Senior Vice President & General Manager - Specialty Chemicals - Kerry

About Niacet (A Kerry Company)



Niacet Corporation, a subsidiary of Kerry since 2021, is the largest North American producer of calcium and sodium salts of acetic and propionic acid for industrial, pharmaceutical, and food applications. With over 100 years of experience, Niacet supplies a variety of specialty chemicals, including anhydrous hydrogen chloride, monochloroacetic acid, anionic surfactants, and sodium phenoxy acetate. The company also produces food preservation products and operates facilities in Niagara Falls, USA, and Tiel, Netherlands, and Cartagena, Colombia. By integrating Niacets offerings, Kerry enhances its Food Protection & Preservation, emulsifiers, animal feed, and pharma product lines, leveraging a global network of expertise and innovation to support efficient and confident product formulation.





About the role



As Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Performance Specialties division, you will provide strategic and operational leadership while leveraging your deep experience in the chemical and adjacent food & beverage industries to drive significant improvements in the sustainable performance of the Specialty Chemicals (Niacet) portfolio. This role requires a proven track record in talent management, customer focus, and collaborative participation with global teams. You will lead cross-functional teams to achieve key performance indicators while fostering a culture of safety and operational excellence. Youwill be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the manufacturing facility, leading a team, and ensuring operational excellence. Key areas of focus will be on the commercialization and growth of the (Niacet) portfolio, optimizing production processes, fostering a safety-first culture, maintaining quality standards, and driving overall efficiency. As a strategic leader, they will be tasked with achieving financial objectives, implementing best practices, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.





Key responsibilities




+ Strategic Leadership:Provide extensive strategic and operational leadership within a global blue-chip organization, leveraging strong technical aptitude and deep experience in the chemical and/or adjacent food & beverage industry.


+ Talent Management:Develop and manage talent within a global organization, building and nurturing winning teams.


+ Customer Focus:Demonstrate a passion for customer focus by establishing and maintaining strong relationships with customers, and successfully delivering strong organic growth.


+ Collaborative Participation:Actively participate in and collaborate with global commercial, product management, and manufacturing teams to drive business success.


+ Performance Improvement:Drive significant improvements in the sustainable performance of the Performance Specialties (Niacet) portfolio, ensuring alignment with strategic and manufacturing capabilities.


+ Cross-Functional Integration:Mobilize and integrate cross-functional teams to define and manage execution parameters specific to technologies that support EUM strategies, profitability, and growth targets.


+ Employee Development:Lead the development and engagement of employees across Product Management, Process Science, and Integrated Operations teams.


+ Key Performance Indicators:Achieve and exceed key performance indicators, including Revenue (USG), EBITDA, EBITDA %, Cash Conversion, and Return on Investment.






Qualifications and skills




+ Commercial Development:Proven experience in overseeing the commercial development of a specialty chemicals portfolio, driving product optimization, and managing product portfolio roadmaps for growth in Food and Pharma markets.


+ Strategic Influence:Ability to collaborate with strategy leads to shape and influence EUM strategies, ensuring competitive and clear strategies for technologies.


+ Stakeholder Relationships:Skilled in developing and maintaining high-standard relationships with key external stakeholders and political leaders at various levels, representing company interests in permits, grants, and corporate responsibility.


+ P&L Accountability:Demonstrated P&L accountability for technologies, including specialty chemicals and industrial EUMs.


+ Safety Management:Expertise in site safety and process safety management, fostering a safety-first culture aligned with industry standards.


+ Operational Execution:Experience in leading operational execution strategies, driving operational excellence, process optimization, efficiency, and capital expenditure programs, and maintaining reliability and preventative maintenance programs.


+ Daily Operations:Proven ability to oversee and ensure accountability for daily operating parameters and KPIs.


+ Leadership and Team Development:Strong leadership skills to empower and drive accountability across various teams, including Plant Management, Product Management, Process and Product Innovation, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Purchasing, Customer Care, and Engineering