BAYTOWN, Texas—Covestro L.L.C. has selected Demetri Zervoudis to serve as site manager at its industrial park in Baytown.
He succeeds Rod Herrick, who will step into a new role as venture manager, overseeing the recently announced MDI investment project, which will include a $1.7 billion investment to build a 500-kiloton MDI plant at the Baytown site.
The facility is Covestro's largest manufacturing site in North America.
Zervoudis joined Covestro in 1983 as a process research engineer and in his most recent role was responsible for the global polyurethane joint ventures and propylene oxide/polyether manufacturing sites at Covestro.
The firm said he has led a diverse career spanning commercial and production operations. Zervoudis has gained extensive leadership experience in research and development, project management, strategic planning and global manufacturing. His career journey has taken him to Covestro sites across the U.S., including Baytown, where he designed, constructed and started up several chemical units as part of an earlier expansion program.
Herrick's career with Covestro spans more than 30 years, and in his new role, he will oversee the largest single investment project in the company's history. His background includes various leadership positions in plant and process engineering, reliability and production management at Covestro sites globally. Herrick assumed his most recent position as site manager Baytown in 2010, and during that time, he led the facility through a number of changes—including the transition to Covestro, as well as two major hurricanes.
Covestro L.L.C. is the North American arm of Covestro A.G., a $16.2 billion polymer materials company based in Germany.