Meet Georgia Craven, Procurement Manager at Shell Polymers, who has been with the Shell family for 22 years. After joining the Shell Polymers team in 2016 she has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining the contacts and third-party relationships that will make our plant tick.
Procurement Manager
As the construction of its new polyethylene plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania continues, Shell Polymers has been hiring a team of industry experts, aka Polymer Pioneers and Polymer Pros, with proven track records in polymers. In this article, we talked to Procurement Manager, Georgia Craven to learn more about her 22-year career with Shell and how her work directly affects the Shell Polymers plant.
Georgia began her career with Shell 22 years ago, working in finance for her first nine years before switching to contracts and procurement in downstream operations. In 2016, Georgia joined the new Shell Polymers team in its first contracts-related role. With many third-party suppliers to vet and contract, Georgia jumped into the Procurement Manager position with the goal of establishing and maintaining both third-party contracts and relationships.
There are more than 200 contracts which will be needed for everything from grounds maintenance suppliers to the materials and services that support the production of our polymers. Georgia and a team of contracts specialists have worked on every contract as she created the contract strategy from the ground up for Shell Polymers.
"My work is instrumental to creating the contracting strategy that will support the Shell Polymers plant when it’s up and running.”
Georgia Craven
With her previous work being mainly in the refining industry, switching to chemicals was an adjustment. That change didn’t concern Georgia. In fact, the idea of jumping into a new experience was too good to pass up. Of all things, what Georgia didn’t expect to give her the most difficulty was switching climates.
“I’m a southern girl, so moving to Pennsylvania was a big adjustment.”
Much like the jump to chemicals, Georgia welcomed this climatic transition. The primary driving force behind her ability to always push forward, and meet every challenge head-on, are her three children.
Georgia says that her children, ages 24, 23, and 21, have always been her biggest motivation. Ever since she started with Shell, her children have challenged her to ensure her work aligned with her personal values of responsibility and sustainability.
“Since Shell Polymers wants to produce polymers in a responsible and sustainable way, I saw this as a way to support the green movement my family cares so much about.”
Georgia’s family cares about their impact on the environment, so she wanted to make sure her career did the same. After learning about Shell Polymers’ focus on sustainability, she was all in. In fact, Georgia states that working on the Shell Polymers plant has been one of the biggest highlights of her career. The impact the project will have on the polyethylene industry and plastics converters is something Georgia will always see as a crowning achievement.
“My motivation in moving to Shell Polymers was to support a company that wants to be a part of something that is important to my family. We want to be greener and take care of our environment and Shell does as well.”
However, Georgia’s career has not been without its challenges. Being a working mom, Georgia is well acquainted with the challenges of balancing work and family responsibilities.
“It’s a challenge, but setting boundaries is one of the most important things you can do.”
Another challenge Georgia addresses is that of equity as a woman of color. When Georgia started her career, there wasn’t always a place she felt she could bring her whole self.
“That’s changing. It’s changed a lot, but it’s been a challenge in my career.”
Georgia sees that there are ebbs and flows in the industry when it comes to diversity and inclusion progress.
“There has been progress. In many ways it’s changed and in many ways it’s stayed the same.”
Georgia finds the new generation of young professionals to be encouraging for the future of diversity and inclusion. As a mentor, Georgia sees their willingness to have open dialogues about difficult topics as a promising start to opening more doors for diversity in the workplace.
“Nothing changes if people don’t talk about what is a challenge or what is halting progress in our industry.”
Georgia sees the diversity and inclusion work performed by Shell as a good start and something that has been a long time coming. She believes that this kind of meaningful progress will continue because people are talking openly and honestly about these topics.