Aligning R&D Capital With Future Markets: Arkema’s Horizon-Based Portfolio Strategy

Arkema’s Portfolio Management Strategy for Innovation Across Horizons

Innovation strategy in the chemical industry is often discussed in terms of breakthrough technologies, digital transformation, and sustainability targets. Yet in practice, much of corporate R&D effort remains concentrated on short-term business continuity.

Dave Moss, Director of Technology & Innovation, Arkema

During the session “Adding Elasticity To Innovation For Growth: Arkema´s Portfolio Management Strategy For Innovation Across Horizons” at CIEX, Dave Moss, Director of Technology & Innovation at Arkema, addressed a structural issue that many chemical organizations recognize but struggle to correct: the imbalance between near-term operational priorities and long-term innovation investment.

Drawing on prior experience, he described a business environment in which annual churn approached 30%, requiring the organization to generate equivalent levels of new revenue each year simply to maintain its position. Under such conditions, R&D resources become concentrated on immediate replacement activity, limiting capacity for longer-horizon innovation.

“That was Horizon 1,” Dave noted. “And that business isn’t with us anymore.”

You can explore the full executive summary from the presentation below or watch the complete presentation recording via the link below.

📹 Watch the full Arkema presentation: [Link]

Arkema´s Portfolio Management Strategy For Innovation Across Horizons

Presentation executive summary

The Compression of the Innovation Horizon

The traditional McKinsey three-horizon framework remains a useful reference point for structuring innovation portfolios. Horizon 1 typically addresses immediate product support and incremental improvements. Horizon 2 builds capability in adjacent technologies and emerging markets. Horizon 3 creates options for future businesses.

However, in Arkema’s markets, Moss emphasized that the timeframes associated with these horizons have shortened significantly. In his segment of the business, Horizon 1 may span zero to one year, Horizon 2 one to two years, and Horizon 3 two years and beyond.

Arkema’s presentation slides at CIEX 2025

This compression alters the risk profile. Organizations that delay Horizon 3 investment are unlikely to feel the impact in five years. They may feel it much sooner.

At the same time, business unit leaders are naturally focused on short-term performance. Horizon 1 supports today’s revenue. Horizon 3 requires protected investment without immediate return.

Without deliberate governance mechanisms, resource allocation tends to drift toward the near term.

“You can Horizon 1 yourself right out of busines,” Dave cautioned.

Structuring Horizon 2 and 3 Innovation: From Strategy to Execution

For Arkema, success in long-term growth depends on a disciplined approach to mid- and long-term innovation, or Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 projects. These initiatives are focused on emerging markets, adjacent technologies, and “out-of-the-box” opportunities where the company may not yet have full capability or commercial presence. To manage this, Arkema leverages Discovery Hubs and engages business unit stakeholders to generate and evaluate potential projects.

Arkema’s presentation slides at CIEX 2025

The process begins with a clear understanding of the playing field: market needs, application opportunities, and competitive technologies. Projects are then assessed for their potential to differentiate Arkema in the marketplace, with feasibility evaluated against internal capabilities. Where gaps exist, the company actively considers open innovation models, partnering with startups, universities, suppliers, and even select competitors to bridge capability gaps without incurring excessive capital or headcount requirements.

Once feasible projects are identified, they are screened for strategic fit, ensuring alignment with the company’s broader innovation strategy and targeted markets. Prioritization follows a value-driven approach, taking into account potential impact, resource availability, and technical risk. FTE allocations are mapped across business units and time horizons to avoid bottlenecks, ensuring that the company can advance the most promising initiatives efficiently.

This structured methodology not only ensures that Horizon 2 and 3 projects remain aligned with corporate objectives, but also provides transparency and accountability across global R&D operations. Visual tools, such as the horizon planning map, illustrate the allocation of resources, the stage of each initiative, and the integration of open innovation efforts, allowing Arkema to maintain flexibility while systematically pursuing growth options that secure long-term competitive advantage.

Portfolio Governance as Strategic Discipline

A recurring theme in the presentation was the distinction between portfolio management and project management.

Project management governs execution. Portfolio management governs direction.

Arkema’s presentation slides at CIEX 2025

Within Arkema’s framework, portfolio management serves to align R&D investment with future market positioning rather than current revenue concentration. The objective is to anticipate shifts in customer demand and technology requirements and ensure that capability development is synchronized accordingly.

This requires clarity around innovation pillars, market positioning, and internal capability assessment. Arkema conducts global portfolio reviews at least twice annually to maintain alignment across business units and geographies. These reviews provide visibility into resource allocation and ensure that Horizon 3 initiatives remain structurally supported.

Equally important is transparency around resource deployment. Moss described mapping full-time equivalent (FTE) allocations across business units and quarters. With multiple business units drawing from the same technical resource pool, bottlenecks are inevitable unless proactively managed.

By visualizing these allocations, Arkema can identify future constraints early and make informed decisions about reprioritization, collaboration, or external engagement.

This level of visibility transforms innovation strategy from aspiration into accountable investment management.

Open Innovation as a Resource Strategy

Arkema’s Horizon 3 approach also relies heavily on open innovation, though not in the conventional venture-capital model.

The company does not operate a corporate venture fund. Instead, it seeks structured partnerships that create value for both parties.

Arkema’s presentation slides from CIEX 2025

With startups, Arkema may provide analytical capabilities, laboratory infrastructure, or access to customers rather than direct capital investment. Such arrangements can accelerate technology development while minimizing capital intensity.

University collaboration forms a structured component of the company’s external innovation model. While funding doctoral research is standard practice across the industry, the focus extends beyond early-stage science to commercial translation. Academic innovations frequently face barriers in scaling and market access; established industrial relationships can provide the route-to-market and application validation required to convert laboratory research into viable product platforms.

Collaboration with suppliers and, increasingly, with competitors also plays a role. In a fragmented industry, one company may hold market access while another possesses complementary technical capabilities. Under carefully defined scopes, such collaborations can create value where independent efforts might stall.

In each case, the objective is not openness for its own sake but the efficient extension of Horizon 3 capacity without proportional increases in fixed cost.

Internal Visibility and Organizational Complexity

Large, diversified chemical companies face another challenge: internal fragmentation.

Moss acknowledged that even within Arkema, it can be difficult to maintain full visibility across global business units. In some cases, technical solutions to current challenges may already exist elsewhere within the organization.

Improving internal communication and knowledge sharing is therefore not merely an efficiency initiative. It is part of ensuring that existing capabilities are fully leveraged before external resources are pursued.

Stage-Gate and the Management of Risk

At the project level, Arkema applies a Stage-Gate framework to manage development risk. Project selection is addressed at the portfolio level; Stage-Gate governs execution once strategic alignment has been established.

Training is central to making this system effective. Project teams must understand gate expectations, and gatekeepers must align their evaluation criteria with the appropriate development stage. Without this shared understanding, governance processes can become counterproductive.

The objective is not bureaucracy but controlled acceleration — balancing speed with informed decision-making.

AI Integration: From Operations to Formulation

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important component of Arkema’s technology strategy, with applications spanning manufacturing, supply chain operations, and R&D.

Arkema’s presentation slides at CIEX 2025

At the manufacturing level, structured process data supports performance optimization and operational efficiency. In supply chain management, digital tools improve asset utilization, logistics coordination, and decision-making accuracy. These operational applications are already delivering measurable value.

R&D applications are more complex, particularly in formulation chemistry. Unlike simpler systems, Arkema’s products may involve six or more interacting components, requiring extensive, structured datasets to enable reliable predictive modeling.

Legacy data often lacks the consistency required for machine learning. Arkema’s response has been forward-looking: ensuring that new experimental data is captured in electronic lab notebooks and laboratory information management systems in formats suitable for future AI deployment.

Arkema’s presentation slides at CIEX 2025

The long-term objective includes predictive modeling of structure–function relationships and, potentially, toxicity and ecotoxicity profiles. If realized, such capabilities could fundamentally alter how sustainability considerations are integrated into product development.

Sustainability as Forward Design

Sustainability pressures continue to intensify across chemical markets. Rather than treating regulatory compliance as a late-stage requirement, Arkema is exploring how predictive tools might inform material design at the earliest stages.

The ability to anticipate environmental and toxicological impact during formulation would shorten development cycles, reduce regulatory uncertainty, and strengthen market positioning in sectors where environmental performance is increasingly scrutinized.

In this context, sustainability becomes a design parameter rather than an afterthought.

Structural Lessons for the Industry

Arkema’s experience illustrates a broader point relevant to chemical industry leadership. Long-term competitiveness is not secured through incremental optimization alone. It requires disciplined portfolio governance, transparent resource allocation, strategic external collaboration, and sustained investment in emerging capabilities such as AI.

Horizon 3 cannot be left to residual capacity. It must be intentionally structured and protected.

For organizations facing compressed innovation cycles, sustainability pressures, and digital transformation simultaneously, that discipline is no longer optional.

Where These Strategic Questions Move From Theory to Practice

The structural issues outlined above are not isolated operational matters; they are shaping board-level conversations across the chemical sector.

CIEX North America 2026 is designed as a working forum for senior leaders addressing disciplined portfolio governance, AI integration, capital efficiency, and sustainability-driven product design. It focuses on the operational realities behind these strategic imperatives.

Join us for two focused days with senior leaders in R&D, innovation, and sustainability across the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors — tackling:

• Scaling new technologies beyond the pilot phase
• Embedding AI and digital tools into real R&D workflows
• De-risking innovation through the right partnerships
• Turning sustainability targets into profitable product pipelines

Expect practical case studies from leading global brands, proven methodologies, and direct access to senior decision-makers across the chemical industry.

📍 CIEX North America | September 9–10, 2026

If you influence innovation strategy, R&D direction, or technology investment — this is where you need to be.

Shaping the Future of Chemical Innovation with Syensqo

Shaping the Future of Chemical Innovation with Syensqo

CIEX is a leading forum for chemical R&D, innovation, and sustainability leadership, bringing together senior executives and technical experts from companies such as Dow, Sumitomo Chemical America, Cabot, DuPont, 3M, Arkema, LanzaTech, Hexion, Schneider Electric, and many others shaping the future of the industry.

Among the standout sessions, Syensqo offered a rare look at how a forward-thinking materials organization is reengineering polymer discovery — transforming multi-million-molecule design spaces into commercial breakthroughs in months instead of years.

For chemical leaders focused on accelerating innovation, reducing R&D risk, and rethinking discovery pipelines, this session delivers a forward-looking perspective.

You can explore the full executive summary or watch the complete presentation recording via the link below.

📹 Watch the full Syensqo presentation: [link]

From Search to Design: How Syensqo Is Reframing the Economics of Polymer Discovery

For decades, polymer innovation followed a familiar logic: generate candidates, test them, iterate, and hope feasibility emerges before budgets collapse or timelines break. That model—rooted in experimental search—was expensive, slow, and fundamentally constrained by human bandwidth.

Syensqo presented a case that signals a structural departure from that paradigm. Their team demonstrated how AI-driven molecular screening, combined with physics-based simulation, is no longer just accelerating discovery—it is redefining what discovery means.

The Core Shift: From Experimental Search to Computational Design

Traditional polymer R&D operates as a narrowing funnel: chemists begin with a manageable subset of molecules, test experimentally, and progressively eliminate failures. This approach is inherently conservative—not by choice, but by necessity.

Syensqo reversed that logic.

Instead of starting small, their team began with four million molecular candidates. Using AI-based screening, they rapidly compressed that design space into a few hundred viable structures. Physics-based simulation then filtered those further—before any material was synthesized.

This matters because it fundamentally changes what R&D can explore.

Design space is no longer limited by laboratory throughput. It is limited only by how well the organization can define performance constraints and encode them into models.

This marks a shift from:

  • Trial-and-error → Constraint-driven design

  • Experimental filtering → Computational filtering

  • Iteration → Pre-validation

The 18-Month Result—and What It Actually Proves

Syensqo’s team moved from four million molecular candidates to a polymer meeting strict performance requirements in 18 months—including thermal stability, UV resistance, hydrolytic resistance, and optical clarity.

Without AI, they estimate this would have required five to six years—if it were pursued at all.

But the most important insight is not speed.

The project would likely not have been launched without these advanced AI modelling tools, which made the technical risk manageable.

This signals a deeper transformation: AI is not just compressing timelines—it is expanding what organizations are willing to attempt.

The New Bottleneck: Organizational Readiness, Not Technology

As computational tools mature, the critical constraint is no longer technical. It is structural.

They highlighted three realities chemical leaders must confront:

  1. AI expands design space by orders of magnitude
    But most R&D organizations are still structured to explore narrow, incremental territory.

  2. Simulation now filters candidates before synthesis
    Yet many workflows still privilege wet-lab validation over digital pre-screening.

  3. Data is no longer scarce—structure is
    Legacy datasets, unstructured notebooks, and disconnected systems prevent AI from learning effectively.

This creates a paradox in which the technology is ready, but most organizations are not.

Why This Is a Leadership Problem—Not a Technical One

The implications of this shift extend far beyond tools.

AI-driven discovery demands changes in:

  • Portfolio logic (what gets funded)

  • Risk models (what is considered viable)

  • Talent profiles (what skills matter)

  • Governance (how decisions are made)

If leadership continues to treat AI as a productivity layer rather than an operating model shift, the value will remain marginal.

The 2026 Reality: Feasibility Becomes the Differentiator

For years, speed was the primary competitive advantage in innovation.

That era is ending.

When everyone can move faster, speed becomes table stakes. What differentiates leaders is no longer how quickly they can execute—but what they can make feasible.

This example makes this visible.

Closing: The Strategic Question Leaders Must Now Ask

The real question for chemical executives is no longer:

How do we digitize our R&D?

It is:

What discoveries are we currently not even attempting—because our operating model makes them impossible?

Syensqo’s case suggests a new answer:
Many of those barriers are no longer technical, but they are organizational.

⚗️⚡Breakthrough innovation is harder. Budgets aren’t bigger. Expectations are.

Chemical leaders are under pressure to deliver faster commercialization, measurable sustainability gains, and smarter R&D execution — without increasing risk or cost.

CIEX 2026 is built for exactly that challenge.

Two focused days with senior leaders in R&D, innovation, and sustainability across the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors — tackling:

• Scaling new technologies beyond the pilot phase
• Embedding AI and digital tools into real R&D workflows
• De-risking innovation through the right partnerships
• Turning sustainability targets into profitable product pipelines

Expect practical insight, peer exchange, and high-value connections with the leaders solving the same problems you are.

📍 CIEX North America | September 9–10, 2026

If you influence innovation strategy, R&D direction, or technology investment — this is where you need to be.

Sustainability as Strategy: How PPG Powers Growth Through Chemical Innovation

Sustainability as Strategy: How PPG Powers Growth Through Chemical Innovation

Editor’s Note: Peter Votruba-Drzal is Vice President of Global Sustainability at PPG, where he drives innovation and sustainable growth across multiple markets. Peter will speak at CIEX 2025, held on September 17–18 in Indianapolis, U.S.A., alongside leaders from Dow, 3M, BASF, DuPont, and more. Below is a preview of the insights he’ll share at the summit.

Sustainability as Strategy: How PPG Powers Growth Through Chemical Innovation

Peter Votruba-Drzal, VP Global Sustainability, PPG

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?

Peter: From supporting communities where we live and work, to developing products and processes that help mitigate environmental impacts and solve our customers’ biggest challenges, PPG’s sustainability commitments contribute to the positive impact we achieve through our purpose and are a key enabler of achieving our growth strategy. 

The most important takeaway for attendees is how critical it is to leverage sustainability as a strategic imperative and business growth driver. We always say that we don’t have a sustainability strategy – we have a business strategy rooted in sustainability and productivity-driving operational excellence for PPG and our customers. Now more than ever, it’s important to collaborate with customers and suppliers to create value through sustainability. 

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

Peter: I feel passionate about the need to collaborate across the value chain to drive meaningful change and work toward collective sustainability targets that are good for business. At PPG, we believe in partnering with a variety of public and private entities to advance technologies and capabilities that create sustainable benefits for existing and future products and services. CIEX provides a venue to foster learning and collaboration.

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

Peter: At PPG, we aim to be our customers’ first choice partner for innovative paints, coatings and specialty products. Products that provide productivity and sustainable advantages for our customers are instrumental to our growth.

We define sustainably advantaged products using PPG’s internal methodology that validates product attributes and their contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While many of our products have sustainable attributes in their end-use that promote longevity of customer assets, we consider products sustainably advantaged when they contribute to improved environmental outcomes or provide relative improvements over industry benchmarks. PPG’s internal methodology of sustainably advantaged assessment is utilized not only for existing products but also throughout the new product development process. This development methodology alongside market pull has transformed value creation in the products we develop.

Machine learning is another technology that has begun to transform our research and development (R&D processes.  Routine laboratory tasks like color development, formula cost reduction, and accelerated weathering testing are all examples where machine learning is increasing the speed of our development and allowing our R&D resources to shift to more value creation activities. 

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you’ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

Peter: In PPG’s markets, it is common that an invention in chemistry or formulation is needed to meet the market performance requirements.  In those cases, speed to market can be a challenge due to the discovery cycle. Utilizing a framework of product and technology roadmaps can provide the enterprise clarity on future technology needs. Investment in our teams’ capabilities enables the development of intellectual property, platform development of enabling technology, and internal expertise ahead of the needs within the product development organization. 

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

Peter: Partnerships with suppliers and applicators have been most impactful for PPG.  Leveraging strategic suppliers to develop customized raw materials accelerates product development by leveraging the strengths and capabilities of the supply base for innovative solutions.  Partnerships and pilot trials with applicators are extremely important upon scaling a technology from laboratory to end application.  Testing over a range of application variables to define the Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis (PFMEA) is critical to ensure a robust product and successful commercialization.

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade? 

Peter: I think it goes without saying that sustainably advantaged products and process innovations are the future in our markets. Customers are continually looking for technology that makes them more operationally efficient and delivers superior performance. Beyond customer expectations, regulatory pressures will also accelerate the transition to sustainably advantaged innovations, and companies must be prepared for this shift.

Alongside this, the use of digital tools to create operational efficiency both within your own operations and for your customers is of utmost importance. For example, PPG’s automotive refinish business is delivering share gain by introducing new technology that helps body shops realize efficiency, drive profitability and improve sustainability.

We have long delivered best-in-class technology with the award-winning PPG Envirobase waterborne system. More recently, we have focused on providing ways to make industry-leading platforms deliver more flexibility.   

Out-of-the-can technology solutions include the PPG LINQ™ end-to-end digital solution for global automotive refinish customers. The PPG LINQ ecosystem connects, automates, and digitizes the entire refinish process. It enables painters to modernize the repair processes using its interconnected digital hardware, software, and innovative services.

The PPG MOONWALK™ system, which is the company’s award-winning, automated paint mixing system for refinish body shops, marked the first of many customer-centric innovations that fall within PPG’s digital ecosystem powered by PPG LINQ. This industry-leading system is most notably recognized for its extreme colorimetric precision, significant economic benefits and increased labor productivity. PPG LINQ also features the PPG DigiMatch™ spectrophotometer; PPG VisualizID color visualization software; and the PPG MagicBox body shop assistant. To learn more about PPG LINQ, visit our website.

For more information about PPG, visit our website and most recent Sustainability Report.

CIEX: Thank you so much,  Peter! We look forward to hearing more from you at CIEX 2025!

Secure Your Spot at CIEX 2025 — The Leading Platform for Chemistry & Innovation

Be where senior R&D, innovation, and sustainability leaders from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors come together to shape the future.

Now in its 11th edition, CIEX creates real value by uniting decision-makers, sparking collaborations, and facilitating partnerships that drive progress.

📅 September 17–18, 2025 | Indianapolis, U.S.A.

Join the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable, and collaborative. Gain exclusive insights, connect with peers, and take part in discussions that set the industry agenda.

🎟 It’s the last chance to register– grab tickets today! Register here.

Staying Ahead: How the Chemical Industry Can Remain Competitive Beyond 2030

Staying Ahead: How the Chemical Industry Can Remain Competitive Beyond 2030

In this article, industry leaders from LanzaTech, BASF, Evonik, Dow, DuPont, Syensqo, Arkema, PPG,  Cabot and more share what it takes to lead in a decarbonized, digital future.

The chemical industry is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. To remain competitive beyond 2030, companies must fundamentally rethink how they operate, innovate, and deliver value in a rapidly evolving global economy.

Sustainability, circularity, digitalization, and talent development are no longer optional—they are the engines of growth and resilience. We asked thought leaders from across the industry who will participate in CIEX 2025  to share the critical capabilities that will define tomorrow’s winners.

Their responses make one thing clear: future competitiveness requires bold reinvention, not cautious optimization.

Circularity Is the New Value Driver

For decades, the industry has focused on linear models of production—extract, produce, dispose. This model is no longer viable in a world demanding sustainability and accountability.

“One of the most critical capabilities chemical companies must develop to remain competitive is the integration of circular supply chain principles,” says Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. LanzaTech’s technology turns waste carbon into raw material, effectively giving emissions a second life. This isn’t just a climate solution—it’s a business opportunity. “This isn’t circularity for circularity’s sake,” Holmgren continues. “There is profit to be made in using our waste to create more product. Companies that invest early can capture more of the value chain, gaining a strategic edge and driving higher margins in a premium segment of the energy market.”

Jean Vincent, Head of RD&I Americas at Evonik, agrees: “The world is changing at a drastic pace. Companies must fully embrace not just the concept of sustainability, but also ways to bring it to reality while maintaining competitiveness.”

Peter Votruba-Drzal, VP Global Sustainability at PPG, reinforces this view: “We don’t have a sustainability strategy—we have a business strategy rooted in sustainability and operational excellence. Collaboration with customers and suppliers is essential to create value through sustainability.”

Sustainability Must Be Embedded in Strategy

To thrive in a low-carbon economy, companies need to embed sustainability into every level of their operations—from raw materials sourcing to manufacturing and product development. “Mastering a circular economy, sustainable renewable sourcing of raw materials, and low-carbon emission processes—along with digital and AI-driven innovation—are imperatives,” says Arthur Martin, VP R&D North America at Arkema. Peter Votruba-Drzal illustrates how this plays out in practice: “We define sustainably advantaged products through a rigorous methodology aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This approach transforms value creation and is embedded throughout the product development process.”

This approach goes far beyond compliance. Forward-thinking companies are treating sustainability as a competitive advantage, unlocking growth in new markets while aligning with the evolving expectations of regulators, customers, and investors.

A New Mindset for a New Era

For global chemical companies like BASF, the key to navigating future challenges lies in entrepreneurial thinking. “We need to sense how the world is changing and adapt quickly,” says Dr. Amit Gokhale, Director of Process and Chemical Engineering R&D at BASF. “That means adopting new technologies, building new business models, and increasing our tolerance for risk.” He emphasizes that collaboration—between companies, suppliers, customers, and even competitors—will be essential for reducing investment risk and accelerating the scale-up of next-gen solutions.

Patricia Hubbard, SVP and CTO at Cabot, agrees and stresses the importance of adaptability: “Companies must actively seek new information and design systems to evolve under uncertainty to stay competitive.” The CIEX 2025 conference will provide a great opporunity to hear successful case studies, find collaborators and develop new ideas. 

The Digital Leap: AI as a Strategic Capability

In the race to stay ahead, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies are emerging as transformative tools—not just for productivity but for discovery, decision-making, and engagement. “Chemical companies need to adopt AI and build an AI culture,” says Mike Finelli, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at Syensqo. “This includes leveraging AI for process optimization, accelerated discovery, and customer engagement. It’s imperative to remain competitive in an increasingly digital market.” AI allows R&D teams to reduce trial-and-error in labs, optimize supply chains, and customize products faster and more precisely than ever before.

“The tools available for understanding the science and evaluating the impact of materials are advancing at an unprecedented pace,” adds A.N. Sreeram, CTO and SVP of R&D at Dow. “Companies must stay at the forefront of rigorous analysis while being as nimble and responsive as possible.”

Talent, Trade-Offs, and the Innovation Engine

Technology alone won’t deliver transformation—people will. That means building a workforce ready to lead across sustainability, science, digital, and systems thinking. “Innovators will need to balance often conflicting trade-offs—performance, sustainability, resilience—with an increasing focus on speed,” says Marty DeGroot, VP Technology at DuPont. He emphasizes that innovation must now consider the full value chain and how decisions reverberate across complex ecosystems. “This will require access to modern capabilities and a strong emphasis on talent development and upskilling to use these capabilities effectively.”

Patricia Hubbard adds a crucial lens on timing innovation: “Timing is the hardest aspect of scaling innovation. The best practice is to keep options open, build flexible assets, and invest when customers are ready to scale. This approach helps de-risk growth while aligning with business goals.”

Reinventing the Future—Now

What does it truly mean to be competitive beyond 2030? It means developing low-carbon technologies and circular models—not as side projects, but as core business strategies. It means using AI not just to automate, but to accelerate invention. And it means empowering people across the organization to lead with curiosity, courage, and collaboration. “Chemical companies that invest early,” says Jennifer Holmgren, “can capture more of the value chain from feedstock to final product.”

The challenge ahead is clear—but so is the opportunity. The companies that act boldly today will not just survive tomorrow. They will lead it.

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is the leading platform for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

🎟Register today to secure your spot!

Rethinking R&D in Specialty Chemicals: Insights from Arkema

R&D in Specialty Chemicals: How Arkema Is Driving Innovation

Editor’s Note: Arthur Martin is Vice President of R&D North America at Arkema, leading innovation in Advanced Materials, Specialty Adhesives, and Coatings. With over 25 years of experience and 22 U.S. patents, he brings deep expertise in specialty materials and product commercialization.

Arthur W. Martin, VP R&D North America, Arkema

Arthur will speak at CIEX 2025, held on September 17–18 in Indianapolis, U.S.A., alongside leaders from Dow, 3M, BASF, DuPont, and more. Below is a preview of the insights he’ll share at the summit.

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?

Arthur: There has been a continuous reduction in R&D spending as a percentage of revenue by most specialty companies over the last 20-30 years. Currently, most specialty companies spend approximately 2.7% on average across the three (3) horizons of innovation. This is a reduction from 10-15% previously spent in prior years. Therefore, it is incumbent for innovation leaders and executives to be creative in how they prioritize, select and valuate R&D technology programs in their innovation portfolio.

Elasticity in innovation gives an R&D organization the flexibility to adapt and respond quickly to changes in technology, market demand, and competitive pressure. Specifically, it enables the organization to shift resources dynamically to allocate talent, R&D investment, and tools more efficiently to high-potential projects or pivot when needed to scale innovation efforts by ramping up or scaling down R&D activities based on opportunities, risk, or performance feedback without major disruption.

In Arkema, accelerating the time-to-market by responding faster to emerging trends or customer needs gives us a competitive advantage. Empowerment of our R&D scientists to experiment more freely and take innovative risk can provide unexpected results that provide significant value.  Supporting a culture of rapid prototyping and learning allows multiple innovative pathways to be explored in parallel and finally resilience to failure to absorb setbacks and reallocate efforts without derailing the overall innovation agenda remains critical to the innovation process.

In short, elasticity empowers an R&D organization to remain agile, resilient, and competitive in a fast-changing environment.

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

Arthur: I’m motivated to join CIEX because they offer a unique space to collaborate with forward-thinking innovation leaders who are passionate about solving complex problems and shaping the future. CIEX is not just about generating new ideas and discussing new concepts in the innovation space, they’re about turning those ideas into real, scalable impact. I’m driven by the opportunity to learn from both other strategic and visionary leaders and contribute my own perspective to meaningful, future-focused initiatives. Being part of such a community helps me grow as a leader, stay ahead of trends, and continuously challenge myself to think creatively and lead with purpose.

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

Arthur: I have recently created an Emerging Technologies department over the past year. I am already experiencing a positive impact. I have developed a fail-fast mechanism and open innovation while having closer connection with the business units. The new technology platforms within Arkema utilize existing assets and are market and customer-focused, leading to faster time-to-market, better product-market fit, and smarter decision-making. 

I have created technology enablers through digital transformation and open innovation to shift from the linear process of execution to a more agile approach, faster iteration loops between teams (R&D, product, commercial), parallel development and testing rather than sequential handoffs, more customer focused, and market need approach to technology development delivering more value to the businesses. 

This approach has resulted in shortened development timelines and better alignment with changing business needs.

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you´ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

Arthur: In my 25+ years of experience, I would not say I have seen it all, but I have experienced enough to view challenges from the landscape of opportunities. Here are some of my perspectives on the opportunities we have to create solutions: The gap between a promising prototype and a viable, scalable product often lacks funding, sponsorship, or a clear path forward, misalignment with core business goals: Innovations may be technically brilliant but not aligned with strategy, customer needs, or revenue models.

I have also experienced siloed operations in R&D, product, marketing, and commercial teams, often operating independently, leading to disconnects and delays.

Sometimes, technologists are overly optimistic to the challenges of scalability and not identifying risk and threats in the timely and intuitive manner they should, therefore, underestimating scale-up complexity where technical challenges, regulatory hurdles, supply chain issues, and customer adoption are often more complex than anticipated.

Let’s not forget the cultural impedance, resulting in Internal resistance to change or fear of cannibalizing existing products can kill innovation before it takes off.

Also, from company to company or business unit to business unit within one company, the lack of a repeatable process becomes the Achilles heel too often for organizations. They still rely on ad hoc innovation rather than a structured process for scaling from lab to market. The best practices such as stage gate process, agile innovation, design thinking and other innovation processes are often ignored.

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

Arthur: Open innovation, customer intimacy, and integrated supply chains are indeed critical to sustainable growth. In our business, the most impactful partnerships have been those that combined cross-industry collaboration with shared innovation goals. For example, we’ve worked closely with custom toll synthesis providers to develop novel material solutions that enhance supply chain agility. We’ve also partnered with key customers to co-create products tailored to adjacent and evolving market needs, allowing for faster feedback loops and improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, strategic alliances with sustainability-focused organizations have helped us reduce our environmental footprint while aligning with global ESG standards. These collaborations have not only strengthened our market position but also embedded long-term resilience into our business model.

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade? 

Arthur: Looking toward the future, I think there are several critical capabilities that must be realized or exemplified to have a competitive edge. They are mastering a circular economy, sustainable, renewable sourcing of raw materials and low carbon emission processes, digital and AI-driven innovation and ecosystem collaboration are imperatives. These are essential parameters to remain on the competitive path.

CIEX:  Thank you so much, Arthur! We look forward to hearing more from you at CIEX 2025!

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is the leading platform for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

🎟Register today to secure your spot!

Driving Sustainable Innovation in Chemicals: DuPont’s vision

Driving Sustainable Innovation in Chemicals: DuPont on Decarbonization, Customer-Centric R&D, and the Next Generation of Innovators

Editor’s Note: Marty DeGroot is Vice President of Technology at DuPont, where he leads innovation across high-performance industries including healthcare, aerospace, electronics, and automotive. Marty will speak at CIEX 2025, held on September 17–18, 2025 in Indianapolis, U.S.A., alongside senior executives from 3M, BASF, Sumitomo Chemical, Arkema, Eastman, Syensqo, and more. Below is a preview of the insights he’ll share at the summit.

Marty DeGroot, VP Technology, DuPont

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?

Marty: At DuPont, we believe that our greatest impact on the world stems from our innovations, and that scientific advancement is essential for tackling the most pressing global challenges. Sustainable innovation is a core aspect of our philosophy as we work to provide products and applications that solve complex problems while also delivering meaningful sustainability benefits that align with customer expectations. 

While there are overarching themes—such as reducing harmful substances and decarbonizing—expectations and opportunities vary by industry. Therefore, engagement with our customers is essential to ensure we meet their unique needs. Innovators face a paradigm shift as they must now consider conventional value drivers (such as cost and performance) alongside a clearer articulation and quantification of those factors that enhance customer sustainability impact as part of the overall value proposition.

A comprehensive understanding of the impacts of decisions in new product and process development—and how these decisions assist customers in reaching their goals—is a crucial role for the modern innovator. Our recent focus on carbon fluency exemplifies this mindset. We have several examples across sectors like water, healthcare, automotive, and aerospace, where innovation has led to new solutions that meet stringent performance requirements while simultaneously creating a significant positive impact aligned with customer goals.

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

Marty: The rapid changes brought about by disruptive technologies, supply chain volatility, and the need for sustainable solutions have made innovation essential in addressing the complex challenges we face to ensure a thriving world. The CIEX event offers a valuable opportunity to engage with senior innovation leaders about various shared obstacles and challenges. It provides a platform to foster connections, learn from one another, and explore collaborations that can speed up the development of practical solutions.

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

Marty: The emergence and ongoing expansion of digital innovation capabilities are rapidly transforming how innovators tackle challenges. A connected lab infrastructure has been essential for enhancing data accessibility and facilitating the use of tools like machine learning and predictive analytics. These tools increase speed and productivity, allowing innovators to dedicate more time to high-value work. One of the most significant benefits has been enabling our formulators to use these tools to minimize the number of iterations needed to quickly arrive at viable solutions for customer end-use applications.

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you’ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

Marty: One of the biggest challenges in innovation today is the increasing need to shorten innovation cycles to keep up with rapid changes and support customer roadmaps. As a company focused primarily on innovations close to the end user, we have observed a shift in the importance of speed as a crucial factor in helping customers implement solutions and maintain competitiveness. 

The greatest challenge in delivering quickly lies in early-stage innovation, where uncertainty is high. Best practices involve using lean innovation tools that facilitate rapid experimentation, allowing us to quickly reduce risk and ambiguity. In early-stage innovation, the most critical “experiments” often focus on customer desirability to ensure that innovation addresses the most significant and valuable challenges.

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

Marty: In today’s complex innovation landscape, building partnerships is essential for fostering speed and resilience in developing innovative solutions. Our most critical partnerships are with our customers, and some of our most recent investments focus on delivering first rapid prototypes that help to engage customers more quickly. This approach increases the likelihood of iterative cycles that ultimately lead to scalable solutions. By starting with a minimum viable product and involving customers in the development process, we enhance engagement and collaboration, which in turn helps us deliver resilient solutions. 

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade? 

Marty: Next-generation innovators will need to navigate multiple themes and balance the challenges of developing solutions while managing often conflicting trade-offs, such as performance, sustainability, and resilience, all with an increasing focus on speed.

To effectively address these challenges, innovators must consider how their decisions impact the entire supply chain and value chain. This means understanding and analyzing the interconnectedness of various processes and stakeholders involved. By doing so, they can drive innovation while ensuring that their operations are aligned with the broader economic and environmental considerations that influence their industry. This will require a significant focus on enabling access to modern capabilities and a strong emphasis on talent development and upskilling to utilize these capabilities and achieve impactful solutions effectively.

CIEX: Thank you so much, Marty! We look forward to hearing more from you at CIEX 2025!

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is the leading platform for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

🎟Register before 3rd July and save $400 with early-bird pricing!

Driving Sustainable Innovation in Chemicals: DuPont on Decarbonization, Customer-Centric R&D, and the Next Generation of Innovators

Future of the Chemical Industry: Syensqo on AI, Quantum Computing & Robotics

Future of the Chemical Industry: Syensqo on AI, Quantum Computing & Robotics

Mike Finelli, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and Chief North America Officer, Syensqo

Editor’s Note: Mike Finelli is Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and Chief North America Officer at Syensqo. With over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry and more than 15 years in executive leadership roles, he leads strategic innovation across key platforms including battery materials, green hydrogen, thermoplastic composites, and renewable materials. Mike will be speaking at our upcoming CIEX 2025 Summit, taking place on September 17–18, 2025, in Indianapolis, U.S.A. He will be joined by CXOs and VPs of innovation and R&D from 3M, BASF, Sumitomo Chemical, Arkema, DuPont, Evonik, Eastman, and many more. Below is a preview of the key insights Mike will share at the summit.

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?

Mike: My keynote address will explore the transformative future of the chemical industry. It will highlight the industry’s exciting potential driven by the convergence of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and robotics. I hope it will inspire attendees to embrace these technological advancements and seize the opportunity to pioneer the future of the chemical industry. 

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

Mike: I’m inspired because everything that makes our lives better starts with chemistry. We create the future. And I am even more excited about our future than ever, thanks to the convergence of amazing technologies such as generative AI, huge advances in quantum computing and how the combination of these two technologies with advanced robotics will change the world. When I think about the next 10 years, I think we will accomplish more than we have done in the last 50 years! That’s why it’s so important to embrace these technologies together and exchange ideas.

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

Mike: The most impactful emerging technologies are Gen AI and agentic systems. These technologies are allowing us to innovate faster through significantly accelerated R&D processes by enhancing data analysis, predictive modeling and material discovery and reduce the number of experiments needed. Our teams have actually discovered new polymers with unique properties by generating hypothetical polymers from a pool of millions of molecules using AI. This reduced the time usually required for such a discovery by a factor of 3 or more! We are now extending the approach to other material discoveries, targeting other performance criteria. It’s amazing to think of what we can achieve. 

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you´ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

Mike:

    1. One of the biggest challenges is ramping up to industrial scale without producing a pilot scale first. The best practice would be to go through the pilot stage but this stage can be very costly and time consuming. The challenge is, how do you skip this step without compromising quality and safety? 
    2. It can be difficult to align with business objectives while managing costs and sustainability. Best practices involve fostering a culture of open innovation, leveraging AI for predictive insights, and maintaining a robust feedback loop between R&D and market needs to ensure alignment with business goals.

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

Mike:

  1. We see all our customers as key partners and innovators. In fact, we have several global Customer Innovation Centers that are hubs of co-creation! Here, we work alongside our customers to develop market-leading and sustainable solutions that meet their unique needs. 
  2. We have numerous key partnerships that advance sustainable solutions. To provide one example, we just announced a strategic partnership with Ardent to supply our high performance materials to help advance their carbon capture and olefin-paraffin separation solutions.
  3. We are also working closely with our suppliers to reduce our Scope 3 environmental footprint, through our Climate Pledge – a mutual agreement with our top 70 suppliers, who account for 80% of the group’s GHG emissions from raw materials purchased. Our suppliers are committing to play a role in our decarbonization efforts by setting up a roadmap to reduce the carbon footprint of their products and operations. 

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade? 

Mike: Chemical companies need to adopt AI and build an AI culture in their companies. This includes leveraging AI for process optimization, accelerated discovery, and customer engagement. This is imperative to remain competitive in an increasingly digital market.

CIEX: Thank you so much, Mike. We look forward to hearing from you more at CIEX 2025!

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is designed for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

Register before 3rd July and save $400 with early-bird pricing!

Chemical Industry Innovation: How Dow Uses AI and High-Throughput R&D to Transform Materials Science

Chemical Industry Innovation: Dow’s Use of AI and High-Throughput R&D to Transform Materials Science

Editor’s note: A.N. Sreeram is Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP of Research & Development (R&D) at Dow. Leading the chemical industry innovation in his organization, he will be speaking at our upcoming CIEX 2025 Summit on Sep 17-18, 2025, in Indianapolis, U.S.A. He will be joined by CXOs and VPs of innovation and R&D from 3M, BASF, Sumitomo Chemical, Arkema, DuPont, Evonik, Eastman and many more. Below is a preview of what he will talk about at the summit. 

Sreeram leads an exceptional R&D organization focused on accelerating new product commercialization. Under Sreeram’s leadership, Dow transformed its innovation approach by growing high-throughput experimentation and analysis capabilities while establishing a strong connection to market signals and customers. Sreeram joined Dow in 2006 as VP of Core R&D and then served as VP of R&D for Advanced Materials. Prior to Dow, he held R&D leadership roles at DuPont, Cookson Electronics, and Sarnoff Corporation. Sreeram is a Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award recipient, holds 20 U.S. patents, and served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He earned his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A.N. Sreeram, CTO and SVP R&D, Dow 

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk, and what would you like delegates to remember? 

A.N. Sreeram: Science and technology are advanced by well-trained researchers who rigorously apply the scientific method. Those equipped with the best tools will have the most impact by being able to develop and test hypothesis more creatively, quickly, and thoroughly. More of their time can be spent on the thinking about the actual science rather than on the execution of cumbersome tasks in the pursuit of scientific investigation. Each generation has had a new set of tools available. For example, in calculations, first there were counting stones, then mathematics, then the abacus, the slide rule, the calculator, and the computer.

At Dow, the Lab-of-the-Future is being realized for materials science through the combination of high throughput research, robotics, digital twins, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

A.N. Sreeram: The chemicals and materials science industry is absolutely critical in solving some of the world’s most pressing issues. CIEX has become an important forum to bring thought leaders together in a way that will accelerate the pace of innovation that is so urgently needed. 

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

A.N. Sreeram: Dow has been a leader in High Throughput Research for decades, as well as multi-scale modeling and simulations, starting from first principles as much as possible. The recent breakthroughs in data science, computing power, and artificial intelligence have opened new frontiers in how to analyze, understand, and utilize our deep and broad data repository. Researchers now have the ability to more easily challenge existing paradigms by testing high reward hypotheses in a low risk, efficient way. The net impact is not only to expand the opportunity window but also to achieve the target goal expeditiously. R&D hits rates have measurably increased while development times have measurably decreased.

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you´ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

A.N. Sreeram: The challenges in scaling innovation from lab to market, especially at world scale, remain the same as they have always been.  

First, the technology readiness must be in sync with the market readiness. Numerous inventions fail to progress into innovations due to the absence of a critical market component, despite the readiness of the innovation for demonstration. Electric vehicles, hydrogen, and nuclear are all examples of technologies that have existed for a long time and are now seeing a renaissance since market dynamics have changed. This, in turn, is driving further innovation.  

Second, scaling to world-scale is resource intensive, especially in manufacturing industries which are inherently capital intensive. As an example, Dow has just started up a state-of-the-art polyethylene plant. Such investments take billions of dollars and years of time to execute. Opportunities must be prioritised and full de-risked to make such commitments. All customers and suppliers’ priorities,  incentives to commercialize and market demands must be aligned across the value chain. 

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

A.N. Sreeram: The most successful, impactful innovations are collaborations across the value chain where everyone has an incentive to participate and benefits from success. Some of our most fruitful breakthroughs come after earning a seat at our customers’ design tables. It takes building trust and consistently delivering on a series of commitments for exceptional, reliable products that advance the goals of our  customers. Paradigm shifts come from agreeing on what is possible after imagining what could be possible and then on executing shared plans. 

For example, Dow and Under Armour have been collaborating for years behind-the-scenes to disrupt the status quo and deliver breakthrough innovations within the athletic shoe space. During one of their routine innovation days, Dow approached UA with a pioneering concept – rubber-less “unisole” shoes that were lightweight and could deliver unprecedented stability and flexibility. Initially, this unisole  technology was designed for UA’s running shoes, but after testing prototypes in the gym of UA’s Portland campus with four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry, a new application was dreamed up – basketball shoes. The challenge then became mastering the unique specifications of the material in time to be launched as the inaugural product within the Curry Brand. 

Historically, shoe midsoles are formed of several components with rubber outsoles which require a more complex manufacturing process and more weight to achieve ideal performance. Together, a hand selected team of engineers from Dow and UA worked for three years to develop UA Flow – also known by UA as “unicorn foam”- the industry’s first “unisole” foam material that eliminates the need for rubber outsoles. 

This depth of knowledge enabled the team to fine-tune the formulation for energy return, shock absorption and traction to enhance the court feel, cushioning and speed of movement without sacrificing durability. 

The technical innovativeness and market impact of the Unisole technology were externally recognized by winning a Gold Edison Award. 

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade?  

A.N. Sreeram: More than any other industry, materials are the foundation of a safe, healthy, sustainable future.  Chemical companies must stay grounded in science-based decision making. The data and the tools available for understanding the underlying science and evaluating the impact of materials are continuing to advance at an unprecedented pace. The industry must stay at the forefront of rigorous analysis, while also being as timely, nimble, and responsive as possible in a rapidly evolving world and stakeholder base.

CIEX: Thank you so much, Sreeram. We look forward to hearing more from you at CIEX 2025!

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is designed for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

Register before 3rd July and save $400 with early-bird pricing!

Reimagining Carbon: How the Circular Carbon Economy Is Transforming the Chemical Industry

Reimagining Carbon: How the Circular Carbon Economy Is Transforming the Chemical Industry

Editor’s note: Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is Chair & CEO of LanzaTech. She will be speaking at our upcoming CIEX 2025 Summit on Sep 17-18, 2025 in Indianapolis, U.S.A. She will be joined by CXOs and VPs of innovation and R&D from DOW, BASF, Sumitomo Chemical, Arkema, DuPont, Evonik, Eastman and many more. Below is a preview of what she will talk about at the summit. 

Under Jennifer’s guidance, LanzaTech is developing a variety of platform chemicals and fuels, including the world’s first alternative jet fuel derived from industrial waste gases. She is also Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. Prior to LanzaTech, Jennifer was the founding VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP, a Honeywell Company. Jennifer is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech

She sits on the Board of Directors of Nature’s Fynd and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), the Advisory Council for the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment at Princeton University, the National Academies’ Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES), the Halliburton Labs Advisory Board, and the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS International Advisory Council. Jennifer holds a B.Sc. degree from Harvey Mudd College, a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

CIEX: Without giving too much away – what is the core message of your talk and what would you like delegates to remember?

Jennifer: Carbon is in everything – we rely on it for countless aspects of our everyday lives. How we use carbon, how we transform it and how we dispose of it are all critical factors in establishing a profitable and circular carbon economy. LanzaTech’s technology has harnessed the power of biology and paired it with human innovation, revolutionizing what our carbon economy can look like. In my presentation, I will talk about how we can reimagine carbon not as something to get rid of, but as a tool to progress our everyday lives even more, deriving value and profit without the same wasteful side effects we see today. 

CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year?

Jennifer: We are at a perceived juxtaposition today: how do we create a more sustainable world while also progressing society and returning to our shareholders? I say perceived because we don’t have to choose – LanzaTech is one of many examples where carbon abatement solutions can also create value and be profitable (though one of few at commercial scale today.

I’m excited to join other thought leaders at CIEX to talk about how we can apply these solutions to the chemicals industry and beyond. Specifically, I’m excited to talk about the chemicals industry tie-in with Sustainable Aviation Fuel and how we can derive major value there. This year’s theme of “powering the future of chemistry” couldn’t come at a better time.

CIEX: In what ways have emerging technologies most significantly transformed your R&D process over the past few years – and what impact has this had on speed to market?

Jennifer: There are many emerging technologies that have empowered LanzaTech to optimize our production processes while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability and cost-efficiency. An example is the development of LanzaTech’s Biofoundry. A synergy of automation engineering, synthetic biology (SynBio) and artificial intelligence (AI), our Biofoundry enables accelerated research and development as well as faster time-to-market for new biotechnologies in three ways:

  • Automation: Automating repetitive lab processes, such as pipetting and sample analysis, has increased throughput and decreased the time needed for experimentation. This allows researchers to conduct more experiments simultaneously and gather data more quickly.
  • SynBio: Synthetic biology facilitates the design and construction of custom microbial strains. This capability accelerates the development of microbes tailored for specific industrial applications, shortening the time from concept to viable product.
  • AI: AI tools help in data analysis, enabling the rapid identification of promising avenues for microbial strain development and fermentation improvement. Machine learning models can predict outcomes and suggest optimizations, streamlining the R&D cycle. Currently the only biofoundry capable of anaerobic experimentation globally, this intersection of emerging technologies has been a game-changer for our carbon management solution’s development and eventual market deployment.

CIEX: What are the biggest challenges – and best practices- you’ve seen in scaling innovation from lab to market while staying aligned with business objectives?

Jennifer: There are many known challenges as you go from lab to market – technology scale up, regulatory environment, market conditions, resource allocation, financing, risk management, competition – I could go on. The one thing that has been absolutely crucial to LanzaTech’s success is finding the right partners at the beginning who are willing to take on the additional financial and technological risk of a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) project. 

In LanzaTech’s case, we built our first demonstration facility with the same steel production partner as our first commercial scale plant. This meant we were able to go from a 100-thousand gallon a year plant to 30-million gallons a year because they understood the technology, it was derisked for their specific emissions stream as feedstock into our fermentation process. 

How did we find this partner? We looked across the globe and chose a market that prioritized:

  • Industry expansion: most of the world was in a receding mode for steel, more focused on optimization and efficiencies than trying new things to grow the industry.
  • Infrastructure investment: While we licensed our technology and provided engineering services and manpower – our partner was able to provide the capital needed to build the first commercial scale facility. They were able to absorb the financial risk.
  • Carbon abatement: we needed a partner who was motivated to reduce their carbon footprint and wanted to be part of low carbon intensity product creation

Now, on the way to our FOAK partner, we heard “no” a lot! Another best practice would be to get comfortable with that word and be able to move onto the next. There is someone out there that will share your vision for the future and see the potential of your technology – it’s your job to find them.

CIEX: Open innovation, customer responsiveness, and integrated supply chains are gaining traction. What partnerships or collaborations have been most impactful in driving sustainable growth for your business?

Jennifer: Partnerships play a crucial role in launching new technology into the market. This involves not only patient investors and enthusiastic advocates but also customers who share your vision. Successfully bringing new technology to market requires a collaborative effort, and we are fortunate to work with global leaders who are passionately dedicated to creating positive change and producing meaningful products.

This means that I can’t really pick one “most impactful” partnership – across our value chain we work with key stakeholders that are critical to our success. There is the visionary industry partner that provides their emissions as feedstock to our process; our brilliant EPC partners that build the facilities; expert distillation, transportation and certification providers; all the way to our sustainability-focused customers that purchase our recycled carbon fuels and products. Of course, I cannot forget our investors and financing partners who enable it all. We need every part of the machine to integrate and operate together for steady operations and sustainable growth. 

CIEX: Looking ahead, what do you see as the most critical capability chemical companies must develop to remain competitive in the next decade? 

Jennifer: One of the most critical capabilities chemical companies must develop to remain competitive is the integration of circular supply chain principles, particularly within the context of the circular carbon economy. As the industry moves towards sustainability, chemical companies will need to focus on recycling their waste and decarbonizing their supply chains, specifically their feedstock. LanzaTech can help by repurposing carbon emissions, turning waste into valuable raw materials for the industry and significantly lowering the carbon intensity of everyday products.

But this isn’t circularity for circularity’s sake – there is profit to be made in using our waste to create more product. As demand for sustainable fuels grows, chemical companies that invest early in this space can capture more of the value chain, from feedstock to final product, gaining a strategic edge and driving higher margins in a premium segment of the energy market.

By developing capabilities around these advanced processes, chemical companies will not only adhere to increasingly strict environmental regulations but also position themselves as leaders in innovation and efficiency over the coming decade.

CIEX: Thank you so much, Jennifer! We look forward to hearing more from you at CIEX 2025!

Powering the Future of Chemical Industry at CIEX 2025 Summit

CIEX is designed for senior-level R&D, innovation, and sustainability professionals from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Now in its 11th edition, CIEX is focused on creating value by bringing together the right people, fostering synergies, and actively facilitating connections among potential partners.

Join us on September 17 & 18, 2025,  in Indianapolis, U.S.A. and get exclusive access to the community powering the future of chemistry — digital, sustainable and collaborative!

Register today and save $400 with early-bird pricing!

Reimagining Carbon: How the Circular Carbon Economy Is Transforming the Chemical Industry

 

Revolutionizing the Chemical Industry: How Dow Is Embracing Digital Transformation

Revolutionizing the Chemical Industry: How Dow Is Embracing Digital Transformation

Narayan Ramesh, Senior Core R&D Director, Dow  

The 2024 CIEX North America conference in Indianapolis was an exceptional gathering of thought leaders, innovators, and professionals from the chemical industry. The conference fostered dynamic discussions on key trends and technologies shaping the future of chemical innovation, sustainability, and digital transformation. Among the standout sessions was a presentation by Narayan Ramesh, Senior Core R&D Director at Dow, who shared insights into how digital tools and data-driven strategies are revolutionizing Dow’s approach to materials science and sustainability.

In our 2024 recap, we’re excited to offer a summary of Narayan’s presentation. Read on or click the link below to listen to the full audio presentation.

Narayan Ramesh, Senior Core R&D Director, Dow

Stay up-to-date with the latest insights and expert perspectives from the chemical industry—follow the CIEX Summit on LinkedIn!

Session Summary: Dow’s Strategy for Digital Transformation in the Chemical Industry

As industries around the world strive to reduce their environmental impact and enhance operational efficiency, the integration of digital technologies into traditional chemical processes is playing a critical role. At the core of Dow’s digital strategy is the use of AI and machine learning models to accelerate material innovation and process optimization.

Narayan explained that digital tools enable Dow to design and test materials at a much faster pace than traditional methods. “By using advanced algorithms and simulations, we can predict material properties and behaviors before they are even synthesized.” This approach not only accelerates the R&D process but also significantly reduces the cost and time needed for testing and prototyping. “We can predict material properties and behaviors before they are even synthesized.”

Through the use of high-throughput data analysis, Dow can now simulate and model entire product lifecycles, enabling the company to identify the most sustainable materials early in the design phase. This digital approach is transforming the way Dow develops and manufactures products, ensuring that sustainability is woven into the fabric of innovation from the outset.

AI and Big Data’s Role in Optimizing Chemical Production

One of the most impactful applications of digital transformation at Dow is in the optimization of chemical production processes. Narayan discussed how Dow is using big data and AI models to improve operational efficiencies in its manufacturing plants. Through real-time data collection and analysis, Dow can make instant adjustments to processes, ensuring maximum efficiency and minimal environmental impact.

He highlighted Dow’s use of predictive maintenance models, which analyze sensor data from equipment to predict failures before they occur. “By using AI-driven predictive models, we can anticipate potential breakdowns and proactively address them,” he explained. This not only reduces downtime and maintenance costs but also ensures that production processes are running smoothly and sustainably. “By using AI-driven predictive models, we can anticipate potential breakdowns and proactively address them.”

The Role of Digital Transformation in Sustainability Goals

Sustainability is a cornerstone of Dow’s innovation strategy, and digital transformation plays a key role in achieving the company’s sustainability goals. Narayan emphasized that through data analytics and digital tools, Dow is able to develop more sustainable materials and reduce its carbon footprint. For example, digital modeling allows Dow to create lighter, stronger materials that require fewer resources to produce, reducing energy consumption and emissions in the process. Narayan: “The ability to simulate the entire lifecycle of a product helps us make smarter decisions that lead to more sustainable outcomes.”

Regulatory Challenges and the Need for Collaborative Innovation

Despite the significant advancements Dow is making in digital transformation and sustainability, Narayan acknowledged the challenges that remain, particularly in terms of the regulatory landscape. The rapidly evolving landscape of sustainability regulations, especially around carbon emissions and material use, requires a flexible approach to innovation.

“Regulatory environments are changing quickly, and it’s important that industry leaders like Dow work collaboratively with regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that new technologies can be adopted and scaled.”

This collaboration will be essential in overcoming barriers and driving wider adoption of digital solutions in chemical production. Additionally, Narayan discussed the importance of industry-wide collaboration in tackling the sustainability challenges facing the sector. “Collaboration is key to driving meaningful change. By working together with our partners and customers, we can ensure that digital transformation delivers the greatest value for all,”

The Economic Case for Digital Transformation

One of the key takeaways from the presentation was the economic case for digital transformation in the chemical industry. The cost savings achieved through operational optimization, reduced energy consumption, and waste reduction are significant drivers of Dow’s digital strategy. Narayan highlighted that while digital technologies require upfront investment, the long-term savings and benefits far outweigh the costs. “Digital transformation is not just about improving efficiency; it’s about creating value. By reducing energy consumption, improving process reliability, and enhancing product performance, we can deliver economic benefits while also achieving our sustainability goals.”

Conclusion

Digital transformation in the chemical industry is reshaping the landscape, with companies like Dow leading the way in harnessing technology to drive innovation and sustainability. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and big data, Dow is transforming the way it designs, produces, and delivers materials. The integration of these digital tools allows Dow to not only improve its operational efficiency but also make meaningful strides toward achieving its environmental sustainability targets.

As the chemical industry continues to evolve, digital transformation will be a key enabler of future innovations. By fostering collaboration, embracing new technologies, and ensuring that sustainability remains at the core of its operations, Dow is poised to help shape the future of chemical production.

The CIEX conference is the place to establish new collaborations, connect with potential partners, and expand your network!

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CIEX is designed for C-level R&D, Innovation, and Sustainability experts from the consumer, industrial, and specialty chemical sectors. Keynote presentations, panel discussions, round tables, and one-on-one meetings give you every opportunity to connect with the chemical leaders of today and tomorrow.

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