Jim Siegel - Founder & President

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Jim has over 40 years of experience in specialty chemical and carbon materials. He has completed acquisitions, led formation of JVs, completed divestitures, and launched new products. Jim has led global teams and in one business drove their global market share to a dominant position of over 65%.

His background includes a multitude of functional roles - P&L business management, sales & business development, marketing, project management, R&D/process technology with several new products commercialized, and process engineering design. He has worked in a wide range of industries, such as carbon black, petrochemicals, soap & detergents, food ingredients, animal nutrition, flooring & carpet, aerospace, lubricants, and bulk pharmaceuticals.

He began his career in chemical process engineering design for Monsanto Company and after five years moved into sales on the East Coast for food ingredients and animal nutrition products. After transferring to the Monsanto HQ in St. Louis, he moved technology management for detergent ingredients and then functional products. Jim then crossed back to a commercial role with the challenge of international business management with P&L responsibility for Monsanto’s Skydrol business. Skydrol is a fire-resistant hydraulic fluid used on commercial aircraft.

In 1997, Jim followed the spin-off of the chemical group from Monsanto to create Solutia Inc. and became their business director for Solutia’s nylon Wear-Dated carpet based in Atlanta. He finished his career with Solutia as an internal consultant or subject-matter expert for a re-engineering business improvement process used to drive innovative changes in strategies and deliver profitable growth in revenue.

Jim joined Columbian Chemicals Company (CCC) in 2003 and his company was acquired several years later by the Aditya Birla Group. The company is now known as Birla Carbon and is the world’s leader in carbon black and carbon materials. He spent 15 years with CCC/Birla Carbon in business development with primary responsibility for geographical expansions in Brazil and China. Jim made over eighty (80) trips to China, acquired a Chinese carbon black company in Weifang (expanded to 70,000 tons/year), acquired a coal tar company, and built a world-class 120,000 ton/year greenfield carbon black facility in Jining City (Shandong Province). He left the corporate world and started his own consulting business in 2018. 

As the founder of Sapphire Chemical Advisors, he has helped clients improve the sustainability of carbon black, upgrade refinery by-products, advance renewable chemicals, and commercialize battery materials. His accomplishments and diversity across many functional roles can help clients succeed in deployment of innovative technologies and commercialize new products given the growing demand to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

Jim earned his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois and has an MBA from University of Missouri (St. Louis). His company’s focus is providing strategic business development and advisory services to clients in chemical and carbon materials with a growth objective in the USA marketplace. Jim and his family reside in Atlanta, Georgia.