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Lubrizol has formed Lubrizol Corporate Ventures group, which will be charged with growing the company in adjacent markets.
The group will be led by Deb Langer as Senior Vice President, Corporate Ventures, and includes innovators in Lubrizol’s walls working in partnership with inventors, start-ups and strategic minds and organizations to build new business opportunities that leverage the company’s strengths and enable sizable growth in new areas. Driven by a clear understanding of the markets across these opportunities, the Corporate Ventures team will work to address the unmet needs of those markets, utilizing Lubrizol’s extensive resources and expertise to develop, test, commercialize, and scale business opportunities to deliver sustainable growth.
Throughout her Lubrizol career, Deb has been on the forefront of growth and innovation, including imagining and building the origins of what is now Lubrizol Life Science, a business producing innovative science for beauty, home and healthcare applications. Most recently, Deb served as Corporate Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions and Consumer and Market Insights, and has held a variety of positions throughout the company spanning business management and technology leadership roles.
The company also has appointed Elizabeth (Beth) Grove as Chief Sustainability Officer. Sustainability continues to be an underpinning of Lubrizol’s strategy and serves as a vital driver to the long-term health and growth of the organization. In her new role, Beth will propel the company’s broad focus on sustainability, including environmental, social and governance disciplines, as well as oversee government affairs and community engagement. Beth also will continue to serve as President of The Lubrizol Foundation.
Since joining Lubrizol in 2007, Beth has served in various roles, including Global Director of Sustainability and Compliance for Lubrizol Life Science and as the company’s Chief Litigation Counsel. Beth joined Lubrizol from the Federal Trade Commission, where she was a trial attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Prior to that, Beth was a litigation attorney with Jones Day.
Beth replaces Julie Edgar as Chief Sustainability Officer as Julie takes on an exciting new opportunity as Vice President, Transportation, in the Lubrizol Additives business.
In this role, Julie will be accountable for growth in our Lubrizol Additives Transportation business. During her 25 years at Lubrizol, Julie has held a number of technology management positions across the business in Asia, Europe and North America. As Lubrizol’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, Julie helped to fully embed sustainability across the business, including how the company innovates, designs and produces products. This focus will be critical as Julie advances Lubrizol’s mission to help the world Move Cleaner, enabling a 50% reduction in vehicle emissions by 2040.
© 2020 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.