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Driving Michigan’s Economy Forward Dow President and CFO Howard Ungerleider leads Business Leaders for Michigan. DORON LEVIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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MARCH 10 • 2022
COURTESY OF DOW
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oward Ungerleider pursued a circuitous career path across the country and overseas on behalf of a single company, moving with his family nine times before becoming the president and chief financial officer of Midland-based Dow Inc. The journey resulted in an impressive resume and the qualifications for top-executive management. It also underscored for him the responsibility to expand opportunities for jobs and promotions to aspirants from diverse backgrounds — such as his own.
Howard Ungerleider
Growing up in a Houston suburb after moving with his family from New York, he
recalls a classmate who had never met a Jewish person and knew the religion only in terms of inappropriate ethnic stereotypes. In sixth grade, he received an F on a math test when a teacher refused to reschedule a makeup due to his absence on the High Holidays. “Being the only Jewish student in the school was certainly one of the defining moments toward understanding what it’s like to be different from the others,” he said. “That’s why I’m very passionate about driving inclusion and diversity inside Dow,” he said.
“As a human being it’s the right thing to do. Everyone should be able to live up to their full personal and professional potential. And when I put on my CFO hat, I can see it creates more long-term value — the evidence is overwhelmingly clear.” Serving Dow in several locations in the U.S. and overseas before taking over his current leadership role in Midland has heightened his perceptions of comparative business climates in Texas, for example, overseas and that of Michigan, his family’s home for the past 14 years. Among Ungerleider’s civic
