Brett Ross – TPC Group

Brett Ross joined TPC Group expecting a role that balanced litigation with broader commercial and compliance work. Instead, adversity arrived almost immediately. His first week coincided with Hurricane Harvey, which forced the company to manage operational disruptions, legal issues, and rapid decision-making under pressure. Two years later, an explosion at the company’s Port Neches plant led to extensive litigation, governmental investigations, and ultimately the company’s bankruptcy.

Brett Ross | TPC Group | Deputy GC & Chief Compliance Officer

Guiding TPC Group through these crises shaped his career more than any single case or title. It taught him how to manage intense uncertainty, coordinate complex responses, and communicate risk in a way that drives action rather than paralysis. Those experiences cemented his role as a business-minded lawyer who can be a steady guide through disruption.

TPC Group, a mid-sized company with about five hundred employees, produces petrochemical products used in synthetic rubber, fuel and lubricant additives, plastics, and surfactants. Its position in the supply chain requires tight coordination between upstream producers and downstream manufacturers. Ross did not anticipate that coordinating through crises would become central to his work. However, the intensity of the events that unfolded reinforced the skills he had begun developing long before TPC Group. His early years in law built a foundation in litigation and strategy that enabled him to respond quickly, organize large teams, and guide the company through uncertainty. What began as a reactive necessity became the defining arc of his in-house leadership.

The in-house evolution

Ross did not initially plan on becoming a lawyer. He studied finance at the University of Texas and expected a business career. Early jobs in law firm mailrooms in Beaumont and Austin, and an undergraduate business law course, exposed him to litigation and sparked an unexpected interest. His early legal career unfolded at Jones Day, where he worked on a variety of litigation matters, including toxic exposure and environmental contamination cases, as well as commercial litigation, with trials in Texas, Colorado, and Hawaii.

Those experiences shaped his analytical skills, but they also clarified what he wanted next. He enjoyed the strategy and problem-solving of litigation, yet he grew tired of switching among clients and matters. He wanted to be part of one company’s long-term story. That push led him toward in-house practice.

His first major step came at Celanese, where he handled litigation across several areas, including business disputes, employment matters, toxic tort claims, and trade secret theft. It gave him deeper insight into how legal strategy interacts with business operations and further sparked his interest in broadening his expertise. He moved to BMC Software, an enterprise software company, shifting into employment law, compliance, software licensing disputes, and business-focused problem-solving. It challenged the perception that he was solely a toxic tort litigator and allowed him to cultivate a broader set of capabilities.

That mindset shaped his decision to join TPC Group in 2017. The small legal department offered wide exposure and daily interaction with executives. It was the environment he wanted, even if the challenges that followed were more intense than anyone could have predicted.

One week in, everything changed

Hurricane Harvey struck during Ross’s first week at TPC Group, forcing an urgent, all-hands response that set the tone for the years ahead. The storm disrupted operations, accelerated decision-making, and quickly showed him how unpredictable the work could be. Ross often reflects on that moment as the first indication that his role would be defined by challenge rather than routine.

“In retrospect, the challenges created by Hurricane Harvey in my first week were a sign of things to come,” Ross recalls.

Two years later, a day before Thanksgiving, an explosion at the company’s Port Neches plant reshaped his responsibilities entirely. Litigation surged, government regulators became heavily involved, and the company faced substantial hurdles to stabilizing its operations. Within days, Ross helped establish a comprehensive claims program that eventually processed more than six thousand claims and more than $130 million dollars in payments to people in the community who had sustained property damage in the explosion. The work required rapid organization, cross-business-unit coordination, and disciplined leadership under pressure.

“Between a hurricane, an unprecedented freeze, the COVID pandemic, then the explosion at Port Neches, there was a stretch of unexpected events for my first several years that forced me into a constant state of urgent reaction,” he says.

The impact of all those disruptions eventually led to a complex bankruptcy process. He learned how to address the varied and sometimes conflicting needs of numerous stakeholders. He gained new levels of visibility, presenting regularly to the Board, which further taught him that leaders want proposed solutions, not just a listing of issues, and that clear communication is essential during a crisis. The complexity reinforced his belief that legal leadership during a crisis requires clarity, preparation, and a realistic approach to risk.

“You learn you cannot eliminate all risks, and there is rarely a clear solution. You have to get comfortable ‘living in the grey’ and find practical ways to help the company achieve its goals while also managing risk,” Ross explains.

Those experiences, though difficult, strengthened his ability to guide teams through uncertainty and shaped the way he approaches his work today.

Beyond litigation

Ross now serves as Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for TPC Group. His portfolio includes commercial matters, labor and employment issues, litigation, and the company’s compliance and ethics program. He oversees the code of conduct, ethics investigations, and regulatory responses. Annual code of conduct training is refreshed every two years and incorporates interactive elements, including vignettes and scenario-based discussions. He has supplemented that with in-person training to deepen engagement on issues such as antitrust guidance and maintaining a respectful workplace.

The compliance work can be unpredictable, though. Ethics hotline complaints appear unexpectedly and must be addressed quickly. Regulatory changes allow more time for planning. He balances these demands with employment counseling for the HR group, including collective bargaining responsibilities at one of the company’s sites, and ongoing legal guidance to the commercial group on contract negotiations.

“From a compliance perspective, one thing I learned is that you have to have a strong company culture focused on communication, accountability, collaboration and trust, and the commitment to that cultural foundation is essential to leading the company through times of crisis,” Ross says. He applies those same cultural elements in his free time as well while coaching youth sports. Over the last ten years, he has coached his kids on more than 30 teams across soccer, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse. Ross points out that the fundamental cultural concepts that helped lead TPC Group through its crises are also the ones that his teams rely on throughout the season.

“One of the first things I talk about with a new team I will be coaching is the commitment we are making to each other to listen to our coaches and teammates, to be a good teammate by being supportive of each other, to give our best effort, and to be accountable. Instilling those same ideals in the kids on those teams, I hope, sets them up for success not only on the field, but throughout their lives as they face unexpected disruptions of their own,” Ross explains.

Preparing for the road ahead

Despite his title, he sees himself as a generalist. With only three lawyers in the department, he handles matters across the business. He values that breadth, viewing it as critical to his long-term goal of further developing broad legal and management experience. His exposure to board discussions, executive decision-making, and crisis strategy has prepared him for expanded leadership responsibilities.

Ross has been with TPC Group for more than eight years, rising from associate general counsel and director of compliance to deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer. The crises that defined his early tenure accelerated his growth, pushing him into complex leadership moments far sooner than expected. He helped the company exit bankruptcy in 2022 and stabilize during a difficult market. He remains optimistic about both industry recovery and the company’s future and looks forward to being able to focus on more proactive, rather than only reactive, efforts to improve legal department processes, including through the incorporation of AI tools.

He grew up in Beaumont after being born in Missouri. His path from business student to litigator to crisis-tested legal leader reflects a career shaped not by linear planning but by adaptability. The challenges at TPC Group solidified his belief in structured decision making, practical risk assessment, and steady communication. And while future, unexpected disruptions may be inevitable, he also expects to bring to the role the experience he gained navigating some of the company’s most difficult chapters.