After graduating with an industrial engineering degree from the University of Tennessee, Vaughn Deasy joined Union Carbide Corp. in 1984 and worked in plant purchasing and polyolefin field sales. Five years later, he joined Occidental Chemical Co.'s polymer business unit and held a variety of sales, product and business management positions in both high density polyethylene and PVC resins. Oxy appointed him business director for commodity PVC in late 1994.
Lyondell Petrochemical acquired OxyChem's Alathon HDPE business in 1995, and named Western region manager and relocated to Chicago. In 1997, he became vice president of marketing for Lyondell's polymers business in Houston. With the formation of Equistar later that year, Deasy was assigned responsibility for the HDPE business. He assumed his current post in April 2002. Today Houston-based Equistar is a $9.7 billion company, with more than 3,000 employees and 16 U.S. manufacturing facilities. Equistar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lyondell Chemical Co.
Deasy holds leadership positions in several industry associations, including the executive committee for the Corrugated Plastic Pipe Association, and he is a board member and executive committee member for the Flexible Packaging Association.