Texaco people profile: Paul Van de Ven

I hold a PhD in Chemistry from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Louvain), completing my thesis on combustion theory. On leaving university I secured a role at Texaco’s Ghent research facility, working within the coolant’s development team.  That team was successful in developing and introducing extended life coolant and indeed changing global coolant markets, something which remains one of the highlights of my career to this day.  My next roles within the company took me outside of Europe. First to the Texaco research and development facility in upstate New York, United States, where my team built a new coolants technology unit for the Americas market. Following that I became coolant technology technical liaison for sales outside the US and Europe which was my first experience of working within Latin America and Asia.  From there I had the opportunity to move to Singapore with Caltex as marketing manager for coolant, driveline and speciality products, focusing on Asia Pacific, the Middle East and East Africa. My next positions were worldwide roles at Chevron, first as global product line manager and after that as the technology manager for coolants. My final overseas position was in Houston where I was responsible for business planning and portfolio coordination of strategic and tactical research at Chevron Energy Technology Company (ETC). At this time, I was also the product owner for the new ETC data management system. In 2020, I moved back to Europe and into my current role as regional product line manager.

What do you believe Texaco has to offer customers? 

I think what really sets us apart is our people and their dedication.  As a company, we focus on building trust and personal relationships with customers, rather than simply providing support or technical partnership. I’ve found this to be true in all of the roles I’ve had, no matter where I’ve been based across the world the human element has always remained the same.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the industry at the moment? 

I think the biggest challenge we face currently is the evolution of energy solutions across the transportation sector. Electrification, hydrogen and other strategies are changing the product mix for lubricant suppliers, bringing about huge shifts in the research and development of new formulations.

My second challenge is one for the future of transportation if personal transport becomes a service industry rather than an individual activity.  It may become the norm to engage companies to move us from A to B rather than maintaining owned vehicles.  In that situation, there would be very different sets of market drivers as customers become companies rather than individuals.

What piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in your industry? 

No matter what industry you are in – find your passion.  If you love what you do, then you tend to share that passion and enthusiasm with others, and that in turn brings positive outcomes for your career.  Knowledge and emotional intelligence are also key to fully understanding and enjoying what you do. Always have fun.

What behaviour or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why? 

One thing I’ve always had is a willingness to learn, change and grow.  I’m a naturally inquisitive person and I’ve always been open to new experiences.  Living all over the world and meeting people from so many cultures taught me to look at things from different perspectives not just make assumptions about what people need and want based on my own experience.  That ability to empathise with customers’ needs and understand how to bring products and services together so that it delivers tangible benefit to them has been invaluable.

If you could become an expert at something in an instant, what would it be?

To be the best grandparent I could be.