About Connie
An operations leader
who owns safety.
Not the other way around. Two decades. Three reactors. Two mergers. One hurricane. Chemical Engineer. MBA. The kind of background that earns a different conversation.
Not the other way around. Two decades. Three reactors. Two mergers. One hurricane. Chemical Engineer. MBA. The kind of background that earns a different conversation.
Connie Buskness is an executive leader with extensive experience guiding manufacturing and operational organizations through complex growth, transformation, and risk environments. She has led teams responsible for high-hazard operations, process safety management systems, and operational performance across diverse manufacturing settings — from commodity polymers to specialty small-batch chemistry. Her PSM expertise spans Process Hazard Analysis leadership, Management of Change governance, mechanical integrity, and incident investigation facilitation across hundreds of events. She has integrated AI and data analytics into EHS and operational workflows, treating technology as a tool for better decisions — not a substitute for judgment.
Her career spans Dow Chemical, Sherwin-Williams, and Evonik, with two corporate mergers where she was selected for the integration strategy team both times — shaping how organizations combined cultures, systems, and safety programs at scale. She commissioned and started up three reactors at a single greenfield site and has managed diverse reactor types and batch and continuous processes across her career. She built a $211M greenfield plant from the ground up and turned around a $300M capital project that was off track on budget and schedule.
At Sherwin-Williams and Dow she led plant performance turnarounds — improving safety, budget performance, on-time delivery, and OEE simultaneously. She has implemented OEE systems from the ground up, connecting operational data to real business outcomes. Today she also oversees environmental remediation across multiple sites with a budget exceeding $26M — work she views not as liability management but as a demonstration that proactive environmental performance is both a business imperative and an organizational values statement.
In the 1990s she led the joint venture with AspenTech and Dow on advanced process controllers. This generation calls it AI. The discipline hasn't changed. The tools are exponentially more powerful.
Her leadership philosophy centers on three principles: operational discipline creates resilience; decisions create momentum; and culture determines sustainability. She believes high-risk industries require systems that go beyond compliance to build real capability — and that safety and business performance are not trade-offs. They are the same measurement.
Connie holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Pepperdine University with a focus on organizational design and finance. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and certified incident investigation facilitator. She currently oversees EHS Environmental & Process Safety Improvement across 50+ sites in the Americas.
Each credential was earned in context — on real projects, in real plants, with real consequences.
Also Green Belt & Yellow Belt. Lean. 5S. Applied across manufacturing and process improvement.
PHA program strategy, structure, and action item completion. Led 400+ PHA action items to closure as engineering team leader in Pasadena. Used AI to compare PHAs across years and facilities — identifying risk gaps and ensuring consistency across similar equipment in different plants.
MOC system design, implementation, and governance. Connects procedure rigor to actual process understanding at the team level.
Implemented OEE systems from the ground up. AI and data integration into EHS and operations workflows. Plant performance turnarounds at Sherwin-Williams and Dow.
Core Strengths certified. StrengthsFinder facilitator. Applied in organizational change and executive team development.
Built MI programs from blank sheet to optimized — including outdated legacy processes.
$26M+ remediation budget across multiple sites. Proactive environmental stewardship as business strategy, not liability management.
Capital projects, DCS commissioning, APC upgrades. Led AspenTech/Dow APC joint venture in the 1990s.
Texas A&M Chemical Engineering. Pepperdine MBA — organizational design & finance.
Greenfield facility with distribution and utilities. All PSM/RMP regulated, highly hazardous chemistry. Has managed diverse reactor types and batch and continuous processes across career. Zero startup safety incidents.
One of 5 first hires. Commissioned under PSM & RMP. 200% production growth in year two.
PHA program strategy, structure, and action item completion — including 400+ PHA items closed as engineering team leader in Pasadena. MOC governance, incident investigation, and PSM/RMP compliance across highly hazardous operations. Used AI to compare PHAs across years and facilities, identify risk gaps, and ensure risk consistency across similar equipment in different plants.
Led turnarounds improving safety, budget performance, on-time delivery, and OEE simultaneously. Implemented OEE systems from the ground up, connecting operational data to real business outcomes.
Over budget, off schedule, board confidence shaken. Realigned teams, reset expectations, delivered.
Currently oversees remediation across multiple sites. Treats it not as liability management but as proof that proactive environmental performance is both a business imperative and an organizational values statement.
Mobilized resources across North America. Restored operations within weeks. Managed $2M insurance claim.
Selected for strategy team on both Dow–Union Carbide and Evonik–Air Products mergers. Shaped how safety culture, systems, and organizations were combined at scale. Dow Future Leader Program.
Advanced process controllers before the industry had a name for them. This generation calls it AI. Same discipline. More powerful tools.
Replaced 80–90% of retiring staff. Built succession pipeline. Founded women's leadership network of 30+ members. MI implemented from blank sheet.
Two mergers. One hurricane. Hundreds of incident investigations.
Where safety goes, the business goes. If your safety performance is erratic, I guarantee your production consistency is too. They are the same system.
We are over-tooling and under-training. Tools support judgment. They do not replace it. If an engineer completes an MOC but doesn't understand what the change does to the physics, you've digitized a bad decision.
You don't rise to the level of your procedures. You fall to the level of your preparation. Compliance creates consistency. Capability creates resilience. Learning creates prevention.
My husband and I both grew up with deep roots — same house, same city, same community. Then our careers moved us. Redondo Beach. Dallas. Houston. Mobile, Alabama. Every move meant building a new village from scratch.
We decided early: if we were going to be nomads, we were going to be adventurers. That meant our daughters grew up knowing how to walk into a room where they didn't know anyone, introduce themselves, and find their people. Having a sister meant they were never doing it alone — their best friend was always in the next room.
That foundation paid off in ways I couldn't have planned. Both are now in college — University of Alabama and University of South Carolina — and both went through sorority rush. I'll be honest: I was nervous. Rush is intense. But watching the process, I was genuinely impressed. It's structured, intentional, and built around meeting people, service, and stepping into leadership. Exactly the things we'd been practicing their whole lives.
They are leaders. Problem solvers. They walk into new rooms with confidence and curiosity. I could not be more proud of who they are becoming.
When I'm not working, I'm traveling — beaches in summer, ski slopes in winter. And lately, a lot of my time is going to Pinot, our new boxador puppy. She's made me more disciplined than any management system I've ever implemented. New puppy schedules are no joke.
My husband and I are both Texas A&M Aggies. Football season gets complicated when the girls play each other. We love it anyway.
