Dear Monument Team,

As we shared at the July 28th Town Hall, Monument has launched a new business called Monument Renewables & Fuels, which will be led by Sarves Peri as VP and Business Leader. Our aim is to serve as the key partner in the transformative shift toward renewable fuels – leveraging our expertise, customer engagement, and strategic asset positioning to efficiently produce, extract, and distribute high-quality sustainable energy solutions – ensuring a cleaner and better future for generations to come.

Our current Port Arthur, Baytown, and Haltermann Solutions businesses are being merged into this new business. This allows us to leverage business and operational synergies as we build on our core business in fuels and specialty fluids and expand into the renewables space.

The WHY

There is a fundamental change taking shape in renewable fuels in this country. For several reasons – including new and more stringent regulations, global pacts, consumer demand, and simply because it’s the right thing to do – many big industry players are setting high-reaching sustainability goals. As an example, most major airlines have committed to increasing their use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over the next decade – with an ultimate goal of carbon neutrality.

These high-reaching sustainability goals are inspirational and commendable, but they will rely on the shared commitment of everyone in the supply chain to make change possible. Monument is well positioned to be a key part of this change. We have built our experience, expertise, logistical access, and customer engagement in this space for years – and our growth record is a testament to our ability to execute. We understand the bigger goals of our customers and the industries they serve – and what it will take to drive real, tangible change in sustainable innovations!  

The Path Forward

We will leverage our expertise, assets, and location to help ensure:

• Efficient production, extraction, and quality of sustainable fuels
• Effective distribution of sustainable fuels

In addition to tapping our core strengths across all Monument functions to grow this new business, we plan to build additional capabilities as projects are identified, as well as seek alliances and partnerships to expand our logistical capabilities and license technologies that enhance our portfolio. Most importantly – as with every chapter in our Monument story – we will continue to move forward with a crystal-clear focus on our core commitments, including safe operations, industry-leading quality, talent development and growth, and customer engagement.

Our Port Arthur, Baytown, and Haltermann Solutions teams will be updated regularly on next steps. We look forward to sharing our progress in this exciting new business with all employees (and our customers!) throughout the rest of 2023 and well beyond.

To allow Sarves to focus on Renewals & Fuels and to maintain the strong momentum of our Solvents business, I will serve as interim Solvents Business Leader while we search for our new Solvents Business Leader.

R&D Team Announcement

We are also pleased to announce some exciting changes for our global R&D organization. Effective immediately, each R&D team will report directly into our Business Management Teams (BMTs), which are aligned to the four Monument businesses: Solvents, Oxides, Kallo, and Renewables & Fuels. This new reporting structure will ensure enhanced alignment with BMT strategies through focused R&D support – critical for both onboarding and scaling up new opportunities. Along with this direct alignment with the businesses, we will continue to provide forums for the R&D function to come together to share ideas and align on approaches, including the R&D Forum taking place in October. 

Rainer Potthast, Director R&D, has moved from the Solvents business to the new Renewables & Fuels business. Rainer’s role will be internally facing, with a focus on the research lab and development.

Indresh Mathur is moving to Renewables and Fuels in the role of Director, Innovation and Customer Solutions. His role will be externally facing, with focus on commercialization, innovation, and alliances.

Together, they will pursue exciting opportunities for innovation and to deploy our expertise in distillation, challenging chemistries, and hydrocarbon processing. Both will report to Sarves Peri.

In conjunction with this change, I am happy to announce that Bill Gundlach has been promoted to Director, R&D to lead the Solvents R&D team. He will report to me as interim Solvents Business Leader.

Jack Sinnema, Director R&D, will continue to lead the Europe R&D team, reporting to Peter Michielsen.

Mike Purvis, Director R&D, will continue to lead the Oxides R&D organization – and will report directly to Don Phillips. 

Monument is fortunate to have such incredible R&D leaders and an industry-leading global R&D team! I am confident these changes will allow us to keep our growth pipeline full and successful. Please join me in thanking Bill, Rainer, Indresh, Jack, and Mike for their many contributions to Monument – and in wishing them well in this next chapter of opportunity, innovation, and growth.

All the Best,

Paul