Jane Valenta’s Formula for Success is Equal Parts Passion and Risk Taking
Jane Valenta cannot look at a coated surface without thinking about the chemistry behind it. Her mind immediately begins to assess color, appearance, and functionality.
“I try to determine if the coating is based on one- or two-component chemistry and eye the color to see if any special effect pigments were used,” says Valenta, who earned both her MS (1986) and PhD (1994) from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Chemistry in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
For nearly three decades, Valenta donned a lab coat at PPG Industries’ Coatings Innovation Center in Allison Park, Pa., where she racked up 12 separate patents and served in a variety of roles centered on problem-solving, resin design, and coating development that eventually led to the role of associate director of performance coatings.
“The patents focused on imparting unique resin and coating performance characteristics,” says Valenta. She explains that her patented coatings provide benefits ranging from preventing ice build-up on a wind blade to improving a coating’s adhesion and appearance on an automobile.
Valenta was initially attracted to PPG, fresh out of the Pitt Chemistry MS program, for this reason — the opportunity to take something from an idea stage all the way through commercialization, all the while interacting with customers and helping meet their needs. She also liked the company’s varied product portfolio, which ranged from glass to fiber glass to coatings to chemicals.
While she quickly got up to speed in PPG’s industrial lab, utilizing the research skills and chemistry acumen she gained at Pitt to make her mark, by the early 90s, Valenta realized she needed to return to the University for her doctorate.
“Pitt was very welcoming, allowing me to come back after six years — that’s a big gap,” recalls Valenta, noting that her path was somewhat unusual; most students go straight through the graduate program, advancing from the MS directly to the PhD program.
“Pitt made it easy. I initially wanted to see what industrial life had to offer, and I loved it, but I knew that to advance, I needed a PhD.”
Valenta was equally impressed by PPG’s response: PPG supported her decision to return to school full time for a year and a half, while holding her a position upon her return. “The agreement was that I would return and continue to work as part of the coatings organization,” Valenta says. “They were very generous in supporting me — both Pitt and PPG. Both institutions believed in my ability to succeed and were a critical part of my success. Without their partnership and support, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Today, Valenta is part of PPG’s executive management team.
In December 2013, she was tapped to become vice president for environment, health, and safety for PPG.
“It was something I’d never considered,” she says, “but I believe that in order to have a successful career, one has to be truly passionate about what they are working on and also be willing to take risks.”
Valenta finds it interesting that people associate risk-taking more with the potential to fail rather than succeed. She prefers a different view. “Once I read a definition of risk that has always stuck with me: ‘Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.’”
And, learn she has. As PPG’s environment, health, and safety (EHS) vice president, Valenta challenged herself to redefine what product meant to her, who her new customer was, how she fit in, and how to drive positive change. For the first year, she traveled extensively, visiting PPG’s facilities the world over, talking to employees and management, learning what she could do help PPG achieve its No.1 goal: ensuring their 45,000-plus employees return home safely each and every day.
Valenta enlisted the help of her global EHS and Corporate Communications teams to develop an on-the-ground campaign to create awareness and ownership of safety at all levels of the organization. “We included families, talking about the importance of working safely at home as part of our new Safety365 campaign,” says Valenta, who also included a program component to recognize the good things happening in the company by intentionally celebrating successes.
Two full years into Valenta’s tenure, the numbers paint a picture of success. PPG’s newly released 2015 Sustainability Report documents positive change in a host of areas. In 2015, PPG reduced the injury and illness rate by 11 percent, energy intensity by 8 percent, waste intensity by 7 percent, and overall greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent. In 2015 alone, 41 PPG locations were certified to the ISO 14001:2004, a family of standards related to environmental management that help organizations minimize their environmental footprint. PPG also estimates that environmental and ergonomic-related improvement projects saved the company more than $14 million in 2015.
Valenta takes her successes in stride. Her daily focus remains on what she can do to make a difference in the lives of those around her. When she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Department of Chemistry in 2014, she talked about what that looks like:
“For me, making a difference is centered around people, places, and actions. I’m very much about celebrating successes and others who’ve made an impact.”
She still recalls her University of Pittsburgh mentors fondly — W. Richard “Dick” Howe, recently retired associate dean in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and former assistant chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Steve Weber, professor in the Department of Chemistry and its director of graduate studies. Valenta herself is a devoted mentor, and is particularly interesting in fostering the growth of women in the sciences and in industry, a growing but still underrepresented demographic.
Valenta is not only committed to helping women in her field, but she is also committed to Pitt. In fact, the University has become somewhat of a family affair. She and her husband — William T. Valenta, Jr., assistant dean of MBA and executive programs at the University and a Pitt MBA grad — are long-time Pitt donors. Their daughter just finished her second year as a College of Business Administration student, and their son is entering Pitt’s School of Engineering in the fall.
Though still in the planning stages, Valenta is working to establish a new program through the Dietrich School that will help bring the chemistry department and the business school together to help chemistry PhD students gain additional business acumen. Valenta believes it will make a big impact, dramatically differentiating Pitt chemistry grads from their peers.
“My husband I have benefitted personally and professionally from Pitt. We attribute different aspects our success to the time we spent as students at Pitt and the people we have met over the years, but, most importantly, we also want to be part of the future.”