Executive Search Success Story: Building an Industrial AI and Reliability Leadership Team to Optimize Continuous Process Operations at a Specialty Materials Manufacturer

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a specialty materials manufacturer running energy-intensive continuous processes with the digital, process AI, reliability, industrial IoT, and change leadership required to deploy advanced process control and predictive maintenance across twelve plants, cutting energy intensity, raising yield, and avoiding unplanned outages.

The Challenge

A specialty materials manufacturer faced rising energy costs, yield variability between plants running the same processes, and a series of unplanned furnace and kiln outages that each cost millions. Its plants generated vast process data that was not used beyond control rooms, advanced process control existed at two plants only, maintenance remained calendar-based, operators and engineers near retirement held undocumented process knowledge, and a prior digital initiative run by corporate IT had stalled for lack of process expertise. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the business:

• Energy intensity and yield variability between plants running identical processes
• Unplanned furnace and kiln outages costing millions per event
• Process data unused beyond control rooms with advanced process control at two plants only
• Calendar-based maintenance with no predictive capability on critical assets
• Retiring operators and engineers holding undocumented process knowledge
• A stalled IT-led digital initiative lacking process and operations credibility

Recognizing that the opportunity required leadership combining process expertise with industrial AI, the Chief Executive Officer and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Vice President of Process AI & Advanced Process Control, Vice President of Asset Reliability & Predictive Maintenance, Vice President of Industrial IoT & Plant Connectivity, and Vice President of Digital Change & Workforce Enablement. The company required an executive search partner with deep industrial AI expertise and access to leaders who had delivered results in continuous process environments.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Smart Factory & Industrial AI Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving manufacturers deploying industrial AI and digital operations programs, with a clear understanding of continuous process environments, advanced process control, asset reliability, and the leadership profiles that bridge process engineering and data science.

Process Industry Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting digital and reliability executives for chemicals, materials, metals, and other process manufacturers, with a clear understanding of furnace, kiln, and continuous asset economics.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated digital, process AI, reliability, IoT, and change searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single operational technology program.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Program Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the Chief Executive Officer, chief operating officer, and board to review energy and yield data, outage history, process control maturity, data infrastructure, workforce demographics, and the stalled initiative, defining five executive profiles aligned with an operations-led program.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting digital, process AI, reliability, IoT, and change executives at process manufacturers, chemicals and materials companies, industrial software providers, and reliability organizations who had led documented process optimization and predictive maintenance programs. Over 420 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of deploying advanced process control and process AI across multiple plants, building predictive maintenance programs on critical continuous assets, connecting plants through industrial IoT platforms, capturing expert process knowledge, and driving adoption among operators and engineers. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented operational technology program plans to the Chief Executive Officer and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified energy, yield, and reliability outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 420+ process manufacturing, industrial AI, and reliability executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning digital and technology, process AI, reliability, industrial IoT, and change within eight months.
• Reduced energy intensity by 11% and raised yield by 3.5 points across twelve plants.
• Eliminated unplanned major outages for two consecutive years.
• Connected all plants on a common secure data platform within fourteen months.
• Delivered $95M in annualized savings.