Lubrizol Corporation announces new executive leadership team

The Lubrizol Corporation, a global specialty chemical company owned by Berkshire Hathaway based in Wickliffe, Ohio, U.S.A., and one of the largest fuel and lubricant additive suppliers in the world, announced a new Lubrizol executive leadership team. 

Flavio Kliger has been appointed as senior VP and president of Lubrizol Additives. He succeeds Julie Edgar, who was appointed interim president of Lubrizol Additives, following the retirement of Tom Curtis in November 2022.

Since joining Lubrizol in 2017, Kliger served as senior director for the company’s Industry Formulated Fluids & Greases business. Prior to Lubrizol, Kliger spent more than 20 years at The Dow Chemical Company, where his career spanned increasing responsibility in multiple commercial and general management roles in three countries, touching all ranges of product, from basic chemicals to specialty chemicals, in multiple-end user industries.

Stepping down from her role as interim president of Lubrizol Additives, Edgar has been appointed senior VP and chief technology officer of Lubrizol Corporation.

Edgar brings more than 25 years of Lubrizol technology and commercial management positions across Asia, Europe and North America to the role of senior vice president and chief technology officer, focused on overseeing the company’s technology teams globally. She most recently served as vice president, LZA Transportation. She also served as Lubrizol’s first chief sustainability officer.

In addition to these two appointments, Lubrizol’s new Executive Leadership Team will consist of:

Effective March 1, 2023, Jose Gonzalez-Magaz will join the organization as senior vice president and chief legal officer. Gonzalez-Magaz brings nearly 30 years of experience as a transformative business partner, including expanding commercial opportunities, protecting against and minimising risk, leading organic and M&A growth, and optimizing the performance of legal teams for global organizations. Jose was most recently with Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company.

Jeff Lauderdale will serve as Lubrizol’s interim chief legal officer until Gonzalez-Magaz’ arrival, bringing more than 20 years of legal experience to the role, including a variety of legal leadership positions within Lubrizol.

Shuja Ishrat was appointed as senior vice president and chief information officer. Ishrat has nearly 30 years of experience with global business systems development and transformation. He is a hands-on leader and strategic technology executive with a proven history of operational excellence while transforming IT organizations into high-performing teams aligned to business goals. He was most recently with Jabil, a solutions company providing advanced manufacturing and technology services.

James (JT) Jones will assume the role of senior VP of Procurement and High-Growth Regions and chief procurement officer. Jones has significant international experience and more than 20 years of business development, strategy, procurement, operations, financial, senior sales management and P&L leadership experience at preeminent international consulting and Fortune 500 chemical and coatings companies, most recently at PPG Industries.

Trina Nally was appointed as senior vice president and chief human resources officer. With 30 years of human resources experience, Nally is a strategic and results-oriented people and culture leader. She has a track record of aligning company strategy, structure, culture, capabilities, and rewards to build high-performing organizations. Most recently she served as senior vice president, People & Culture for bp’s Customers & Products business, the company’s largest customer-facing business unit with 27,000 employees across more than 50 countries.

Arnau Pano was appointed as senior vice president and president of Lubrizol Advanced Materials (LZAM). Arnau was previously vice president, Engineered Polymers and LZAM South Asia, where he led the Engineered Polymers division, in addition to overseeing LZAM’s South Asia region. He has been with Lubrizol for more than a decade, following Lubrizol’s acquisition of Merquinsa where Pano served as CEO. He also spent more than 15 years with General Electric where he held diverse business management positions.

Eduardo Pedreira was appointed vice president of Supply Chain, leading the team in strategic supply planning, production scheduling, customer service and business partnerships. Pedreira has an accomplished history as a transformational supply chain and operations leader with more than 17 years of experience at PPG Industries. At PPG, Pedreira served as Global Resin Business director, where he led the PPG vertical integration on the resin portfolio, managing the overall strategy including operations, supply chain, procurement, capital investment and technical development.

LG Tackett was named senior vice president of Operations, responsible for the safe and efficient operations of the company’s 55 manufacturing facilities in 17 countries around the world. An industry veteran of 30 years, LG’s extensive global leadership is rooted in safety, process safety, operations, reliability, supply chain, and engineering. He was most recently vice president of Global Operations for PPG Industries Industrial Segment.

Davies Walker was appointed senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer. With more than 20 years of finance and business management experience, Walker has a proven record of leading multi-billion-dollar global manufacturing businesses to financial growth and profitability. Most recently, he served as vice president and CFO for Honeywell Process Solutions.

These leaders will be supported by more than 8,000 talented Lubrizol employees serving customers across the world and will report to Lubrizol President and CEO Rebecca Liebert.

“For more than 90 years, Lubrizol science has solved complex challenges and advanced new opportunities across a variety of industries,” said Liebert. “We’re pairing that history of innovation with strong leadership, drawn from inside and outside our organization, to propel our Lubrizol people, customers, technology and enterprise operations to our next 100 years of growth.”