Effective Feb. 1, Covestro LLC welcomes Demetri Zervoudis as the new senior vice president and site manager at its industrial park in Baytown, Texas, the company’s largest manufacturing facility in North America. Zervoudis succeeds Rod Herrick, who will step into a new role as venture manager, overseeing the recently announced MDI investment project for the Baytown site.
Zervoudis joined Covestro in 1983 as a process research engineer. Since then, he has led a diverse career spanning commercial and production operations. Through these opportunities, Zervoudis has gained extensive leadership experience in research and development, project management, strategic planning and global manufacturing. His career journey has taken him to Covestro sites across the U.S., including Baytown, where he designed, constructed and started up several chemical units as part of an earlier expansion program.
In his most recent role, Zervoudis was responsible for the global polyurethane joint ventures and propylene oxide / polyether manufacturing sites at Covestro LLC. He also led the Procurement function in the Americas region, while serving as the company’s health, safety, environment and security officer.
“Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to be part of restructuring initiatives that have helped to advance safety, automation and innovation at our production sites,” said Zervoudis. “It’s an honor to be back in Baytown, where I have the chance to build on that experience and lead a world-class manufacturing team into the future.”
Herrick will also play an important role in the site’s future, as he takes on his new role as venture manager, overseeing the largest single investment project in the company’s history. Covestro will invest more than $1.7 billion to build a new 500-kiloton MDI plant in Baytown.
With more than 30 years at Covestro and extensive manufacturing experience, Herrick is up for the challenge. His diverse background includes various leadership positions in plant and process engineering, reliability and production management at Covestro sites globally. In 2010, Herrick assumed his most recent position as site manager for the Baytown Industrial Park, leading the facility through a number of changes, including the transition to Covestro, as well as two major hurricanes.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege leading the Baytown facility, and I’m looking forward to continuing to build my career here as the site heads into a new chapter of growth,” said Herrick. “My new role not only allows me to work with the team in a different capacity, but to help shape the success of a project that will define our future for years to come.”
