In this exclusive interview, Stephen Reynolds, industry principal for Chemicals at AVEVA, offers his perspective on the goals, challenges and accomplishments of the company
A chemical engineer by training, Reynolds worked in chemical operations throughout his career, focusing on continuous improvement and operations excellence. He joined OSIsoft in 2016 as part of the PI Center of Excellence and now serves as the industry principal for Chemicals at AVEVA. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago. Reynolds currently resides in Chicago with his family.
Executive Interview
How would you describe your organization?
AVEVA is an ever-evolving organization with growth through key acquisitions and industry innovation from our internal development teams. By integrating industry-leading engineering data-management tools with intelligent processes, we have crafted best-in-breed solutions that drive industrial intelligence. Our commitment to customer success is at the heart of everything we do, seamlessly connecting the dots across the entire asset lifecycle with robust infrastructure to manage this connectivity.
What topics or concerns is your company currently focused on?
Sustainability is a core priority for AVEVA, both within our own operations and in the solutions we deliver to customers. As we work to optimize our off-site interactions with customers and the market, reducing our carbon footprint remains an important focus for us. At the same time, many of our customers are navigating complex sustainability targets, and we are committed to providing the technologies and expertise they need to adapt and evolve with their goals. However, we know that sustainability is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Industries today face pressures around safety, regulatory compliance, cost control and supply chain reliability. These challenges span across people, products and operational environments, demanding scalability and efficiency. By leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are able to focus on “what’s next” and shore up critical foundational technologies to enable our customers as they grow.
What goals are you trying to achieve?
I work to further solidify AVEVA’s marketplace position as the go-to, trusted advisor in the chemicals industry. With each customer facing unique plant operations, staffing challenges, and digital transformation objectives, my goal is to provide tailored guidance that turns possibilities into actionable strategies. We call this delivering the “art of the possible” to our customers, which addresses customers’ immediate needs and also drives long-term success with innovative thinking.
What challenges does your organization face?
The pace and evolution of AI and machine learning are driving opportunities for more unique and specialty solutions across a variety of chemical segments. Our industrial application space is becoming more crowded as companies introduce new solutions from a variety of sources. At AVEVA, we maintain our competitive advantage by focusing on delivered value through digital transformation, providing solutions through our contextualized hybrid-data infrastructure and industrial applications.
What directions and challenges do you see for the chemical process industries as a whole?
The chemicals industry is very fluid right now, largely due to the shifts in global cost structures and demand patterns. Many companies are still recovering from these shifts leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies, and even countries, are looking regionally to “in-region, for-region” strategies that add responsiveness to their value chains and strengthen their market position. On top of this, maintaining regulatory licenses to operate, continuing the path to net-zero, and navigating generational changes in the workforce continue to challenge the industry greatly. Tapping into these challenges, particularly around the issues that digital transformation can solve for, requires greater speed to prove value in a crowded space. Directionally, the industry looks to get leaner, controlling costs and establishing more nimble value chains. There is still room for innovation as many companies look to new processes and modern digital technologies for solutions in their changing and challenging marketplace.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
There are many of us at AVEVA, particularly within the Industry team, that have worked across the many facets of industrial operations. We have faced many of the same challenges that our customers face every day. Our goal is to guide them and find the way technology can create better business outcomes. Having that expertise is something we don’t take lightly — it drives our decision-making and interactions with our customers. As I tell my customers, “I no longer have a plant of my own, I would enjoy helping you with yours.” ■
Department Manager: Dorothy Lozowski
Company: AVEVA
Number of Employees: Over 6,000
Corporate Headquarters: Cambridge, U.K.
Locations: Over 50 locations
Leadership: Caspar Herzberg, CEO
Main Products: Industrial software solutions
Website: www.aveva.com