Norm Szydlowski '74 has lived his life with two American passports. One he carried with him during his travels. The other was always shipped to a consulate’s office for future travels.

“It was both a culture shock and humbling because I realized very quickly on these international trips how little I knew,” Szydlowski said. “It was a great learning experience but simultaneously it was pretty sobering to think that there's so much out there. There are all these activities, people and cultures that I was previously clueless about.”

Szydlowski joined the Chevron Corporation in 1981 which not only resulted in success in his professional life but also a lifetime worth of travel.

“It was like working in the military. I did all kinds of different assignments in the U.S. and different parts of the world,” Szydlowski said. “Most people are not quite as fortunate as me considering the long list of opportunities that I had.”

Kettering to the United States

Born in Chicago, Szydlowski went to high school in Hammond, Indiana, the small intersection of land that connects Illinois to Michigan via Interstate-94. At the time, General Motors had a broader set of suppliers and smaller companies that were vibrant in northwest Indiana.

“I was keen on going to a technical field like engineering,” Szydlowski said. “Kettering’s appeal to me was the co-op because it allowed me, for all practical purposes, to pay my own way.”

Szydlowski completed his co-op at Chevrolet Flint Metal Fabrication. His range of experiences varied from being a production line foreman, plant layout specialist to a working draftsman. He worked briefly at the shop after graduating from Kettering in 1974 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering before deciding to pursue a Master’s in Business Administration at Indiana University -Bloomington.

Szydlowski graduated from Indiana in 1976 and traveled further east to work for Environmental Elements Corporation in Baltimore, an organization he describes as a “big fabrication shop.” It was also Szydlowski’s first foray into “green” technologies that strive for sustainability and efficiency in the industrial process.

“I was there for about a year and a half before I got an offer to go to Denver which was romantic and exciting for me at the time,” Szydlowski said.  “I went with my wife to make suitcases at the Samsonite factory in Denver.”

In Denver, Szydlowski was involved in all facets of the luggage business. Over a three-year period from 1978-1981, he worked in sewing and textiles, plastic forming and injection molding, metal forming and casting and all aspects related to design and assembly.

“I got a couple of assignments in Mexico when I was at Samsonite,” Szydlowski said. “That was my first set of international activities.”

They were the first but certainly not the last as Szydlowski’s interests shifted to the then booming oil business.

Kettering to Around the World

“In 1981, I got interested in the oil business,” Szydlowski said “Oil was hiring big and expanding and looking pretty exciting.”

Szydlowski joined Chevron in 1981 as an engineer in Denver where the energy boom was then taking place. He supervised oil trucks, tanks and warehouse units. In 1983, he moved to Chevron headquarters in San Francisco and Szydlowski followed that by doing stints in Washington, Texas, Maryland, Mississippi and New Jersey.

“I got a great understanding of different locations, people, cultures and parts of the oil and gas business,” Szydlowski said. “For me, it was really gratifying and ever-changing and really kept my interest.”

Over the next 25 years, Szydlowski’s domestic travels turned into international ones as he was promoted throughout the company until he was named the Head of Refining for the corporation.

“It was an evolving career,” Szydlowski said. “I never would’ve imagined when I first started or when I left the plant in Flint that I would end up running refineries around the world.”

Throughout his career with Chevron, Szydlowski has traveled to Africa, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and the Middle East as he’s observed that much of the oil in the world is in impoverished and inaccessible places. Part of his role at Chevron at one point was related to environmental health and safety as he was tasked to determine the environmental and social impacts that oil companies have in regions and communities in which they operate.

“At that time it was the run-up to the Kyoto Protocol,” Szydlowski said. “This was a wonderful time to learn about what’s happening from a global perspective.”

Throughout his travels, the diversity and depth of individuals around the globe humbled Szydlowski. He was often overwhelmed and the honored to have the experiences that he had in the numerous places that he had them. He respected these opportunities by striving to assimilate himself in the communities in which he worked through language.

“I felt that to understand people, you need to understand the cultures and to understand the culture, you really need to speak the language.”

In 2004, Szydlowski retired from Chevron after The Pentagon called and asked him to help with transitioning the oil sector in Iraq from its past regime to the new government.

“This was a period in time that the United States and the Coalition had just removed dictator Saddam Hussein and now we had the Coalition Provisional Authority as the sovereign government in Iraq,” Szydlowski said.

Szydlowski spent 8 months in Iraq between 2004 and 2005 before returning to the United States, this time in Atlanta, to become the Chief Executive Officer at Colonial Pipeline Company. From 2009 to 2014, Szydlowski shifted again, this time to Tulsa, to take a position with SemGroup Corporation. Now he’s officially retired and is serving on multiple boards for start-ups, established companies and nonprofits.

“It’s painful to look at the difficulties in Iraq today. So much work, so many people and a seemingly never-ending siege of obstacles,” Szydlowski said. “I feel extraordinarily fortunate that I was able to go to Iraq when I did and I’m still hopeful that better times are ahead for the people I met and know.”

Szydlowski’s journey is an American fairy tale that began at Kettering University. From small midwest roots to a global leader, Szydlowski achieved success in his career by simply taking advantage of every opportunity that came his way. Kettering is an anecdote in Szydlowski’s story as it served as the beginning of his decorated global career.

“I really feel like it was a superb launching point for me. The co-op program gave me a window into the future as it integrated the working environment and working with people,” Szydlowski said. “Thinking about the college experience, I really felt like I had a fast start and that fast start let me take advantage of lots of opportunities throughout the rest of my career.”