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Q&A with Don Sheets: Vice President, CFO and Americas-Area President of Dow Corning
by Nancy Sajdak Manning
- Photo by: Avram Golden
Dow Corning, equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Incorporated, is a global leader in silicon-based technology and innovation. The corporation was formed in 1943 by Dow Chemical and Corning Glass for the purpose of exploring the potential uses of silicones. Today, Dow Corning has 50 manufacturing and warehouse locations, employs over 9,000 people worldwide, approximately 3,000 in the Tri-Cities, and offers more than 7,000 products and services to 25,000 customers. Dow Corning has many locations inside and outside of the U.S.
The Americas Area of Dow Corning that Sheets oversees consists of facilities in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky, California, Mexico, and Brazil. In Michigan, Dow Corning facilities include Bay County’s Corporate Center and Auburn manufacturing site; the Midland manufacturing site; Saginaw County’s Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) and Dow Corning Healthcare Industries Materials Site (HIMS); and Wayne County’s Plymouth science and technology center.
Recently, after a year-long global search, Dow Corning and Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation officials announced their decision to invest $1 billion in the expansion of Hemlock Semiconductor, a joint venture of Dow Corning Corporation and two Japan-based firms. The expansion, generating hundreds of much-needed Mid-Michigan jobs, will greatly increase the company’s total output of ultra-pure silicon, which is the key ingredient used to manufacture solar panels.
Sheets earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and management from Albion College and a master’s of business administration in operations management from the University of Michigan. At Dow Corning, he has held management and professional positions in accounting, finance, and marketing. Sheets is noted for his innovative efforts in launching Dow Corning’s customer service via the internet.
For this July interview, we met in a small conference room at Dow Corning headquarters. Sheets appeared confident and at ease. When I asked my first question, however, he hesitated. Then he smiled, “I never do interviews like this, so this fun.”
Q. I noticed that you graduated from Michigan colleges. Are you originally from Michigan?
A. Yes, I am from Michigan, and I was raised in East Lansing.
Q. Will you share some things about your childhood?
A. . . . I have two younger brothers. My father was a physician in Lansing. My mom was a nurse, but a stay-at-home mom while we were growing up.
I have strong medical roots in my family. I was one of the first to sort of violate that and go a different path—my father was a physician, and his father was a physician. . . . My dad practiced high-risk obstetrics . . . a real demanding professions. . . . He loved it; it was his passion. . . I was always more interested in the “I-want-to-make-five-bucks-more-on-the- lawn” type of thing. . . more of a little entrepreneur than I was a little scientists—you know, not a medicine-kind of person.
Q. What influenced your choice of colleges?
A. One of the traditions we sort of have is that we’re a small-college family—the liberal arts kind, philosophically driven. . . . Actually, what attracted me to Albion was the [Carl A.] Gerstacker Program in Professional Management. Gerstacker was a former CEO of Dow Chemical. . . .
Q. At what point in your life did you join Dow Corning?
A. Right out of Albion. I’m one of these Baby Boomers—at least the tail end of it—that’s stuck with the company for 25 years, all in Midland, which is unusual for senior executives at Dow Corning. Typically, they’ll do an international assignment. . . .
Q. Will you share something about those who have been especially influential to you, and discuss how they’ve impacted your general success in life and at Dow Corning?
A. I think the first—and I this is true for a lot of kids—was my father. He was in a demanding profession. He was a man who made good decisions, and the good advice he gave me was, ‘You can’t get anywhere in life by consistently making bad decisions.’ . . . Even to this day, when making a big decision, usually something that runs through my mind is with my father, Would he do this, whether it’s personal or professional?
I guess the other influence. . . is that I read a lot—fiction and nonfiction—but particularly in the nonfiction area. And, in biographies and things like that I have found a lot from figures in history. . . I guess Churchill would be one [biography] that I would point to. . . I’m particularly taken with him.
Q. Will you comment about the nature of Dow Corning’s community involvement that communities especially appreciate—and what has special meaning to you?
A. . . . First, and probably foremost, is that Dow Corning, and more importantly, the individuals inside of Dow Corning, have made a real commitment to science and math education. . . . [Q]uite a bit of our community outreach is oriented to support science and math education, particularly in the K-12 schools. . . .
On a more personal outreach . . . I’m actually on the board of directors for the Center for the Arts in Midland. And, the arts and what the arts can do for the community is something that’s very important to me. . . . Music, the arts—those forms of expression—are a big part of what is to be human. And, what we’re looking for is a community that is diverse and inspiring to people and challenges our intellect and our view of the world. . . . Those are things that make a community a fun place to live, an engaging place to live, and I think the arts are an essential part of that mixture to get that diverse, wonderful melting pot stirred up.
UP-CLOSE WITH DON SHEETS
- Photo by: Avram Golden
Personal:
Lives in Midland, married to Angela, the “artist” in the family—a musician; two sons.
Favorite relaxation or pastime:
Avid reader, old movies, golf, outdoors’ work in the yard.
Favorite books, past or recent:
“I’m an eclectic reader.” Recently read Einstein: His Life and Universe (Walter Isaacson, 2007) and Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad. Just started reading some Oscar Wilde short stories.
Ideal vacation:
“Just laying on the beach reading a book. . . bring a suitcaseful of books, and just sit and spend a week just reading—a quiet vacation.”
Favorite Michigan travel destination(s):
“Leelanau County. That’s just spectacular up there, and we enjoy that. The kids like it. It’s as beautiful a place as you’ll ever find.”
Favorite quote:
“Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.”—French Proverb.
Anything else you’d like to share with the community:
“Both Angela and I are just thrilled, or enjoy, being residents of this area—this region. And, we’ve chosen to raise our family here. And, I don’t think we should ever sell this region short. I really think that there’s a lot of promise and potential still for the Tri-Cities’ region, not just because Dow Corning’s doing well or Dow Chemical’s doing well. This region has supported tremendous things in its past. It’s just a great place to live.”