Operations  ·  People  ·  Technology  ·  AI

Connie
Buskness

Executive Leader · Manufacturing · Operational Excellence · Risk Leadership

Safety and operational excellence aren't trade-offs — they're the same system. AI is the tool that finally makes it visible.

Two decades leading high-hazard manufacturing operations across the Americas. AI is doing for safety and operations what Six Sigma did for production in the 1990s — and the leaders who understand both the technology and the plant floor will define what comes next.

My Story → Speaking Topics
20+Years Operations & Process Safety
50+Sites across the Americas
$200M+Greenfield plant built, 200% growth
Connie Buskness
01

Operational Excellence, Powered by AI

Operations and safety are the same system. I pair operational discipline with AI and data — using technology to sharpen judgment, not replace it. This generation calls it AI. I led an advanced process control joint venture before the industry had a name for it.

02

Business Across Every Model

Full P&L responsibility. Commodity, specialty, and custom applications. Two M&A integrations, a joint venture, a startup that grew production 200%, and multiple turnarounds. I translate the numbers from the plant floor to the boardroom.

03

People Who Perform Under Pressure

Capability, not just compliance. I build teams that read a situation, assess risk, and make the right call when the script doesn't fit. Culture is what people do when it's inconvenient.

Connie Buskness leading a mechanical integrity inspection on the plant floor
Operations credibility that opens different conversations

I've run the plants.
Not just audited them.

From commodity polymers to amines, specialty chemicals to custom precious-metal catalyst — batch and continuous, all PSM and RMP regulated. Commodity, specialty, and custom-application business models. Three reactors commissioned at a single greenfield site. Diverse reactor types managed across career. DCS commissioning, APC upgrades, mechanical integrity built from blank sheet. This is what makes site directors and operations VPs actually listen.

PolymersAmines & SpecialtyHCNEthylene OxidePropylene OxideFormaldehydeAcrylonitrileChlorinePhenolHydrogenPrecious Metal CatalystPSM / RMP

"You cannot scale outcomes without scaling capability. When technology is new and pressure is high, procedures won't cover every scenario. Depth of competence matters more than volume of rules."

Top Post · 2025

"The most dangerous phrase in operations: 'It's never happened here before.' Absence of failure is not proof of safety. A quiet history often breeds false confidence."

7,210 impressions

"A software license is not a safety strategy. We are over-tooling and under-training. Tools support judgment. They don't replace it."

6,243 impressions
The through-line
Where safety goes, the business goes — Business Results and EHS & Community, joined by Leadership Culture

"Every person who walks into your facility came there to do a good job. A safe job. Our job as leaders is to make that outcome achievable."

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