JD Durkin: Joining us now, not just an amazing go-to guest, but he and his team just rang the closing bell: Dave Li, CEO and president at Ingevity, a specialty chemicals and materials company. Nice to see you today, and congratulations.
Dave Li: Thank you. It’s great to be here. We also really appreciate the partnership with NYSE. It’s been a great partnership for many years.
JD Durkin: And at ten years, in fact, if I’m not mistaken, you’re celebrating a decade on the public markets. Take us back. What did the company look like ten years ago, and how have things continued to evolve for you?
Dave Li: Thanks. Actually, we got our start more than a century ago. So back in 1911, in our labs, we started studying activated carbon and all the uses we could find for that technology around the world. That’s still very much at the heart of our company today. We’re obviously here to celebrate ten years, but it’s really a celebration of the entire journey of the company and where we’re going.
JD Durkin: So compared with a decade ago, or maybe compared all the way back to 1911, what has changed the most about the underlying business, and what has stayed most consistent over all these years?
Dave Li: Yeah, I would say a lot of things have changed. Obviously, we live in a changing world, and things continue to change faster and faster. Some of the things that haven’t changed about our company: one is our culture, which we feel really, really good about. It’s called the Ingevity Way. We’re one of those companies that actually make stuff, so safety is very important for us, for example. We also pride ourselves on operational excellence and the way we support our customers through the years. So those things have definitely not changed.
What has changed over the past year or so is we’ve become a more focused specialty materials company. We’ve taken a hard look at what we’re really good at, what we’re the best in the world at, and we’ve reflected that in our portfolio. And now we’re moving to growth, so we’re really excited about the future.
JD Durkin: This is obviously a celebration of the journey and the past. A lot of consumers, a lot of our viewers, may not know the name Ingevity specifically, but they’re undoubtedly very familiar with your underlying business. Where would people be most surprised to find your technology showing up in their everyday lives?
Dave Li: Thanks for the question. So today, a lot of our products are in everyday use. If you drive a vehicle that’s an ICE or hybrid vehicle, an internal combustion engine or hybrid vehicle, you probably have some content from Ingevity. We’re also increasingly important in water filtration, something that everyone really feels is important, and in the roads that we drive on. Some of our additives are used to lengthen the life of the road and reduce pollution. And it’s estimated that our products save about 8 million gallons of gasoline a day through the work that we do in evaporative emissions.
JD Durkin: I’ve got about 30 seconds left. What does the next chapter look like for Ingevity?
Dave Li: We’re super excited. So first, it starts again with our culture. We continue strengthening that, as well as our leadership. We’re really excited for our growth, in areas like filtration and energy storage, as well as building onto our core businesses in infrastructure and evaporative emissions. So we think the future is super exciting and inevitable. And again, great to be here.
JD Durkin: You’re not kidding on the growth. Shares up 2% today, up 18% year to date. You’re outpacing the S&P 500, and the S&P 500 itself is up today. So a bit of good luck. Come back and see us again someday.
Dave Li: We’ll come back anytime. Thank you.
JD Durkin: Dave Li, CEO and president at Ingevity.
