Erika Krueger

VP of Supply Chain & Sustainability

Weylchem US

Please meet this week’s WOTW, Erika Krueger. Erika's background starts with a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina. She started her journey at Weylchem as an intern in their process development lab. After some time in the lab Erika moved to a customer satisfaction role. Erika wore many hats including Account Manager as part of Weylchem's sales team and Project manager, before landing her current position as VP of Supply Chain & Sustainability. We talked about Erika's career pivot from the lab to a more commercial facing role. Erika told us how she worked hard to feel comfortable sharing with her leaders that the lab wasn't a long-term career for her. She also took a stepping stone role between lab and commercial essentially focused on communication between the two functions before officially making the leap to commercial. Erika shared with us the significant amount of time and effort that went into her transition to ensure she knew her team members and their strengths and how to marry them up with her strengths.

Erika also shared with us some of her key takeaways from entering supply chain during the pandemic and peak global supply chain crisis. She said that there was no better time for her to learn than at the pinnacle of challenging times because that was the worst it was ever going to be. We talked to Erika about her work, family life, and student life balance. She mentioned the support of her incredible family and husband as well as the flexibilities she received in her part-time MBA program and their night class offerings. Erika is a supporter of mentorship, and values mentors who challenge her to think outside of what's comfortable. When asked about some of the best advise she's received from her mentors it was "learn to say no", emphasizing the importance of establishing boundaries. We also discussed the feasibilities of large chemical companies in meeting their sustainability goals and the importance of collaboration across the industry to be successful .We concluded with Erika providing our community with the advice to "never stop learning".

This episode was sponsored by: