New Nalco CEO eyes overseas growth
Naperville-based Nalco Holding Co. -- one of the world's oldest and largest water chemical firms -- said Wednesday it hired a new chief executive with an aggressive eye for growth, especially in China, India and Latin America.
J. Erik Fyrwald, 48, a long-time executive with DuPont, replaces William Joyce, 71, who retired in December. Fyrwald is moving from his Des Moines, Iowa, base, but first he'll visit Nalco facilities in Texas and overseas to talk with workers and form a new strategy.
"I want to invest more in accelerating our growth," Fyrwald said during an interview.
Nalco, which turns 80 years old in May, helps customers reduce energy, water and other natural resource consumption, enhance air quality, minimize environmental releases and improve productivity and products. Fyrwald said he experienced this first-hand while leading a DuPont plant in Texas about 20 years ago.
"We were running a manufacturing operation there that used chemicals that produced nylon, but we couldn't produce enough to meet customer demand," said Fyrwald. "Nalco was brought in and they helped us to improve our water system that allowed 20 percent more capacity."
Fyrwald was happy at DuPont and declined the first overture that Nalco's executive recruiter made last year.
"I wasn't interested in doing anything else at the time," said Fyrwald. "But then later I learned it was Nalco and had good experiences with them and thought differently."
Nalco was founded May 1, 1928, through the merger of Chicago Chemical Co. and Aluminate Sales Corp. It has been bought and sold in recent years with various name changes.
In 1999, then called Nalco Chemical Co. was purchased by French-owned Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux for $4.1 billion. Its name was changed to Ondeo Nalco.
Suez then merged Ondeo Nalco with Pittsburgh-based Calgon and Paris-based Aquazur. It also bought out Ondeo Nalco's joint venture with Exxon, then called Nalco Exxon Energy Chemicals in Sugarland, Texas, near Houston. In 2001, the venture became Ondeo Nalco's Energy Services Division, which focused on oil and petroleum-based chemicals.
In late 2003, New York investors Blackstone Group, Apollo Management LP and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners acquired the company for about $4.3 billion and brought it public a year later. Its name was then changed again, this time to Nalco Holding.
The work force, about 12,000 in its heyday, is now around 11,500, including 1,100 in Naperville.
Also, Nalco has operations in about 130 countries. It had one plant in China since the 1990s and a second plant is scheduled to open later this year.
Nalco also has been in India since 1988 and in Venezuela, Latin America, since 1958. Fyrwald aims to expand in these regions by adding workers to serve an expanding customer base, he said.
Nalco also has some strong ties here at home.
Since 1985, it has had a contract with the city of Naperville to sell its excess power, enough to provide electricity to about 1,000 homes. Nalco also has done some research at the city's Springbrook Water Reclamation Center in south Naperville, said Jim Holzapfel, Naperville's assistant director of public utilities/water.
"We've enjoyed an amicable relationship with Nalco over the years and it's worked out well for both of us," said Holzapfel. "I don't see any changes with that relationship."
J. Erik Fyrwald
New job: Chairman, president and chief executive officer of Nalco Holding Co.
Previous job: Group vice president in Agriculture and Nutrition division at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.
Age: 48
Education: University of Delaware bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1981; Advanced Management Program certificate at Harvard Business School.
Boards: Nalco, Eli Lilly and Co.
Resident: Des Moines, Iowa, moving to Chicago area soon
Family: Married to Mary Lou for 17 years with three daughters: Kristina, 15, Jacqueline, 13, and Annalise, 11.
Source: Nalco