John Sampson


Senior Vice President, Operations,
Manufacturing and Engineering

John Sampson is Sr. Vice President for Operations, Manufacturing & Engineering for Dow. In this role, Sampson presides over the Operations Leadership Team (OLT) and is accountable for the global Operations organization consisting of more than 22,000 employees across the globe. He is a member of Dow’s Leadership Team (LT), responsible for executing the Company strategy in addition to the Operations Team (OT), accountable for the Company’s productivity and performance. John is also a member of the North Star Team chartered to drive Dow’s Customer Experience and Employee Experience to advance the evolution of Dow’s operating model.

Before returning back to Dow, John served as Executive Vice President, Business Operations with oversight for managing the M&E, Manufacturing Services, Safety/Health & Environmental, and the Technology Center for Olin’s Chemicals businesses and served as a Corporate Officer at Olin Corporation. John was also Senior Vice President for Business Operations at Olin Corporation.

John joined Dow in 1983 in Louisiana in Polymers Research & Development before transferring to manufacturing in 1988 where he held several production engineering and production management assignments. He transferred to Dexco Polymers, a Dow-Exxon partnership, in 1992 as production supervisor and moved into a supply chain role in 1996. In 1998, Sampson relocated to Midland, Michigan, as the North America supply chain manager for Engineering Plastics and was named business champion for Six Sigma in Engineering Plastics a year later. In 2000, global supply chain responsibilities were added to his role.

Sampson served as site leader for Dow’s Pittsburg, California, facilities from 2001 to 2004 where he also held the business manufacturing leader (BML) role for the Fumigants and Turf & Ornamental businesses in Dow AgroSciences. He was site leader for Dow’s Rhine Center facility in Germany and France from 2004-2007. He was Director of Manufacturing for Specialties, Phenoxies, and external manufacturing in Dow AgroSciences. In 2007, he was named global business director for Chlor-Alkali and was named Manufacturing Vice President, Chemicals & Energy in 2011. In 2012, John was named Vice President of Environment, Health, & Safety Operation for The Dow Chemical Company.

John previously served on the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory. He previously served on the Steering Committee and the Advisory Committee of the National Safety Council’s Campbell Institute. He also served on the Board of Directors for Ducks Unlimited and was Vice Chair of the Chlorine Institute.

John holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University.
John is married and has one daughter. The family enjoys traveling and spending time with friends.