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Catch ChEnected’s Interviews with Spring Conference Speakers

May 14, 2018

If you missed the 2018 AIChE Spring Conference and 14th Global Congress on Process Safety – or were there but couldn’t attend all the sessions you wanted to – there’s good news! ChEnected is now featuring interviews with keynote and session speakers from the event.

Chemours’s Foundation for Success

As part of the ChEnected Interview Series, Mark Vergnano, president and CEO of Chemours, sat down with Shariq Yosufzai of Chevron to discuss some of themes from his AGILE keynote, which opened the conference.  In particular, he discussed the cultural shift behind Chemours's dramatic success and the corporate values that underpin it.

“We did some really hard things to turn the company, but it was the culture that was behind this transformation,” notes Vergnano in the video. He speaks of Chemours’ cultural revolution based on five transformative values: obsession with safety, being customer-centered, deep integrity, refreshing simplicity, and collective entrepreneurship.

He also discussed the company’s research partnership with the University of Delaware and Two intertwined approaches young chemical engineers can take to help advance their careers and knowledge within an organization.

Watch the interview and tune in to view the entire keynote on AIChE’s Facebook page.

Committing to Sustainability and Safety

Following his welcoming keynote for the 14th GCPS Welcome Plenary Session, Michael Graff discussed some of the main themes of his talk, "Process Safety for a Sustainable World." Graff is chairman, CEO and president of American Air Liquide and executive vice president of Air Liquide Group.

Graff spoke to Kathy Shell of AE Solutions, who served as this year's chair for the Global Congress on Process Safety, about the importance of a commitment to sustainability and safety, as well as how to approach conveying this commitment to new and developing leaders within the organization.

“Whether it’s safety or sustainability, it’s everybody’s job. The reality is, we all have a clear role to play. It’s not something you delegate to someone else,” says Graff. “Every member of our executive organization is clearly committed to safety, and committed to what we can achieve to enable sustainability. They’re a part of all that we do and actively get engaged in long term strategic thinking on it and actively ensure it is within the fabric of who we are.”

 The entire interview can be found on ChEnected.

Educating ChemEs about Cyber Security

Spring Meeting chair Leo Chiang chatted with Hoda Mehrpouyan, assistant professor and co-director of Cyber Lab for Industrial Control Systems, Boise State University, to discuss how chemical engineers can take an active approach to combating and protecting against hackers. Hoda was a panelist for the session, "Educating the Chemical Engineering Workforce on Cybersecurity.”  This was the first time the Spring Meeting has held conferences that include topics on cybersecurity for industrial control systems.

Mehrpouyan discussed the importance of addressing cybersecurity, educating engineers about cybersecurity issues, and what chemical engineers can do to get more involved in cybersecurity.

“We know bad guys have been learning how to attack industrial control systems. As a result of that, it is important for asset owners and engineers to be up-to-date on how these bad guys can attack industrial control systems,” said Mehrpouyan.

See what steps Mehrpouyan says security experts recommend to keep IC systems safe in this video.

More ChEnected Video Interviews

These –and many other – video interviews from the Spring Meeting are also available on ChEnected: