Liveris Takes Helm at Dow

On Nov. 1, Dow Chemical’s management moved ahead when Andrew N. Liveris was elevated to CEO, taking over from William S. Stavropoulos, who remains chairman of the board.

The move was expected. The 50-year-old Liveris, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Australia’s University of Queensland and is a 28-year veteran at Dow, was named president and chief operating officer in November last year. This past August, the company announced that he would assume the CEO title on Nov. 1.

The company that Liveris takes over is much better than what it was at the end of 2002, when Stavropoulos returned to take the reins from the ousted Michael D. Parker. In that year, Dow had sales of $27.4 billion and earnings from continuing operations of just $290.0 million.

In this year’s third quarter, Dow’s earnings were more than twice what they were in all of 2002, coming in at $617.0 million. And through just the first nine months of the year, it bested the sales figure for all of 2002 with sales of more than $29.2 billion.

For the third quarter, sales rose 26.3% from the comparable 2003 period to $10.1 billion, marking the company’s first $10 billion quarter. The $617.0 million in third-quarter earnings represents an increase of 85.8% from the same period last year.