Chemours Announces Promotion of Ron Charles to Senior Vice President of the People Function, as Susan Kelliher Announces Retirement

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Chemours announces retirement of Senior Vice President, People and appointment of new Senior Vice President, People

Positive

• Ron Charles, Vice President of Talent and Culture and Human Resources Business Partner, will be promoted to Senior Vice President, People, leading all aspects of the human resources function

Negative

• None.

Company well-positioned to drive key business priorities

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Chemours Company (“Chemours”) (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company with leading market positions in Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials, today announced that Susan Kelliher, Senior Vice President, People has formalized her intention to retire from Chemours at the end of September 2023. As a part of her transition plan, effective October 1, Mrs. Kelliher will serve as a strategic advisor to the company, focused exclusively on organizational effectiveness, reporting directly to CEO Mark Newman. With this change, effective October 1, Ron Charles, Vice President of Talent and Culture and Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) for Titanium Technologies, will be promoted to Senior Vice President, People, leading all aspects of the human resources function.

Ron Charles, Senior Vice President of People at Chemours (Photo: Business Wire)

Susan Kelliher, Strategic Advisor to the CEO
Mrs. Kelliher has over 30 years of human resources experience and has served since 2017 as a member of the Chemours executive team. At Chemours, Mrs. Kelliher built an extremely deep talent bench that fueled the impressive performance of its businesses. To attract high-caliber professionals, she implemented pay transparency and transformed the landscape of employee benefits to best-in-class by introducing offerings such as flexible work schedules, extended parental leave, an enhanced wellness program, student loan assistance, and adoption support. Susan’s passion for developing the best and brightest people from different backgrounds and experiences produced the most diverse workforce and executive team in our history. She complemented this achievement by creating the company’s first Diversity Council, which she served as executive sponsor. She also led the institution of Great Place to Work Certification™ as an insightful measure of employee sentiment and to crystallize opportunities for continuous workplace improvement. As a result, the company realized better than market retention rates and achieved the high honor of Great Place to Work Certification™ three times in the U.S. and in 14 additional regions for 2023-2024.

Chemours President and CEO Mark Newman expressed his gratitude for Kelliher’s contributions as a part of his executive team. Said Newman, “Susan’s focus on organizational health and attracting and developing talent to reach their full potential have delivered stellar results and been a powerful catalyst for change within Chemours. Her work has reached every corner of this company, and we will feel her impact for years to come.”

Ron Charles, SVP People Function
Mr. Charles takes on his new executive role with 24 years of human resources, manufacturing, and labor relations experience, including 18 plus years in the chemical industry. During his six-year tenure with Chemours, Mr. Charles has contributed to Chemours’ performance through various HR leadership assignments spanning the fluoroproducts, fluorochemicals, and titanium technologies businesses. He has also led the personnel aspects of several large-scale, transformative business initiatives, including the Southern Ionics Minerals acquisition and the divestiture of the methylamines business line. Leveraging his deep frontline workforce experience, Mr. Charles has made a meaningful impact on Chemours plant sites by automating the company-wide time and attendance system, which improved process efficiency and effectiveness. He also played a leadership role in forming the strategy and approach to negotiations and optimization of labor contracts at critical manufacturing locations. More recently, he expanded his responsibility to include leadership of the Culture and Talent organization, where he assembled a high-performance team, upgraded the talent acquisition process, and developed programs, policies, and tools for frontline and office employees.

Before Chemours, Mr. Charles held various leadership positions with Phillips 66, Albemarle Corporation, Frito Lay, and Texas Instruments. There, he gained deep experience serving as the HR leader of billion-dollar business units and their frontline workforce and leading the people aspects of complex mergers, divestitures, and organizational restructures.

Mr. Newman said, “Ron is a trusted advisor who brings a wealth of knowledge in strategically managing HR for an evolving company like Chemours. Plus, his deep manufacturing and labor relations experience will bring tremendous insight as we look to maximize the performance of our plant sites which represent 75% of our workforce. Ron’s unique perspective and ability to find simple solutions to complex HR challenges make him critical to our continued success and a welcome addition to the executive team.”

“With Ron’s announcement, we have achieved key changes to our executive leadership team and well positioned Chemours to focus on our five strategic priorities. I am confident this team will work together with courage, agility, and drive to realize our full potential in the company’s next chapter,” concluded Newman.

About The Chemours Company
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) is a global leader in Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. We deliver customized solutions with a wide range of industrial and specialty chemicals products for markets, including coatings, plastics, refrigeration and air conditioning, transportation, semiconductor and consumer electronics, general industrial, and oil and gas. Our flagship products are sold under prominent brands such as Ti-Pure™, Opteon™, Freon™, Teflon™, Viton™, Nafion™, and Krytox™. The company has approximately 6,600 employees and 29 manufacturing sites serving approximately 2,900 customers in approximately 120 countries. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC.

For more information, we invite you to visit chemours.com or follow us on Twitter @Chemours or LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to a historical or current fact. The words "believe," "expect," "will," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "target," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify "forward-looking statements," which speak only as of the date such statements were made. These forward-looking statements may address, among other things, the outcome or resolution of any pending or future environmental liabilities, the commencement, outcome or resolution of any regulatory inquiry, investigation or proceeding, the initiation, outcome or settlement of any litigation, changes in environmental regulations in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that affect demand for or adoption of our products, anticipated future operating and financial performance for our segments individually and our company as a whole, business plans, prospects, targets, goals and commitments, capital investments and projects and target capital expenditures, plans for dividends or share repurchases, sufficiency or longevity of intellectual property protection, cost reductions or savings targets, including those related to the closing of Chemours’ Kuan Yin manufacturing site located in Taiwan, plans to increase profitability and growth, our ability to make acquisitions, integrate acquired businesses or assets into our operations, and achieve anticipated synergies or cost savings, all of which are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that may not be accurate or realized, such as full year guidance relying on models based upon management assumptions regarding future events that are inherently uncertain. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements also involve risks and uncertainties that are beyond Chemours' control. Matters outside our control, including general economic conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, have affected or may affect our business and operations and may or may continue to hinder our ability to provide goods and services to customers, cause disruptions in our supply chains such as through strikes, labor disruptions or other events, adversely affect our business partners, significantly reduce the demand for our products, adversely affect the health and welfare of our personnel or cause other unpredictable events. Additionally, there may be other risks and uncertainties that Chemours is unable to identify at this time or that Chemours does not currently expect to have a material impact on its business. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Chemours assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230913730243/en/

INVESTORS 

Brandon Ontjes 

VP, Financial Planning & Analysis and Investor Relations 

+1.302.773.3300

investor@chemours.com

Kurt Bonner 

Manager, Investor Relations 

+1.302.773.0026 

investor@chemours.com

NEWS MEDIA

Cassie Olszewski 

Manager, Media Relations & Financial Communications 

+1.302.219.7140 

media@chemours.com

Source: The Chemours Company