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Killer Quote: "In the end, the energy transition itself will not occur only because of hydrogen. But the energy transition will not happen without hydrogen." - Michael Graff
Welcome to The Chemical Show™, where chemicals mean business. If you're looking for insights from business leaders of mid-market to Fortune 50 companies, this is the place to be.
Featuring interviews with industry executives, you’ll hear about the key trends impacting chemicals and plastics today: growth, sustainability, innovation, business transformation, digitalization, supply chain, talent, strategic marketing, customer experience and much more.
Episodes are published every Tuesday.
Host Victoria Meyer gained her industry experience at leading companies, including Shell, LyondellBasell and Clariant. Before taking those insights and experiences to launch a strategy & marketing consultancy, Progressio Global, and The Chemical Show podcast. Victoria brings a informed and engaging perspective, making this podcast not just about the chemical business, but about people, leadership, business challenges and opportunities, and so much more.
The Chemical Show brings you the latest insights into trillion-dollar chemical industry. You will hear from leading industry executives as they discuss their companies, business, markets, and leadership. You’ll learn how chemical, specialty chemical, petrochemical, material science and plastics companies are making an impact, responding to the changing business environment, and discussing best practices and approaches you can apply in your business.
This podcast is a must-listen for executives and business leader everywhere, leading B2B process businesses and industries, driving strategy, harnessing customers and suppliers, and driving business innovation.
Hi, this is Victoria Meyer.
Welcome back to the chemical show
where chemicals means business.
Today I am bringing you
a chemical show classic.
What is that?
You might ask?
Well, a chemical show classic is
an interview that just stands the
test of time, both for what the
leader is saying for the impact
that it has today and beyond.
So here we go.
Today, I'm republishing my interview
with Michael Graff, who's the
former CEO of American Air Liquide.
So, why now?
So Mike has recently retired and
he was recently recognized at
ACC's board meeting for his ongoing
commitment and impact to the industry
and especially responsible care.
So ACC has named the Michael Graff
Progressive Achievement Program, which
will continue to help responsible care
practitioners strive for operational
excellence and drive safety performance.
And they see this as really just a
great opportunity to recognize the
commitment, the impact, and that
long term excellence and focus that
Mike has brought to responsible care.
So kudos to Mike and kudos to ACC.
And by the way, I'm attaching
a link to the show notes.
to Chris John's, uh, LinkedIn post
that recognizes his achievement.
And I might be pre staging ACC
cause I'm sure they're going to
issue a press release as well.
Um, when that's issued, I will attach that
to our show notes and transcript as well.
So stay tuned.
Secondly, why is this a classic?
Number one, and I go back to
when I recorded this episode
with Mike in April of 2023, 2023.
He is a great speaker.
It is a great leadership narrative,
both from his early beginnings through
his career to the impact and the
ongoing commitment to the industry.
So Super interesting and just a supreme
speaker and a supreme interview guest.
So that's one.
Secondly, it really highlights Mike's
commitment to the industry, to supporting
the future of the industry through
education, through his alma mater's,
through AICHE and other programs.
And I think many leaders do this.
Um, but Mike has really
taken it up a notch.
And so I think it's Often when I talk
to leaders, a lot of our conversation
is about the business, and you expect
executives and CEOs to be really
focused on their own bottom line.
Mike is also focused on the industry
bottom line and on helping create
educational opportunities to raise
people up, um, in status, right?
So we know that engineering and
education is a wonderful way to move
people from one social class to another.
Um, and I think that's one of the
things that Mike might say about it.
Uh, but he also just really
talks about the importance of
supporting engineering education.
In fact, One of the things that Mike
said, and I'm paraphrasing a little
bit, um, but what he told is he talks
about in this interview is engineering
principles and engineering approaches
to solving problems are critical to
meeting the world's needs over time.
And this is around.
the world's needs for energy, water,
chemicals, food, and more, right?
So all these great things.
And so, you know, if you're an engineer,
if you're a STEM professional, you
recognize the importance of this.
And I think, um, Mike has done
more than just talk about it.
He gives his time, he gives his energy
and he gives his commitment to his Alma
maters, Illinois tech, which is where
I know him from and Purdue, um, as well
as to AICHE and has been recognized
across the board in those areas.
So anyway.
You're in for a treat.
Um, if you listened to this episode the
first time it was published, I'm just
going to encourage you to listen again.
And if you've never listened
to this episode and heard Mike
speak, you are in for a treat.
So enjoy the interview.
Let me know what you think.
And we'll talk again soon.
Welcome back to The Chemical Show.
I'm Victoria Meyer.
I'm glad to have you here again today.
Today I'm speaking with Michael
Graff, who is the chairman and CEO of
American Air Liquide Holdings and is
also the EVP of the Air Liquide Group.
Mike is in charge of the
Americas Hub and is also the
chairman of the Board of Air Gas.
He's got over 30 years of experience
in the energy chemicals and polymers
industry, um, and is here today to
just bring some insight to us in terms
of hydrogen, gas, and other things.
Mike, welcome to the Chemical Show.
Well, thanks, Victoria.
It's great to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
Glad to have you here.
What's your origin story?
What got you interested in energy
and chemicals and what ultimately
brought you to Air Liquide?
So it's probably a combination of things.
Um, like many of us that ended up studying
engineering, uh, I had an affinity
for math and physics and chemistry,
uh, analytical things, uh, and, and
it seemed to excel at that at school.
So that, that's a part of it.
I actually grew up in Chicago Southside
and I had the benefit of growing up
in the city and all the benefits of
schooling and activities and those
types of things the city brings.
But on my dad's side of the
family, we also had a family farm.
And so I spent summers, I spent long
weekends out working on the family farm.
Uh, and you know, you see the
world through a different light
when you when you do that.
And, and so somehow I was always
naturally inquisitive, trying
to understand how things work.
Why did it work that way?
How do you make that work?
How does that happen?
And so somehow that combination of that.
Uh, that just natural aspect of being
inquisitive on how the world works,
how things work, along with the
fundamentals of all those analytical
and scientific principles that are
somehow deeply embedded in me kind
of drove me into into engineering,
specifically chemical engineering.
That's awesome.
And, uh, and then you launched
from that into the chemical
industry and into Aralakid.
I did.
Yeah.
So I started my career actually
with standard all of Indiana, which
uh, became later known as Amico.
And I actually started in R and
D and I was in a group, it was a
think tank called plastic products.
And so back then, uh, there was a
lot of, I would say, drive, uh, a
lot of innovation thinking about how
plastics and polymers could enable a
lot of things in the world around us.
And, and so I joined this group that
was thinking about some weird concept,
like a one piece plastic bottle, uh,
we were thinking about, um, how you
could develop, uh, plastics and polymers
that you could use under the hood.
So they can handle high temperatures
and under extreme conditions
deliver what they needed to.
We didn't know anything about
personal computers at the time
because nobody really had one.
And a lot of the things we
developed for that and so on.
And it went into a lot of products
that are in use in the world today
in healthcare and electronics, uh,
in everyday life and automotive,
whatever the case may be.
And I just kind of evolved.
I ended up in engineering and then
I was working more in the refining.
Uh, and and marketing
of transportation fuels.
So I was able to design and build
and then help operate a number of
refineries in the old Amico system.
And then, and then I took on a lot of
different roles and I was in planning.
I was in finance.
Uh, I was in long term corporate
planning for the organization, uh,
working for the chairman, uh, and
then ended up back in chemicals.
And I had the chance to operate, uh,
globally, uh, many of the chemical and
polymer businesses in the old Amico.
And then I leveraged that.
I moved into Ara Laquid now, 16 years
ago, and, uh, I've been involved in
more of the industrial gas space with.
Customers who do many of the same
things that I did in my past and many
others as well, uh, and have had a
chance now to see both in, in, in the
first part of my career in the second
part of my career, how innovation,
uh, how deep scientific principles.
how the world around us continues to
evolve and needs solutions that are
embodied in those basic principles to
be, uh, who we want to be in the future,
to be successful in the future, to help
the world achieve its long term goals.
Yeah, that's right.
And it's so interesting, as you say,
the, the connectivity between where you
started and where you are today and,
uh, your customers or your suppliers
and your suppliers or your customers,
and it's a really interconnected world.
It is absolutely, which makes it fun.
It does.
Absolutely.
So what do you see different?
You've been in the industry,
uh, in, in different parts of
the industry for a long time.
What's different today
versus when you started?
So there's probably some
similarities and then there's
definitely some, some differences.
Um, I think that the ability
to leverage innovation, uh, the
ability to meet a customer's needs.
Uh, the ability to go ahead and and
I would say leverage at global scale,
uh, capabilities to meet the world's
needs are all very prominent today.
And they were very prominent.
Then I think the world is sped up.
I think the world has evolved in a way.
Uh, that innovation is ever more key.
I think looking at the world's
issues, whether that's how do
you address climate change?
How do you decarbonize industry?
How do you decarbonize
the transportation sector?
Um, how do you, uh, enable the digital
world of tomorrow, uh, with with
all of the digital capabilities,
uh, to allow that to occur?
How do you create better
mechanisms for health care?
How do you do this based on scientific
technologies and principles?
And I could go on, but all of these
things require innovation, and they
require ever more rapid development
of innovation in the world around us.
So I think I think that's one difference.
I think another big difference is
the application of technologies,
the application across whether
whether that's disciplines.
Uh, whether that's across
industries, somehow everything
is ever more integrated.
I think that the, the evolution,
uh, that we see is that it's
not just about one idea from one
place that solves this big issue.
It requires teams of people could be
within the same company could be from
different companies that are able to
leverage strengths and their ideas and
their innovation and really drive, uh,
a new solution in the world around us.
I think another key thing is
customers and patients have
always been critically important.
But I think As the world has evolved,
I think that whether it's industry,
uh, whether it's the approach
from a healthcare standpoint, this
patient or the customer is ever,
ever more of a focus as a center
point of what you want to achieve.
It's not just I've developed this, so
maybe you want to buy it and use it.
It's about developing solutions that
are tailored to those individuals, to
those companies, to those customers
or patients and ensuring that you
leverage all of your capabilities to
meet those needs in a safe way, in a
reliable way and a high quality way.
Um, but a lot of times, especially if we
look now at the energy transition as an
example, or how do you create, uh, the
next node from a transistor standpoint?
They need solutions and we
bring some of those solutions.
And so I think that the customer
centricity of what we do is
ever more so than it was, and
we're ever more integrated and
understanding our customer's needs
and what we can bring to the table.
I think another key thing is employees.
When, when I first joined, uh, you know,
industry, when, when I first started
my career, um, the information age
wasn't upon us, uh, and, and I think in
general, as, as each generation evolved.
The desire to understand not just what
we are doing as a company, but more
importantly, why, why do we do what we do?
Why do we want to make this change?
Why does this occur?
Rather than someone just directing
something to happen and everybody
took it as that's what we need to do.
We just move on a lot more in depth
understanding and discussion, which
has only led us to ever better ways
to operate companies, ever better ways
to work together and bring solutions.
So I think that's different.
I think the career development of
employees is very different, right?
You know, when you, when you joined
a company years ago, you joined
a company and one day somebody
called you in the office and said,
well, we've got a job for you here.
And.
You better take it.
And that's what it is today.
Employees, they, they own their
career, which is critically important.
They, they develop themselves.
We help develop them, but
it's, it's a joint effort.
And, and, and so you want to make sure
that you hire the right people, but
then you, you develop them, you give
them opportunities, you stretch them.
You allow them to achieve what it is
they want to achieve in their career.
And then finally, the last
point, and I could go on, but I
think the last point is, is the
relationship with the community.
I think that.
As a company, Air Liquide, for
example, has always worked hard
to be a part of the community.
We've always had a sustainable DNA or
a sustainable backbone to our culture.
But, but if you just think about
how things have evolved in industry
in general over time, you know, the
70s, Uh, you know, the vernacular was
anything goes, you know, and I just
mean in general society or whatever.
And today I think people are
very concerned about what
happens in my community.
People are very concerned
about, are you a good citizen?
If you're going to build a facility, if
you're going to operate in my community,
are you giving back to the community?
Are you engaged in the community?
Do you leverage the community?
Do you create opportunity for
the people in our community?
And I think all of those things.
Our first and foremost in our mind,
certainly as we do things that are the
key, but I've seen that evolve over time.
And, and I think that, that, that
relationship between the company and the
community, uh, being a good citizen in
the community, a good corporate citizen
has really evolved in a very positive way.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I mean, I was, there's a lot there to
unpack and I may not unpack it, but,
but what I think is really interesting.
What I draw from that is business
has gotten a lot more personal.
Right.
So it's really this recognition
of individual needs, customer
needs, the why behind.
Employees the why behind the
customers and what they need the why
in the community and creating that
connectivity and personalization
really to to make that collaboration
and the fact that we're actually all
part of the same ecosystem is happen.
It's important.
Absolutely.
No, no.
Interesting.
So, so let's talk a little bit about
sustainability and net zero, right?
So I know that this is a big
part of, uh, heck it's, it's
on everybody's minds today.
Um, and I think in a lot of ways.
The way that we're, the industry is
responding to sustainability and net
zero has moved companies from like Air
Liquide from kind of boring industrials
to central solution providers, right?
And drivers of the energy transition
when we look at things like hydrogen
for mobility and other things.
What's Air Liquide's approach?
What's What's central to Air Liquide when
we think about the world that we're in
today with sustainability and net zero?
So so first of all, I never thought
about anything being boring in the
past But I mean, it's industrial gas.
It was kind of an afterthought.
It's a It may feel that way to many
but yeah It comes back to something
I mentioned before that, you know the
world around us And, and especially
from an early key perspective, trying to
understand the needs of the world around
us, not just today's needs, which we work
really hard to make sure we meet each
and every day for our customers and our
patients, but in order to think about the
future, and I mentioned before, you know,
the digital age and where that goes better
healthcare and clearly climate change,
the energy transition is, is top of mind.
And I actually think that the focus
on all three of those areas, uh, while
it was prominent just a few years ago,
somehow all that accelerated during
COVID, I don't know if people had more
chance to, to contemplate, uh, the
world around them and, and themselves.
And all of a sudden they were.
Earnest of healthcare became ever
more acute and the need to connect
digitally became ever more important.
And all of a sudden where they
live and the environment around
them became ever more important.
But, but all of those things are, are,
are clearly something that evolved in a
very strong way from a climate standpoint,
first of all, I would say, and I mentioned
this before, I think air Laquit has
always had a very sustainable approach
in how we think about the company itself.
How we act within the
communities in which we operate.
And how we meet our customers
or our patients needs.
And it's always kind of been
foundational in the, in the company.
Certainly you've got to have
good financial returns to grow.
And that's part of sustainability.
Um, but we were always trying to think
of what the world may, may require.
And, and how can our
technologies help enable that?
Or what technologies do we need
to develop that makes sense for us
to develop, to be a part of that.
And, and we have seen
that happen over time.
I mean, over 120 years,
basically two individuals.
Working in a garage or a warehouse outside
of Paris developed the first commercially
viable way to separate the air you
and I are breathing and liquefy it.
And that was the beginning of oxo
acetylene torch cutting and welding up
until then steel was metals were hard cut.
And if you wanted to join two pieces
of metal together, you used rivets.
And, and so it's not that the
industrial age happened because
of us, but we're a part of it.
We were part of contributing that.
And I think with all of these types of
things, whether that was how our large
industries business that serves the big
commodity industries, like refining and
chemicals and steel evolved over time,
whether it's in manufacturing, whether
it's in semiconductors, whether it's in
healthcare, we were always able to develop
new technologies and new capabilities.
Today with climate change, if we
think about our goal to net zero.
As a country.
We want to be there by 2050.
Uh, if we are going to achieve
that we need to have the
technological capabilities.
We need to be able to
build at scale today.
And in the end, it's about the solutions.
So it starts with Air Liquide having
this broad portfolio of technologies.
We have the ability to produce
hydrogen via any route necessary.
We can take any sort of hydrocarbon.
We can we can convert that into hydrogen
and we have the state of the art carbon
capture technologies to capture almost
all of the CO2 that's generated that
you can then sequester or use elsewhere.
We also have all the technologies to
utilize, whether it's solar or wind
power, whether it's hydroelectric power
from a dam in a variety of different
electrolyzer technologies to go ahead
and produce truly renewable hydrogen.
Not unlike the first industrial scale
PEM electrolyzer that we built some
three years ago now and is operating
well, uh, up in Beacon Corps in Canada,
utilizing power from Niagara Falls
and demonstrating that you can do this
at industrial scale and make it work.
But we've also developed the technologies
to take off gas from a landfill, utilizing
our membrane technologies, convert that
to a renewable natural gas, a biogas, and
then convert that to renewable hydrogen.
So we've got all those technologies.
We've got all the capabilities and
the proven ability that we demonstrate
in each and every day to transport
hydrogen by a pipeline, uh, by a tube
trailer as a liquid, uh, we have the
state of the art technologies for
liquefaction, uh, and we have the state
of the art technologies for every type
of carbon capture you might imagine.
What that means.
Is right now people are trying to figure
out if I wanted to carbonize my industry
if I wanted to carbonize my site.
How do I go about that.
And we're able to go in, given the
breadth of all these technologies
and bring solutions and help them
understand first of all what they need
to consider in order to achieve that.
And then to implement it.
Similarly with the transportation sector.
If we are going to decarbonize the
transportation sector, we've got to do
a lot of things in terms of how we go
ahead and drive mobility to zero emission.
And a lot of that utilizing hydrogen
fuel cells can be accomplished.
In the end, the energy transition
itself, um, will not occur
only because of hydrogen.
But it.
The energy transition will
not happen without hydrogen.
I think that if you look at the focus
in the world around us, I think the
estimates are by 2050 roughly 20
percent of all of the energy needs
of the world will be met by hydrogen.
And so that's industry that's
mobility that can even be grid backup.
So I think whether it's on carbon capture
or hydrogen, the sustainability mindset
we've always had are now in a place we are
now in a place where we can deliver that.
And the good thing is it's not a
wish list of things we could do.
We have already demonstrated all
of these technologies at scale.
So we know they work.
Yeah.
And it's a matter of deploying them.
Exactly.
Are customers and
consumers ready for this?
I mean, it strikes me that we've got
some ambitious goals as a country.
Air Liquide has its ambitious goals.
And when you look across the value
chain, it kind of all has to be in
sync for it to really come to fruition.
I guess the question is, how do, how do
we get the value chain in sync so that
we can, so that we can realize it so that
Air Liquide can realize its ambitions?
There's no magic bullet here, but
let's think a little about some
of the things that have to happen.
Um, I think first of all, you've
got to have like minded companies,
like minded industries working
together, as I mentioned before,
uh, to bring technologies to
bring capabilities to the table.
Uh, it's not just how do you produce, uh,
your needs from a fueling standpoint like
hydrogen, but what are the applications
to use that and how do you deliver
those at scale to make those successful?
So I think it takes a lot of
Uh, like minded companies.
For example, we started the Hydrogen
Council some six years ago joint with
Toyota because we both shared a view of
what hydrogen could mean in the future.
And now I think we have over 120 companies
jointly working within this Hydrogen
Council on how you develop things.
I think another key thing,
though, is the recognition
that in order to make a change.
In order to make this happen, in
order to deliver it, it requires
new infrastructure, it requires
new capabilities, it requires
investment in these facilities.
And in order to achieve that, we
need to have the incentives to
make that work, and we need to have
the policies to make that work.
So, in my mind, it's going to
take, you know, smart climate
policy, like we see with the IRA.
Or we've seen, we've seen with
some elements of the bipartisan
infrastructure bill to go ahead and
help drive some of those incentives.
And you see something very similar
in Europe, you see some of that
evolving in countries like, uh, in,
in Japan or in Korea, where, where
these kinds of things are evolving.
And then it really takes to promote the
technologies to continue the innovation
public private partnerships, where it's
not just companies and the government
but universities and other think tanks.
That are all collaborating, and
I think what we see right now are
ecosystems being built both around
knowledge and around innovation.
But then geographic ecosystems that
recognize the, the basic inherent
resources in needs within a given
geography, and then determining the
solutions that will allow you to best
meet those goals of, of, you know,
Uh, net zero for those communities for
those regions in a very positive way.
Yeah, it's a, it's a challenge that
takes a lot of people, as you say.
So getting these coalitions and
these entities aligned, um, is
going to be part of the process.
Well, exactly right.
And it takes commitments.
I mean, I mean, we've, you
know, we've been in the hydrogen
business for over 60 years.
Um, and, and we have been very
driven, uh, as, as part of all
this to leverage that experience.
And, and you know, we've already made
commitments, you know, for over $10
billion that we'll invest, uh, to continue
to grow hydrogen, uh, in the coming years.
And those numbers only continue to grow.
And, and I think everybody is looking
at that saying, what can we do?
How can we make this work?
Um, but I, I think the other point
that you were driving at is for
the consumer, for their needs.
You know, at the end of the day,
right, energy needs to need to
be met for the world around us.
Our energy needs only continue to grow.
Yes, we're more efficient and things.
So for a specific, uh, plant
or for a specific need.
Yes, you can make that more efficient.
But in the aggregate, the world's energy
needs, as we think about everything in
the world that evolves around energy,
even the digital world requires enormous
amounts of energy in order to go ahead
and function that only continues to grow.
And so at first, all of these
energy sources are additive.
And then as you build to scale and
you create more structure, then
certain new opportunities will become
ever more prominent in that mix.
At the end of the day, people want energy.
They want it to be
available when they need it.
It's got to be affordable and they
want it to be cleaner and it's got
to meet the needs of everybody,
every community out there.
And I think those are the kind of goals
we have is to get ourselves to that place.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So, um, I'm going to circle in
a little bit on the customers.
So you, you talked earlier about
how, um, what are the differences,
you know, in the industry today is
just kind of this alignment to the
customers and, and their needs, etc.
We talked a lot about
the customer experience.
What's critical to Air Liquide and
its customers when you think about
the experience and why companies
do business with you, why your
customers want to keep doing business
with Air Liquide and partnering.
So I think it's multifold.
You probably ought to talk to our
customers to get the real answer.
But, but I, I think, I think that the,
the reality is this, um, first of all,
our customers look to us to meet their
needs in a safe way, in a reliable way.
And in a high quality way.
And, and that is very clear
as things have evolved.
I would add a sustainable way.
So you've got those four basic components
that our customers really look for.
As, as we look to meet their needs
or our patients for that matter.
I think the next thing is to bring
innovative solutions to bear, to help
them because in this world, as things
have evolved, whether, whether that's,
is we, some of the things we just talked
about with climate change, if someone
is looking to understand how they
decarbonize their industry or their site.
To the point I made earlier,
we bring those solutions.
It's not just we bring a product.
So we've got to bring the innovation.
We've got to bring those solutions
and our customers and our
patients look for us to do that.
Similarly, our customers are very,
very interested in securitizing because
we have a lot of global customers
supply chains around the world.
So coming back to their reliability piece,
it's, it's not just, I meet your needs
from this plane to this plane every day,
but if they are going to be successful
in the future and they are going to
deploy their capabilities and their
technologies globally, then they want to
make sure those supply chains are secure.
They want to make sure that they
can rely on you each and every day.
So I think there's a variety of
things that our customers look for.
And, and in the, in the end as well,
I think the digital connectivity
between all of us opens doors for
even better ways to connect, for
even better ways to do things.
And we certainly leverage that as well.
Yeah.
And digital is certainly driving that
in a, in a lot of different places.
So when we, we look at what's going on
kind of in the world today, you know,
I mean, as we're recording this, uh,
there's a lot of banking uncertainty with
SVB and, uh, Credit Suisse, et cetera.
Industries and companies continue
to be concerned about inflation.
There's a lot of things going on.
You've led businesses
through several cycles.
Um, what do you find critical to
navigating these ups and downs?
Right.
So you.
I know that you're looking at these and
as you lead Air Liquide, you're looking
at how do you lead through these cycles?
What's critical to you?
So, clearly the, the external world.
Is ever evolving and you have to have
a very open mind and a close eye on
what's evolving in the world around us.
And, and we've got to really
understand our customers needs.
We've got to understand
where markets are going.
We've got to understand we're,
we're in, you know, we're, we're
in 75 countries around the world.
And so we've got to understand
what's happening within each of
those countries, uh, the political
environment, uh, the inherent
risk involved in different places.
We're always trying to understand
what's going on in the world around us.
In the end, you leverage your innovations
and your capabilities, as I mentioned
before, to meet the world's needs.
And you've got to pick and choose
how you deploy those, how you
invest, and how you will manage that.
But in the end, for a company like Aralic
Key to be around for over 120 years,
and go through as many cycles and wars
and depressions and recessions as we
have, You know, you first of all have
to make sure you control your cost base.
You have to recognize that you don't
control the external environment.
You don't control markets.
You don't control the latest decision
that's going to happen in a given
country or whatever the case may be.
You don't control the un,
unthought of things, the black
swans that are going to evolve.
Yes, you plan.
You plan.
For what could be, but you do your
best on those types of things.
So in the end, you've got to control
those things you can control.
So it's cost, it's reliability, it's how
you help your employees and develop your
employees, and making sure you're always
close to your customers and what their
needs are, and you stay very integrated
and ingrained with the community.
So, You, you are in this unusual place
today, where whether it's with the war
in Ukraine and how that's changed the
environment, uh, within Europe, looking
at energy, looking at industry, looking
at a variety of things, uh, whether it's,
you know, SVB and, and other concerns
about the banking sector, whether it's
other concerns about what's happening
in economies or political situations
in the world around us, you know,
at the end of the day, you, you have
to be aware of all those things, but
then you have to manage what you can.
Control what you know,
you know how to control.
And then make sure you stay very close
with your customers, that you understand
their needs, that you're helping them
with solutions, and you make sure your
patients needs are met each and every day.
And I think COVID was the perfect example
of that, where suddenly health care was
prominent on everyone's mind, and it's
unusual maybe for an industrial company.
20 percent of our revenue base is
health care, and we're the world's
largest medical oxygen provider.
Wow.
And suddenly, in COVID, with the focus on
the need for medical oxygen, everywhere
in the world, in order to help patients
survive COVID, we were front and center.
And we had to be very attuned
with what was happening.
We saw how it evolved around the world,
and we continued to learn from that
everywhere around the world as it evolved.
So that we were ever more prepared, we
were able to go ahead and significantly
increase the production of medical
oxygen and certainly do that in advance
once we knew what was going to happen
and leverage our logistics assets and
our capabilities to the right places
in order to make that, I would say,
available to save patients lives.
And so there's where you had to be in tune
with everything happening in the world.
You had to be in tune
with your patients needs.
And you had to figure out how to do
things people, people never thought
of before in order to meet those and
we not only did that in, you know, the
geographic centers in Western Europe
and North America and in Asia, but
we went into sort of world countries.
We found ways to get the medical
oxygen needs into the Amazonian.
We found the ways to go ahead and
work in the outskirts outreaches
of the country of India.
Joint with the State Department in
order to go ahead and project that.
So there's a lot of things that are
happening in the world around us.
We have to be quick.
We have to be nimble, but we
have to leverage our strengths
in order to be successful.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that and the obvious you guys have
obviously done that in your global
reach and your global connectivity.
One final question.
I know we need to wrap it up and get
you back into your the rest of your day.
Um, when we circle back to your
origin story, so you've stayed very
connected to your alma mater I.
I.
T.
Which you and I both share and
you sit on the board of trustees.
You've stayed connected to chemical
engineering as a profession.
I know you recently received the
agile Um, award from the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Why is staying connected to education
to engineering important to you?
So I think in general, it's critically
important because I truly believe,
probably not a surprise, given everything
I just talked about at the benefits, uh,
that engineering principles, engineering
approaches to solving problems.
Uh, and and the many things that that
we have developed, whether that's
from an engineering standpoint, from
an industry standpoint, whatever the
case may be, how they contribute to
the world and how they contribute
to meet the world's needs over time.
So I think I think stem itself
is critically important, and I
believe in the world around us.
You have to find a way to
continue to encourage that in a
way to enable that in general.
The second thing I would
say, Illinois Tech.
Is, is, is now in a place where
it continues its own heritage.
Um, one of the, the basic founding
principles of the school was to create
an opportunity for those that never had
an opportunity to go to college before
to go to college to study in a year.
I'm one of those, I mean I'm the first
person in my family that ever went to
college ever graduated from college.
It's amazing.
And so, I mean, I, I'm living
proof that you can do it, right?
And I benefited from Illinois Tech.
I benefited from the Chicago ecosystem
where, uh, I, I was able to get a good
education, but at the same time I was
able to work because I had to support
things, uh, in, in terms of some of the
things that were happening back then and
are in my own life and, and, and pay my
way through school and do those things.
Um, but in the end you want to give back.
You want to create that same opportunity.
For someone else who is not in a place to
be able to go to go to school to get them
that opportunity because they just need
the opportunity, they need the chance.
And so it's it's promoting the
capabilities the scientific developments
the engineering developments in the
world around us because we need them.
It's about creating pathways
of opportunity for the
students of the future.
And I would say I do the
same thing with Purdue.
Maybe in a different way, because
that's where I went to graduate school,
and I'm very involved there, uh, and
curriculum needs and, and, and, and
supporting some of the things they
do, just like I do at Illinois tech.
And I think you've got to give back
in the community around you as well.
We give back as a company
in STEM all the time.
I'm a firm believer in literacy.
As a family, we're deeply, deeply engaged
in literacy in the world around us.
We're very involved with the Bush,
Barbara Bush, when she was first lady
started a literacy campaign, which is
now prevalent across the country and
very involved in supporting literacy.
Uh, but but just creating opportunity.
At the university structure, and even
as a company, there are those who they
may not want to study university, they
may not want to get a college degree,
but how do you create opportunity for
them and we even work there, you know
we are now we've we've now helped to
restart shop classes welding classes
in 30 high schools across the country.
That's awesome.
We have, yeah, it's great because
we have this in depth knowledge of
welding given our history and all
of these capabilities and we're
able to go back into those schools.
We're able to bring the
educational capabilities.
We're able to bring the know how.
We're able to bring, you know, the
materials they need to go ahead and,
and, and, and learn with, with the
gases and the, the, the welding rods
and the machines and that sort of thing.
And at the end of the day, you're,
you are allowing others that want to
pursue a different type of career.
To have a value added creating
opportunity for their own career
and and create and the balance of
things opportunity for everyone.
And I think that's critically
important in the world around us.
Yeah, absolutely.
Mike, thank you.
It's been really great
talking with you today.
I appreciate you sharing your time
and your points of view and your story
here with us on the chemical show.
Great.
Thank you, Victoria.
Thanks for everybody for listening.
Thank you.
And thanks everyone for listening.
And we'll talk again soon.