Woody Paul, plant manager of the ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant, believes the current state of the manufacturing and petrochemical industry is vastly different from a decade ago. When Paul left for an international assignment 10 years ago, there was a general belief North America was a mature region with limited purposed growth. Now, with the shale gas revolution and manufacturing renaissance, that has all changed. There is a great deal of opportunity. One example of such growth is the proposed expansion of the ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant.
“The future is bright,” said Paul. “We’re continuing to discover the opportunities. I’m not going to say opportunities are limitless, but they certainly are long term into the future. It’s an exciting time.”
Paul, who received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Tulane University in 1980, began his career as a technology engineer at ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge, La., Chemical Plant. After several assignments, he transferred overseas to Germany and Belgium, conducting various planning studies for the company’s Olefins Technology organization.
After returning to Baton Rouge in 1987, Paul held various supervisory and managerial positions in manufacturing at ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge plant, including roles as operations manager and turnaround manager. In 2002, he transferred to ExxonMobil’s chemical headquarters as olefins planning manager and, in 2003, moved to Singapore in a similar role. Paul became regional manufacturing manager in Asia Pacific in 2006 and, most recently, Paul served as site manager at the company’s chemical plant in Fawley, England.
Extensive industry experience will enable Paul to successfully lead the Baytown site through a transformational time for the plant.
Baytown site expansion plans
ExxonMobil is currently awaiting final permits to progress plans for a world-class petrochemical expansion in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The multibillion-dollar project will include a new ethane cracker at the ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant and premium product facilities at ExxonMobil’s Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant to capitalize on the abundant supplies of domestic natural gas.
This proposed expansion, coupled with ExxonMobil’s global sales and technology support network, will enable ExxonMobil to economically supply the rapidly growing demand for high-value polyethylene products.
“With a successful expansion, the Baytown Olefins Plant will continue its long history of successful growth,” said Paul. “There are huge opportunities for the people working here as well as for the community. My goal is to successfully get from where we are to where we’re going and make sure we don’t lose sight of the base — keeping our industry-leading safety record and reliability — as we move to an entirely different place.
“We’re growing and it’s exciting to be able to help develop the people, organization and activities to get us from point A to point B.”
ExxonMobil expects the project to create approximately 10,000 construction jobs and add about 350 permanent jobs to the company’s work force of 6,500 employees in the Baytown area. The estimated multiplier effect would create another 3,800 jobs in the local community.
Once operating, the proposed expansion is estimated to increase regional economic activity by $870 million per year and generate more than $90 million per year of additional tax revenues for local communities within the Houston metropolitan area. Potential national impact of a project this size is expected to be in the neighborhood of $3.3 billion per year.
“Low-cost feedstock from shale gas development has given the U.S. chemical industry many potential opportunities,” Paul said. “Our industry has announced major capacity additions for the first time in more than a decade. And exports have been revived. Today, chemicals are once again America’s single biggest export to serve growing global demand.”
Leadership, the people element
Investing time and energy in developing people is a key focus for Paul.
“To me, the most challenging thing about being a leader is dealing with people or the people element,” he said. “I think the most important thing to have — in addition to intelligence — is an emotional intelligence. The most effective leaders have the ability to listen to and understand people as well as motivate and lead them.
“I’ve worked and lived around the world so I’ve worked in many different cultures. I think that helps me in being sensitive to differences.”
Ultimately, leaders need to be of service to their organization.
“It’s a great responsibility and great privilege,” said Paul. “It’s about always trying to help the organization grow further than we can even imagine. The great leaders I’ve worked for have always taken the time to really understand people. They get people what they need in order to develop and grow. Some of the leaders I admire gave me my first chance. They believed in me and allowed me to show what I could do.”
Reinforcing the importance of leadership in regard to safety has also resulted in great success for the site.
“To be sustainably excellent, we need to be able to deal with the hardware but also be able to deal with that human element — getting people to be switched on 24/7 in every single thing they do,” Paul said. “We focus on safety leadership training with our supervisors to try to get things right 100 percent of the time. One-hundred percent right, 100 percent of the time is what it really takes to achieve safety excellence — and that takes excellent leadership and teamwork.”
Positively impacting the local community
The importance of the surrounding community cannot be underestimated, according to Paul.
“We have a hugely supportive community around us,” he said. “The community gives us our license to operate so we have to always strive to be a good neighbor and give back. I’m really proud of what our employees do. We’re a member of this community and neighborhood. Currently, we’re working with Lee College to develop the work force of the future. We also work with a local elementary school, providing funding and volunteers in the classroom, as well as with the United Way. The ExxonMobil Baytown Olefins Plant piloted the first Baytown Day of Caring in 2000 with 165 ExxonMobil volunteers working at six agencies and, 13 years later, it is still a major volunteer event for our community.
“Us being here should be a benefit to everybody — not just the people who work within the fence of the site but the entire community.”
Recently, after being nominated by Lee College and the local community, ExxonMobil was awarded the Texas Workforce Commission’s Employer of the Year Award. ExxonMobil was chosen from a group of five finalists out of 25 private sector employers.
“To me, it reflects what our employees do and who we are,” said Paul. “What makes it such an honor is this being recognized externally. I can tell you how great of a place this is but to be nominated by Lee College and the community, and then have the Texas Workforce Commission acknowledge that, is really tremendous. It’s satisfying because it gives the recognition back to the excellent employees who work here and it shows what kind of people we have.”
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ExxonMobil Baytown
Olefins Plant
3525 Decker Drive
Baytown, Texas 77520
(281) 870-6050
www.exxonmobilchemical.com
Employees: Approximately 312 with an average of 450 contract personnel
Products: Ethylene, propylene and butadiene
Size: 320 acres with an ethylene facility on an adjacent 20-acre tract
