Dr Robert G. Duan
Vice President
The ChemQuest Group
Dr Robert G. Duan has over 25 years of experience, both domestically and internationally, across coatings, polymers, research & development, M&A, technology management, and manufacturing efficiency. He has held senior R&D leadership positions in Dow Chemical, Valspar and Sherwin Williams. Across these roles, Dr. Duan has demonstrated his strength in business partnership by increasing the efficiency of portfolio management, improving gross margins, and enhancing collaboration. He’s shown expertise in R&D by leading diverse technical teams, managing innovation, driving technology strategies and developing new products. In addition to Dr. Duan’s leadership and management skills, he is a talented scientist and holds over 35 granted patents.
Prior to joining ChemQuest as Vice President in December 2021, Dr. Duan worked at Sherwin Williams first as Sr. Global Technical Director and then Vice President of Research and Development. During his time there, among many responsibilities, he was in charge of the global R&D organization, and led Sherwin and Valspar integration in wood coating products, technology portfolio and organization in Asia-Pacific. Dr. Duan contemporized the R&D organization by introducing six sigma, statistical design, and data analytics, and established global application technology centers to accelerate the industrial market transformation from solvent to green coating technologies.
Dr. Duan is a lifelong learner and holds degrees across four different disciplines. He graduated with honors from the University of Detroit (UD) in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. From there he completed his master’s degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from UD’s graduate program wherein he received the graduate student of the year award. He received his doctorate in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1997 and was given the outstanding graduate research award by Materials Research Society. More recently, in 2008 Dr. Duan finished his MBA in Marketing Management from Rutgers University as part of Dow Chemical’s top talent development program.