EDISON, New Jersey, June 19, 2017 – Migrating to the United States at age 12 with her parents, Savita Babbar never imagined that one day she would grow up to the operations department at LyondellBasell’s Edison Plant. As the Operations Manager, Babbar is responsible for both operations and logistics at the plant. Using her leadership skills, Babbar also serves as a leader within the company, working closely with LyondellBasell’s Ferrara, Italy technical team.
Babbar grew up in Delhi, India. Her father was the director of the Department of Sugar industry and Babbar credits his hard work to an advantaged upbringing, which included a great education. Just before entering eighth grade, her family moved to the United States under her father’s aspirations for Babbar and her brother to explore opportunities in America.
“We had a hard time establishing ourselves here in the U.S.,” said Babbar. “We were foreigners in a foreign land with all of our family back in India.”
But Babbar’s dad never gave up hope, and eventually her family properly settled into the United States.
While exploring colleges, Babbar discovered the Cooper Union School of Engineering in Manhattan, New York. No stranger to change, Babbar applied and was astonished by her passion for math and science paid off when she was awarded a four year scholarship to the institute.
With a degree in chemical engineering under her belt, Babbar went on to pursue her career. Looking back at her first job as a process engineer, Babbar acknowledges hardships she faced along the way as a female engineer, but believes great strides have also been made throughout the years.
“Yes it was challenging at start of my career,” said Babbar. “Being a female in operations was tough, but through the years changes have happened and accepting women in this industry has become much more receptive.”
She credits having a good working relationship with her team as a key to her success. Babbar has experienced numerous roles within operations, and she understands that her knowledge and experience working as process and production engineers, and eventually production superintendent has led her to her role today.
Working closely with the Middlesex County College, Babbar volunteers her time on the Process Technology advisory board. She credits a strong educational foundation to her success today and values what the community college brings to Edison.
“I often call Savita the cornerstone of the Edison site,” said David Schrutka, Edison Site Manager. “She is very knowledgeable and is very willing to share that knowledge with others.”
Schrutka said Babbar holds both herself and her staff to high performance standards; wanting only what is best for the plant.
“I didn’t turn away from this field just because it was male dominated but continued to believe in my principles, decisions and build trust and respect with teams.”
Even though Babbar has succeeded in the engineering world, she does admit balancing both work and home as a mother and wife in a leadership role is a balancing act. “As a woman, family and work balance is challenging but if you have a good support system it can be achieved, and that’s how I did it. My advice is that whatever you want to do you should strive for it. You can achieve it with hard work.”
Babbar’s daughter is currently a senior starting medical school in the fall. “She saw me work really hard but never lost sight of being a present, supportive parent,” Babbar said. “She is still encouraging me to continue to explore my interests in my career, and now I am doing the same for her!”
And although she has come a long way from her young days in India, Babbar acknowledges, with a smile, engineering and science are fields women in particular should explore. “Hopefully trends will continue to go up, I have seen a lot of change in engineering over the past 25 years. What was primarily a male dominated field has changed. I encourage young girls to take advantage of opportunities presented to them. This sets the foundation of developing skill sets to further pursue engineering and sciences in life.”