Carol Williams is executive vice president of Dow Chemical Company’s manufacturing and engineering, supply chain, and environmental, health, and safety operations. Carol joined Dow in 1980, starting as an R&D engineer for plastic films and foams. In 1991, she worked in Louisiana operations on the development of styrene butadiene/isoprene block co-polymers. Following her engineering roles, Carol held numerous other positions at Dow, including: director of the Analytical Science Lab in Midland, Michigan; global R&D director for epoxy products and intermediate business; business vice president for chlor-alkali assets; vice president of global purchasing; R&D vice president for hydrocarbons and energy, chemicals and intermediates, and core; vice president of business development for market facing businesses; corporate vice president for Dow’s market facing, business development, and licensing portfolio; senior vice president of basic chemicals; and president of chemicals and energy. Carol accepted her role as EVP of manufacturing and engineering in 2011. She serves on the board of directors of Sadara, Dow-Mitsui Chlor-Alkali LLC, and Zep Inc. Carol serves on the board of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University, where she is also an advisory board member for its engineering department and a member of the Energy Futures Institute’s Presidential Consultation Committee. She was recently appointed to the U.S. Manufacturing Council. Carol is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Economy
America’s Economic Recovery Hinges on STEM Education
Of all of the potential threats to an economic recovery in the United States, one issue stands above the rest for companies like Dow. The issue isn’t tax reform. It isn’t energy prices. It’s not even budget issues in Washington. All of those are important. Perhaps the most important issue for us at Dow—the one that has the potential to either wreck or resurrect the American economy—is whether this country has enough qualified workers to sustain the economic recovery that we see looming just over the horizon.
Where Are the Jobs?
Nolan Finley of The Detroit News, Felix Ortiz of Viridis Learning, the University of Michigan's Joel Tauber, and Dow's Carol Williams join Susan Lund of the McKinsey Global Institute to discuss job creation. Watch video and read the full transcript here.
Conferences
Detroit 13
On September 17th, Techonomy returns to Detroit and Wayne State University to continue a series of conversations and workshops we began last year at our first Detroit conference.
