Andrew Liveris

Andrew N. Liveris
Liveris at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2013
Citizenship	Australia and United States
Alma mater	University of Queensland
Occupation	chairman and CEO, Dow Chemical
Predecessor	William S. Stavropoulos
Spouse(s)	Paula Liveris

Andrew N. Liveris (born 5 May 1954) is President, Chairman and chief executive officer of The Dow Chemical Company, a global speciality chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics company based in Midland, Michigan with 2013 annual sales of more than $57 billion. Liveris has been a member of Dow's board of directors since February 2004, CEO since November 2004 and was elected as chairman of the board effective 1 April 2006. Liveris succeeded William S. Stavropoulos as CEO in 2004, after holding the position of chief operating officer.

Liveris was born in Darwin, Australia, and attended Darwin High School until 1974 when Darwin was hit by Cyclone Tracy. He then moved to Brisbane where he continued his education at Brisbane State High School. He holds a bachelor's degree (first-class-honors) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science by his alma mater as well as being named Alumnus of the Year. A great alumnus support to the University, he was appointed Inaugural Chair to The University of Queensland in America Foundation in 2011. Liveris' 37-year Dow career began in 1976 in Melbourne, Australia. Since then, his career has spanned the continents of Asia and North America, with roles in manufacturing, engineering, sales, marketing, and business and general management.

Under Liveris' reign as CEO, Dow was ranked 13th on Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) Magazine's list of top 100 best corporate citizens of 2008.

Liveris, appointed CEO in 2004 after the board of directors unanimously selected him in part based upon his plan to transform Dow, began to implement the new strategy. His plan called for Dow to reinforce its core strengths in providing its clients with customised chemicals, plastics and advanced materials (including electronics and agricultural products such as genetically improved seeds). The plan also called for reducing Dow's exposure to commodity chemical and plastics, which were subject to competition especially from new entrants from the Middle East and Asia, who benefit from cost advantages. Part of the plan to "de-risk" the business called for the formation of joint ventures to free up Dow capital for deployment in more specialised areas of the business as cited above. The formation of joint ventures had the further virtue of assuring a low cost supply of feed stocks for the customer-facing portion of Dow's business. Dow has fully exited some basic chemical and plastic business (as with the sale of Styron).