Dirk Buengel
Professor of Practice, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech (USA); former Senior Vice President BASF
Dirk Buengel is an internationally experienced senior executive with a proven track record of achieving profitable and sustainable growth in various global Fortune 500 companies. He worked for almost three decades in multinational corporations such as BASF, Cognis, Henkel and Siemens. In his most recent role, he led BASF’s Care Chemicals Division in North America. This division is an industry-leading organization with around $2bn revenue and 1,000 employees. BASF is the world’s largest chemical company with the mission statement to create chemistry for a sustainable future. Sustainability is embedded in BASF’s and Care Chemical’s strategy and business model. Dirk made sustainability a source of competitive differentiation in close partnership with key stakeholders along the whole value chain. He translated sustainability challenges presented by customers like P&G, Unilever, J&J, Henkel, L’Oréal, and Colgate into innovation and differentiation opportunities resulting in a higher market share and profitable growth through sustainable solutions.
Dirk Buengel has a strong background in leadership, strategy, sustainability, change management, organizational transformation, and people development. He has worked in Europe, Latin America and North America and understands the challenges and opportunities of internationally operating organizations.
In his current role as a Professor of Practice at Virginia Tech, he is passionate about developing the next generation of successful business leaders enabling them to drive profitable growth in their business while making a positive and sustainable impact in the world. He teaches corporate social responsibility, sustainable business management, management consulting, strategy, leadership, business ethics and change management in the university’s undergraduate and master’s programs in Blacksburg und Arlington/Washington DC.
A native from Duesseldorf, Germany, Dirk lives together with his wife, Kelly, and their Goldendoodle, Toby, in Virginia (USA). Dirk loves sports (hiking, running, spinning), soccer (following his favorite team, Borussia Dortmund), good food, theater, music and traveling abroad.
