Lori Ryerkerk is stepping down as CEO of materials maker Celanese Corp.
Celanese Chief Operating Officer Scott Richardson will replace Ryerkerk in that role on Jan. 1. The announcement from Dallas-based Celanese comes less than two months after the firm released disappointing financial results for the third quarter.
Ryerkerk had retired as executive vice president of global manufacturing at Royal Dutch Shell's downstream unit when she joined Celanese as CEO in 2019. She had been with Shell since 2010 after a 24-year career at ExxonMobil Corp.
In a Dec. 9 news release, Ryerkerk said her time at Celanese "has been the true highlight of my career, and I'm proud of what we've achieved together." She added that Richardson "is a proven executive who brings deep expertise across the company's business and new perspectives to the CEO role."
Richardson has been with Celanese since 2005. He's served in several management roles, including CFO and leadership positions with the firm's Engineered Materials and Acetyl Chain units.
In the release, Richardson said "it's an incredible honor to be named CEO-elect of Celanese." He added the firm "is known for tenacious execution, even during difficult times, and I am confident we have all the critical components to create value for our shareholders, customers, employees and partners."
Kim Rucker, lead independent director of Celanese's board of directors, said the board's appointment of Richardson "represents the culmination of a deliberate and thoughtful succession planning process, and we are pleased to have an executive of Scott's caliber." She added that "with Lori [Ryerkerk] at the helm, Celanese has navigated challenging macro environments while strengthening its competitive position."
In early November, Celanese reported its third-quarter sales were down almost 3 percent to $2.65 billion vs. the year-ago period, as profit for the quarter plunged almost 88 percent to $116 million in the same comparison.
Those results led Celanese to idle some of its production plants. Officials said at the time that the firm "is reducing manufacturing costs through the end of 2024 by temporarily idling production facilities in every region and driving cash generation through an expected $200 million inventory release in the fourth quarter."
They later confirmed Celanese would idle units making acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and similar products in Singapore and a VAM plant in Frankfurt. Acetic acid is used to make acetal resins and also is a primary ingredient in vinegar production. VAM can be used to make polyvinyl acetate (PVA) and other specialty resins.
Celanese is the world's largest maker of acetal resins. The firm made a major move into engineering resins in late 2022 when it acquired most of DuPont's Mobility & Materials unit in an $11 billion all-cash deal.
That deal included the Zytel and Rynite nylon brands as well as other materials. The transaction brought to Celanese 29 global manufacturing sites that employ around 5,000 in manufacturing, technical and commercial roles.
On a third-quarter earnings call, stock analysts asked several questions about Celanese's Engineered Materials business, which includes the brands acquired from DuPont.
"Our long-term expectation for this [EM] business is no different than it's been," Ryerkerk said at the time. "We still believe in the long-term performance of our acetyls and our EM businesses, including the acquisition."
"The challenge we've had is the current macroeconomic conditions and recent demand deterioration," she added. "Because of that … we are not getting the cash flow we expected to be on the deleveraging plan that we had planned for."
On that same call, Richardson said Celanese plans to "supercharge the pipeline" on engineered materials. "While we have had some good metrics, it's not been enough to offset the downside we've seen from some of the demand challenges," he added. "We've got to continue to aggressively work with customers [and] continue to penetrate in non-automotive sectors."
News of the financial situation sent Celanese's stock price down 26 percent to $91 on Nov. 5. It's continued to decline from that point and was just under $68 in early trading Dec. 11. The price had started the year above $150.
Celanese employs 12,400 worldwide and posted sales of $10.9 billion in full-year 2023.
