Ascent Industries Co. announced that it has appointed J. Bryan Kitchen as president of Ascent Chemicals, effective September 18, 2023. Mr. Kitchen joins Ascent with nearly two decades of senior leadership experience in the chemicals industry, having held management roles for several global industry leaders.

Most recently, he served as president, CEO and chairman of the board for Clearon Corp. While in this role, Mr. Kitchen crafted and led a transformational strategy to unlock earnings growth and significantly improve cash flow, resulting in the sale of the company for a significant premium. Prior to Clearon, Mr. Kitchen served as the president of Xingfa USA, a division of Hubei Xingfa Chemicals Ltd, a global leader in specialty phosphates manufacturing, where he built an agriculture segment from scratch while more than doubling the profitability of the core business.

He also served as vice president of business operations at ANGUS Chemical Company, which was carved-out from The Dow Chemical Company. During his tenure, he successfully led the carve-out transition from Dow and later assumed additional responsibilities for commercial leadership in both China and Latin America. During his time as business operations director for Dow Microbial Control, he drove a number of transformational initiatives that resulted in significant earnings growth.

Mr. Kitchen previously spent over a decade in various management roles at Dow AgroSciences and later, Dow Chemical. Mr. Kitchen is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a bachelor's degree in business management and marketing from Anderson University.