Chief Operating Officer — Interim, Specialty Chemicals

The mandate

A toxic vapour release injured contractors and triggered regulator closure of the highest-margin plant. The COO was dismissed after investigators found overdue safety-critical maintenance and production overrides outside the delegation matrix.

The interim must start within ten days for eighteen months through remediation, restart and six stable operating months. The role returns to permanent plant and operations leaders only after board-observed readiness tests.

Handover requires regulator-authorised restart, all critical mechanical-integrity actions closed, zero high-potential event recurrence, customer service above ninety-five per cent, and permanent leaders passing two emergency and one turnaround command exercise.

The COO may stop plants, reallocate products among qualified assets and approve emergency work below ₹2 crore. Capital above ₹8 crore, customer compensation and permanent executive appointments need board approval; EHS and Quality retain independent stop and release authority.

New molecule development, acquisition integration and commercial pricing are excluded. The mandate restores safe production of the authorised portfolio across the existing three-plant system.

Why this seat is open

The release exposed management decisions that treated safety barriers as production variables. Leadership change is essential for regulator and workforce credibility. A time-bound COO must prove a different operating culture before authority returns to permanent executives.

What you will own

• Convert investigation findings into engineered, maintenance, procedural and leadership controls with verified closure.
• Decide safe product reallocation while the affected plant remains unavailable.
• Reinstate mechanical-integrity priority for containment, relief, detection and emergency systems.
• Gate restart through process hazard review, pre-startup verification, training and regulator evidence.
• Establish operating discipline around alarm, bypass, override, permit and management-of-change control.
• Restore customer supply without transferring unqualified process or environmental risk to other sites.
• Certify permanent leaders through emergency, turnaround and board operating reviews.

Candidate qualifications

• Twenty-eight-plus years in hazardous chemical manufacturing with multi-plant COO or business operations authority.
• Led remediation and regulator restart after a toxic release, fire or comparable major process-safety event.
• Expert command of process safety, mechanical integrity, management of change and emergency response.
• Demonstrated ability to restore supply through qualified product transfer while damaged capacity remained offline.
• Experience confronting production culture that normalised bypasses or overdue safety-critical maintenance.
• Credibility with regulators, communities and boards during adverse-event recovery.
• Track record qualifying permanent plant leaders under observed crisis and turnaround conditions.

Non-negotiables

• Can be onsite in Ahmedabad within ten days and travel among three plants.
• No relationship with contractors or advisers involved in the incident investigation.
• Prepared to exercise stop authority irrespective of margin or customer pressure.
• Available for eighteen months through restart and stable-operation proof.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Ahmedabad arrival and continuous incident-command availability.
2. 49 words maximum. Which regulator-closed chemical plant did you restart, and what barrier evidence governed approval?
3. 49 words maximum. Describe one production override you prohibited despite severe customer consequences.