130 women selected to receive a STEP Ahead Award

The Manufacturing Institute announced that Erika Peterman, senior vice president of BASF Corporation’s Chemical Intermediates North America business, will serve as this year’s chair of the STEP Ahead Awards. In addition, Kathy Wengel, executive vice president and chief global supply chain officer at Johnson & Johnson, will serve as the vice chair of the 2020 STEP Ahead Awards and chair of the 2021 STEP Ahead Awards.

The Institute also announced 130 women have been selected to receive a STEP Ahead Award and will be honored on Sept. 24, 2020. The STEP Ahead Awards honor women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers and represent all levels of the manufacturing industry, from the factory floor to the C-suite.

“The 2020 STEP Ahead Honorees and Emerging Leader Awards reinforce the exciting opportunities available in manufacturing and help inspire more women to pursue these careers,” said Peterman. “A natural evolution of the manufacturing workforce is taking place as more women enter into leadership roles, bringing innovative ideas and transforming how we work and increase productivity.” 

Peterman began her career at BASF in 1997 holding a variety of technical, manufacturing and commercial roles in the first decade of her career. In 2007, she took several strategic marketing assignments at BASF and worked internationally at the company’s world headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and later in Basel, Switzerland. She was appointed vice president of global marketing for pigments and performance additives in 2011 and joined BASF’s Performance Materials North America as vice president of business management in January 2014. In that role, she managed sales, marketing and technical service activities for Performance Materials’ construction polyurethanes and engineering plastics portfolio across the North American region. Last year, Peterman took over general management as senior vice president of the North American Chemical Intermediates business based in Florham Park, N.J.

“I applaud these successful women for their significant achievements and the positive impact they have made on their companies, their communities and the industry as a whole,” said Wengel. “These honorees and emerging leaders exemplify the exciting career opportunities that are available in manufacturing.”

Wengel leads a supply chain organization that brings health care products and services to more than a billion patients and consumers around the world every day across three business sectors: consumer health, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Her responsibilities include enterprise supply chain strategy, innovation and deployment, planning, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution and customer service. She also has corporatewide responsibility for quality and compliance; procurement; environmental health, safety and sustainability; and engineering and property services, including real estate, facilities and capital project management. Since joining Johnson & Johnson in 1988, her responsibilities have grown to include a variety of strategic leadership and executive positions across the enterprise, working in multiple countries and roles within manufacturing, quality, engineering, new product development and other business functions.

“As manufacturing leaders, Erika and Kathy understand the importance of honoring women leaders in today’s manufacturing industry and inspiring more women to join tomorrow’s,” said Manufacturing Institute Executive Director Carolyn Lee.. “Providing more opportunities for women in manufacturing is more than just the right thing to do. At a time when manufacturers face a workforce crisis, and with women still constituting less than one-third of manufacturing workers, it’s clearly critical to the future of our industry and the economy. The Manufacturing Institute’s STEP Ahead Awards—which provide today’s female leaders in manufacturing the recognition they deserve while simultaneously elevating role models who can inspire future generations to join them—are an important element of our commitment to helping foster a 21st-century manufacturing workforce by developing current leaders and engaging future ones.”

Women constitute one of manufacturing’s largest pools of untapped talent. Women totaled 47% of the U.S. labor force in 2016, but only 29% of the manufacturing workforce. The STEP Ahead Awards are part of the larger STEP Ahead Women’s initiative, launched to examine and promote the role of women in the manufacturing industry through recognition, research and leadership for attracting, advancing and retaining strong female talent. In five years, STEP Ahead Award winners have impacted more than 300,000 individuals—from peers in the industry to school-aged children.