Commencement Speaker Profile

Edward H. Muñoz, principal of Muñoz Group, has a successful 30-year track record in the global chemical and plastics industry, and in emerging technologies.

Since 2002 he has guided investment opportunities in both M&A and R&D. Assignments have included Mexican companies such as Indelpro, Pemex and Cartones de Mexico. In the United States he has worked with GE, Nypro, and Celanese. In Europe he has collaborated with the Altana Group and SGL Carbon. Muñoz has also worked with Asian companies such as Diacel, Polyplastics, and HyoSung of South Korea.

Using the Muñoz Group as a platform, Muñoz, together with George Muñoz and Divakar Kamath, recently launched Cedalion Capital Partners and are forming a private equity fund for investment in specialty manufacturing.

Muñoz’s international business experience includes senior executive positions with Celanese and the Hoechst Corporate Group. Among his positions are CEO of Ticona, a global plastics business with operations in the United States, Europe and Asia; director general of the Mexican Celanese subsidiary Celanese Mexicana, S.A., the largest privately-owned chemical company in Mexico with sales of $1 billion; and president of Worldwide Pigments Strategic Business Unit for Hoechst AG in Frankfurt, Germany.

In 1980, Muñoz was managing director of a joint venture company between Hoechst and Celanese located in Frankfurt Germany, a position he held until 1984. He was instrumental in coordinating technical and production know-how among the Hoechst, Celanese and Japanese (Polyplastics) partners.

In 1984, Muñoz joined Baxter Travenol in Chicago, where he served as operations director for medical devices, and later as vice president of engineering and packaging for the parenteral division until 1988.

Muñoz rejoined the Hoechst Celanese organization in 1988 as director of manufacturing for engineering resins. In 1990, he was promoted to vice president and general manager of the plastics division of Hoechst Celanese, and in the following year, became president of the advanced materials group.

The University of Texas at Austin graduate is chairman of the board for QVS Inc., a cleaning solutions business; member of the Board of Trustees for The University of Texas-Pan American; charter member of the executive committee of the Bilateral (U.S.-Mexico) Business Council for Sustainable Development of the Gulf of Mexico; and a member of the board of Images for Conservation of Texas.

Muñoz, who is fluent in English, Spanish and German, earned a Bachelor of Science in polymer chemistry from UT Austin in 1967, and an MBA from Texas A&M University at Kingsville in 1979.

He is married to Elizabeth Susan Matsuer Muñoz and has four children and three grandchildren. He and his wife live in Far Hills, N.J.