Jim Fitterling is Executive Chair of the Board of Directors of Dow, a world-leading materials science company with 2025 sales of approximately $40 billion.

From July 2018 to July 2026, Fitterling served as Chief Executive Officer of Dow, and he was elected board chair in April 2020. During his tenure as CEO, he played a key role in transitioning the Company from lower-margin, commodity businesses toward higher-growth, consumer demand-driven markets that value innovation – with the ambition to be the most innovative, customer-centric, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company in the world.

Before becoming CEO, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Dow. From September 2017 through March 2019, he also served as Chief Operating Officer for the Materials Science Division of DowDuPont, the holding company created with the intent to form independent, publicly traded companies in materials science, agriculture, and specialty products sectors.

Fitterling’s more than 40-year career at Dow began in 1984, two weeks after graduating from University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He held a variety of sales, marketing, and supply chain positions in the U.S. before taking on leadership positions in Asia, including leading Dow’s liquid separations business, serving as President and CEO of FilmTec Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, general manager for Dow Thailand and managing director for the SCG-Dow group of joint venture companies. He later became CEO of The OPTIMAL Group, an affiliate of Malaysia’s state-owned oil corporation and Dow, and added responsibility for Dow Southeast Asia and Australia regions. He returned to the United States in 2006 as business vice president for Dow’s polyethylene envelope and later held a range of senior leadership roles in corporate development and business operations.

Under his leadership Dow became a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and he served as business lead during Dow’s launch of its next-generation sustainability goals.

Fitterling is widely recognized as a passionate advocate for inclusion, earning him #1 LGBT+ Executive on the “OUTstanding in Business” list published annually by INvolve in 2018. In 2021, he was inducted into the OUTstanding Hall of Fame.

In 2018, Fitterling received the College of Engineering Alumni Award from the Mizzou Alumni Association for professional accomplishments and service to the university and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2022. He was awarded CEO of the Year in 2022 by Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS). In 2024, Fitterling was awarded the prestigious International Palladium Medal by the Société de Chimie Industrielle in recognition of his contributions to the chemical industry, as well as the Chemists’ Club Kavaler Award by vote of his global chemical industry peers. In 2024 he was named lead director of the 3M Board of Directors.