Features Chemical

Emma Kerr’s career reflects a steady evolution shaped less by linear progression and more by intentional reinvention, a pattern that has defined her rise into a strategically critical legal role at Albemarle Corporation. As vice president and deputy general counsel overseeing mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, Kerr operates at the intersection of legal precision and […]

Reagan Charney is not thinking about intellectual property as a legal silo. She is thinking about it as infrastructure for growth, a system that must scale alongside the business, anticipate change, and translate scientific progress into sustained enterprise value. In her role as head of IP, associate general counsel for legal, IP and compliance at […]

Shruti Patel grew up surrounded by the rhythm of small business. Her parents owned hotels and dry-cleaning shops, and their work depended on long days, careful planning, and plenty of legal paperwork. She watched them sift through contracts at the kitchen table, reach out to attorneys when something seemed unclear, and handle every decision with […]

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 […]

Carolina Pavan arrived at BASF at a moment when intellectual property was becoming even more central to the company’s global direction. As intellectual property manager for BASF in South America, she helps translate scientific discovery into a durable competitive advantage, guiding legal and business teams as they support a regional shift toward sustainable, low-impact, and […]

Eduardo Branquinho knows what it means to work in complexity. As legal manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Brenntag Group—the largest chemical distributor in the world—he faces a legal landscape as vast and diverse as the geography itself. With each country bringing its own legal frameworks, political realities, and compliance challenges, his role […]

In Mexico and elsewhere, it’s a crime to neglect a contaminated property, and that has Karina Sol minding the devil-ridden details as Celanese proceeds with the closure of its massive acetate operation in the city of Ocotlan.  The Texas-headquartered technology and specialty materials company had announced the intended closure of the plant five years ago, […]

During the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah Lockner bore witness to how Ecolab, a global company headquartered in Minnesota, helped sustain others through its products and services for advancing higher levels of cleanliness. Ecolab’s longtime hospitality, commercial, industrial and healthcare clientele had to maintain some semblance of business as usual while adhering to a […]

When Luiz Fernando Roschel joined Firmenich, a Switzerland-based fragrance and flavor company, in 2015, his first goal was to stand up a legal department for Latin America with a dedicated ethics and compliance division and a consolidated company culture in the region. “That went well, and in 2019, we were recognized by a local magazine, […]

Chemists think like chemists. So says Lisa Schroeder, adding “that’s what brings out the best of those who work in BASF’s laboratories.” But in an increasingly digital world, chemists may not appreciate opportunities to secure patent protection in the digital space. This being a rather nascent area, Schroeder aids their cause as associate general counsel […]