Larry Somma

Larry Somma serves as Vantage’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Vantage, he served as Chief Financial Officer of American Styrenics and Purecycle Technologies. 

Larry has more than 35 years of experience and prior to being a CFO, he spent time in corporate finance and treasury roles of increasing responsibility, including eight years at LyondellBasell as Vice President – Corporate Treasurer and then Vice President – Finance Strategy and Transformation, where he led a team of over 450 professionals implementing initiatives including digital transformation, automation, data analytics, and FP&A process improvement. Prior to LyondellBasell, Larry was with Hyatt Hotels Corporation where he held both the Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Capital Strategy and Senior Vice President and Treasurer positions during his tenure.  He was Treasurer when Hyatt went public in November 2009. Before Hyatt, Larry worked for Lennar Corporation, Sara Lee Corporation, Fisher Scientific International and General Motors Corporation in different finance roles, including an expatriate assignment in London, England.   

He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.E. in Engineering Management from Cornell University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Buffalo. Larry is also an avid endurance athlete and has completed 21 marathons and 19 Ironman triathlons, including the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. 

Jan serves as Executive Vice President for the Food division. He has a strong track record in successfully growing profitable businesses, both established and new, by understanding customer needs and delivering strategies to address them with differentiating solutions.  

With 20 years of experience in the B2B chemicals industry with Diversey Inc., he has honed his leadership, drive for growth and transformation, team-building capabilities and deep experience in sales and marketing management around the world with roles in The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and the United States. Jan holds an M.S. in industrial engineering and management science from Eindhoven University of Technology. 

Charly Eid

Charly serves as Executive Vice President, International Business with oversight of our presence in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM).  

A native of Mexico City, Charly is an experienced strategic leader who joined Vantage from global energy company CEPSA where he served as Global Vice President, Surfactants. Charly also spent more than 14 years with leading materials science company Dow in a variety of business development and leadership roles across the LATAM region. Charly holds a BS in Information Technology from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and completed a Mergers and Acquisitions Finance program from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 

Tom Giese

Tom serves as our Executive Vice President, Performance Solutions. He joined Vantage in January 2024. Tom began his career as a research chemist before joining Stepan Company where he held a wide variety of roles including Vice President of Commercial Development, Director of Global Business Development and Strategy, and Commercial Director of their Asia Pacific division.  

Tom spent more than four years in Singapore leading Stepan’s regional commercial activities before returning to the US, most recently as Vice President, Surfactant Commercial Development. Tom holds a B.S. in Chemistry from St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI, an MBA from Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management, and an International Executive MBA from HKUST Business School in Hong Kong. 

Alberto Laveran

Maria serves as Vantage’s Chief Human Resources Officer, responsible for developing and implementing human resources policies and practices to support the company’s 1,000+ strong workforce around the world. Her focus covers talent acquisition and development, our competitive total rewards, and our One Vantage employee experience.

Prior to her current role, Maria was responsible for Vantage’s talent program (acquisition, development, culture). She started her career with Vantage in 2018 as HR director for the Latin American region. In this role, she supported the restructuring of the region and established the company’s shared service center. Previously she held various HR roles in Pharma, Oil & Gas and Banking. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in human resources.  

Mike Waldron

Mike Waldron serves as Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs & Sustainability. In this capacity, he leads Vantage’s Environment, Safety & Health, Regulatory, Sustainability, Government Relations and Corporate Communication functions. Prior to joining Vantage, he led corporate affairs for a number of large, global public companies in the energy and resources sectors. 

Prior to entering the private sector, Mike was a senior advisor in the U.S. Congress and held a presidential appointment serving two U.S. Secretaries of Energy. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University.

Lars Wulff-Nilsen

Lars serves as our Executive Vice President, Personal Care Business. He joined Vantage in September 2022. An experienced marketing leader with a strong track record, Lars has previously supported the Consumer and Health Care industries and private equity-owned, NYSE listed and family-owned companies across multiple business models and across a broad span of customer segments in diverse, volatile, markets and competitive environments.  

He holds an MBA from ESIC (Madrid, Spain) and a BA in Public Relations from Leeds University in the UK where he also co-founded and managed a business consulting agency part-time for three years.