Our Commitment to Ethics, Integrity and People

Our Code of Conduct Guides Us

Our corporate culture is built on the personal integrity and honesty of every employee. Our business must comply with the laws of over 100 countries, and we require that every member of the PQ team make decisions with the utmost integrity and the highest of ethical standards.

We maintain a robust Code of Conduct that sets forth the guiding ethics and compliance principles all of employees must adhere. Each employee receives Code of Conduct training upon joining our team and our instruction includes topics such as: avoiding conflicts of interest; promoting and protecting health, safety and the environment; avoiding bribery and corruption; prevention and reporting sexual harassment and workplace discrimination; and complying with trade laws, among others.

To read our Code of Conduct, please click here.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Our rigorous Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) process enables our team to evaluate and address operational and compliance risks that we face in our businesses.

Our Chairman, President and CEO has established a multi-disciplinary ERM council that examines and oversees risk reduction measures for strategic, financial, credit market, liquidity, security, property, legal, regulatory, reputational and other risks. Led by our General Counsel and Director of Internal Audit, our ERM Council regularly reports on our ERM efforts to our Board Audit Committee.

Diversity & Inclusion: Building for the Future

Building on a global footprint that spans across 22 countries, our talented and dedicated employees come from a diverse population with more than half of our 3,300 employees being located outside the United States. This international strength, supported by our core values of integrity and fairness, fosters a rich culture founded on diversity of thought.

We also remain focused on gender diversity and particularly among our professional ranks, 30% of whom are women. Today there are women on the management teams of each of our businesses as well as in all our functions: R&D, Finance, HSE and Human Resources. Our talent acquisition team identifies and presents diverse candidate slates and, in the US, 45% of our 2019 hires were minorities.

We firmly believe that success is achieved through the intellect and commitment of our people, so we employ a long-term human capital program to attract, retain, and develop talent for the future.

Development and Career Growth

We maintain a robust Emerging Leaders program to identify top talent to build leadership capabilities and provide the fundamental skills every leader needs to generate passion and productivity in their team. The program also provides an invaluable networking opportunity that creates a connected community of leaders at PQ.

Additionally, our global succession planning process ensures that we have sufficient talented personnel to fill key leadership, innovation and manufacturing roles well into the future and to better prepare employees for their future at PQ Corporation.

We Respect and Promote Fundamental Human Rights

We are committed to conducting business in an ethical manner that respects human rights. It is our policy that PQ and its vendors, suppliers, contractors, consultants, and agents must comply with all applicable human rights laws and not utilize any form of forced labor, human trafficking or slavery. Any allegations of violations of this policy will be thoroughly investigated and, if appropriate, corrective actions will be taken.

We follow the requirements of Section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015 and other applicable laws.

Read the policy here.

Recognized as a Leader in Business Ethics

We have attained a corporate-wide Bronze certificate from Ecovadis, with a top quartile performance in business ethics.

This performance as measured by EcoVadis demonstrates our underlying values and commitment to the highest of ethical standards across our businesses.