James Ray Fitterling (born 1962) is an American business executive. He is the chairman and CEO of Dow Inc., Fitterling is vice chair of the National Association of Manufacturers, and on the boards of the

American Chemistry Council American Chemistry Council (ACC), known as the Manufacturing Chemists' Association at its founding in 1872 then as the Chemical Manufacturers' Association (from 1978 until 2000), is an industry trade association for American chemical companies, b ...

and the U.S.-China Business Council. The first board-appointed out CEO of a

Fortune 100 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...

company; he was ranked the world's top LGBT executive by the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' in 2018.

Early life and education

Jim Fitterling was born in 1962 in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, where he spent his youth in a small farm town. He attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, graduating from the school's College of Engineering in 1983 with a BS in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

Career

1984-2004: Early roles with Dow

In 1984, Fitterling was hired by The Dow Chemical Company. In 1998, he became

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Filmtec Corporation, a subsidiary of Dow. Also in 1998, he became global business director of Dow's liquid separations unit. He was named both

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Dow Thailand and

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the SCC - Dow Group of joint venture companies in 2000. In 2002, Fitterling became CEO of The OPTIMAL Group, an affiliate company of both Dow and Petroliam Nasional Berhad. He began overseeing OPTIMAL's regions in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 2004.

2005-2015: Dow executive roles

He left OPTIMAL Group in 2005 to become business vice president of

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...

at Dow Chemical Corporation. He then was Dow's president of basic plastics from 2007 until 2009. Soon, Fitterling was also a member of several committees at Dow, including the Executive Leadership Committee, the Management Committee and the Strategy Board. In 2012, Fitterling was given "executive oversight of feedstocks, performance plastics in Asia and Latin America." While still an executive vice president, in November 2012, Fitterling was appointed a member of Dow's newly formed executive committee. In 2014, Fitterling became

vice chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of business operations for Dow. In October 2015, he was named

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of Dow, which announced its merger with

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

in December 2015. Fitterling then worked with Dow's CEO on reforming the new company into three separate entities, and to later be COO of the new Dow company.

2016-2019: Dow president and CEO

On February 2, 2016, Dow Chemical announced that Fitterling would be replacing Andrew Liveris as Dow president upon Liveris' retirement in 2017. In 2016, he was named Dow's president and chief operating officer, positions he still held into 2017. From September 2017 to March 2019, Fitterling also was COO of the

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

division of DowDuPont. On March 12, 2018, he was named the CEO of the new Dow Inc., which was split, on April 1, 2019, from DowDuPont, as the new parent company of The Dow Chemical Company."Company Overview of Dow Inc.", ''Bloomberg'', April 2, 2019.
/ref> In 2019, he became the first openly gay CEO of a large industrial company and the first board-appointed out CEO of a

company.

Appearances and awards

Fitterling has appeared in the media as a Dow representative. He was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Summit, and has spoken at the IHS World Petrochemical Conference in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. In 2017, the

American Institute of Chemical Engineers The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as professionals independent of chemists and mechanical engineers. Curr ...

(AIChE) awarded him the “Doing a World of Good” Medal. In 2018, he was given the College of Engineering Alumni Award from the Mizzou Alumni Association. Following a bout with cancer in celebration of National Coming Out Day, in 2014 Fitterling came out to Dow's employees. He is an advocate for diversity in corporate and educational settings and, in 2016, was quoted by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' on Dow's public campaign against anti-gay rights legislation in states such as

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Fitterling was ranked #73 on the Top 100 LGBT Leaders list published by ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' in 2015, ranking #28 the following year, #1 in 2018,"The Outstanding Lists 2018: LGBT+ leaders and allies", ''The Financial Times'', October 24, 2018.
/ref> and #3 in 2019. In March 2019, he was featured in the ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'' article "How Dow Chemical Got Woke"."How Dow Chemical Got Woke", by Jeff Green, ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', March 20, 2019.
/ref>

Boards

Fitterling is vice chair of the National Association of Manufacturers' board, as well as on the boards of the

and the U.S.-China Business Council. He is a trustee at the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. He is also on the CEO Roundtable of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

, and on the Dean's Engineering Advisory Council at the

. Fitterling was previously chairman at Univation Technologies LLC and on the boards of TCF Financial Corporation and Sadara Chemical Company. He was also president of the board of the Midland Country Club in Michigan.

Personal life

Fitterling is a resident of

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in Midland County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 42,547 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland metropolitan statistical area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City ...

References

External links

Fitterling at Dow.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitterling, Jim Living people University of Missouri alumni People from Midland, Michigan 1962 births American chief executives of materials companies Directors of Dow Inc. Gay businessmen American LGBTQ businesspeople LGBTQ people from Michigan