Kathleen Bader is the retired president and chief executive officer of NatureWorks LLC, which makes proprietary, corn-based resins as an environmental alternative to petroleum based plastics. The company was formerly known as Cargill Dow LLC, an equal joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Cargill, Incorporated and now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cargill.

Ms. Bader joined Dow in 1973, held numerous sales, marketing, operations and business management positions in Dow's global and North America operations, became business group president and corporate vice president, Quality & Business Excellence in 2000 and chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cargill Dow LLC in February 2004. She became president of NatureWorks LLC in February 2005 following Cargill's acquisition of Dow's interest in Cargill Dow.

In 2002, Ms. Bader was named to the United States Homeland Security Advisory Council. She is also a member of the International Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity and the Dean's Council at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Bader was identified as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in International Business by Fortune Magazine in October 2001, and profiled by Forbes for her work in corn-based polymers in 2005. A year later in 2006, she was honored with Audubon's Rachel Carson Award.

For more information:

• Nature Works
• Forbes
• New York Times