President and Chief Executive Officer, The Lubrizol Corporation
GPCA TV - Rebecca Liebert Interview
The 12th Annual GPCA Forum Rebecca Liebert, President and CEO, Honeywell UOP.
About Rebecca Liebert
Rebecca Liebert, President and CEO of The Lubrizol Corporation, has discussed her background in chemical engineering and her career path in interviews. She stated that she grew up on a farm in eastern Kentucky, where she was exposed to engineering through daily activities. Liebert earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Kentucky, a PhD from Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from Northwestern University. She said that earlier in her career she looked up to high-ranking women as mentors, and that she prepared thoroughly for her roles to avoid others attributing her success to her gender. Liebert has spoken about Lubrizol's focus on sustainability and digital transformation. In a 2024 interview, she said that sustainability is a major trend and that treating software as a discretionary spend would leave companies behind. She has also commented on the future of transportation, stating that she believes there will be a continuum of energy systems including internal combustion, electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cells. Liebert noted that Lubrizol grew during the pandemic by learning to maintain production of essential items.
Transcript (17 segments)
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Host0:00
Hello and welcome to GPC a TV from Dubai. I'm here at the GPC a annual forum talking to Rebecca Liebert, the President and CEO of Honeywell UOP. Well, thank you for being with us today. This isn't your first time at the forum. Could I just ask you what you think of the forum itself?
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Rebecca Liebert0:19
I always enjoy coming to GPC a. It's really the preeminent event in the Middle East. It brings together the top industry leaders in the petrochemical industry, and I'll tell you, everyone is very engaged with some of the strongest keynotes and panel discussions pushing the industry to drive better performance and more output.
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Host0:39
And in terms of Honeywell UOP, could you just say a little bit about your activities in the region? Have you been established here long?
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Rebecca Liebert0:46
Oh yeah, Honeywell UOP has been in the Middle East region for 60 years. We're very established here. We have about 90 employees across the full sum of activities from sales, sales support, service, engineering, and then back-office activities that you need to run a company. So we're fairly well established here.
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Host1:07
Mm-hmm. And you're talking about the digital transformation of the industry. What's your impression of the GCC producers in that respect?
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Rebecca Liebert1:16
Well, I think they're still in the early phases, but most companies around the world candidly really are. We heard from the keynote speakers today the importance of digital transformation, and I think we're really at the cusp of seeing the S-curve, that really steep part of the S-curve where the adoption is going to be rapid. And if companies don't adopt, they're going to find themselves really behind.
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Host1:39
And what sort of first steps then should they be looking at in terms of better operational performance, I guess?
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Rebecca Liebert1:46
Well, Honeywell has our own offering in the connected space. We call it the Honeywell Connected Plant, and most customers really sign up for the Reliability Advisor first. It helps with, just like it says, the right reliability of your plants to get better yields, better output, but just better overall performance. And we talked today in the morning sessions about operational excellence, and I think with the Reliability Advisor you can drive that operational excellence.
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Host2:12
Yes. I mean, what should be the main priorities for the producers in the region, do you think, in terms of, as we heard this morning, trying to improve their performance globally?
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Rebecca Liebert2:23
Yeah, I think the region has got to continue to focus on the downstream petrochemical side. We believe at Honeywell UOP that likely every new refinery will not be built unless there's an integrated petrochemical complex, and even refineries that are currently existing today will be expanded or modified to have an integrated petrochemical complex so you can really maximize the value of molecules of crude oil that come in that barrel. So I think that's probably the first and foremost effort from those here in the GCC, and then they'll add to that things like digitization, digital transformation, and continued further enhancements of their performance.
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Host3:05
And do you think the producers here are up to speed? Are they showing a lot of interest in what you're offering?
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Rebecca Liebert3:11
Oh yeah, producers in the region I think are very interested in Honeywell UOP's offerings. We do technology for a living. We've done it for 103 years. We've been in existence as a company for 103 years, and we continually improve and upgrade our technologies. As an example, this year we launched our Energy Efficient Light Distillate PX. This is basically a really fancy aromatics complex, and we've already sold one in the region to TIPIC, which was just announced this week. And so if you combine very efficient advanced process technologies like our energy-efficient complex with a digital connected plant, you're really going to be at the forefront. And we see the Middle East producers really jumping on this bandwagon.
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Host4:02
So could you perhaps give an example, two or three examples, of real wins that people can do in the digitalization area?
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Rebecca Liebert4:09
Yeah, so if you think about digital transformation and a connected plant, it's really about connecting your processes, your assets, and your people, because all three of these have to work together to give the best performance of your plants. So some simple things you can do are: make sure your people are really digitally trained with the best and latest digital resources, make sure your assets are truly connected and outfitted with the right sensors to collect the data, and then lastly, obviously, connect the process all together. Those three steps, I think, drive the best digital plants you can have.
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Host4:46
And can you sort of quantify the benefits that doing the right thing will bring?
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Rebecca Liebert4:50
Well, we at UOP evaluated what range of benefit you can get out of a Honeywell Connected Plant. And if you take the GCC region for the petrochemical sector alone, it's about 250 million dollars. But if you take refining plus petrochemical, you're pushing a billion dollars just with the technologies we have to offer today if every plant in the region was operating at maximum performance.
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Host5:16
Wow, that's quite an improvement. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.