Listen to Victoria’s Live AFPM Interview Here:
Once considered a back-office function, supply chain management has become crucial to business strategy as disruptions and geopolitical events reshape the chemical industry. Host Victoria Meyer is joined by Jennifer Jewson (LyondellBasell), Claudia Moshiri (Brenntag), and Chad Burke (Economic Alliance Houston Port Region) live from AFPM International Petrochemical Conference to discuss how companies are adapting—emphasizing flexibility, optionality, and visibility to stay resilient and competitive.
The panel shares practical approaches to risk management, compliance, and digitization, while examining the challenges of infrastructure constraints and the rapid evolution of the global landscape. With insights on real-time disruptions like the Strait of Hormuz, the conversation offers valuable takeaways for industry professionals looking to strengthen supply chain resilience and capability for the future.
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Listen in this week as Victoria and the Supply Chains Under Stress Panel discuss the following:
- Supply chain moves to boardroom priority
- Navigating real-time global disruptions
- AI and data in decision making
- Infrastructure and workforce under pressure
- Building resilience and flexibility forward
Killer Quote: “Supply chains aren’t just operational; they’re not just back office. They’re really strategic. They’re really a strategic part of our businesses and the ability to make those tradeoffs, understand constraints, and really understand those consequences.” — Victoria Meyer
Watch this Live Episode from AFPM Here:
Supply Chains Under Stress | Live from AFPM International Petrochemical Conference 2026
The chemical industry’s approach to supply chains has undergone a significant reset in the past decade. Once tucked away as a “back office” function, supply chain management now sits at the strategic core of every major chemical business. At the AFPM International Petrochemical Conference in 2026, a panel of leaders from across the value chain—manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and port operations—joined Victoria to share how disruption, technology, and new leadership thinking are shaping the industry’s response to ongoing global pressures. The conversation captures how resilience and flexibility have become the new North Star for chemical supply chain professionals.
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Supply Chains Take Center Stage
Global supply chain disruptions have moved the topic from the warehouse floor to the boardroom. Whether it’s a pandemic, war, tariffs, or logistical bottlenecks, the industry has faced shockwaves that aren’t subsiding. Trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, and infrastructure constraints have fundamentally changed how companies approach sourcing, logistics, and delivery. In this landscape, companies can’t afford to leave their supply chains vulnerable or ignore the role of resilience.
Jennifer Jewson, Chief Procurement Officer at Lyondellbasell, summarized what modern resilience means: optionality, flexibility, and end-to-end visibility. According to Jennifer, “Data has become incredibly important for us because we’ve got to make better decisions and clearer decisions as we go forward.”
The Shift from Cost Efficiency to Risk Management
Where cost efficiency once dominated procurement strategy, risk now plays an equal (or greater) role. Jennifer outlined how pre-2020 supply chains chased the lowest unit cost through practices like sole sourcing, aggregation of demand, and just-in-time inventories. When everything clicked, it looked ideal. But today? The priority has shifted to assessing and managing risk at every level: financial, location, and sustainability risk.
Her team uses risk tools to inform decisions, moving away from simply choosing the lowest price. It’s now about being strategic and positioning the company to weather volatile markets, supply shortages, and global disruptions.
Visibility, Flexibility, and End-to-End Communication
Claudia Mushuri, from Brenntag, described how the role of a distributor has evolved. No longer “the secret sauce behind the scenes,” distributors now buffer customers from volatility by leveraging visibility, inventory management, and strong communication. Structural issues such as transportation bottlenecks and port congestion haven’t disappeared, and in some cases remain as tough as ever, but data-driven decision-making and AI tools are making the day-to-day more manageable.
Buffering and regionalizing inventory, multi-sourcing, and rapid response to disruption are part of daily life. The open communication with customers, keeping them informed and prepared, has become a critical success factor.
Infrastructure Constraints: The View from the Port
No discussion on supply chains is complete without talking about infrastructure. Chad Burke highlighted how, even as the Port of Houston doubled its container traffic in the past decade, road and rail access remain stubborn choke points. Hundreds of millions of dollars have expanded capacity inside the port, but outside-the-gate infrastructure, like highways, lags behind, causing daily backups and threatening competitiveness.
Solutions here require collective advocacy. Industry, distribution companies, and port authorities must jointly press for public investment, as public infrastructure moves much more slowly than the rapid expansions seen inside chemical plants.
Talent, Technology, and Change Management
Across the board, panelists agreed that better data and tech tools are essential, but only if organizations can manage the change. Both Claudia and Jennifer discussed the challenges of building end-to-end visibility, harnessing AI for meaningful insights, and ensuring people have the skills and mindset to adapt.
Change management is underestimated. Company veterans and new hires alike need time, space, and leadership encouragement to experiment, learn, and sometimes fail as they integrate new ways of working.
Geopolitical Shocks and the Case for Regionalization
Recent geopolitical events, notably the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have served as a stark reminder of global interconnectedness and fragility. Both Jennifer and Claudia described how their teams are responding in real time to shocks: moving inventory, working with new suppliers, and shifting from quarterly to monthly pricing.
The panelists believe the way forward is a hybrid model: maintaining global scale and cost efficiencies where possible, while building in regional redundancy and buffers for critical products. Not everything can—or should—be made locally, but relying on a single region, especially for essentials, carries ever-increasing risk.
The Resilient Supply Chain Leader
Today’s leaders manage paradoxes: efficiency versus resilience, global reach versus local safety, digital speed versus organizational readiness. The big takeaway for industry professionals? As Victoria closed, supply chains are not just operational, they are a strategic lever for business success. The ability to build capabilities for resilient, flexible, and intelligent decision-making is now central to industry leadership.
About The Panelists:
Chad Burke, President & CEO, The Economic Alliance Houston Port Region
Mr. Burke has served as President and CEO of the Economic Alliance since 2009. The Economic Alliance is the economic development corporation for the Houston Ship Channel region; home to the world’s largest petrochemical complex and the nation’s #1 exporting port. The mission of the Economic Alliance is to grow the regional economy by attracting new businesses and creating an environment where existing businesses can expand.
There are over 250 members of the Economic Alliance, including 13 cities, Harris County, and the Port of Houston Authority. Since 2008, the Economic Alliance has supported 82 successful projects that have helped create 4,174 new jobs and over $18.8 billion of capital investment to the Houston Port Region.
Chad serves on a variety of community boards and committees, including the Harris County – Houston Sports Authority, Deer Park Education Foundation, and the San Jacinto Museum and Battlefield Association Board. In 2019, he was recognized as one of Houston Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs.
A graduate of Texas A & M University, Mr. Burke earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He and his wife Shannon have two children, and one grandson that occupies most of their time and energy.
Claudia Moshiri, Director Logistics and Trade Compliance, Brenntag North America
Claudia is a chemical industry logistics professional with specialized expertise in trade compliance, logistics, and risk management within complex chemical distribution environments. For over a decade, she has held various roles at Brenntag, where she has developed deep operational insight into global chemical supply chains and the regulatory frameworks that govern them.
Claudia’s focus includes managing tariff exposure, navigating the evolving customs and international trade regulations, and mitigating compliance and supply-chain risks associated with cross-border chemical movements. She brings hands-on experience in aligning regulatory requirements with day-today operational realities, while partnering closely with commercial, logistics, and compliance teams to build resilient and cost-effective trade strategies.
From a chemical distributor’s perspective, Claudia’s emphasis is on translating trade policy and regulatory complexity into actionable supply chain strategy — balancing compliance, cost control, inventory positioning, and customer commitments. She is particularly committed to strengthening distributor agility in the face of tariff volatility, port disruptions, and shifting global trade dynamics – all impacting the chemical value chain.
Claudia earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from University of Houston. She served as an active member of the National Shipper Advisory Committee (NSAC) for four years, contributing to industry dialogue on ocean shipping policy, port congestion, and supply chain transparency.
Outside of work, Claudia enjoys traveling with family, practicing archery with her eldest daughter, and exploring the geopolitical landscape. She is the proud mother of two young daughters who are engaged in multiple activities and sports.
Jennifer (Jen) Jewson, Chief Procurement Officer, Lyondellbasell
Jen is the Chief Procurement Officer for Lyondellbasell and is based at the US headquarters office in Houston, Texas. She is responsible for the procurement of Lyondellbasell’s requirements which includes but is not limited to Technical Materials and Services, Raw Materials, Corporate and IT Services and Industrial Gases. She is responsible for setting the contracting strategy for materials acquisition, leading the Sustainable Procurement initiative for Scope 3 emissions and developing a global operating model for best cost country procurement. Her scope also utilizes digital and IT tools for greater purchasing visibility and predictability. Jen is also the current President for Together for Sustainability, an organization of over 50 petrochemical companies that working together to create more sustainable supply chains for a greener planet.
Jen started out as a Chemist within R&D working on both catalyst design and product development. She was awarded 9 patents within her R&D tenure. She moved to Houston in 2003 where she has held various roles within the company within Business, Sales, Feedstocks and Mergers & Acquisitions. In 2015 she moved to Rotterdam to complete an expat assignment where she worked to globalize the Lead to Cash team within Supply Chain. She holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry and an MBA in Finance.