Standard Industries, a privately held global industrial company operating in more than 80 countries with over 20,000 employees, announced the appointment of Bob Patel, CEO of W. R. Grace & Co., to the newly created position of President, Standard Industries, reporting to co-CEOs David Millstone and David Winter.

Standard also announced that veteran chemical industry executive Ed Sparks will succeed and report to Patel as CEO of Grace, effective immediately.

In his new role, Bob will identify and pursue opportunities to expand the Standard Performance Materials portfolio and take a global view of Standard's operating companies to promote innovation, harness operational synergies, create efficiency, develop talent and provide strategic guidance to all operating CEOs. He joined Standard Industries in January 2022 to lead Grace and help architect Standard's investment in the advanced materials space.

"While Standard's companies will continue to operate independently under their respective leaders, we believe we can do more to identify, share and implement best practices as we grow our platforms," said Winter. "Bob Patel's decades-long record of driving businesses to achieve results over the long term properly positioned Grace, and we are excited for him now to bring his skills, experience and focus to our global operating companies."

"With Grace on the right path, now is the time to broaden Bob's focus to all of Standard's operating businesses as we enter our next phase of growth," said Millstone. "Ed Sparks's expertise leading organizations through transformational change makes him the perfect leader for the Grace of today and the Grace of tomorrow."

"We began a process of transformation that sets up the company to achieve lasting growth under Ed's leadership," said Patel. "I look forward to working with David and David on executing their vision of a modern industrial company by expanding our Performance Materials platform and leveraging scale and synergies across all of Standard's operating businesses."

Prior to joining Grace, Patel served as CEO of LyondellBasell, one of the largest chemicals, plastics and refining companies in the world. He joined LyondellBasell in 2010 and was named CEO in January 2015. Before LyondellBasell, Patel served in a variety of global leadership roles at Chevron Corporation and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company for more than 20 years.