Bhavesh (“Bob”) Patel joined W.R. Grace as President and Chief Executive Officer in January of 2022. Prior to joining Grace, he served as the Chief Executive Officer at LyondellBasell, one of the largest chemicals, plastics and refining companies in the world.
Bob joined LyondellBasell in 2010, serving as senior vice president and then executive vice president of the Olefins and Polyolefins (O&P) Americas, Europe, Asia and International (EAI), and technology business segments. He was subsequently appointed CEO in January of 2015.
During this tenure as CEO, LyondellBasell embarked on a period of growth. Under his leadership, the company built new world-scale production facilities, expanded its market presence in Asia and made a number of strategic acquisitions, including A. Schulman, Inc. which made LyondellBasell the largest manufacturer of compounded materials in the world.
Prior to LyondellBasell, Bob held positions of increasing responsibility at Chevron Corporation and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company for more than 20 years. Over the course of his career, he has held leadership positions based in the Netherlands, Singapore and the United States.
Bob earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Temple University. He serves on several boards, including the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Halliburton Company and is a member of the Business Council. He is also on the external advisory council of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University and the Board of Visitors of the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
Michael Brown was named Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Information Technology in June 2022.
Michael joined Grace in 1999 and has held several significant leadership roles in the growth and transformation of the company over the last 20 years, including the 2016 tax-free spin-off of Grace’s Construction Products and Packaging businesses; the consolidation and reorganization of the global finance and information technology organizations following the spin; the development of the shared services center in Manila; and numerous acquisitions and divestitures. Michael has a wide range of experience in accounting, financial reporting, financial planning & analysis (FP&A) and controllership as well as leading transformation and system implementation projects.
Michael was most recently Vice President, Controller with a significant role in the merger with Standard Industries and process transformation as the company moved from public to private.
Prior to joining Grace, Michael held finance leadership roles at MedStar Health and KPMG.
Michael earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loyola University, Maryland.
Keith Cole's appointment in 2014 reflects the importance of environment, health, safety, and security at Grace and the full integration of the company's EHS, regulatory, and public affairs activities. Keith directs the company's EHS operations and government relations in more than 30 countries.
For over a decade prior to joining Grace, Keith held leadership positions in government relations and public policy for General Motors Corporation, including assignments in Shanghai and Washington, D.C. In these roles, he focused on the energy and environmental agenda for the company's advanced technology and promoted GM interests in growth markets in China, Russia, CIS, India, ASEAN, Africa, and the Middle East.
From 1999 to 2002, Keith was a partner in the Washington law firm of Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP, and from 1997 to 1999, he was a partner with the law firm of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C. In these roles, he provided government relationships and regulatory counsel on environmental, energy, and natural resource matters.
Prior to his lobbying experience, he served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate, Small Business Committee (1995-1997); and Minority Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, Energy and Commerce Committee (1989-1995). During this service, he was involved in a wide variety of matters including RCRA, Superfund, and the Clean Air Act.
Keith earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering & Material Science from Duke University and his Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Thomas Deman joined Grace as President, Global Operations in April 2022 and is responsible for global manufacturing, procurement and supply chain.
Prior to coming to Grace, Thomas was in charge of overseeing ExxonMobil’s major growth ventures in China and served as Chairman, ExxonMobil Huizhou Chemical Company (China). In this role he oversaw the planning, development and execution of a multi-billion-dollar petrochemical complex in Guangdong Province, China.
Thomas began his career in Belgium with Exxon Chemical Europe in 1994. In 2004, his career continued with ExxonMobil Chemical Company in the U.S. He went on to assume positions of increasing responsibility, including Global Manufacturing Planning Manager, Global Supply Chain Manager, EAME Commercial Director, Rotterdam Chemical Manufacturing Director and Global Marketing Manager of Polyethylene.
He earned his graduate degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Gent, Belgium and a master's degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dan Pate was appointed Senior Vice President of Strategy, Planning and Integration in March 2022 and is responsible for leading Grace’s global strategy and growth process. Dan has spent his career in finance delivering better business outcomes across multiple industries.
Dan joined Grace in 2009 as Vice President of Finance and was appointed to the board of the ART joint venture. During his tenure at Grace he has held key roles in financial operations supporting the business units, operations and supply chain, as well as corporate FP&A.
Prior to joining Grace, Dan served as Vice President of Finance at JDSU where he led the business unit finance organization. He also was Director of Finance for Dell where he helped establish services as a business and was the Director of Corporate FP&A. The first 16 years of his career were with IBM where he held positions of increasing responsibility across multiple business units, including CFO of its education software business.
Dan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.
Since October 2015, Tom Petti has led Grace's Refining Technologies business, which includes fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives, methanol-to-olefins (MTO) catalysts, and hydroprocessing catalysts through Advanced Refining Technologies (ART), Grace's joint venture with Chevron. Tom serves on ART's Board of Directors.
Under Tom's leadership, the business has captured opportunities in the fastest-growing segments in FCC applications, specifically, global production of petrochemical feedstocks and heavy feed bottom-of-the-barrel processing. ART has achieved record performance in hydroprocessing to produce cleaner-burning fuels, and the company expanded into the emerging MTO catalysts segment.
Tom joined Grace in 1992 in process development and later held positions in FCC R&D, Technical Service, Sales, and Marketing, before being promoted to General Manager of the Americas and Global Marketing Director for Specialty Catalysts.
In 2006, Tom left Grace to found Vandelay Management, LLC, a strategic development consultancy serving the specialty chemicals industry. He rejoined Grace in 2012 as Vice President, Strategic Planning.
Beginning in 2013, Tom served as President, Grace Construction Products. Under his leadership, the segment grew and significantly improved profitability. This business was separated from Grace in 2016, becoming part of a new public company called GCP Applied Technologies Inc. (GCP:NYSE).
Tom earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an MBA from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware.
Laura Schwinn joined Grace as President, Specialty Catalysts & Process Technology in November 2018. Grace’s Specialty Catalysts operating segment includes the company's market-leading polyolefin and chemical catalysts business and its UNIPOL® Polypropylene Process Technology licensing franchise.
Over her career, Laura has held leadership positions in operations, strategic marketing, product development, joint venture partnerships and M&A activity for multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Prior to joining Grace, she was Chief Executive Officer of C&C Reservoirs, a cloud-based analogue intelligence system for upstream subsurface applications delivering solutions to challenges across the oil and gas lifecycle. Before joining C&C Reservoirs, Laura worked for 12 years at Halliburton, one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, with increasing roles of responsibility. Her last position at Halliburton was as Global Leader, Vice President, Drill Bits and Services, operating in over 60 countries with manufacturing, technology development, sales and operations. Laura has also held international business development roles with Schlumberger Corporation.
Throughout her career, she has worked in London, England; Caracas, Venezuela; Singapore; and Puebla, Mexico.
Laura earned her Bachelor of Commerce degree in International Business from the University of Victoria, Canada. Additionally, she has served on boards in the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, and China. Currently, Laura is a member of the Board of Directors of Pason Systems Inc. (TSX: PSI)
Since May 2017, Sandra Wisniewski has led Grace Materials Technologies, the business segment that produces and sells specialty materials, including silica-based and silica-alumina-based products used in a broad array of consumer, pharmaceutical, chemical processes, and coatings applications. Sandra's record of generating sustainable growth is built on her diverse background including general management, sales leadership, U.S. and global marketing, operations, R&D, manufacturing, and global project management.
Prior to joining Grace, she was President and Chief Executive Officer for SunTech Medical, an international blood pressure technology company. Previously, she served as a General Manager and Vice President at Sanofi, a global healthcare technology company.
The first 25 years of her career were with Baxter International where she held several leadership positions in general management, sales, marketing, R&D, global project management, manufacturing, and operations. As Global Marketing Vice President for Intravenous Solutions, she led a successful revitalization of the company's $1 billion heritage business by implementing centralized global portfolio management.
Sandra earned a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA in Marketing, Finance, and Business Strategy from Northwestern University.
Kerrie L. Wolfe was named Grace’s Chief Human Resource Office and VP of Human Resources and Information Technology in January 2022. She joined Grace in 2016 as Senior Director, HR Business Partner for Global Corporate functions where she led talent initiatives including talent & succession planning, strategic workforce planning and delivered on two significant organization transformations. In 2018, Kerrie was named Vice President, Total Rewards and Shared Services. In this role, she served as the deputy to the Chief Human Resources Officer, and Vice President of executive compensation and benefits, payroll and HR information systems, and Shared Services. She was instrumental in the implementation of Success Factors, Grace’s HR software that centralizes and improves all management and employee capabilities. In early 2021, she also assumed responsibility for Grace’s Talent Processes.
Kerrie came to Grace from The Hershey Company, where she held HR leadership roles for over 14 years, leading global HR talent initiatives including talent & succession planning, strategic workforce planning, talent assessment and leadership coaching. Before joining The Hershey Company as a Compensation Service Manager, she also built a strong foundation in a variety of HR disciplines at Towers Watson, ExxonMobil and Concert (AT&T/British Telecom Global Venture).
Kerrie graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.
Anthony Yoo is Grace’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. He is responsible for overseeing all global legal matters as well as managing the legal department. He also serves as the company's Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer. He joined Grace in March 2022.
Anthony came to Grace with more than 25 years of legal experience at Fortune 500 companies and leading law firms. Prior to joining Grace, he worked at Danaher Corporation for 10 years and held a variety of roles, including Vice President and General Counsel of Leica Biosystems and Mammotome. Before joining Danaher Corporation, he held positions at Altria Group; Covington & Burling; and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
Throughout his career, Anthony has gained skills and knowledge in counseling and leading strategic initiatives, including corporate responsibility programs; compliance and enterprise risk management programs; environmental and chemical regulation; litigation support and management; patent and trademark portfolio management, and contracts management. His skillset, along with his work in the chemical, industrial and healthcare spaces, made him the perfect fit for Grace as the company continues its transformation journey.
Anthony has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with honors and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia.