Anyone who’s worked at a large company knows the benefits of having a central office that takes care of many of the day-to-day administrative duties.

And few knew it better than Jerry MacCleary when he was given the assignment of spinning off Bayer MaterialScience AG from the parent company Bayer Corp. to form Covestro LLC.

Jerry MacCleary, president, Covestro LLC

MacCleary had spent 37 years as an executive in different iterations of Bayer, including a stint in Germany, before being asked to create Covestro as a free-standing business, which he completed in the fall of 2015.

“Breaking Covestro out as a free-standing company was my biggest challenge and biggest accomplishment,” he said. “All of sudden you’re on your own. Our first challenge was to take all the service groups back and bring them onboard.”

Covestro, MacCleary explained, had to bring in 50 candidates in a short period of time to fill duties not required when the division was a part of Bayer. Another challenge, he said, was getting existing employees up to speed.

“Everyone had to take on new responsibilities,” he said. “They had to learn new skill sets.”

In addition to running Covestro, MacCreary has a dual role running the regional operations of Covestro’s largest business unit, polyurethanes.

MacCleary’s substantial community involvement should come as no surprise; he was born and raised in Pittsburgh.

CLOSER LOOK
Jerry MacCleary, president, Covestro LLC
Career: Senior vice president, Polyurethanes, North America, Bayer MaterialScience AG; president, Bayer MaterialScience AG; senior vice president, Performance Systems, Bayer Polymers LLC; global business integration manager, Bayer AG; vice president, Styrenics Business, Bayer Corp.
Community involvement: Board member, Allegheny Conference on Community Development; board member, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania; board member, Variety the Children’s Charity; board member, Imani Christian Academy; former co-chair, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s annual campaign; board of trustees member, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation
Contact: 1 Covestro Circle, Pittsburgh, PA 15205; 412-413-2000, jerry.maccleary@covestro.com
Website: covestro.com

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