Perry's all four one

ENGELHARD CORPS CHAIRMAN AND CEO IS ASSEMBLING FOUR OPERATING UNITS INTO A SEAMLESS, YET DIVERSIFIED ORGANIZATION.

ENGELHARD CORP.'S INNOVATIONS are frequently visible but seldom noticed. The same cannot be said of its chairman and CEO Barry W. Perry and the relentless manner in which he is pursuing the integration of four operating units of the $5.1 billion firm into what he describes as a "surface and materials science company."

It is a transformation nearly a decade in preparation. Starting in 1993 when he joined Engelhard, Perry began quietly working the issue of leveraging technologies across the company, first as a group vice president and later as Engelhard's president. A result was that, when Perry became chairman and CEO in January 2001, succeeding the retiring Orin Smith, "I had already started to lay the groundwork for leading the company differently," he says.