President's Medal for Lifetime Achievement
Executive Vice President (Ret.), ExxonMobil Chemical
While still a student at Newark College of Engineering, Ray McGowan started his career as a technician at Mobil Chemical’s Research Laboratory in Edison, New Jersey, and began his climb up the corporate ladder. During his early years at Edison, he earned patents for a gas-phase ethylene polymerization process and for a catalyst system to purify terephthalic acid. During the 1970s, he joined Mobil’s Plastics Division where he held several management positions in the United States. Through the 1980s, he rose to leadership positions in the Petrochemicals Division. He was President of Mobil Petrochemicals International headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and upon his return to the United States was appointed Vice President of Global Engineering for Mobil Oil Corporation. By 1994, he was President of Mobil Chemical Company, Executive Vice President of Mobil Oil Corporation and Chairman of Mobil’s Business Leadership Forum. The forum was comprised of Mobil’s top 26 executives.
When Mobil and Exxon merged at the end of 1999, Ray joined the office of the president as Executive Vice President-ExxonMobil Chemical Company. In the year before the merger, McGowan was co-chair of the transition team that was formed to combine the two chemical companies. He was asked to stay on with the new chemical company, one of the world’s largest, until his retirement in 2001 to ensure a successful start of the new enterprise.
Since his retirement, McGowan has served in several nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. To name a few, he has been a Director and Treasurer of the American Chemistry Council’s Center for Health Research, Chairman of the American Red Cross Treasure Coast Region in Florida, a Director of United Way and president of Vero Beach’s Riverside Theatre. At NJIT, he is a member of the Board of Overseers. On a social level, he is past President of Vero Beach Country Club and a member of Quail Valley Country Club as well as Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville, North Carolina.