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Killer Quote: "Transformation isn't just a strategy; it's a necessity. The decisions we make today, in an ever-evolving regulatory landscape, will resonate for decades. It’s not about chasing carbon neutrality—it’s about being smart with carbon utilization and continually innovating for a smarter, more sustainable future." — Peter Huntsman, CEO of Huntsman Corporation
Looking to lead, grow, and stay ahead in the trillion-dollar global chemical industry? The Chemical Show - the #1 business podcast for the chemical industry - is your go-to resource for leadership insights, business strategies, and real-world lessons from the executives shaping the future of chemicals. Grow your knowledge, your network, and your impact.
Each week, you'll hear from executives from across the industry - from Fortune 50 to midsize to startups. You’ll hear how they're tacking today's challenges and opportunities, their origin story (what got them here!), how you can take and apply these lessons and insights to your own business and career.
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Founder and host Victoria King Meyer is an expert interviewer - who brings out the best in each guest. She gained her industry experience at leading companies, including Shell, LyondellBasell and Clariant. Today, she is a high-performance coach and advisor to business leaders in chemicals and energy, as well as the host of The Chemical Show podcast, and founder of The Chemical Summit.
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Victoria: Welcome to The Chemical Show,
the podcast where chemical means business.
I'm your host, Victoria Meyer,
bringing you stories and insights
from leaders, driving innovation and
growth across the chemical industry.
Each week, we explore key trends,
real world challenges, and the
strategies that make an impact.
Let's get started.
Today, I'm speaking with Peter
Huntsman, who is the CEO of Huntsman
Corporation, here at the Marsh North
American Energy and Power Symposium.
And Peter just gave a very lively
keynote, which brought some
contrary views, but also some
necessary views into the industry.
So I'm really looking forward to
this conversation, and one that I've
been hoping to have for a long time.
So, Peter, thank you for
joining me on The Chemical Show.
Peter: It's my pleasure.
Thank you very much for having me.
Victoria: Thank you So just give me
a little brief overview to you and
to Huntsman Corporation for those
that may or may not be aware of it.
Peter: Well, the business was
obviously started by my father.
And we actually
started as a plastics packaging business.
My father said that, starting in
the early 1980s that, getting into
the plastic side of the packaging,
the plastics manufacturing, that's
where the money was going to be made.
I'm not sure that was
necessarily, has been proven to
Victoria: What was like it
was styrofoam clamshells.
Am I right about
Peter: Well, yes, he originally
started with eight cartons.
My father originally started when
they were first married, selling eggs.
Uh, he had an uncle that, that he worked
with, uh, gathered up all the eggs from
the local farmers around Los Angeles.
They bring them in, they had a
huge amount, number of these eggs,
that were breaking on the way.
They couldn't be transported and so forth.
And so they started a
joint venture between
Do
Chemical, D O, and Olson Brothers,
uh, which is my father's
uncle's, uh, Olson Brothers.
Dow and Olson together was, was Dolco.
D.
O.
L.
C.
O.
And that was the name of the first
one of the very first packaging
businesses that had styrofoam a cartons.
And from there, that's
the barriers to entry.
Getting into plastic packaging
is not all that high.
They originally then they went into
build soup bowls out of plastics.
That didn't sell very well.
And so they melded the sides and
they made a clam shell out of it.
And originally they tried
to sell those to Avon.
As women, at the end of the day, would
come home, this is what the advertising
Victoria: trying to sell to them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
No, it's
Peter: As women come home, they want
to put their earrings and they want
to take all their jewelry off and
put it in some place convenient.
So, we'll put it in this clamshell.
Now that didn't sell very well,
Victoria: surprise me that,
that didn't, that didn't sell
Peter: off.
And eventually, they went to McDonald's,
McDonald's said that was a terrible
idea, we'll never put a burger in that.
So they went to Burger King, Burger
King put their worst selling ham
and cheese sandwich out of Miami.
Into this, and they found that it was,
able to keep the warmth of the burger.
They could pre produce and
therefore have a fresher burger.
And, most importantly, the, the
material that these were made out
of was 100 percent recyclable.
So all the environmental groups loved it.
It's better than that waxy paper
that can't be recycled and so forth.
And then McDonald's came and said,
Why don't you bring this to us?
And then eventually we went from
packaging into the plastics production.
Right,
Victoria: And then acquired
many, many other companies and
then shifted and transformed.
Peter: 50.
So I, I like to think of the arc
of the companies very similar to
the arc of the chemical industry.
We started in grades of plastics
that made clamshell containers for
hamburgers and today every Boeing 787
flying will have about 20 tons of Huntsman
or Huntsman related materials per plane.
So That's kind of what the
chemical industry has done.
We've gone from cheap packaging
all the way to where you cannot
build, an airplane today without our
materials, uh, space travel, EVs,
renewable energy, all of this is
made possible through our industry.
That's
Victoria: awesome.
And it's so cool.
So, and that's a great segue.
So, you know, you're talking
today about the role of chemicals
in, um, maybe energy transition,
but in a carbon economy, right?
So I know you said quite vehemently,
there is no such thing as carbon
neutrality, um, but we can be
smart with our carbon, right?
So why is this so critical?
What is critical about chemicals today?
Well, I,
Peter: I'm always just a bit bemused in
that the, most of the policy makers are
looking to get away from hydrocarbons.
Victoria: hydrocarbons.
Peter: Chemical industry, think about
this, there's very few products we produce
today that we were making 10 years ago.
Paper can't say that, steel can't
say that, most manufacturing
processes can't say that.
Timber industry, so what we make
today in the chemical industry, we
replace, we're continuously coming out.
Think of a, of something as
simple as a bottle of water.
You know, the plastic
containers can't hold water.
Now those things are so thin, you
get it in your hand and you're afraid
that it's just going to come apart.
That's how thin it is.
That's, we've, we've, we're
saving hydrocarbons, we're saving
money, we have efficiencies.
I don't know of another industry that
manufactures, now I know tech and, and
chips, I'm moving that to one side here,
but when I think, if you could see the
sort of, of manufacturing proficiency in
the steel, cement, wood, energy industry
that you've seen in the chemical industry.
That's what's so phenomenal about
this industry is we are the solution.
Victoria: Yeah, absolutely.
And as you point out, so many of the
products that are being used readily
today were not around a decade ago
Peter: and they won't be
here 10 years from now.
We'll have something better.
Victoria: and all the things that from
a consumer perspective, we've grown
accustomed to, whether it be phones,
whether it be, you know, these microphones
that we're using today, whatever are
foundationally part of the
chemical industry, right?
There's so many critical components
that go into it that, you know,
frankly, the majority of the world
doesn't really recognize, but you and I
recognize that, which is a good thing.
So one of the things you've
talked about is, Just some of the
challenges and hurdles in getting
these new products approved, right?
So there's so many of the
innovations that are taking place.
We know that we need these innovations
to support our future economies,
whether it be EVs, whether it be
airplanes and aerospace and the
new technologies that we want.
And yet, it seems like it's really a
challenge, Maybe we can design them,
but to get them approved for use.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
Peter: Well, the EPA today has 90
days by law, and that was the Frank
Lautenberg Act, that they have 90 days.
It's a bipartisan bill that was passed,
uh, what was it, seven or eight years ago.
And it was supposed to reform
how you regulate chemicals
and at the same time how
you approve chemicals.
I've been a chief executive
officer for over 20 years.
I rarely have ever heard
CEOs complain about.
The over regulation of our
industry as much as the regulations
that just don't make sense.
And so when you're trying to
regulate something, and you've
got 90 days to regulate it.
We've got some products in the United
States right now that have been on
that wait list now two or three years.
And so I go to China.
And I can probably get not only the
approval virtually within a matter
of weeks, but I probably get some
subsidies from the government to
build a new process, new technologies.
I mean, they incentivize you to
bring new technologies over there
for a whole host of reasons, right?
And we're sitting over here thinking,
well, if you really want to get beyond
forever chemicals, you really want to
get beyond perhaps some of the more toxic
products that were made decades ago.
We're constantly innovating, but if you
don't have the means and the ability
to get that approved quickly and
efficiently, and maybe even incentivized
to replace those sorts of things,
maybe we, we get the front of the line.
If you have something that's
going to be replacing yesterday's,
state of the art chemistry.
And so.
As we look at this, it just seems
today that the EPA seems to be more
interested in buying electric buses that
don't work for school districts than
they are getting the next generation
of cleaner, more efficient, more
effective, chemistries in building
blocks approved and into the market.
Victoria: Yeah, I would agree with that.
And, and I know, um, I recently was
at HCPA, the household and consumer
products association meeting.
And there was a lot of conversation
there about concerns about the new
administration coming in and what it
means for the EPA opportunities, obviously
with, as we get into a new administration,
which we're just, you know, days away
from, how do you see this and how
do you and other CEOs like yourself.
Influence this influence the
opportunity for a more effective E.
P.
A.
How do you look at these changes
that are afoot in Washington?
Peter: I'm not sure that there's
a lot of immediate impact on that.
I, and I say that because when
we build a chemical plant, you're
building a plant that's going to be
around for at least 30 or 40 years.
So you're making an investment today,
and you're really saying where are
we going to be 20, 30 years from now.
Because that's when the plant's
probably going to be totally sold out.
It's, it's going to take a
couple of years to permit.
If you and I decided today that we're
going to go out and build a billion
dollar ethylene plant or anything,
you're probably looking at two or
three years to be able to permit.
To be able to, to engineer it another two
or three years to be able to build it.
And so we're, so you're looking
at five, six, seven years.
There's a product like MDI polyurethanes.
You're probably getting
closer to a decade.
So we're, we're going to
make a billion dollars today.
We're going to make, make that decision
today for a plant that wouldn't
even be running for almost a decade.
And then it's going to
run for another 30 years
after that.
So I've got to be able to look today and
say, well, I'm building this facility.
I need to be able to look
40 years down the road.
Victoria: the road.
So how do you handle that?
Cause that's, cause there's a certain
amount of regulatory uncertainty.
So there's always the business
uncertainty, you know, in
terms of the markets there.
Is it the right product,
right place, right markets?
Is it profitable?
But then you add this
regulatory risk onto it.
Which is a risk.
Not just in the U.
S.
In Europe else, you know, frankly,
probably around the globe, different
regions, different, different places.
But how do you assess that risk and
incorporate that into those decisions?
Peter: It's a real challenge.
I wish I could say that
there's an easy answer to this.
One of the questions that was asked,
um, you may have heard earlier was,
somebody got up and said that, that free
enterprise and democracies were the enemy
because they're both short term oriented.
They're the enemy of the solutions
of what we need to change
climate issues and so forth.
Well I take just the
opposite approach to that.
I think government has been
one of the most ruinous.
So if I look back at the United States,
Huntsman, we've invested hundreds of
millions of dollars in the production when
the Clean Water Act came out in the 1990s.
Remember when we had to have MTBE?
It was mandated you had to have
and oxygenate your gasoline.
Our industry spent billions
and billions of dollars.
Exxon, Huntsman, Lyondell.
Great companies spent billions
of dollars building these
facilities within a few years.
It not only was it no longer mandated,
but it wasn't even permitted because
of, of legal liabilities and so forth.
So I can go through,
line and scripture of the government
mandates that have come out, whether
it's on aerosol usage or whether it's
on hydrocarbons, whether you, you
know, and the amount of money that
goes directly from the government.
Thank you.
Into NGOs pockets that are
fighting the chemical industry.
People like Mayor Bloomberg, who's
spending hundreds of millions
of dollars of his own money
to get beyond petrochemicals.
This is a guy that has multiple
private jets, multiple homes around.
He's gotta be a huge
customer of ours, I mean,
of all the products and everything.
And
he's spending all this money to
try to ban the, the solutions
to what we have in society.
I, I,
Victoria: I know it's really ironic.
It's ironic.
And I think it's a function of the fact
that people don't actually understand,
how things are built, where products
come from, what it might be right.
There's just this sheer
lack of understanding.
And maybe it's a bit of it's
somebody else's problem.
Or if I just make a bold statement,
it's all going to magically fix itself.
It's a conundrum for sure.
Peter: It, it is, and I, I
have an opportunity to speak,
usually every other month or so
at a university.
And invariably I'll get a student that
will stand up and say, I want you to
know I'm opposed to the chemical industry
and I'm boycotting your industry.
And I'll look at him and
I'll say, what do you mean?
You're boycotting it.
I don't know.
How do you do that?
Why don't use plastic bags anymore?
I don't, I've got a canvas bag.
Okay.
Well, you know, we
haven't produced plastic
for
either the bag or the plastics
go into the bag for decades,
but you're wearing our product.
You're eating our product.
Your anxiety medicine.
You're probably taking is our product.
Your eyeglasses, your
computer, your skateboard.
You've got their clothes,
shoes, everything.
You have the air conditioning
coming in everything in this.
And you know, when people, you
said earlier, maybe they've just
forgotten how things are made.
There seems we were so detached from,
um, It used to be the majority of our
population was just in agriculture.
Now it's less than 5%.
It's actually in the production of food
that feeds the world.
Victoria: Or even
manufacturing overall, right?
Because you think about how efficient
our manufacturing processes are.
Many people are not in
manufacturing anymore.
They're just in consumption.
That's right.
Yeah.
You
Peter: mean, look how much of
our GDP today is around, you
know, the financial services.
We're just basically
moving money around, right?
A lot of what tech is.
Apple does not build.
This phone, right?
They license it to be built.
They have a third party that builds it.
But Apple themselves, they
don't build this phone.
They own the technology when you
download apps, they make money.
It's a brilliant business model they
have, but they're not making the phones.
These companies that we think
even manufactured today.
Most of them don't,
and they'll sub it out to somebody
else.
Victoria: right, right.
So you talked a little
bit about Europe today.
And, frankly, it's a
European problem, right?
And I know that you've addressed
the fact that, uh, as we Look
at what's going on in Europe.
Europe seems to be anti manufacturing,
whether it's intentional or it's the
the function of misguided policies.
Can you just talk a little bit
more about what you see going on
there and how are you and Huntsman
approaching business in Europe today?
Peter: Well, unfortunately,
we're approaching it and that
we have been cutting costs now
for the last, really since about
2021.
Uh, you start to see record high.
This is the year before
Putin invaded Russia.
This is, remember when all those
really smart people went to Glasgow
at one of the environmental summits
Victoria: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
It was
Peter: during that summer, right?
That you started to see, a
high pressure goes over Europe.
There's not enough wind to
produce the electricity.
They start burning gas.
It's going into the next winter's storage
and electrical prices this summer before
the invasion go to historical high prices.
Okay.
So I'm not a fan of Vladimir Putin.
I despise what he's done in Ukraine.
I'm not saying that that
has had zero impact.
What I'm saying is that much
of where we are in Europe is
a problem of their own making.
And what they have done is simply
put is that they have legislated.
And set targets with no real
achievable way to get there.
Now, aspirational
targets are fine, but when you
start telling people, this is
going to cost you your jobs.
You start telling people to
shut down your facilities.
You start getting to a point where
hundreds of thousands of people, look
what's taking place in the automotive
sector and so forth today, Europe
does not stand a prayer, the chance of
competing against the Chinese with EVs.
Victoria: you think it's fixable?
Is the European situation fixable
Peter: not at the present time, I've
talked to government leaders there.
I've asked them if, if tomorrow
somebody came out today and just
prove the science incorrect with,
with climate, would you change
most of them said, no, we wouldn't.
This is a way
of life for us.
This is where we want to be.
This is our, our reason
for, for existence.
And Which always just astounds me,
because I'm not sure, if it's not
climate driven, why are you doing this?
Victoria: I, I do feel bad for, uh,
For all the employees that are no
longer have jobs because manufacturing
sites have shut down for the, you
use the analogy of what it costs to
take a shower in Germany and the UK.
It's hard to be a, you know, a
citizen there in some respects.
Um, in many respects, it's great.
I love, I love Europe.
I love to visit Europe,
Peter: of
Victoria: Wonderful place, but lived there
Peter: 8 years of my put
a bunch of my kids through
Victoria: Yeah, but Through
Peter: European school
system and so forth.
Victoria: But the industrial
policies today are
Peter: it's terrible.
The energy policies that filter into
the industrial policies and what you're
going to see is just this massive
dislocation, relocation of manufacturing.
Eventually where the chemicals go, where
steel, chemical and energy goes, that's
where manufacturing has got to follow.
And it's, and when I say manufacturing,
I go all the way down, you know,
where are the Apples, the Googles,
the NVIDIA is in Europe today.
Victoria: Yeah.
Peter: They're not there and the sad
thing is with AI coming on you've got
plenty of smart people in Europe You
got a great education system that is
there I'm not criticizing that but AI
is going to exist because of data data
is going to exist because of Power
because of the electrons that generate
the data That's going to exist because
you have competitive raw materials for
energy and so you're gonna see massive
data centers You're seeing it today.
This isn't a projection
In China,
coal.
In the Middle East, oil.
And in the U.
S.,
gas.
Not nuclear.
I mean, I hope eventually it
Victoria: I hope get there.
Peter: Not nuclear.
You cannot run a data center on wind.
It can be part of your portfolio, yes.
But it's not going to
be exclusively on wind.
Victoria: wind.
And
Peter: as you think about this,
the whole next generation of A.
I.
is going to be coming
from those three regions.
Now, not exclusive to those three regions.
There's going to be isolated
incidences, I get it.
But the vast majority of AI is
going to be coming from China.
It's going to come from the Middle East.
And it's going to be coming from
the data centers that are built
in there and in the United States.
And so it's not just a question of where
you want to produce your steel or where
you want to produce your automobiles.
It's also the next generation of, of
information, technology, of, of medical
science, of, of space and so forth.
That's what Europe is
missing out on today.
What should be built
today is not going to be
Victoria: Yeah, and it gets back to your
earlier comment on free enterprise, right?
So free enterprise, innovation and
rewarding that innovation and the
problem solving the opportunities
that we're seeing and that with the
less regulation or maybe appropriate
regulation, we enable that to happen.
Peter: happen.
Yeah,
it's, Yeah, they've got
to go hand in glove.
That's what I say.
I'm not opposed to regulation.
I'm
Victoria: Yeah, no.
Industry needs it.
Yes.
Peter: I'm just
opposed to when it becomes non
science and when it becomes
too emotional or political.
And both sides of the aisle
Victoria: Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit about
business transformation, because you
referenced the fact that, you know,
you guys are fundamentally, Huntsman
is fundamentally pulling away in
many ways from Europe because of the
business environment makes it difficult.
As a company, dramatically different
company today than you were 20 years ago.
Yeah.
Growing businesses, selling
businesses, changing businesses.
What have you found to be really
successful in helping to align
your organization, align your, your
customers through these transformations
that you've led the company through?
Peter: Well, I think you've got to,
first of all, you've got to come into
work every morning and you've got
to be ready to take your portfolio.
And I don't
like to use the phrase blow it up
because in the chemical industry
that has really bad connotations.
But,
but you've got to be ready
and willing to take it apart.
If Huntsman were the same
company today that it was just
10 years ago, we'd be bankrupt.
And I don't say that lightly.
I mean, you know, since that time, the
last 15 years, we have, we've shrunk the
size of our company by about 40 percent
and we have a much stronger balance sheet.
We have more product innovation that's
taking place today than ever before.
We got out of all the polystyrene and
styrenics.
We got out of polyethylene, polypropylene.
We used to be one of the top five
producers in North America on that.
All of the olefins, aromatics,
TIO2, our intermediates business,
surfactants business, our textile
businesses, we've sold all of
Victoria: That's dramatic.
Peter: down and we've expanded in
aerospace, adhesions and so forth.
And we're going to continue to do that,
Shareholders may ask, are we
content with the portfolio is today?
No, of course not.
We've got to continue to, to rip it apart.
We've got to continue to, to find
opportunities now at the bottom
of a cycle where we are today.
It's rather difficult to say that, but.
The time to sell and transform your
assets or when you're you're just coming
out of that trough, which I think we're
just about there, and I think that
there's a lot more transformation.
We're gonna look a lot more
like our epoxies, adhesion,
aerospace, even in Europe.
Those are those are good
businesses today, right?
Energy conservation, and we're gonna
look a lot less like commodity M.
D.
I.
And commodity urethane
products and so forth.
Victoria: Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we are in a period
of transformation, certainly.
And certainly Huntsman is
definitely right there.
You have to be.
Yeah, change or be changed.
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit about
leadership aside from the fact
that your name is on the company.
So there's obviously, you know,
there's a family legacy for
you and Huntsman Corporation.
But that's not a guarantor of success.
Are there some characteristics or
things that you really attribute to
being a successful leader of a company?
Peter: good question because
there's just so many different
attributes depending on the
Victoria: depending
Peter: company, the
profile and so forth of it.
I became president, I became
chief executive back when we were
private And, our family owned
the majority of the company.
And, my father for all intents and
purposes from an operating point of view.
stepped aside about 30
years ago, back when we were still in
plastics and polystyrene and so forth.
You look at the transformation
that's taken place since then.
Uh, I think it's really
important to look at
The macro global trends.
One of the reasons I wanted to get out of
polyolefins and out of polystyrene, out
of these heavy chemicals, I saw that we
were competing more against countries.
Then we were against companies.
I mean, I know Reliance in India is
not owned by the government, but try
going and building a million barrel a
day refinery in India as an outsider.
You're probably not going to get.
the
same sort of incentives
that Reliance would get.
And look, we do the same
thing in this country as well.
Somebody like Japan, a very close ally,
wants to come in and buy a steel asset.
We tell them you can't do that.
At least, the Current president says that.
Um, so I think you've got to
look at the large macro trends.
What do you bring that's that's
unique to your industry?
What can you do that private equity can't
do or somebody, a government entity?
And I think the most important
thing, particularly for me,
and it's very easy for me.
Is to hire people, surround yourself
with people that are smarter, people
that are, are better than you.
I said, that's an easy thing
for me to be able to do.
Cause I, I can always find
smarter people and people that
have, better ideas and so forth.
So,
I think if
I've done a good job at anything,
it's listening to them, it's
taking in having a culture where
you can say, that's a good idea.
But how about if we,
Victoria: we, if
Peter: we looked at it a different way?
How about if we did something differently
and you've got to be able to have
Victoria: an open dialogue.
Peter: You've got to be able
have an management team where you
can have a debate and you can,
you can do that without insulting people
and do it outside of an element of fear.
Victoria: Yeah, it's great.
Um, did you always know that you
wanted to be in chemicals, right?
Because, uh, while that's one of the
family businesses, I know that your
siblings all are leading different
parts of the Huntsman empire, if I
can call it that, or in politics or
in public life in different ways.
Does, did you know?
Peter: There was a point for probably
about 15 years where all of my
siblings were in the company together.
Um, and
Victoria: was that?
Yeah.
Am I allowed to ask that?
Peter: Yeah.
People ask that all the time.
I can genuinely say I never
had a major disagreement, never
had an argument with any of
my siblings.
We might, we might've disagreed on
decisions that would be made past, but
we'd always, In private, shut the door,
sit down, talk to our differences.
And I attribute a lot
of that to my father.
I mean, he put the family, the
relationships in the family, and so
forth, came before anything else.
That loyalty and so forth.
If I could
it's a public company, it doesn't
make any sense, but if I could
have all my siblings, my brothers
and sisters coming back into
the company, working with them
again, I'd do it in a second.
I started in the company as a truck
driver and I used to deliver fuels
and pick up fuels in refineries.
And I was always fascinated with refining.
And when I was waiting in
line to load up, I got to
meet truck drivers, or I got to
meet people in the refinery.
They'd take me around and, show
you how a cat cracker works.
And, you know, how all these,
you know, coking units and, and,
and, alkylation units and so forth.
And I was just fascinated
with, with all those processes.
Started buying some books on
engineering and process design,
teaching myself , how do you go from
crude oil to gasoline to asphalt oil,
and then subsequently into chemicals.
And, so our family, when I
started the company, our family
had kind of two companies.
One of them was a plastics company.
The other one was a trucking
gas station company.
And I, I wanted to, I rose to the
point where I was running the gas
station trucking side of the business.
And tried to convince my dad, true
story, tried to convince him to
get out of the chemical business.
Our future would be in
trucking and gas stations.
Especially with 7 Eleven, you know,
they were talking about always going,
they'd always be going out of business.
Circle K, we could buy,
this was back in the 80s.
My father
said we gotta, we can only
take one of these paths.
And I, I presented what I thought
was a very compelling argument
as to why we ought to get out of
plastics and get into trucking.
He came on a Monday.
We did this on a Thursday or Friday.
He came on a Monday and he said, I'm
going to go with the plastic side.
I was devastated.
I thought for sure he'd
pick the local trucking.
I mean, this, this is a great business and
it was, you know, that you could see and
feel and touch the products is chemical
Victoria: is really
Peter: It was really cool stuff.
And he said, last night I
had one of our neighbors.
I tell you the name of the
neighbor, but he's still alive.
So I want
our neighbors called me up and
said, he went by one of our
convenience stores and bought a box
of raisin bran and it was stale.
I said, yeah, who goes and buys
a perishable item at a grocery
store or at a gas station?
My father said, Peter, I don't
want to be in a business where
my neighbors are calling me
over a stale box of Raisin Bran.
said, I don't want to
be in a local business.
I want to be in something that's global
and something that's not in my backyard.
So we sold all the gas stations,
trucking and everything.
We put that money into chemicals,
Victoria: And did you know that
you were going to stay and do
Peter: chemicals?
I I was really discouraged.
I thought this is, this
is just devastating.
I went and talked to a company
called Sinclair, uh, used
to be run by Earl Holding.
I went and actually met with Earl
Holding at the time and said, and
he was kind of like, you crazy.
Your father's got this great company.
Go work for your father.
Uh, you're not part of my family.
Cause his family's was,
was running the company.
And my dad, we just bought a
polypropylene plant in New Jersey.
And so he, I got a job in the New Jersey
chemical plant in charge of quality
and production, went out and figured
out how plastics were made and within
a year or so I was just kind of like.
This is the future.
It's
just terrific,
Victoria: right?
That was the line in
The Graduate, wasn't it?
The future is chemicals?
Or plastics?
Yeah.
Peter: That's right.
It's been it's been a
great thing for our family.
Uh, they've my father took his estate
when he passed away in 2016 and put it
into a foundation that virtually most
not all but most of that money goes
into cancer research and mental health.
And the second generation runs that
board that manages that foundation.
And now we're starting
to do likewise with
our resources and so forth.
so this industry, not only is it
afforded, I think, you know, tens
of thousands of people employment
within the company and innovation,
what we've done with Huntsman Corporation,
but the proceeds and the stock values
and so forth have gone to, I hope, the
betterment of society, which is really
the best dividend I think our, our company
Victoria: I think it is,
it is a phenomenal legacy.
Peter: But I, I,
Victoria: family has been able
to build and you've participated
Peter: glad, glad to be part of the
Victoria: Yeah, absolutely.
So, um, what advice do you have
for young people entering the
industry that want to be part of
its success and its transformation?
What advice would you have to a new person
saying, should I come join this chemical
company and how do I have a great career?
Peter: That's really
tough, but one thing that,
that my father and
then subsequently, uh, I did
when I was president is when my
younger siblings came in, they all went
and worked in a facility somewhere.
They all went and worked
in a chemical plant.
All of us have, have I was in New Jersey,
my brother James was in Beaumont, Texas,
my brother David was in Odessa, Texas,
brother Paul was in Australia, my brother,
yeah, so it was, I mean they all went
and worked in different places and they
all understood what it was like to work
in a chemical plant, how did it actually
work, how did it function and so forth.
It's one thing to, to sell
chemicals, one thing to look at
it as part of your, your portfolio.
It's quite another thing to understand.
How are the molecules bad?
How do you actually do that?
And who are the people that
actually do that for you?
And, you know,
can you relate to them?
They're the people that are going
to give you the productivity.
They're the people who give you
the quality, the innovation,
the speed and so forth.
They're the people when a customer
runs out, they'll put a product in
the back of their pickup and they'll
run it out there personally because
of the pride they have in the company.
That's what differentiates
Huntsman from its competitors.
Competitors are the individual
people that work in our company.
Victoria: Love it.
Well, Peter, thank you so much
Peter: Well, thank you.
Victoria: enjoyed spending
Peter: a delight
Victoria: today.
Peter: you
Victoria: Nice meeting you.
Thanks everyone for listening.
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