Nova Chemicals veteran Chris Bezaire to retire

Chris Bezaire, a Nova Chemicals Corp. executive and company veteran, is retiring from the Calgary-based firm.

Chris Bezaire.

Bezaire, who currently serves as Nova’s senior vice president, polyethylene business, will retire effective April 1, 2018. John Thayer, currently vice president polyethylene marketing, will assume the role of senior vice president, polyethylene business.

Bezaire joined DuPont Canada’s polyethylene business in 1988 as a process engineer before coming to Nova in 1994. He rose through the company’s ranks through a variety of roles in operations, sales, marketing, investor relations, and corporate strategy, including expatriate assignments in Europe and Asia. In addition, he has held executive positions including vice president of investor relations; vice president, finance and controller; vice president, Advanced SCLAIRTECH business; and vice president, corporate planning. Bezaire was also appointed to Nova’s management board in 2011.

“I’ve been extremely fortunate with Nova to have enjoyed many different roles with great people in different functions and locations.” said Bezaire. “I look forward to the next phase of my life, knowing that at Nova we’ve built a solid foundation for significant growth ahead.”

John Thayer.

Thayer started his career with Nova’s expandable styrenics business in 1997 after working at Weyerhaeuser Company. In 2015, he transitioned to the polyethylene business, overseeing the business services function, where he was responsible for optimizing the polyethylene sales planning, contract management, pricing, customer service, analytics, and sales execution efforts.