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I'm John Harmon, founder, president, and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

And welcome to "Pathway to Success."

You know, today's environment, there's a lot of conversation about electric vehicles, about renewables, about just clean air.

And, oftentimes, Black people are not in the conversation in a way that would make a positive impact.

But today, we're extremely excited to have Dr. Cory Phillips.

He's the Laboratory Team Leader, Bayway Refinery Phillips 66.

Welcome to "Pathway to Success."

- Thank you, John.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for this opportunity.

I'm really honored, and I'm privileged to be here, you know, especially to you, my colleague and friend.

I do regard you as a friend, and I regard you as a jewel to our community.

I'm sure our ancestors would be very proud of what you're doing, and I just want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk a little bit about where we're moving in the future with clean energy and how, in respect to Black folks, what that means for us.

- Thank you so much.

So now, let's get into it.

You know, Dr. Cory Phillips, you know, I have tremendous respect for those who have gone on to institutions of higher education and acquired various credentials.

But before we get into that, a little bit about you, where you're from; big family, small family, upbringing.

- Yeah, thanks, John, and shout out to my family from Detroit and from all over the country actually.

We were part of the great migration that came up out of Alabama on my father's side in the early '20s.

And my mother's side originated from Mississippi, a small little town called Forest, Mississippi.

I believe it's east of Jackson.

Wonderful parents.

My dad wasn't, you know, college-educated.

He actually--I think he went to eleventh grade, and then he enlisted in the Air Force right around the Korean conflict.

He was military police in Air Force, stationed in England.

He came back, and he met my mom.

My mom, she's from Detroit as well.

She ended up going to college later in life, but they were interesting people.

My dad worked, I think, maybe three months, he tried to do, you know, something that was common in Detroit.

You know, you come out of high school, and you go to the assembly line.

You know, those were stable jobs, and they had good benefits.

But his nature, he just wasn't that way, and so he was self-employed his entire life.

And so I basically saw someone that, you know, got up every day and really tried to start his different businesses throughout his life and was a risk taker, and so that was impressive.

My mom, very spiritual woman, very grounded.

And I think both of them, they didn't mind taking chances.

It was different for me, you know, to live in a neighborhood and, you know, them take, you know, their money and pretty much drained their cash sending us to Catholic school, there in Detroit that time.

So they did things that were different, and I saw that, and I really--I'm glad that they had the courage to be different.

- Siblings?

- Yeah, I have an older brother.

My sister, she passed away.

She was an executive at Pfizer for a while.

And my brother, he owns his own business.

He kept the tradition, the entrepreneurship tradition.

He's an owner of a lab prosthetics business.

Yeah, I looked at the town of Detroit as a place where it's going through this cycle, these generations, you know.

When I was coming through, we were kind of coming off the civil rights, you know, platform and a lot of the movement there.

And then we went to this sort of, like, Afrocentric phase in the '70s.

And then growing up in the '80s, you know, there was a lot of struggle, socioeconomic struggle, in the city of Detroit.

And so I grew up during that time, you know.

We had the classic three, I call it.

You know, the AIDS, the crack, and the violence, you know.

And so growing up as a child, you know, we had to make some tough decisions.

And I had friends in my neighborhood who I regarded as close friends, even to this day, that some didn't survive, some did survive that time period.

But we learned a lot.

We learned about resilience.

We learned about the need to depend on one another.

We actually learned about community.

And so, growing up, I went to a small Catholic school in Detroit, St. Cecilia.

I went to St. Martin de Porres, part of the archdiocese.

And from there, I ended going to the University of Michigan, studied chemical engineering.

- You're from Motown, the entertainment capital, General Motors, Ford, you know.

So what drew you to science?

- And so growing up, I realized that I had a gift for mathematics, and I had an interest in chemistry.

My mom said I used to play on the floor with different household reagents and tried to mix them and see if that could cause chemical reactions.

And I did that as a young boy, and turns out I had a teacher at the high school, Sister Joanne, she pointed out that, you know, "You tend to get straight A's in chemistry, "and you tend to be really good in math.

"Why don't you promise me that you'll look into "chemical engineering when you go to college?

"In fact, why don't you promise me that you'll become a chemical engineer?"

I had no idea what a chemical engineer was, but it turns out that she was dead right.

I was born to be a chemical engineer, and it all started from my interest, and my desire, and just the delight that I have in mathematics and in chemistry.

- You know, as you were giving us all a little background about the community, about the social interactions, and then you landed on your teacher.

That influence that she made in your life, such that you remembered her name.

- Yeah.

- You know, oftentimes, we've had interviews with other guests who their teachers were not as encouraging, and they might have been very discouraging such that, you know, "You're not gonna amount to anything."

I even, you know, when I went on to college, I started as an auto mechanic, and I went back, and I shared with some of the older gentlemen that I got accepted into college, and I was going to put my wrenches down and move on.

And they laughed at me.

But that turned to be a sense of motivation.

- Thank you for sharing your story, John.

I just--I could feel, you know, a lot of the passion in your own story, and I'm sure that story is shared by a number of children across the country.

Teachers make just an indelible impact on our lives, and they can really help us shape the vision of what we--where we see ourselves.

And then once we grab on to that vision, that's all we need.

It has to be cemented in our own being, in our own soul.

And so, you know, that teacher I mentioned, Sister Joanne, I had another one, Sister Faye.

These were Irish women who had taken the Dominican oath to become nuns.

They came from a different background than I had.

My other teachers in my neighborhood, they look like me.

My teachers at my church, they look like me, but my whole point is, I had a variety of teachers and mentors.

I had a village.

And I had a village that believed that I could be something outside of what was being deemed, or at least, reference to my neighborhood, what the media was portraying my neighborhood and my town to be.

Detroit had a very bad national media image.

But it took some deprogramming on my part during that time.

I remember, you know, we had a great bookstore in my neighborhood, called The Shrine of the Black Madonna.

And this bookstore, I started reading books out of this bookstore at age 12, age 13, Probably even younger.

I remember I started off with "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," and then I went into, you know, other books.

By the time I was 16, I was reading books by a professor here at Rutgers, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, on Blacks in science.

So although education, formal education, is put in place to program us to be a certain way as American citizens, we have to deprogram ourselves and reeducate ourselves in a certain way to understand the entire systems that we're under.

And so my education, although formally trained, it's also brought up and enhanced by this complementary education of Black authors who, you know, might not be as famous or popular, but their literature and their scholarly work impacted my life.

And I knew this chemistry and this math, this could take me to new places.

It could help me invent new things.

It could help me create new things.

And we have a long history as Black folks with creating an alchemy that goes back to Kemet in Egypt.

We have that in our history.

And I just wanted to connect back to that.

- Now, some of the things you did before Phillips... - We talked about people's backgrounds and the mentors, and coaches, and advisers that we need throughout our life.

At every phase in our life, it really helps to have coaches and advisers.

You know, one coach that I had, my earliest mentor that really got me into the field of study that I tend to specialize in, which is called catalysis and reaction engineering, Professor Levi Thompson, Dean Levi Thompson, of University of Delaware, who is currently the acting dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware.

He was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for many years.

He was the first African American professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.

I met him at 17 years old, and I met him at a summer program at the University of Michigan.

That's how I knew I wanted to go to Michigan.

That summer program impacted my life.

I saw for the first time, other students who look like me, but they had a different focus on their life, and the vision for their life, and their level of excellence was amazing to me.

And these were all, you know, African American students and Hispanic students.

It was a program, Minorities in Engineering Program.

So I met my set of mentors, and I realized the importance of mentors, and coaches, and advisers at that point.

And I felt like I wanted to, you know, I wanted to live up to their expectation and the belief they had in me, the potential that they saw in me.

I always wanted to live up to that, and I never wanted to let them down.

And so eventually, by the time I graduated from there, Michigan, I had other mentors that, you know, came from other demographics, and they supported me, and so eventually, I went to the University of Iowa, and I studied with Ravindra Datta who's originally from India, studied at IIT.

He's Professor Ravindra Datta at Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.

And we built a strong relationship, and his belief in me really transformed me as well.

We did a lot of great things, and I wrote my thesis on how to convert ethanol that you make from corn into gasoline and other fuel additives.

And that really launched my career into alternative fuels, alternative energy, clean energy.

We were doing this in the '90s when this was not even talked about.

It was not popular at all.

Everyone talks about clean energy-- in the '90s, I had to stand in front of oil companies, I work for an oil company now, and defend my thesis, defend my work.

It was not popular.

The idea and the vision for ethanol and biofuels wasn't there.

So we've been on his journey for a long time.

So for me to see the country and the globe talk about clean energy, talk about alternative fuels, this has been 30 years for me in the making.

- Man, this is exciting stuff, you know.

We're dealing with perceptions every day.

Can Black people compete in the mainstream economy?

Can a Black chamber coexist and be relevant?

In part, your being here today is to push back on those perceptions that people like Dr. Cory Phillips don't exist.

Or if they do exist, they cannot perform and deliver.

You've kind of shattered that.

We'll stop there.

We'll take a break right now on "Pathway to Success."

This is John Harmon.

We'll be back in a minute.

- The African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey is your pathway to success.

We encourage you to visit our website at www.aaccnj.com or call us at 609-571-1620.

We are your strategic partner for success.

- Welcome back to "Pathway to Success."

Just delighted to have Dr. Cory Phillips here with us today.

Dr. Phillips, let's just pick up on a little more about Phillips 66.

- We've always been an energy company, originally starting off in Oklahoma.

So we launched the oil and gas boom in Oklahoma.

Our founder, Frank Phillips, found his first well in Oklahoma, interesting person.

He actually had good relationships with the communities, surrounding communities, there.

The indigenous folks of Oklahoma during that time made some land agreements, and really, you know, started that economy there in terms of this launching it to a new level.

We've really diversified with 13,000 employees now.

We went through a transition where we merged with Conoco and became ConocoPhillips, and became a major oil company with over 30,000 employees.

But now we're what you would consider a downstream energy company.

So we operate in kind of four segments.

So those four segments have been the cornerstone of who we are.

We're proud of what we've become and where we're going.

- Can you speak to the role politics plays in... from taking an idea, taking a raw material, regulations, and policies, and bringing that product to market.

- You all remember, gasoline used to have lead in it.

Remember that?

Tetraethyllead.

And it was politics that eventually landed some regulations that said, "Hey, we don't want this lead in our fuel anymore, "and we're gonna ask you, Mr. Oil Companies, "to figure out how you can change "and modify your refining processes "to remove that lead out of gasoline for the health and safety of society."

On the automotive side, we had things like CAFE with the pressure that came with the automotive companies to say, "Hey, we need you to increase fuel economy, "you know, every year because we're trying to reduce "the amount of, you know, emissions coming out of the tailpipes."

I used to work for Honda, so I'm familiar with that side of the game as well.

What politics does and what regulations-- they provide the dream, and then they say, "Okay, you smart folks at these, "you know, oil companies and automotive companies, "you engineers and scientists, you go figure out how you can get us where we need to be."

And I would like to think that the data that we provided from the early funding that we received impacted some of the decisions that were made in politics and eventually ended up in what we called the renewable fuel standard that happened.

And so my data I'm sure probably fell on someone's desk, and they were able to, you know, make some decisions at some point.

- Well, I need you to explain about the discovery of hydro generation catalysts for microchannel reactor applications.

That sounds like an education itself.

- There's a lot of words in there, right?

Just a lot of nomenclature.

Well, back in early 2000s, I was working at Honda, and Honda was trying to make vehicles that could run off fuel cells.

And if you're familiar with proton exchange membrane fuel cells, what they do is they take hydrogen on one side, the anode, and they take air on the other side, the cathode, and you take those components, and they generate electricity and produce water.

And so if you can get a source of hydrogen, you're golden.

You can make this technology work for you.

So when I was at Honda, we were trying to figure out how could we make hydrogen on board.

So imagine you go to the pump.

You fill up with gasoline, and underneath the vehicle, it's a bunch of very sophisticated small reactors with a lot of channels and small cavities with catalysts.

Catalysts help speed up reactions, and they also transform, they do the alchemy, all right, that you need, the surface alchemy.

Can you do that underneath the car, and at the end of it, you have hydrogen, so as you press on the gas, you're making hydrogen?

Actually, the driver doesn't know it.

The consumer doesn't realize it, but you've actually transformed gasoline into hydrogen, and then you use it with the fuel cell on board.

So that was the nature of that technology, and it was just amazing.

It was a dream type of technology.

To come out of school, I came out of my postdoc, and I joined Honda research, fundamental research, and that was the first technology that I jumped on, and it was just exhilarating.

- Well, I'm gonna give you another one to break down for us.

Advanced hydrocarbon fuels and their application in designing new fuel sources.

- We had a chance to look at new fuels.

So I joined a group called the Advanced Hydrocarbon Fuels and what we were looking for, could we design new fuels that allow the automakers to reach their CAFE targets?

And so could we design fuels that burn easier, that allow engines to operate more efficient?

What would these fuels look like?

Also, could these fuels enable us to launch a business?

We actually are launching a new business segment.

I mentioned before to you that segments that we have.

We're launching one called Emerging Energy.

It's built on four pillars.

Emerging Energy will be the new segment that will deal with a lot of the newer alternative energy opportunities that exist right now, or are coming out.

- So from a Phillips 66 perspective, speak a little bit about, you know, the future, this balanced approach that you all are taking because you have a massive infrastructure investment, and there are some that think you can go from, you know, today's economy to this new economy and not have any disruption.

- Yeah, it's not like a light switch, but the key is to start those developments.

Now, I'll tell you a good example.

We have a project called Rodeo Renewed.

Our Rodeo refinery, which is basically our San Francisco facility, they're actually transforming themselves.

Within two years, they'll be the largest renewable fuels facility in the world, probably making like 50,000 barrels a day of renewable diesel.

Now, here's an example of our balanced approach.

You mentioned balance.

So we've already invested in these assets.

We already have these pipelines, you know.

We already have these--a lot of steel at the refineries.

Reactors, we have vessels, things that we've invested in.

You know, a lot of the changes that are required to make things into renewable and biofuels facilities or renewable facilities will cause a lot of this equipment to not be useful anymore.

So what we're doing in our balanced approach is figuring out how we can take our existing assets, take those assets, and use them in these new, you know, alternative ways.

For instance, like we're doing with this Rodeo Renewed, which we're taking a traditional, you know, hydrotreating unit and turning that into a unit that can be used to turn soybean oil and used cooking oil into jet fuel.

- We've had several discussions about the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey and Phillips 66 here in New Jersey, working in partnership to help Black businesses, help underperforming communities here in New Jersey.

Can you shed a little light on, you know, what that looks like from your side?

- We want to figure out how can we tap into the pool of talent, the pool of businesses that exist in our community, the minority supplier base.

Part of our, you know, governance mission as we continue to move forward in this environmental stewardship and social stewardship and governance, is really understanding how we can engage, you know, minority suppliers in our industry.

And so, you know, really this is an appeal to many of the Black businesses out there.

If you have something that can come to the energy marketplace, some concept, we really would like to understand what that is and learn more.

There's an opportunity for Black businesses, I think, to take part in this energy transition.

So we think that you are definitely that conduit.

- Well, we want to partner with you wholeheartedly in that appeal and bring it to fruition.

Real quick, the future, next five years.

- We definitely feel like we're gonna participate in the solution.

What you'll be seeing from us is a lot of key strategic partnerships.

So you'll see us continue to grow in this emerging energy area, this transition, because we have the size, we have the brand, and we have the assets to do it.

And so I'm excited about seeing what's gonna happen.

- That sounds very exciting.

You know, Dr. Cory Phillips, we thank you so much for being a source of enlightenment, encouragement, but also of excellence, perseverance, and determination.

Until the next time on your "Pathway to Success," this is John Harmon, founder, president, and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

We enjoyed the conversation today with Dr. Phillips, but that's another example of what I would call market disruption that's about to take place.

So as we talk about clean energy and bringing these sources on the market, electric vehicles, you know, eliminating the fossil fuels, eliminating the carbon footprint, that all sounds great, but there's a cost to it.

The corporations today, many of them have made huge capital investments in the infrastructure and the people, and they cannot, on a dime, just go from zero to a thousand overnight.

There has to be a sense of balance.

We have to have a sense of diversity in our energy supply chain.

And so that's what we want to talk about.

That's the message we want to deliver.

The African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey is encouraging society to take a hard look at a more balanced approach.

The examples that Dr. Cory Phillips articulated of eliminating lead in gas, expanding mileage, you know, you go from 20 miles to a gallon to 50 miles a gallon.

Before, that was unheard of, and going from a fossil fuel environment or an environment where there's a lot of carbon in the air to a more cleaner air environment, that's gonna take some time, but we have the talent.

We have the know-how to do so.

So I would encourage you all to, like, chill a little bit, and put your seat belts on, and embrace this new disruption in the marketplace because we're gonna benefit from it, all of us together.

Thank you.

[jazz music] ♪ ♪ - Support for this program was provided by: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSE&G, JCP&L, Investors Bank, Berkeley College, NJM Insurance Group, New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

♪ ♪