4 Minutes with…Tim Lebrecht, Industry Manager – Chemicals, Refining, Water, and Cryogenics, Air Products and Chemicals

Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

Air Products and Chemicals is a world leader in industrial gas supply. We have a large portfolio of gas supply options in hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, and helium for most any application. The Air Products Applications team focuses on helping our customers use these gases to make better products more efficiently.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

I am the industry manager at Air Products for the Chemicals, Refining, Power, Pharmaceutical/Biotech, Water Treatment, and Industrial Cryogenic parts of our business. My team and I routinely help companies use our gases in creative and unique ways to make their processes safer, more efficient, and with higher quality. We have supported the Advanced Bio-economy for many years and look to continue that approach. We use many industrial gases, especially hydrogen and syngas, to support this important industry.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?   

To be competitive with traditional fuel and chemicals manufacture in both quality and cost.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

That members of this industry stop talking about “green” solutions and focus on making the “green” solution competitive with more traditional manufacturing processes.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?   

The opportunity for both myself and my company to help the industry become better positioned for the future through using industrial gases.

Where are you from?

Fort Wayne, Indiana

What was your subject focus (e.g. major) in university (undergraduate and/or graduate, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway?

BS Chemical Engineering, Purdue University; MBA, Lehigh University

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?   

In times of adversity you need to fall back on your values and your family. In times like that they may be all you have. In doing so if you continue to do the right thing no matter what you solidify who you are and what you represent.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?   

Running, Gardening, Singing

What books or articles (excluding The Digest) are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?   

Anything by Clive Cussler