Seifi Ghasemi
Pelang Enterprises
Founder, Chairman and CEO
2022 STEM Leadership Honoree
2022 CME STEM Leadership Award Honoree for Lifetime Achievement
Seifi Ghasemi—Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Pelang Enterprises and Executive Committee Board Member of The Metropolitan Opera—is a visionary leader whose innovative drive has redefined global industry, merging sustainability with human potential. As former Chairman, President, and CEO of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., from July 2014 until his retirement in early 2025, he orchestrated a remarkable $55 billion surge in market value. In this role, he focused on setting the company’s strategy and policies, developing leadership, and meeting shareholder commitments—transforming Air Products into a world-leading industrial gases powerhouse. As the world undergoes a massive energy transition, his breathtaking leadership built a first-mover position in clean hydrogen megaprojects to decarbonize heavy transportation and industrial sectors.
He is a graduate member of The Business Council, an association of chief executive officers of the world’s most influential business enterprises. He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and the U.S.-China Business Council.
Prior to Air Products, from 2001 to 2014, Ghasemi served as chairman and chief executive officer of Rockwood Holdings, a global leader in lithium and advanced materials. From 1997 to 2001, he held leadership roles at GKN, a global industrial company, including director of the Main Board of GKN plc, and chairman and chief executive officer of GKN Sinter Metals, Inc., and Hoeganes Corporation. Earlier, he spent nearly 20 years with The BOC Group, in positions including director of the Main Board of BOC Group plc; president of BOC Gases Americas; and chairman and chief executive officer of BOC Process Plants, Ltd., and Cryostar. Today, Ghasemi also serves as a board member of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, infusing cultural institutions with his strategic wisdom.
At the heart of Ghasemi’s success is his conviction that a company’s enduring edge lies in its people—a diverse, inclusive team thriving in a culture that values every contribution and pursues a higher purpose of planetary betterment. His commitment to creating winning teams and supporting programs for STEM talent translated into extraordinary growth, earning him the 2022 CME STEM Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement, as well as the 2017 International Palladium Medal from the Société de Chimie Industrielle.
Ghasemi earned his undergraduate degree from Abadan Institute of Technology and holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from Lafayette College in 2017 and an honorary Doctor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2018.
Continuing to drive impact
Seifi Ghasemi continues to shape the future of energy and industry. During Ghasemi's leadership from 2014 to 2025, Air Products more than tripled its market value to nearly $75 billion, while becoming a global leader in the energy transition. He now leads Pelang Enterprises, advising companies on strategic growth.
Presentations & Highlights
Lifetime Achievement – Ann Ziff, The Metropolitan Opera Chairman
Corporate Reinvention - Peter Vanacker, LyondellBasell CEO
Extraordinary Fundamental Research – Omar Yagui, 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, UC Berkeley Professor
Since March 2025 Seifi Ghasemi serves as a Board Member, Executive Committee Member, and Managing Director of New York's Metropolitan Opera, applying decades of executive leadership from Air Products and Chemicals, Rockwood Holdings, GKN plc, and The BOC Group to one of the world's foremost cultural institutions. His stewardship reflects the same conviction that defined his industry career: that enduring institutions rest on strong leadership and disciplined excellence.
The Metropolitan Opera has launched many initiatives designed to make opera more accessible, most prominently the Live in HD series of cinema transmissions—now in its 19th season—which dramatically expands the Met audience by allowing select performances to be seen in more than 60 countries around the world. The Met is one of America’s leading performing arts organizations and a vibrant home for the world’s most creative and talented artists, including singers, conductors, composers, orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists, choreographers, and dancers. The company presents approximately 200 performances each season of a wide variety of operas, ranging from early masterpieces to contemporary works.
Honorees
Lifetime Achievement Award: Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President, and CEO of Air Products
Advancing STEM Talent Award: Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO of Dow
APD is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for nearly 80 years. Its fiscal 2019 sales of $8.9 billion were from operations in 50 countries and 17,000 employees focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets. APD provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries.
This was a unique opportunity to learn what the key architect of this remarkable success story had in mind to drive some of the world’s largest industrial gas projects, including becoming the leading supplier of carbon-free hydrogen for buses and trucks by 2025 and other gasification projects that sustainably convert abundant natural resources into syngas to produce high-value power, fuels and chemicals.
Lifetime Achievement – Henry Kravis, KKR Co-Founder and Co-Chairman
Corporate Reinvention - Ed Breen, DowDuPont Chairman and CEO
Outstanding STEM Philanthropy – Jim and Marilyn Simons, Co-Founders of the Simons Foundation
