NEW YORK and LONDON, December 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

ICIS Chemical Business magazine has unveiled the ICIS Top 40 Power Players - the movers and shakers having the greatest impact on the global chemical sector.

"It's been a turbulent year, with a slow economic recovery weighed down by the European debt crisis, high levels of US unemployment and slowing growth in China, said Joseph Chang, Global Editor of ICIS Chemical Business (http://www.icis.com/magazine).

"But the ICIS Top 40 Power Players are guiding their companies through the challenges, and mapping out an exciting course for the future," he added.

Taking the top spot this year is Jim Gallogly, CEO of Netherlands-based LyondellBasell.

"Gallogly and his team are laying the ground for the future, and in the US are seeking to capitalize on North America's shale gas advantage.
Debottlenecking and new cracker plans in the US put the company firmly back on the path to growth," said Nigel Davis, Insight Editor at ICIS.

"This has been an outstanding year for LyondellBasell. The collective efforts and success of our employees around the world implementing our back-to-basic strategy is proof we have what it takes to become the premier commodity petrochemical company," said Gallogly. "We believe we have now earned the right to grow and are well positioned for the future."

Gallogly has overseen the company's successful emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2010. Since then, the company has consistently beat Wall Street expectations and generated significant cash flow, putting itself in a net cash position by the end of the third quarter of 2011.

That position of strength allowed it to announce a $2.6bn one-time special dividend for shareholders on November 14, along with a 25% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.25/share.

Coming in at number two in the ICIS Top 40 Power Players ranking is Dow Chemical chairman, president and CEO Andrew Liveris. Dow has announced a $20bn joint venture petrochemical project in Saudi Arabia along with a slew of US expansions.

At number three is Shell Chemicals executive vice president Ben van Beurden, whose company is planning to build the first ethylene cracker in the Appalachia region of the US near the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

Download the ICIS Top 40 Power Players on ICIS at: http://www.icis.com/top40 (registration required).

ICIS Chemical Business

ICIS Chemical Business is part of ICIS, the world's largest information provider for the chemical, energy and fertilizer industries. ICIS aims to help companies in global commodity markets improve their revenues and profits by providing high quality, timely, commercially useful information, business leads and brand positioning across the globe.
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ICIS

ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of Reed Elsevier. With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Milan, Dusseldorf, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Perth. The team covers over 140 commodity markets and has in-depth knowledge across markets in upstream and downstream sectors in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Find out more at http://www.icis.com.

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For media inquiries, contact:

Joseph Chang
Global Editor
ICIS Chemical Business
T: +1-212-791-4224
joseph.chang@icis.com 

Nigel Davis
Insight Editor
ICIS
T: +44-20-8652-3397
nigel.davis@icis.com

SOURCE ICIS