Shawn Cullen

About Shawn Cullen

I am a Fortune 500 Chief Audit Executive with over 25 years of leadership experience spanning manufacturing operations, site leadership, and enterprise risk oversight at LyondellBasell.I bring a rare operator\'s perspective to governance - having led large-scale manufacturing organizations across safety, reliability, and operational performance before transitioning to enterprise assurance. This background enables me to translate operational reality into meaningful risk insight for executive leadership and the Audit Committee.In my current role, I lead global Internal Audit with responsibility for risk coverage, audit quality, and digital innovation across a complex, global manufacturing footprint. I partner closely with executive leadership and the Audit Committee to enhance visibility into emerging risks, improve decision making, and ensure alignment between strategy, execution, and governance.My focus is on elevating Internal Audit from a compliance function to a value-driven, insight-generating capability - leveraging data, technology, and AI to drive efficiency and impact.

Experience

1. VP, Chief Internal Auditor

   LyondellBasell

   Mar 2023 — Present · Houston, TX, US

   Enterprise assurance executive leading global Internal Audit with direct engagement with executive leadership and the Audit Committee, driving enterprise risk visibility, audit quality, and AI-enabled transformation across a global manufacturing footprint.Select Accomplishments- Appointed as the first career manufacturing leader to serve as Chief Internal Auditor, bringing deep operational credibility to enterprise risk and assurance discussions with executive management and the Audit Committee- Founded the company\'s Aligned Assurance Steering Committee, reducing audit redundancy, addressing coverage gaps, and institutionalizing best practice sharing across assurance functions- Elevated quality and relevance by enforcing a value-creation standard, challenging inconsequential findings and focusing the function on insights that drive business and risk outcomes- Improved final audit report issuance cycle time by 50%, getting insights and recommendations into the hands of our auditees expediently- Streamlined and modernized the Internal Audit organization, reducing the annual budget by $1M while deploying resources to the highest risk areas- Led Internal Audit\'s early adoption of generative AI, establishing a dedicated team that developed agentic AI tools that will save the department thousands of hours annually and materially enhance audit execution.

Education

• University of Iowa

  BSE, Chemical Engineering

  1993 — 1998

• St. Ambrose University

  MBA

  2006 — 2007

Skills

• Engineering
• Performance Management
• People Development
• Ldpe Manufacturing
• Hdpe Manufacturing
• Psm
• Chemical Engineering
• Olefins Manufacturing
• Operations Management
• Process Optimization
• Project Engineering
• Capital Projects
• Petrochemical
• Process Safety Management
• Leadership
• Ethylene
• Plant Maintenance
• Strategic Leadership
• Olefins
• Process Engineering
• Reliability Management
• Process Safety
• Polymers
• Factory
• Technical Leadership
• Reliability Engineering
• Engineering Management
• Site Management
• Manufacturing