Natural Resources >> Sector Roundtables >> December 20, 1999

Roundtable Forum: Major Chemicals

THEODORE (TED) S. SEMEGRAN is a Senior Vice President with Brown Brothers Harriman. Prior to joining the firm, he was associated with Lehman Brothers and Dean Witter. Mr. Semegran holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York, a Master's degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he is a member of the NYSSA, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Chemical Marketing Research Association. Mr. Semegran is married, has two children, and includes tennis, scuba, jazz, travel, and fine wines among his personal interests. Profile
PAUL T. LEMING is a Managing Director with ING Barings. Previously, he was associated with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Inc. as a Director in Research, as well as with Kidder Peabody and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Leming holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from Georgetown University and an MBA from George Washington University. He has three children, and enjoys tennis, skiing, and golf in his leisure. Profile
JOHN E. ROBERTS is a First Vice President at Merrill Lynch, coordinating 13 chemical analysts around the globe as well as providing research on the US major and diversified chemical companies. He was previously associated with Kidder Peabody, Booz, Allen & Hamilton and Badger Engineering, a division of Raytheon. Mr. Roberts participates in the following Merrill Lynch chemical industry events: monthly conference calls with key industry leaders, quarterly luncheons in NYC with the US chemicals team, and the three-day annual conference in NYC each March. He received an MS in Chemical Engineering at Tufts University and an MS in Management at the MIT Sloan School with a concentration in Finance. Profile
Mitsch, Frank J.
Frank J. Mitsch serves as President of Fermium Research, having co-founded the company in 2018 following 7+ years at Wells Fargo Securities, where he was the Senior Chemicals Equity Research Analyst. He has covered the chemicals industry as an equity analyst for more than 25 years, beginning his Wall Street career with Merrill Lynch. He’s a member of multiple Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Teams and received the Top Gun designation from Brendan Wood Intl. In its World’s Top Analysts survey, the Financial Times/StarMine twice ranked him No. 1 for estimate accuracy, and has also been named in The Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street analyst survey for stock selection four times. Earlier in his career, he worked for 11 years in the chemicals industry with consultancy Kline & Company, and Betz Laboratories, including two years in Europe. Mr. Mitsch received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he was a midfielder on the record-setting lacrosse team. He holds an MBA with a concentration in finance from MSU, and is NACD Directorship Certified. Mr. Mitsch has been prominently featured in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Barron’s, ICIS Chemicals Business, Chemical Week as well as features appearing in Forbes and Fortune. He has frequently appeared on CNBC and Bloomberg TV and is affectionately known as “the best chemicals analyst in the world” by Jim Cramer from CNBC’s “Mad Money.” Profile
TWST: Give us your view of the health of the chemical industry in 1999

and the performance of the chemical stocks year-to-date. Ted, to what

extent has the chemical industry fulfilled your