Dow’s Andrew Liveris eyes policy advice role at home

Andrew Liveris is expected to spend more time in Australia after stepping down as executive chair of DowDuPont next month.

Andrew Liveris will step down as DowDuPont executive chairman next month.

The Darwin-born executive chairman of DowDuPont, Andrew Liveris, is expected to spend more time in Australia after stepping down next month from the US chemicals and materials giant he has run for the past 14 years.

Mr Liveris, 63, who has worked for Dow Chemicals since joining it as a production engineer in Melbourne 40 years ago, is stepping down after overseeing the merger of Dow and DuPont last year.

In his 14 years as head of the Fortune 500 company, Liveris has become one of the most prominent Australians in corporate America.

He has also been an adviser to the past three US presidents, particularly on the manufacturing industry.

Mr Liveris told The Wall Street Journal yesterday he had made up his mind on the timing of his departure from the company while on Christmas holidays with his family in Australia.

Confirming the decision in a statement last night Mr Liveris said he was “looking forward to spending more time in Australia, with Sydney as one of my bases as well as the US”.

“I want to continue making the best contribution I can to a broad range of interests in the private sector and advancing good public policy,” he added.

He said the timing was right with the company’s share price hitting all-time highs this year and Dow completing its merger with DuPont and the development of a giant petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia.

The merged company will be divided into two separate companies next year.

Mr Liveris’s lieutenant, Jim Fitterling, 56, was recently named as the chief executive of the materials science company, which will be known as Dow, with sales of more than $US37 billion ($47bn) a year.

Mr Liveris had been delaying his plans to leave the company until that position was filled. He will remain as a director of the combined board until July 1.

After joining Dow Chemicals, Mr Liveris worked his way to the top of the company, which is based in Midland, Michigan, becoming its chief executive in 2004 and then also taking on the role as chairman in 2006.

He was put under serious pressure in the wake of the global financial crisis when he had to cope with the fallout from a $US16.2bn takeover bid for speciality chemical company Rohm and Haas.

The deal was launched in 2007 and closed soon after the emergence of the GFC crisis in 2008. Mr Liveris was devastated when the joint venture partner, the Kuwait-owned Petrochemical Industries, pulled out of the deal, depriving the company of an expected $US9bn in funding.

Mr Liveris admitted later the company was “teetering on the edge of bankruptcy”, but he oversaw its recovery in a process that involved selling off divisions that did not fit his long-term strategy for the company.

In August last year he became chairman of the newly merged DowDuPont.

He told The Australian last October that the merger between Dow and DuPont was the culmination of a strategy that he had been pursuing since taking over the company in 2004.

Mr Liveris has played an active role in public policy in the US.

He led the White House’s ­advisory council of chief executives in the manufacturing industry before it was disbanded last year under President Donald Trump.

He has been a long-time advocate of Australia having a domestic gas reservation policy similar to one that operates in the US, which preserves most of its gas for local use, helping to hold down the cost of energy for the manufacturing industry.

While he has not outlined any plans for his future, Mr Liveris has said in the past that business leaders have an important role to play in advising on public policy.

He has said business is a ­creator of jobs and business ­leaders need to be involved in debate on the future of policies affecting the corporate sector.

“I am a great believer that you need a seat at the table,” he told The Australian at the time.

“I grew up in a blue collar family (and) I really feel it is important that people like me contribute to public policy based on our experience, based on our world view, but also based on our local view,” he said.

“I am quite comfortable talking about the benefits of trade to local workers or why you need to manage the climate change agenda so we have a (proper) energy policy,” he said.