Innovation pipeline discipline is becoming one of the most pressing challenges in chemical R&D — not because organizations lack ideas, but because the conditions for generating them are quietly disappearing under the weight of near-term execution pressure. Jamie Cohen, Vice President of R&D, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure at Dow, brings to CIEX North America 2026 a practitioner’s perspective from one of the industry’s most complex R&D organizations.
In this interview, she makes the case that filling the innovation pipeline is not a creativity problem — it is a discipline problem. And that solving it requires deliberate organizational design, new collaborative tools, and the conviction to treat ideation as a full business exercise, not a side activity.
CIEX: Without giving too much away, what is the core message of your session and what would you like delegates to remember?
Jamie Cohen, Vice President of R&D, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure, Dow
Jamie: With so much focus on near-term value delivery, we must be deliberate and creative in our ability to fill the innovation pipeline. Providing our organizations with a variety of new — inward and outward-facing — tools, different collaborative forums, and ensuring ideation is a full business exercise are all critical for speed and increasing the probability of success. Can every afternoon be a Friday afternoon experiment?
CIEX: What motivates you to join CIEX this year – and where are you most looking to learn from peers at this event?
Jamie: I am interested in learning how others are expanding new innovation tools across larger enterprises and how they have overcome obstacles around culture change and information sharing.
CIEX: How has your approach to balancing volume growth and value creation evolved in recent years, and what’s one decision you’ve made here that would’ve been unthinkable three years ago?
Jamie: We focus on innovation discipline as a whole. A program cannot move forward based solely on volume or value, but on a diverse set of criteria that includes differentiation to the customer and to the market, among other things. The portfolio balance has changed with respect to the timescale of delivery, but the value proposition to the customer remains: it must deliver differentiated performance.
CIEX: Where is AI-enabled innovation already moving a hard business metric, and where is it still not delivering?
Jamie: AI is moving the needle on cycle times for formulation development. We still need to work on how to engage externally for collaborative innovation using AI — sharing data sets continues to spark important conversations.
CIEX: How are you approaching sustainability priorities alongside broader economic and commercial considerations?
Jamie: We continue to look at sustainability alongside economic and commercial delivery. Each product developed should be more sustainable than the incumbent and have differentiated performance at a price that the customer is willing to pay for that differentiation. The application for the product will dictate what is acceptable, and we have experienced interest from customers for sustainable products across a range of economic and commercial terms. The value proposition matters.
CIEX: Looking ahead, what factors and capabilities will define competitive advantage in the chemical industry over the next few years?
Jamie: Speed and product differentiation are still going to be compelling to customers. The ability to form strong partnerships with customers to provide them with bespoke products and aligned services will also be a competitive advantage.
Where Did the Friday Afternoon Experiment Go — and How Do We Get It Back at Scale?
At CIEX North America 2026, Jamie Cohen takes the stage in the session Where Did the ‘Friday Afternoon Experiment’ Go — and How Do We Get It Back at Scale? — a conversation built for R&D leaders who feel the tension between near-term execution pressure and the space needed to fill the innovation pipeline.
That same organizational discipline extends beyond the innovation pipeline: she also joins senior leaders from Momentive and Hexion on the panel Navigating Legacy Infrastructure Transitions in the Chemical Industry.
September 9–10, 2026 | Indianapolis
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