Gulferaz Ali drives Eastman Chemical Company's efforts to help China produce safe consumer goods
Gulferaz Ali, vice-president and managing director for Asia-Pacific at Eastman Chemical Company, is intent on transforming the chemist stereotype. In Ali's world, there is more to chemists than just professionals in white lab coats working in isolation on obscure subjects.
These days, the role of chemists, and chemical companies such as Eastman, is ubiquitous, he said. More so in China, a humongous market that drives the global economy and hence is critical to all industries and multinational companies.
The Kingsport, Tennessee-headquartered Eastman manufactures additives, polymers and plastics, chemical intermediates and fibers that can be applied across a broad variety of industries, ranging from construction and consumables to electronics and agriculture. Automation represented the biggest chunk of Eastman's $9.5 billion business in 2017.
Ali joined Eastman in 2013. Prior to that, he served at DFS Group, part of luxury goods giant LVMH. There, he was involved in a hiring and talent retention role.
It equipped him with people skills, so a task like explaining what Eastman does to a layman is a piece of cake. "Let's say you are in a cab. Eastman produces what keeps the car paint eco-friendly, what constitutes a tire, and what molds a windscreen."
It's that kind of diversified portfolio which helped Eastman secure a long-time aggregated margin of 90 percent from 2010 to 2017 even against macroeconomic headwinds.
This is especially remarkable, given that Moody's Investors Service had expected the chemical industry's operating profit to slip by 1 or 2 percent in the past two years.
While chemical companies are traditionally viewed in a harsh and negative light, Ali believes it can be part of the solution to many challenges.
"For instance, with the growing need for stronger protection against hospital-acquired infections, we've come up with a product called Tritan, which features BPA-free toughness, strong clarity, and can be adopted for medical devices," he said.
