Dan F. Smith ’69, a distinguished alumnus of Lamar, grew up in Port Arthur. Recently
retired as chairman and CEO of a global company, he credits his start to the education
he received at Lamar University and the opportunity to participate in cooperative
education with local industry.
“My experience at Lamar was probably similar to what a
lot of young people are seeing today,” he said. “We didn’t
have a lot of money. I needed to make a little money to help
pay for things, so I co-oped. I was among the first students to
co-op at the university.”
As a Lamar chemical engineering student, his co-op
assignment began with the former Atlantic Richfield
Company (ARCO) refinery in Port Arthur and culminated in
permanent employment after he graduated.
“That co-op was a tremendous experience because I saw
the value of what I was getting,” Smith said. “I knew that
what I was getting in education was comparable with what
others were getting elsewhere because I worked with them.”
Piloting through numerous assignments in two of Arco’s
divisions and corporate headquarters, Smith became a vice
president of Lyondell Chemical Co., a petrochemicals and
refining operations company, in
1985. He was named chief financial
officer and executive vice president
of Lyondell when it became
a public company in 1989.
Smith served as president
and chief executive officer of
Lyondell from 1996 until January
2008 when Lyondell Chemical Co. became a subsidiary of
LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A. He had served as a
member of the board of Lyondell Chemical Co. from
November 1988 to December 2007 and as chairman beginning
May 2007. Before the merger, Lyondell was North
America’s third-largest, independent, publicly traded chemical
company and a global leader in the manufacture of chemicals
and polymers, the building blocks of countless products used
around the world every day. With headquarters in Houston,
Lyondell operated on five continents and employed approximately
11,000 people worldwide. At the time of the sale,
Lyondell’s combined assets totaled approximately $20 billion
with sales in excess of $30 billion annually.
From his own experience, Smith attests to the value of
internships, summer jobs and co-op programs in understanding
the real work world. This belief led him to establish the Dan F.
Smith Regents’ Scholarship in Engineering. In recent years,
Lamar has had three or more interns at Lyondell locations, and
the company hires three to five Lamar graduates annually.
“I think that when people first think about Lamar
University, they think about Southeast Texas, the Golden
Triangle and the industrial complexes. I don’t think they truly
appreciate the global impacts that the university has,” Smith
said. “The preparation that you get with an education at
Lamar will allow you to compete very effectively with anybody
anywhere else on the globe. I ran a global company. I
can tell you that the Lamar graduates we hired were as good
as any anywhere. And that influence was being spread around
the world.
“The other fact that I think we lose track of sometimes
is that we bring in many international students. So we bring
in students from all over the world, they get the education
at Lamar, and then they take it back out into the world. So,
it really is a global-impact university, not just a regional
university,” Smith said.
Today, Smith lends expertise
to Lamar as a member of the
College of Engineering Advisory
Council and is a member of the
university’s campaign cabinet.
“My decision to come back
and get involved with Lamar was
precipitated by (engineering
dean) Jack Hopper. He is a very persuasive individual. But
when I saw what he was doing, when I met Jimmy
Simmons and saw what he was doing, I thought it was a
great opportunity to make a difference,” Smith said.
“The advisory council for the College of Engineering
has been a great experience for me because I’m working with
some highly successful graduates from Lamar and with a
really enthusiastic staff there.”
“The university knew where it wanted to go, but having
the enthusiasm of all these former students has helped give
us the momentum to really take off,” Smith said. “I’m proud
that we’ve made some real progress.”
Smith, who delivered the winter commencement
address to Lamar graduates in 2002, is a strong advocate for
education. “Education is the foundation for everything good
that happens in your business life,” he said. “I got a very
solid foundation from Lamar. If I can come back and help
Lamar give other people a solid foundation, that makes me
feel good.”
