The Division of Business Development & Management (BMGT) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) recognizes three outstanding chemists for their contribution to the leadership and management of the chemical enterprise with their selection as 2024 BMGT Awards recipients.

Florian Schattenmann has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Henry F. Whalen, Jr. Award for Excellence in Business Development and Management in the Chemical Enterprise.

The Whalen Award was established in 2002 to recognize outstanding contributions to the development and management of the business within the chemical enterprise and is presented annually by the ACS Division of Business Development & Management (BMGT). Congratulations Dr. Schattenmann!

Florian Schattenmann is Cargill’s Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for Innovation and Research & Development (R&D). He oversees a global team that is driven by the vision of relentlessly creating value for Cargill and its customers via research, application and product development, and technical service support across agriculture, food, animal feed and bio-industrial markets.

Florian is widely known as an enthusiastic and authentic leader within the chemical industry. He continues to lead and inspire teams to reinvent the way innovation is done, generating value for customers, colleagues, and community. Under his tenure, he has supercharged the innovation engine at Cargill that has resulted in top-line and bottom-line growth through commercialized innovations across multiple industry verticals.

Prior to joining Cargill, Florian spent eight years at The Dow Chemical Company with his most recent role as Vice President for Performance Materials & Coatings R&D. There he led innovation across a diverse set of specialty businesses leveraging unique chemistries and advanced technology to drive market-focused product development. Florian has also held leadership roles at SulphCo Inc., Momentive Performance Materials, and General Electric (GE)-Bayer Silicones.  Earlier in his career, Florian managed several research laboratories at the GE Global Research Center.

Florian is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, holds seven U.S. patents and has numerous publications. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Vernay Laboratories Inc., a privately held specialty elastomer parts manufacturer. As part of his work and his personal life, Florian is also a passionate advocate for talent development, diversity, equity and inclusion. He serves on multiple advisory boards including the College of Science and Engineering at University of Minnesota, the Department of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the American Chemical Society CTO forum.

He earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA and his Diplom Chemiker degree from the Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. Florian and his family live in Minneapolis, MN.  Besides spending time with the family, he loves playing the bass, road cycling and working out.

Chris Gilmore has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Dr. Nina I. McClelland Emerging Leader Award.

The McClelland Award was established to recognize an outstanding individual at a mid-level career position who has demonstrated success and possesses significant promise for contributions to business development and management within the chemical enterprise. Congratulations Dr. Gilmore!

Chris Gilmore is the Advanced Dielectrics R&D Leader for the DuPont Advanced Circuit & Packaging (ACP) business and is also the Marlborough R&D Site Leader for DuPont ACP. Chris is a prolific leader, innovator, and champion within the DuPont Electronics & Industrial organization. In his current role, he is responsible for leading his team to deliver innovative solutions for the next generation of interconnect and semiconductor packaging processes. Prior to this role, Chris was the New Product Development Leader for DuPont Advanced Packaging Technologies, R&D Manager for DuPont Exploratory Technologies, and led numerous projects as an Associate Research Scientist within the Dow Electronics Materials Exploratory Technologies group. Chris joined Dow Electronic Materials in 2012 and has been within this company throughout the historic DowDuPont Merger/Spin. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Boston College. In his time with DuPont, Chris has also co-founded and sponsored several ERG’s in DuPont with a focus on mentoring and workplace improvement in the DuPont technology community.

Lisa Balbes has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the BMGT Nexus Award.

The Nexus Award was established to recognize strategic, outstanding, and sustainable contributions to the ACS Division of Business Development & Management – the nexus of chemistry, business, and management. Congratulations Dr. Balbes!

Lisa Balbes, Ph.D., has been providing scientific communication services as Balbes Consultants LLC since 1992. In addition to technical writing and editing for all sectors, she authored “Nontraditional Careers for Chemists: New Formulas for Chemistry Careers” (Oxford University Press), and has served as career consultant and internationally invited workshop presenter for over 30 years. Some of her many roles at ACS include serving as Chair of BMGT in 2017. From 2016 – 2020 she transformed our external presence in her role as division webmaster, and she continues to advise the division on various communication issues.