Alyssa joined the chemicals industry with no science or chemistry background. She pursued an English degree, intending to work in publishing after graduating. While interning for a publishing company, she realized the space was not for her. Alyssa joined the Brenntag team after a Saturday morning interview just before the Holidays, and she quickly landed a Sales Support Specialist role with Brenntag Northeast, her first day being just after the New Year. Today Alyssa represents Brenntag as their Senior Market Analyst, providing market reports and insights to her commercial teams and also supporting service excellence as the Customer Experience Leader for North America.

Deanna joins us today as sales manager for Wacker Chemical Corporation. Deanna shared with us her full circle career with Wacker, starting with them in a technical capacity right after college, working as a chemist with specialties in silica for 7 years. Deanna left Wacker to care full time for her 1st baby, with 2 more children shortly following. Deanna remained home full time for 12 years before she re-entered the workforce. When Deanna started to look to re-enter the workforce, it just so happened the very job she left 12 years ago was hiring. She re-entered into Wacker once more, and has since 2018 been working in sales.

Candice is currently Harcros Chemicals' Northeast District Manager. Candice, while her entire career thus far has been within the Harcros community, has worn many hats. Starting as a temporary employee during her undergrad in order to pay for schooling, she then went on to have roles in customer service, purchasing, office management, operations, and more. Candice is a great example of being able to diversify her career within one organization.

Jean joined our community with 38 years in the industry. Her background spans a plethora of roles discussed throughout this interview, ultimately landing her her final role as Global Vice President of Performance Additives for Ashland. Jean retired from Ashland in 2020, and now spends her time staying very active in the industry either volunteering as she does for our community, consulting, mentoring and advising, and so much more.

Rachel joined us from the UK for our interview, as she is currently a student pursuing her master’s degree in Cyber Physical Systems at the University of Nottingham. After completing her early education much before her peers in Qatar, she started University at age 16, pursuing a chemical engineering undergrad degree. Rachel talked to us about her experiences often being not only the youngest in her courses, but also the only female. She also shared with us how the many people that told her not to leave Qatar and to not pursue her degrees were used as motivation to keep her pushing forward. 

Sneha grew up in India, where she studied chemistry in her undergrad at an all women college. What fascinated her about chemistry is the wide application that it boasts. Sneha wanted to combine her chemistry background with her interests in business development, pursuing a post grad degree in business through Kellogg's Executive MBA Program. Sneha has a multi-continental background of diverse working experiences today. She has worked in India, The Netherlands, and now currently is located in the Chicago area.

This week, for our first ever live recording of our Woman of the Week episodes, we were joined by Robbie Ropella, President of the Ropella Group. The Ropella Group is a leading executive search and consulting firm specializing in the chemical industry. She jokes that she married into the chemical industry by meeting and marrying her husband, Pat Ropella who founded Ropella Group. Robbie started off answering phones and worked her way from the ground up in their recruiting business. Robbie mainly places mid-level to C-suite candidates.

Mayra holds a tremendously unique background. Born in the Brazilian countryside, Mayra was motivated and self-driven to relocate to the busy city of Rio De Janeiro for her undergrad, where she studied International Trade. Mayra relocated once more to the UK to pursue her MBA. Shortly thereafter she began working in Belgium, mostly in customs and trade work, and now trade policy at Solvay.

Mariane joins us from a new role with Celanese, working as their Global Ethylene Sourcing Director. Prior to Celanese, Mariane carries with her a diverse background of roles within ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell. Mariane talked to us about how different the chemicals industry is than what those outside of the industry think it might be. She emphasized how women bring a different perspective to the industry than our counterparts.

Christi currently works as Jungbunzlauer (JBL) Regional Sales Manager. Christi shared with us how she "stumbled into the industry", like many of our WIC members. We talked a lot about creating engagement, awareness, and visibility for women to enter the industry with Christi, and how it "needs to start from the ground up" at colleges and universities.

Brittany shared with us how she entered the Chemicals Industry by "happy accident" as an intern at Sea-Land. Today, she is able to apply her marketing degree and minor in Biology while also pursuing other goals of mentorship and advocating for women in the industry by speaking at schools.

Nicole describes her career journey to ultimately landing as the Counsel at Wego Chemical, her family business. She discusses finding balance in her personal and professional lives managing both her career and being a mother of three. This episode is a special edition episode to announce that Women in Chemicals received their 501(c)3 determination of which Nicole championed.