WICKLIFFE, Ohio — You probably know the name "Lubrizol" as a company. It's even more likely you have at least one of the products developed by the Northeast Ohio company's scientific research. Its products are available worldwide, and the woman at the helm of Lubrizol's global innovation recently shared her story with Maureen Kyle.
"Chemistry and chemical engineering and engineering came to me very early on," said Rebecca Liebert, the company's president and CEO.
Liebert is the original STEM girl.
"I grew up on a farm in eastern Kentucky where we did engineering every single day," Liebert said as we spoke with her at the company's headquarters in Wickliffe.
Without realizing it at the time, she was immersed in science and chemistry day in and day out.
"Whether it was civil engineering while we were plowing the fields or mechanical engineering while we were fixing the equipment, electrical engineering wiring fences to keep animals in, biomedical engineering taking care of the animals and chemical engineering while we were mixing pesticides and fertilizers to go on the crops," Liebert said. "Chemistry and chemical engineering is aligned with a lot of things that I did with my grandma -- like pickling, you know making pickles and fermenting and cooking. All of that at its basic essence is chemistry."
We wondered whether science came naturally to her in the classroom, given her experience on the farm. "I was good at chemistry and math in school. My sister like to read Shakespeare and I liked to do math problems. So we were very different in that regard."
She went on to attend The University of Kentucky, majoring in Chemical Engineering before earning her PhD from Carnegie Mellon and an MBA from Northwestern University.
Her work history began at Nova Chemicals where she worked as a Development Engineer. Along the way she gained more experience at Reynolds Food Packaging, Alcoa KAMA, Honeywell and PPG.
In 2022 she was named President and CEO of The Lubrizol Corporation.
"Earlier in my career there were some very powerful women and I certainly did idolize them. At the time I looked up to them as mentors, but I don't think I ever really said, 'I'm going to be the CEO,'" Liebert said, adding, "when this job became available I was like, ' this is a dream job.' The technology is so strong, the people are strong and we have great relationships with our customers. It aligned with what I got my PhD in, which is surface chemistry."
Lubrizol creates products we use in our car engines, our showers and medicine cabinets.
From the facilities to the labs and the global board rooms, Liebert knows she's in a male-dominated world, which for her became a motivator more than a deterrent.
"I didn't want anyone to say 'she got the job because she was a woman.' So if I needed to study a little harder, or come a little more prepared I made sure I did that," Liebert said.
As she leads Lubrizol into the future with a new focus on biodegradable materials, she's also excited about the future workforce -- especially all those kids who are now getting an emphasis on STEM education, just like how she grew up.
"I think it's wonderful the number of women in engineering continues to grow which is great but it could still even improve further so we want to keep supporting."