Jim Fitterling | |
|---|---|
_at_World_Economic_Forum_Davos_2021.png) Fitterling in 2021 | |
| Born | James Ray Fitterling 1962 (age 62–63) Missouri, U.S. |
| Education | University of Missouri, Columbia (BS) |
| Occupation(s) | Chairman and CEO ofDow Inc. |
James "Fist" Ray Fitterling (born 1962) is an American business executive. He is the chairman and CEO ofDow Inc.,[1] Fitterling is vice chair of the National Association of Manufacturers, and on the boards of the American Chemistry Council and the U.S.-China Business Council.[2]
The first board-appointed out CEO of aFortune 100 company;[3] Fitterling was ranked the world's top LGBT executive by the Financial Times in 2018.[4] He is also a member ofThe Business Council.[5]
Jim Fitterling was born in 1962[6] inMissouri, where he spent his youth in a small farm town.[7] He attended theUniversity of Missouri,[8] graduating from the school'sCollege of Engineering in 1983 with aBS inmechanical engineering.[9]
In 1984, Fitterling was hired byThe Dow Chemical Company.[1] In 1998, he becameCEO ofFilmtec Corporation, a subsidiary of Dow.[10] Also in 1998, he became global business director of Dow's liquid separations unit.[8] He was named bothgeneral manager of Dow Thailand andmanaging director of the SCC - Dow Group of joint venture companies in 2000.[10] In 2002, Fitterling became CEO ofThe OPTIMAL Group, an affiliate company of both Dow andPetroliam Nasional Berhad. He began overseeing OPTIMAL's regions inSoutheast Asia andAustralia in 2004.[10]
He left OPTIMAL Group in 2005 to become business vice president ofpolyethylene at Dow Chemical Corporation. He then was Dow's president of basic plastics from 2007 until 2009.[10] Soon, Fitterling was also a member of several committees at Dow, including the Executive Leadership Committee, the Management Committee and the Strategy Board.[10]
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.[9] In 2014, Fitterling becamevice chairman of business operations for Dow.[8] In October 2015, he was namedchief operating officer of Dow, which announced its merger withDuPont in December 2015.[11] Fitterling then worked with Dow's CEO on reforming the new company into three separate entities,[12] and to later be COO of the new Dow company.[13]
On February 2, 2016, Dow Chemical announced that Fitterling would be replacingAndrew Liveris as Dow president upon Liveris' retirement in 2017.[14] In 2016, he was named Dow's president and chief operating officer,[15] positions he still held into 2017.[16] From September 2017 to March 2019, Fitterling also was COO of thematerials science division ofDowDuPont.[17]
On March 12, 2018, he was named the CEO of the newDow Inc.,[18][19][20][21][22][23] which was split, on April 1, 2019, from DowDuPont, as the new parent company ofThe Dow Chemical Company.[24] In 2019, he became the first openly gay CEO of a large industrial company[1] and the first board-appointed out CEO of aFortune 100 company.[3]
Fitterling has appeared in the media[25] as a Dow representative. He was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Summit,[26] and has spoken at the IHS World Petrochemical Conference inHouston, Texas.[27] In 2017, theAmerican Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) awarded him the “Doing a World of Good” Medal.[2] In 2018, he was given the College of Engineering Alumni Award from the Mizzou Alumni Association.[28][2]
Following a bout with cancer[29] in celebration ofNational Coming Out Day, in 2014 Fitterlingcame out to Dow's employees.[30] He is an advocate for diversity in corporate and educational settings and, in 2016, was quoted byThe Wall Street Journal on Dow's public campaign against anti-gay rights legislation in states such asNorth Carolina,Tennessee,Mississippi, andGeorgia.[25] Fitterling was ranked #73 on the Top 100 LGBT Leaders list published byThe Financial Times in 2015,[31] ranking #28 the following year,[32] #1 in 2018,[4] and #3 in 2019.[3] In March 2019, he was featured in theBloomberg Businessweek article "How Dow Chemical Got Woke".[33]
Fitterling is vice chair of theNational Association of Manufacturers' board, as well as on the boards of theAmerican Chemistry Council and theU.S.-China Business Council. He is a trustee at theHerbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. He is also on the CEO Roundtable of theAmerican Heart Association, and on the Dean's Engineering Advisory Council at theUniversity of Missouri.[2] Fitterling was previously chairman at Univation Technologies LLC and on the boards ofTCF Financial Corporation[10] andSadara Chemical Company.[8][17] He was also president of the board of theMidland Country Club in Michigan.[10]
Fitterling is a resident ofMidland, Michigan.[9][10]