Dow Polyurethanes Gears Up for Next Phase of Growth

11-04-2012: The Dow Chemical Company has made significant strategic moves over the past six months, strengthening its long-term commitment and investments in its Polyurethane business, while enhancing the competitiveness of its already strong asset foundation.

These strategic moves are ultimately designed to catapult the franchise in a continued growth trajectory within the next three to five years. Leading this next critical phase, Dow has appointed a proven business leader with a technology-rich background and experience running integrated businesses. With a new world-scale manufacturing complex in Saudi Arabia planned to come online in 2016 and a new global vice president, Dow Polyurethanes, a business unit of Dow, is investing in the assets and expertise that will position its customers for growth.

Mark Bassett, Ph. D., was recently named global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes. As global vice president, Bassett will be responsible for business strategy, profit and loss, as well as innovation and growth. Prior to this role, Bassett was the global vice president for Dow Oxygenated Solvents. He began his career with Dow in 1989 when he joined Union Carbide Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, in the Reaction Engineering Skill Center.

Announced in July 2011, the joint venture between Dow and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), known as Sadara Chemical Company, will be the largest integrated chemical complex site ever built in the world at one time with over 3 million metric tons of capacity. The site will bring Dow’s technology-differentiated polyurethane solutions to customers in emerging geographies such as China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa.

“With Sadara, Dow is investing in market-focused, customer-centric technologies and process optimization,” said Mark Bassett, the new global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes. “Sadara allows us to offer our customers advanced technologies, supply capabilities and resources to grow with their customers’ demand.”