About

About Me

Professional Work Experience

Kyle Vandermolen’s most recent position is as the Technical Services Specialist for Solvay, a global leader in chemicals science and processing technologies. He spent his early career years as a Chemicals Coordinator at a US Steel Corporation Coke Plant where he was a front line shift manager managing a crew of 6 union employees. He quickly moved up through the ranks to act as Departmental Supervisor, where he was in charge of overseeing and coordinating the work of 4 shift managers and over 30 union employees.

Mr. Vandermolen returned to the US Steel Corporation in 2013 to 2016 as a Process Manager at the Granite City, IL. plant. Within this position, he oversaw the Process Safety Management (PSM) Program and the Isolation, Purging, and Reintroduction (IPR) Program, along with coordinating and planning the proper response to plant outages and chemical spills.

From here, Kyle Vandermolen worked as a Facilities Process Engineer and Project Manager for Cathay Pigments. In this position, he helped plan and install a new color pigmentation line. Mr. Vandermolen was in charge of many facility improvement and expansion projects at the Valparaiso, IN plant.

Other notable chemical engineering positions held by Kyle Vandermolen include Operations Manager at Koch Industries KCBX Terminals in Chicago, IL, where Mr. Vandermolen led the operations and logistical planning for the company's distribution workforce, working to decrease downtime and increase efficiency. As a Production Engineer for Innophos Inc., Mr. Vandermolen managed and planned capital projects that would decrease factory downtime, increase product reliability, debottleneck process lines, and other facility improvements.

Awards and Accolades

Member of the Hydrogen Fluoride Panel with the American Chemistry Council.

United States Steel Award for "Safety Excellence in Hazard Identification & Elimination"

Interests and hobbies

Kyle Vandermolen is a husband and proud father that has a deep love for the open waters. He can be found scuba diving, cave diving, and hunting for underwater shipwrecks in his spare time. Mr. Vandermolen is not only a diving enthusiast, he is a technical scuba diver trained in the use of rebreathers.

Mr. Vandermolen loves to share his love for the great outdoors with family and friends. On any given weekend, you can find him either hiking, fishing, or hunting with friends and/or family.

Another enjoyable and favorite place for Mr. Vandermolen is near a grill, a cooktop, or an oven. Kyle loves to cook, grill, and bake, so it's not unusual for him and his family to entertain guests with culinary delights from a wide range of cultural recipes that he experiments with until perfection.

It seems as if the same ideas and principles it takes to be a chemical engineer, Mr. Vandermolen has transferred to his love for cooking. His goal when trying a new recipe is of course that it be delicious and delightful. But, Kyle also sees at work in his cooking, baking, and grilling some of the same processes he learned in university.

When preparing a new dish, Kyle carefully selects the best ingredients, then takes into account some elementary principles of heat, fat, salt, and acid - which is not an original idea in the world of cooking, but it is one that Kyle Vandermolen loves to test and stretch to the limits of.

Most of all, Kyle Vandermolen loves to spend time with his family. This is where he finds himself surrounded by the joy and love of his wife and child. Whether it's sharing interesting stories from his latest scuba dive or teaching his young one a new recipe, the kitchen is the heart of their home and where his family can share current local news or national events.

Kyle Vandermolen believes that the 3 most important things in life are faith, health, and family. He works hard at developing and protecting all three, and would love nothing more than for his child to choose the best path in their life that would make them happiest.