When You Do Good Work, Good Things Will Happen: Career Wisdom From John Lemmex, VP and CFO of Covestro
John Lemmex is vice president, Chief Financial Officer, at Covestro LLC. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of financial management and controlling. He also serves as a member of the company’s United States Country Council.
John Lemmex, VP and CFO of Covestro’s US operations, has worked in the chemical industry for more than three decades. He received a degree in chemistry from McMaster University and later pursued an MBA degree from Syracuse University. Both chemistry and business have played an integral role in Mr. Lemmex’s career and he has noted the many similarities between both disciplines. For him, “accounting was very much like chemistry, it involved a lot of balancing and logic”.
During the early years of his career, Mr. Lemmex assumed many positions within the Material Science division of Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical company. Furthermore, Bayer’s international presence enabled Mr. Lemmex to gain experience working in foreign settings. For five years, he worked abroad in Bayer’s headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany. Back then, Mr. Lemmex recalls that the work culture within the German division used to be “very process orientated and hierarchical.” It was difficult for an employee to communicate with those who hold higher positions within the company. Recently, Mr. Lemmex observes that there have been efforts in Covestro to “keep the process-orientated aspect from our German roots, but at the same time, be innovative and think outside the box.”
The Material Science division, at which Mr. Lemmex has worked for more than 20 years, separated from Bayer in 2015 and became Covestro. Covestro supplies high tech polymers for application in electronic, construction, and automobile among other industries. Currently, the company’s innovative efforts in developing new polymers can also unlock a more sustainable future. For example, it seeks to provide durable battery casings for Electric Vehicles (EV) in order to increase their performance and energy efficiency. Beyond product advancements, Mr. Lemmex believes that the creation of a “circular economy” is a direction towards which Covestro is heading. Of the many foam products the company produces, some are used in building mattresses. Simultaneously, millions of mattresses are also being discarded each year. Thus, the opportunity lies in developing recycling technology that can disassemble these foam mattresses into their raw materials.
At Business Today’s 45th International Conference, Mr. Lemmex also held a seminar with a small group of college students and offered many words of wisdom. Given the current trends of the gig economy, it is quite remarkable that almost the entirety of Mr. Lemmex’s career may be traced from a single company and industry. Likewise, he encourages college graduates to “concentrate on the job you are in, not your next job.” Finally, Mr. Lemmex also believes that “when you do good work, good things will happen,” with an emphasis on using one’s expertise to help the local communities. He currently serves on the Board of Director for Pittsburgh's Civic Light Opera and is part of the finance committee. “For me it is a way to give back to the community. Although I do come from a S.T.E.M and sports background, I do see a place for the arts in our culture and we need to support that.”
“Concentrate on the job you are in, not your next job.”