Helping key executives become more confident and effective leaders
Overview
Susan Lewis Consulting was created to provide expertise and insights for executive level leaders as they navigate their impactful roles for companies. Susan wanted to ensure that there was a resource for these leaders to help them as they develop, collaborate and deliver value across the globe. As an executive with over 35 years of experience detailed below, she works with her clients to enable them to become more confident, capable and strategic in their leadership skills as a management team member and board facing leader.
Susan Lewis, Executive and Board Member
Susan Lewis is a global operations and business services expert with over 35 years of corporate and supply experience across a number of sectors, including agriculture, petrochemicals and specialty materials. Susan's career reflects a demonstrated track record in leading successful large-scale transformation initiatives, optimizing business operations and services in complex, global business environments, and creating and executing large strategic & risk mitigating initiatives across several businesses within domestic and global markets. She brings deep corporate and governance experience through her work with non-profit and corporate boards, including strategy, sustainability, and safety & risk mitigation committees and is qualified to serve on enterprise risk committees as an environment, health, safety & security as well as operations expert.
Recently, Susan retired as Senior Vice President Operations of Corteva Agriscience, a Fortune 500 global agriculture company with a market cap of over $30B and over 50% of its business outside of the United States. At Corteva, she was responsible for Global Supply and Chemical Manufacturing for over 50 units, Global Engineering & Operations Technology; Global Quality; Environment, Health, Safety, Remediation and Security; Global Procurement; and Facility Services & Real Estate for over 400 facilities providing operational leadership and strategic guidance for the company. Susan was a member of the Executive Management Team for Corteva reporting to the CEO. She chaired the Executive Capital Steering Team as well as the Responsible Enterprise executive steering team. She was the management lead for the EHS&S portion of the committee to the Corteva Board of Directors and chaired the Crisis management for the company including the COVID19 Pandemic. Additionally, Susan was the executive sponsor of the Global African Heritage Alliance and leader within the Woman’s Innovation Network (WIN).
She has held domestic and international Operations and Business Services director roles with an expat assignment in the Netherlands and Belgium. Susan has been significantly involved in the largest chemical company merger in history with the combination of Dow Chemical and Dupont and the complex subsequent 3 spins responsible for delivering over $1B in synergies and value creation. She was also involved in the mergers of Union Carbide, Rohm and Haas and Dow Chemical. She has led several enterprise-wide transformation initiatives focused on creating and enabling the company’s business model to adapt to changing market conditions and disruptive market forces.
Susan started her career in manufacturing at Dow Chemical, where she spent 20years with increasing responsibility. She provided professional engineering, technology leadership, manufacturing services plant leadership to several business and sites including Houston Operations and Terneuzen, Netherlands. In addition, she provided global operations and business services leadership to a variety of businesses in the cellulosics, coatings, monomers & acrylics, polyglycols & surfactants, and agriculture sectors. As Corporate Director of EH&S Operations for Dow Chemical, Susan served the company and board on enterprise risk management, process & personal safety strategy and delivery of improved results.
Susan was the Vice President of Operations for Dow Agrosciences, a $6B global agricultural business within Dow Chemical where she was responsible for all aspects of operations including Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Environment, health, safety and security, and facilities. Responsibilities included risk mitigation and management, budgeting and planning, supply quality, delivery and strategy, and financial reporting. She was a key member of internal corporate management committees including Operating, Enterprise Risk Management, and Information Technology committees.
As part of her passion for enriching lives and sustainability, she chairs the Gleaners Food Security Board Operating Committee, is a Society of Women Engineers member and the owner of Susan Lewis Consulting, LLC. As former board member of the American Chemistry Council, she was on the Responsible Care Committee. She is a founding member of the Campbell Institute of the National Safety Council. She served on the industry board for Michigan Technological University (MTU) and was inducted into the Presidential Council of Alumnae for MTU. Susan was named into the Distinguished Academy of Chemical Engineers and in 2013 received the Science, Technology, Engineering and Production (STEP) Ahead Award from the Manufacturing Institute. In 2014, she received the prestigious Next Generation Leadership and Manufacturing Leader of the Year awards from the Manufacturing Leadership Council. She served on the Board of Directors of Michigan 2-1-1 Health and Human Services Information and Referral and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). Susan earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Michigan Tech University and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.