Download Video

Career Highlights

Biography

Excellence in leadership is often revealed in the midst of crises. Such was the case when BP asked Stephen Cornell for his help during its recovery from a large-scale 2005 refinery explosion.

“BP approached me to join their company and lead the transformation of their refinery operations,” Cornell recalls. “A primary component of this work was a new approach to process safety, which I instituted at all U.S. refineries. This impacted the lives of thousands of employees and permanently changed the company for the better.”

In his role as Chief Operating Officer for U.S. Fuels at BP, Cornell was responsible for all production, sales, marketing and logistics of BP fuel products in the U.S. He was also BP’s Global Head of major downstream projects, providing oversight to all large capital projects in the petrochemicals and fuels businesses.

Leading many large-scale efforts at BP was an exercise in understanding and finessing leadership in teamwork — a skill he began to hone as an undergraduate in the late 1970s.

“While at Purdue, we would often be required to work in teams. I did not appreciate it then, but these sessions were invaluable at teaching me how to lead by influence,” Cornell says. “When teams are established, at school or in a professional setting, a leader may not be explicitly appointed. Being able to help guide a team without being specifically named to lead is a skill that greatly assisted me in my professional career.”

Since his accomplishments with BP, Cornell has taken on positions of greater responsibility and broader scope.

In 2014, Cornell joined Sasol Limited, a global chemicals and energy company listed on both the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges. He was initially based in Houston and responsible for all operational activities outside Southern Africa, which included the role of executive sponsor for the multibillion-dollar Lake Charles Chemicals Project in Louisiana. In 2016, Cornell moved his family to Johannesburg, the headquarters of Sasol, to assume the role of Joint President and Co-CEO of this firm that operates in 33 countries around the world.

For his career achievements, he was awarded the Outstanding Chemical Engineer Award from Purdue’s Davidson School of Chemical Engineering in 2018.  Outside of work responsibilities, he has been involved with interest groups relating to the field of chemicals and energy.  He previously held the positions of Chairman for the American Petroleum Institute – Downstream Committee, Board Member on the American Chemistry Council and Governor Committee Member for the World Economic Forum – Oil and Gas.

Looking back on the formative years that led to his distinguished career, Cornell says he would advise today’s students to “enjoy all the activities and each friendship to its fullest extent … and get to know their professors. These professors are teaching at the highest levels of academia; they have a history to share and, as the years go by, you come to understand that they are playing an important role in your life.”