As a seasoned veteran in the Chemical space with more than twenty years working with the industry, Varun has driven global transformation efforts with several leading Chemical companies, with a particular focus on unlocking value by improving commercial capabilities such as pricing, sales effectiveness, and marketing. He has helped clients drive profitable growth by developing customized strategies that take into consideration supply and demand balances, competitive analysis, and various external value chain forces.
After earning his PhD in Chemical Engineering, Varun began his career at Dow Chemical, where he was deeply involved in taking new innovation to market, interacting with customers globally, and commercializing new business platforms.
As a specialist in the industry, Varun has worked with both commodity and specialty chemical companies that span a variety of sectors, including basic chemicals and plastics, intermediate and specialty chemicals, agricultural sciences, as well as paints and coatings, to name a few. His expertise also extends to structuring property relationships in polymers, specifically polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene, and thermoplastic elastomers.
When working with clients, it is essential to have an innate sense of curiosity and hunger for learning. At the end of the day, my goal is to make an impact on my clients’ personal growth and the success of their business, rather than strictly focusing on analytics and PowerPoint presentations.
Asked about the challenges ahead for the industry, Varun notes that in order for Chemical companies to outperform their competitors, they will need to focus deeply on customer value and customer experience. This customer-first mindset will require Chemical companies to prioritize challenges that customers face and ensuring that they deliver a competitive advantage to stand out from others in the sector.
Aside from achieving a good business result, Varun takes pride in helping companies transform their workplace culture and develop new ways of working, improved and more disciplined processes, new practices. This, in turn, leads to an improved workforce that is more knowledgeable and has more advanced capabilities than before.
Outside of his work with the Chemical sector, Varun strives to maintain a healthy lifestyle and has ambitions of someday participating in a triathlon.
Varun holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech, an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Technology with honors in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, India.