in 2011 as a joint venture between INEOS and BASF as "Styrolution." In 2014, both companies announced INEOS would take over BASF's 50-percent share. As a result, the company's name changed to INEOS Styrolution in 2016. INEOS Styrolution is the leading global styrenics supplier, with a focus on styrene monomer, polystyrene, ABS Standard and styrenic specialties.
"With our world-class production facilities and more than 85 years of experience, INEOS Styrolution helps customers succeed by offering the best possible solution designed to give them a competitive edge in their markets," Culpepper said. "We provide styrenic applications for many everyday products across a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, household, construction, healthcare, toys/sports/leisure and packaging."
INEOS Styrolution employs approximately 3,300 people and operates 18 production sites in nine countries. In 2017, the company unveiled it would construct a new 100-kiloton- capacity acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) plant in Bayport, Texas. The site was selected based on its easy access to raw materials (e.g., being adjacent to the INEOS Styrolution styrene monomer plant), low-cost utilities and proximity to major customer markets. Bayport offers an excellent infrastructure for domestic shipments and exports as well. The new ASA plant in Bayport is expected to be operational by the end of 2020.
"We are growing organically and inorganically through new plant builds and acquisitions," Culpepper said. "While this is all very exciting, it is a tremendous challenge to grow the organization to support these activities, particularly when we are anticipating so many retirements. In the next 5-10 years, I think we'll continue to grow and also start to wholeheartedly embrace advanced manufacturing such as AI, robotics, predictive analytics, etc."
As far as the industry as a whole, Culpepper explained it has become much more open and engaged with the public.
"Historically, there hasn't been a lot of open dialogue or communication focused on what we do in the plants and, unfortunately, that has led to a lot of misinformation and misconception," she said. "Today, we are much more directly engaged with the communities we work in and open to sharing information with the general public. This makes total sense because we are members of the community as well."
'Building sustainability into everything we do'
INEOS Styrolution aspires to drive sustainable styrenics solutions for its customers. Culpepper said she is proud INEOS Styrolution takes sustainability seriously and strives to continue to improve through focus and innovation.
"We operate and develop our business in a way that balances our current and future needs, taking into account economic, environmental and social factors so we can sustain and further grow our business in the long term," Culpepper said. "We support the shift from a linear to a circular economy, where the benefits of plastics are maximized and negative environmental impacts are minimized. Instead of only using virgin raw materials for manufacturing products that sometimes end up as waste, we see an opportunity in converting this plastic waste into raw materials for the plastics industry, making the value chain more resource-efficient and circular. We incorporate building sustainability into everything we do."
A yearly participant in the EcoVadis Business Sustainability Ratings, INEOS Styrolution earned a gold medal for the 2017 reporting year. INEOS Styrolution also partakes in sustainability initiatives such as Operation Clean Sweep®, which focuses on ensuring the pellets it produces don't leave the sites and enter the environment.
"In North America, INEOS Styrolution is working with two companies, Agilyx and Pyrowave, to support continuous development of technology that will effectively recycle polystyrene," Culpepper said. "This process will ultimately return post-consumer polystyrene products to styrene monomer that can be used again to manufacture valuable products."
Looking ahead
According to Culpepper, INEOS Styrolution is unique because the company has undergone a number of joint ventures, which has created an employee base that is very diverse in terms of legacy organizations and talents.
"We will remain competitive by remembering the tough times in our past and constantly challenging ourselves to be better," Culpepper stated. "We will continue to build INEOS Styrolution with outstanding talent that is brilliant, committed and capable.
"We have also been working on a program called Asset Care that is focused on establishing a very strong manufacturing base to ensure our assets are well-run, well-maintained and sustainable, and every member of our organization has a true sense of ownership and takes pride in everything he or she does. I'm very proud of the progress our facilities continue to make in this endeavor and look forward to the future."
For more information, visit www.ineos-styrolution.com or call (866) 890-6354.
