Wayne Smith, president of the Catalysts division of BASF, based in Iselin, N.J., is a chemical engineer by training. So he knows the extraordinary impact one chemical reaction can have.

For those not versed in chemical engineering, catalysis is the science of chemical change, and a catalyst is an engineered material that facilitates a chemical reaction. Although the Catalysts division was created in 2006, BASF has been working in catalysis since the 1970s. Ever true to its iconic marketing slogan, the German chemicals conglomerate doesn’t make the products consumers buy; it makes a lot of the products consumers buy better. “It is hard to describe what BASF is,” Smith says. “Generally, we are in some intermediate part of the manufacturing process in the automotive, construction, oil and gas, consumer goods, and health and nutrition industries. But we’re not the end producer.”

One of BASF’s most successful creations is the catalytic converter, which, since its development in 1974, has become standard equipment on millions of motor vehicles. “When I was a kid, I remember what used to come out of a tailpipe,” he says, “and back then it was not good.” He notes that catalytic converters have prevented billions of tons of pollutants from being released into the atmosphere.

PremAir, a product that’s already found on more than 3 million vehicles worldwide, targets harmful ground-level ozone that has already found its way into the air. (Like cholesterol, there’s bad and good ozone: ground-level ozone is a main component of smog, but stratospheric ozone protects humans from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.) PremAir is a coating that’s applied to the radiator of a motor vehicle, turning it into a “smog eater,” Smith says.

After rising through the ranks at W. R. Grace and the BOC Group, Smith landed at BASF in 2004. Company execs tapped him to lead the Catalysts division in 2006. After acquiring Engelhard Corp. that year, BASF wanted to unify its catalysis operations and the more than 5,000 employees working on them. Smith’s division focuses on environmental and purification technologies, among other areas.

In his role, Smith is a catalyst himself — effecting change among his division’s 600 researchers at facilities around the world, and prodding them to explore new areas of chemistry. “The company is not afraid to put people in challenging positions,” he says.

Smith is also a keen businessman. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he recognizes that investing money to develop groundbreaking products is just as important as responding to the needs of BASF’s demanding customer base. “I’m keeping the future-focused strategy alive within the organization so people are aware of it,” he says. “That also means getting out with customers and suppliers, working on new joint ventures, and making sure we have a good ear to the ground externally.”

With “green” initiatives such a hot trend these days, Smith says the enthusiasm for finding new ways to reduce emissions and maximize energy efficiency has never been higher. In turn, his division is expanding operations in places like India and China, where there are serious air-quality issues and a huge opportunity to do good.

“The world may be getting smaller, as many have stated, but it’s still a pretty big place,” Smith says. “There are a lot of things we can imagine we can do better in the future.”

 

Wayne’s Way

Favorite business travel city: London

Favorite restaurant on the road: Nola, New Orleans

Most important technological tool for his travels: BlackBerry

Critical hotel amenity: Excellent system for indoor air quality — temperature, humidity, and noise

Personal Discovery

Treehugger.com’s Graham Hill is helping to bring green into the mainstream

Imagine you live in a cube in the countryside of Quebec, where Graham Hill was raised. Five sides of that box leak heated air in the winter, and one long pipe ferries its water and sewage. Now place that same cube in New York City, stacked among dozens of similar blocks. The dwelling now has one outward wall, drastically reducing the amount of air leaked into the atmosphere, and the pipe transports water and sewage for many more people. “I’ve always enjoyed cities, and cities are in fact very green,” says Hill, 37, a self-described “serial entrepreneur” and founder of the blog Treehugger.com.

“Our basic mission is to push sustainability and green into the mainstream,” continues Hill, who started the blog in 2004. Since then, an average of 1.6 million visitors have stopped by each month to peruse the site’s impressive archive of more than 19,000 posts written by experts from across the globe. It is one of the most recognized green sites, as measured by Google and the blog-ranking service Technorati, and has even lent expertise to The Oprah Winfrey Show. If that isn’t mainstream enough, Discovery Communications purchased the site last summer, making it a crucial element of its Planet Green network, which launches in June. As part of the deal, Hill becomes a vice president of interactive for Planet Green.

For Hill, the sale of Treehugger is more about “selling up” than “selling out.” In the 1990s, he founded (and sold) an Internet development firm that listed Microsoft among its clients. The move paid off handsomely and allowed Hill to pursue ventures nearer to his heart. “I had this environmental background and knew the Internet had done well,” he says. “So I could find my own business, and I just sort of recognized a problem.”

The problem was that most people — himself included — didn’t care about the environment as much as they should. “I looked at myself and thought about what was preventing me from living a green life,” says Hill, who came up with three obstacles: aesthetics, convenience, and fear.

“I care about how I get my hair cut, what kind of clothes I wear, and what my apartment looks like,” he continues. “I wish I didn’t, but aesthetic stuff matters. There was really only one aesthetic in the green movement — the hippie, crunchy aesthetic.” Today, however, eco-chic is all the rage, and Treehugger is a big part of the reason. Similarly, the blog’s content library has become a resource for people who crave convenience, providing them with an easy way to search for hard-to-find ecologically responsible products, news, and resources to support a modern green lifestyle.

Surmounting the third obstacle, fear, is more about crafting a message that will inspire the masses. “While I believe it’s really important to send the message that there are major issues and we need to do something, I really felt that you need to make it inspirational,” Hill says. “You need to inspire by hope.”

Texas Senator, Born and Raised

Kay Bailey Hutchison continues to make a difference

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was born to do this. She grew up in La Marque, Texas, and attended the University of Texas and UT Law. In 1990, she successfully ran for Texas state treasurer, and in 1993, in a special election held after Senator Lloyd Bentsen resigned to become secretary of the treasury, she was elected to the U.S. Senate. Reelected a year later, and again in 2000 and 2006, she has proudly followed in the footsteps of her great-great-grandfather Charles Taylor, whose signature can be found on the Texas Declaration of Independence, but with one added distinction: She was the first woman ever elected to represent Texas in the Senate.

Given that distinction, Senator Hutchison feels a unique responsibility to serve women. “Everyone brings their experiences into a legislative arena,” she says. “And having known discrimination early in my career, it affects what I want to do to make sure women have opportunities.” But the senator is quick to point out that her responsibility is to serve all the people of Texas: “While you want a variety of experience and diversity in the legislature, when elected, you must represent all the people. I think the same is true in the race for the White House. People will judge the candidates on their vision for the future of America, not on their gender.”

Senator Hutchison has been a staunch supporter of research and development. She helped establish the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas in 2004 with the goal of showcasing Texas as a leading science state. The academy’s aim is to foster the next generation of scientists and build awareness of scientific research. Hutchison has also served as chair of the Science and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is tasked with overseeing NASA and the National Science Foundation. “One of my highest priorities is to help our universities achieve more in the area of research,” the senator says. “I looked at what other states have done to increase their research abilities, and I’ve tried to bring new innovative researchers into our state.”

And it’s worked.

Texas has jumped from sixth to third on the federal funding list, a move that translates into millions of dollars allocated to help the state attract more researchers. And Texas’ institutions for higher learning have garnered notable distinctions. For example, the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, is the preeminent center for cancer research, and Rice University is a national leader in nanotechnology.

In 2007, Congress passed a law, co-sponsored by Senator Hutchison, that will double funding for the National Science Foundation — whose budget provides funds to institutions for higher education all over the country. Senator Hutchison is proud that Texas can be the catalyst for this level of innovation.

As the ranking Republican member of the Senate Subcommittee for Aviation Operations, Safety and Security, Hutchison keeps in mind the needs of the traveling consumers of her state. In 2006, she worked successfully to repeal the anticompetitive Wright Amendment, which limited flights into and out of Dallas Love Field Airport. The action was intended to foster growth at Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport, but instead it resulted in fare increases for consumers. With the senator’s help, airport owners and airline executives agreed to remove those added costs, which resulted in increased efficiency for the airlines and lower prices passed along to consumers.

Some people never forget where they came from. Senator Hutchison took that core belief to the next step, choosing to live her life in service to the state that raised her.

A Mighty Hunter

After just one year in the majors, Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence
already sets the standard

Major League Baseball is sporting an ugly black eye as the 2008 season unfolds, still reeling from the Mitchell Report on players’ past abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. Yet fans seeking hope for the game’s immediate future need look no further than right field at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. There roams Astros phenom Hunter Pence, who is making a name for himself and helping to restore faith in what’s right about America’s pastime.

Even if he hadn’t led the team in hitting (.322) last season as a spark-plug rookie called up in late April from the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, Pence would be tough to miss. Looming at 6 feet, 4 inches and weighing 210 pounds, the Fort Worth native possesses a rare combination of power (17 home runs in 2007) and speed (11 stolen bases), as well as a humble, team-first attitude, nurtured since Little League.

“In my mind, I was always going to be a big leaguer,” Pence says. “Fortunately, [my brother and I] both grew up succeeding in baseball and made it to the college level.” In fact, Pence and his brother, Howard, played together at the University of Texas at Arlington before being drafted — Howard by the San Diego Padres in 2003, and Hunter by the Astros in ’04. (After four years as a relief pitcher in the minor leagues, the last with the Astros, Howard is now retired from pro baseball.)

Pence’s vivid recollection of the day last spring when he learned he’d been summoned to Houston illustrates his lifelong love for and dedication to baseball. The Round Rock Express had just lost a one-run game. “I take losses pretty hard, so I’m pretty down,” he recalls. “Jackie Moore, our manager, is right next to me. He turns with a big smile on his face and says, ‘Pencie, congratulations, bud. You’re going to the big leagues!’ I just froze. I flashed back on everything I’d done for that moment. I went from Little League to all the weight rooms, the running, the crazy training I put myself through in the minors. I started crying and hugging my teammates. I’ll never forget that moment, because it’s been my goal my whole life.”

Continental is the official airline of the Houston Astros.

 

Biggio’s Grand Finale

Recalling his brightest rookie moments, Hunter Pence ranks playing alongside Craig Biggio near the top. Little did Pence know when he came up to the Astros that his first season would be Biggio’s last. After 20 years in the majors, all with Houston, the seven-time All-Star catcher-turned-second baseman announced his retirement on July 24.

Biggio made his last season one to remember. The highlight was June 28. Biggio needed three hits to become the 27th player in major league history to record 3,000. He not only picked up a trio of singles by the seventh inning, but added two more in the extra-inning win over the Colorado Rockies. “I couldn’t have scripted it any better,” a choked-up Biggio said afterward.

On September 30, when Biggio doffed his cap to 43,823 well-wishers and trotted off the Minute Maid diamond, the Astros icon left behind a Texas-size baseball legacy: 3,060 hits, 668 doubles, 414 stolen bases, 1,844 runs scored, and 291 home runs. They haven’t seen the last of him, however. On February 11, the team announced that Biggio will serve as special assistant to general manager Ed Wade, with an emphasis on player development. “The future is about the next generation and how we can make them best players and better people,” said one of the better Astros ever.