Andrew N. Liveris: Australian businessman (1954-) | Biography, Facts, Information, Career, Wiki, Life

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5 May 1954 People born on this day

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70 years

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Biography

Andrew N. Liveris (born 5 May 1954) is President, Chairman and chief executive officer of The Dow Chemical Company, a global speciality chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics company based in Midland, Michigan with 2013 annual sales of more than $57 billion. Liveris has been a member of Dow's board of directors since February 2004, CEO since November 2004 and was elected as chairman of the board effective 1 April 2006. Liveris succeeded William S. Stavropoulos as CEO in 2004, after holding the position of chief operating officer.

Life and career

Liveris was born in Darwin, Australia, and attended Darwin High School until 1974 when Darwin was hit by Cyclone Tracy. He then moved to Brisbane where he continued his education at Brisbane State High School. He holds a bachelor's degree (first-class-honors) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science by his alma mater as well as being named Alumnus of the Year. A great alumnus support to the University, he was appointed Inaugural Chair to The University of Queensland in America Foundation in 2011. Liveris' 37-year Dow career began in 1976 in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, his career has spanned the continents of Asia and North America, with roles in manufacturing, engineering, sales, marketing, and business and general management.

Under Liveris' reign as CEO, Dow was ranked 13th on Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) Magazine's list of top 100 best corporate citizens of 2008.

Transforming Dow

Liveris, appointed CEO in 2004 after the board of directors unanimously selected him in part based upon his plan to transform Dow, began to implement the new strategy. His plan called for Dow to reinforce its core strengths in providing its clients with customised chemicals, plastics and advanced materials (including electronics and agricultural products such as genetically improved seeds). The plan also called for reducing Dow's exposure to commodity chemical and plastics, which were subject to competition especially from new entrants from the Middle East and Asia, who benefit from cost advantages. Part of the plan to "de-risk" the business called for the formation of joint ventures to free up Dow capital for deployment in more specialised areas of the business as cited above. The formation of joint ventures had the further virtue of assuring a low cost supply of feed stocks for the customer-facing portion of Dow's business. Dow has fully exited some basic chemical and plastic business (as with the sale of Styron).

Liveris' strongest move to implement the strategy came with the purchase of Rohm and Haas in the summer of 2008 for $16.2 billion. This Fortune 500 company, a leader in speciality chemicals, was the subject of a global auction, which Dow won with a bid of $16.2 billion. The acquisition proved to be synergistic in terms of growth, allowing a broader and deeper presentation to clients with regard to value-added chemicals, plastics and materials, but also in terms of costs.

The acquisition closed soon after the credit crisis of 2007 and 2008 took hold. The credit crisis caused one of Dow's joint venture partners, Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of the State of Kuwait, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), to withdraw from a planned partnership in basic plastics, despite an agreed contract, depriving Dow of $9 billion in proceeds designated to fund the Rohm and Haas deal. The London-based International Court of Arbitration ruled in March 2012 to award Dow $2.16 Billion plus cost and interest from Kuwait due to its cancellation of the 2008 agreement.

In March 2009, Liveris and his management team organised a plan to implement the Rohm and Haas integration, focusing on growth and cost synergies, but also reducing costly debt from the transaction through public offerings, along with equity offers. The plan also called for the divestiture of non-strategic assets, which was accomplished through a sales process that assured maximum valuation.

During the Rohm and Haas acquisition, in December 2008, Liveris was quoted as saying "Dow is the only company in the Fortune 200 to have paid its regular quarterly cash dividend without reduction or interruption since 1912. That is 388 consecutive quarters. I have said it before, but I want to say it again, we will not break that streak. Not Dow, not on my watch". The following quarter Dow cut its dividend by 65%. In a press release announcing the quarterly dividend (12 February 2009) Dow's board of directors stated its decision was based on "a confluence of factors, including uncertainty in the credit markets, unprecedented lower demand for chemical products, the ongoing global recession and pending business issues."

Liveris has continued to form joint ventures for the basics business, his most recent initiative in chlor-alkali with the Mitsui Group in Japan as a partner.

The recovery plan has been accompanied by a sixfold recovery in the share price.

Advanced Manufacturing Plan

An advocate for the criticality of manufacturing to the long-term health of a nation's economy, Liveris was most recently appointed Co-Chair of President Obama's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in the United States. Liveris is also the author of Make It in America, a book released in January 2011 which presents a comprehensive set of practical policy solutions and business strategies and is a natural extension of the multiple streams of existing work by Dow which were previously outlines in the Company's vision for an 'Advanced Manufacturing Plan' announced in June 2010.

Make it in America

Liveris' first book, "Make it in America: The Case for Re-Inventing The Economy" (updated in paperback in January 2012), has received wide publicity and praise in the business world. The book, published by John Wiley & Sons:

Explains how a manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other and how central the sector is to creating jobs both inside and outside the factory.
Explores how other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, and describes how America has failed to keep up.
Provides an aggressive, practical and comprehensive agenda that will put the US back on track to lead the world.
Make It in America was named No. 9 on the Inc./800-CEO-READ Business book best-seller list for 2011 giving weight to both total sales numbers and how long each book stayed on the list.

Board memberships

Liveris serves on the board of directors of IBM and is a member of the executive committee of the Business Roundtable. Liveris is also a former president of the International Council of Chemical Associations. He serves as Vice-Chairman of The Business Council for 2011 and 2012, and he will serve as its chairman in 2013 and 2014. He is a member of the President's Export Council, and a member of the executive committee of the Business Roundtable, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the American Australian Association. Mr. Liveris recently collaborated with Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, George David, Chairman of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, and George Stamas, Partner at Kirkland and Ellis LLP, to found The Hellenic Initiative (THI), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that aims to leverage Diaspora resources to encourage entrepreneurship and job-creating investments in Greece. He currently serves the organisation as chairman of the board. He is on the board of trustees for the United States Council for International Business and is a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology. Liveris is a member of the Business Advisory Board for the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School, and in April 2012 he became a member of the Special Olympics International board of directors."

Awards and recognition

Liveris has been named the No. 1 Power Player in the global chemical markets three times, first in 2010, and consecutively in 2012 and 2013 by ICIS Chemical Business magazine, and his breadth of experience and expertise is broadly represented across business, government, academic, and non-profit sectors.

In March 2010, Liveris reported a first quarter 48.9% sales increase at Dow Chemical. He attributed his success to accelerated growth in performance business, including advanced polymers in the textile, health care, electronic, and agricultural industries.
In 2011, Liveris received the George E. Davis medal from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). The Davis medal is awarded to an eminent individual who has rendered service to chemical engineering, and is named after the founding father of the profession. It is given not more frequently than every three years.
In the fall of 2011, Liveris was honoured with the 2011 Distinguished Performance Award for Excellence in Public Policy from the Committee for Economic Development and the 2011 International Leadership Award from the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), 2011 Legend in Leadership by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, and named Platts Global Energy Awards CEO of the year.
In February 2012, Liveris received the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Award for Excellence.
In March 2012, Liveris served as foreign co-chair at the China Development Forum in Beijing representing more than 200 overseas delegates including the leaders of more than 70 Fortune 500 companies, international organisations, senior officials and internationally renowned scholars.
In March 2012, Liveris was awarded the Aristeio Award in Business by the American Hellenic Council at an event in Los Angeles, CA.
In August 2012, Liveris was named by the Australian Financial Review to the BOSS list of True Leaders.
In October 2012, Liveris was awarded the 2013 International Palladium Medal of the Société de Chimie Industrielle.
In March 2013, Liveris was awarded the 2013 Chemical Industry Medal by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) at an event in New York.
In May 2013, Liveris was honoured with the Eisenhower Award by Business Executives for National Security (BENS) at a ceremony in Washington, DC.
In January 2014, Liveris was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for services to international business.

Personal

Liveris and his wife, Paula, currently reside in Midland, Michigan and have three adult children.

Controversy

Concerns have been raised by Dow's internal auditing department about Liveris's personal spending. Auditors testified that he used the company's Customer Events Department for personal events including a safari, vacations, a party for his son's friends, trips to Super Bowls, dog grooming, and other services. The Liveris family subsequently repaid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Dow while the head of the auditing department retracted the annual auditing reports for multiple years due to concerns for inaccurate reporting to SEC and shareholders.

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