Jean Zappia, Vice President of Plastics Additives Segment: Achieving

Chapter 9

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Jean Zappia, Vice President of Plastics Additives Segment: Achieving Life Balance Jody A . Kocsis Technology Manager, Engine Oils, Lubrizol Corporation, 29400 Lakeland Boulevard, Wickliffe, OH 44092

"Never sacrifice your integrity, work hard, and have fun" is what Jean Zappia believes in. Jean is the Vice President of the Plastics Additives Segment of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, (previously Ciba-Geigy Corporation). Jean tells her story and provides direction to women entering the sciences.

Jean Zappia has been with Ciba Specialty Chemicals since receiving her B.S. in Biochemistry from Manhattan College in 1982. After spending 5 years in Ciba's applications laboratory in Polymer Additives, she moved into product management, marketing, and sales management positions and spent time in both the polymer additives and lubricant additives businesses. While working for Ciba, Jean earned her M . S . in Technology Management from Polytechnic Institute of New York. She is currently managing Ciba's lubricant additives business for North and South America and is a member of the N A F T A Leadership Team for the Plastics Additives Segment (consisting of Ciba's lubricant additive and polymer additives businesses). Not only does Jean enjoy the challenge of managing a business and being ultimately responsible for its profit and loss, but she also enjoys a life outside of Ciba. Jean and her husband of 18 years, Robert, have two children, Brendan, age 11, and Emma, age 6. They live in a suburb of New York City, Yorktown Heights. In her free time Jean enjoys photography, kids' soccer games, home improvement, and remodeling.

© 2005 American Chemical Society

Hinkle and Kocsis; Successful Women in Chemistry ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2005.

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Jean Zappia (Courtesy ofJean Zappia.)


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The Decision Jean always enjoyed science in high school and considered going to medical school after college. While an undergraduate, she began working in a local hospital as an E K G technician to determine whether medicine was the career for her. Although she liked the medical field, she did not necessarily like the "hard exterior" that many doctors had to adopt in order to deal with the human suffering they encountered every day. She decided to stay near medicine, but not as a medical doctor. This decision led Jean on a journey to find a career that satisfied her medical desire but was not in the operating room. She originally interviewed for a position with Ciba-Geigy because of its reputation as a pharmaceutical company. The company was located very near where she grew up, which allowed her to start her professional career near family and friends. When she learned that she would need a Ph.D. in chemistry before she would be given any real responsibility for running programs, she decided to give the industrial side of the business, in polymer additives, a try instead. Jean found interesting and meaningful work, tremendous people, and the opportunity to move from a technical track (which she realized early on was not for her longterm) to a business career path. Jean found a company that values its employees, provides opportunities for advancement, and is flexible with regard to the challenges of balancing family and career. She has made some life-long friends at Ciba and has always had fun. The value system she encounters at Ciba is consistent with her own value system: Never sacrifice integrity, work hard, and have fiin.

The Work Climate Jean mentions that over the past few years the business climate has changed dramatically as the chemical industry underwent a protracted period of economic uncertainty. These changes have made it much more difficult to have "fun" at work because the growth opportunities are harder to come by and cost control measures make for painful discussions at times. Jean has also changed, which she says is a good thing. She believes she is definitely a more mature, steadier individual now than she was a few years ago, which she thinks has helped her endure the rough economic times. Jean is often asked whether she has faced particular challenges as a woman in the field of chemistry, and in general she says that she has not. She has always thought that Ciba as an organization is fairly gender neutral. In the chemical industry in general, a woman might still be one of the few at any particular gathering. However, Jeans says that she has not faced any particularly tough challenges


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Definition of Success, A Compromise To Jean, happiness equates with success, and her happiness is directly related to how she views her life balance. Is she spending the right amount/quality of time with her family and friends? Does she have time to enjoy pursuits outside of the office? Is she available for her kids when they need her? And on the professional side, is she focused and productive while at work? Does she add value to her company, business, and employees? Has she helped a customer today? When she can positively answer all of these, her life is in balance and she considers herself successful. Jean also says success does require compromise. When trying to achieve balance in life, one must implicitly prioritize to determine what aspects of life won't be quite as "perfect" as they might be when life is less complicated. So i f your house or office is a little less clean or organized, this would be one kind of compromise. A more important kind of compromise, she thinks, comes from the people around us who are important to achieving success. Her family understands that she has to travel or work late or work at home, and her company understands that she sometimes needs to be with the family for important events. It seems to her that these people are also willing to compromise and in doing so contribute to everyone's success. Jean believes it is important to listen carefully to the small voice inside that tells when things are getting out of balance. Trust your instincts, and be ready to turn down the promotion i f it's not the right time. If you have the right stuff, more opportunities will always arise. Being both a mother and a professional can be a bit challenging. She had already been a professional for 10 years before having her first child, so she needed a period of redefining the professional woman she had become. What emerged was a professional that perhaps spent a bit less time thinking about work, especially at first, but with a new set of life experiences that she believes has ultimately made her a better professional and manager. Being a good manager is important, especially in the current climate. Jean thinks managers must challenge their people to help them grow. They need to invest in them, believe in them, and allow them to learn, even i f small mistakes are made in the process. Managers need to maintain an open dialogue with their people and continuously inform them of performance—both good and bad. Ultimately, they need to support their people, involve them, and make them aware that their contribution is important to the success of the overall venture.


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Career Development Tools Jean believes in helping people grow. As a manager, Jean has her people partake in a 360-degree evaluation process. She favors 360-degree feedback vehicles, which have many variations and enable employees to view themselves as others see them. She has had great results. She has also participated in a few of these herself and has always found them to be growth experiences. In addition, Jean has been lucky enough to participate in some excellent management and leadership programs while at Ciba. These courses teach how to manage and motivate teams so that all are on course and achieving the company goals.

Mentoring Jean was lucky enough to have not one but two mentors in her career at Ciba. Interestingly, they were both bosses, but she met one early in her career and the other much more recently. They were both effective mentors in that they continually challenged her outside her comfort zone, sometimes to the point of putting her in scary or unfamiliar situations, so that she might grow. They had absolute faith in her, even when she had doubts. They talked often (and sometimes argued), but they never stopped challenging her. They were ultimately friends that she trusted implicitly, and they her. Jean is also a mentor to others. She participates in a Career Day Program at Ciba, where she demonstrates how chemistry is a part of our everyday life. She shows the students that chemicals can be "good", such as plastics and inks. As a mentor, she advises her mentees to not be one of the group: "Be Y O U . " She also encourages students to take summer jobs or co-op assignments in local companies that they are considering as potential career options.

Final Advice Career selection is a very personal thing, but for Jean it has always been about challenging work, good people, and the ability to succeed at work and at home. She says, "Don't be afraid to do the things that scare you....ultimately the most personally rewarding growth comes from these experiences. Let the career progression take care of itself....I've seen too many people try to 'play the game' to get ahead....if you do the job to the best of your ability, the promotions will follow."


Jean Zappia, Vice President of Plastics Additives Segment: Achieving

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