Priya Ravindranath

Senior Marketing Manager

Air Liquide

Please meet this week’s WOTW, Priya Ravindranath. Priya was born and raised in India and came to the United States to pursue a Chemical Engineering degree. She worked in R&D with the product company SC Johnson but quickly realized that was not what she wanted to do. She leaned on her network and was able to find a new job as an analyst with a small consulting firm in Houston, Texas called Chemical Market Associates, which sent her on a set of market and strategy consulting assignments for the petrochemical industry. She worked there for nearly 11 years. Chemical Market Associates eventually became acquired by IHS, and Priya then moved to her current employer Air Liquide, where she works to identify customer trends and their impact in strategy and marketing for the organization. 

Priya tells us about the pivotal choices she made that shaped her career today. She also discusses her personal development and self-discoveries over time. Priya told us that she got her consulting jobs through her networks, and that is also how she got the idea to switch up her previous roles. She discusses how being a brown-skinned young woman in a company with a large number of white male employees was one of the biggest obstacles she had to overcome, aside from the switch she made from being an analyst to a true consultant. Priya gives some advice to others who may be dealing with similar experiences. Priya talks about how she balances having a family and a career, as well as what specifically has helped her in doing so. She talks about the biggest issue facing the chemical industry right now—environmental and social governance—and how she thinks the industry will be able to overcome them. She also touches on whether the sustainability targets and goals of petrochemical companies are doable. Priya informed us of the most widespread myths about the chemical industry and how to debunk them. As we come to a close, Priya recommends the book "Invisible Woman" by Caroline Criado-Perez and gives us the following piece of advice: Be an advocate for yourself, talk about yourself at every opportunity that you get!

This episode was sponsored by: