CEnv Profile | Senior Director (global category, operations) | John Hung CEnv

John Hung BEng(Hons) CEng FIChemE CEnv is Global Category Senior Director for Operations at bp International, overseeing more than $1 billion in third-party spend and leading innovative technical procurement projects that deliver value across Upstream, Midstream and Downstream businesses. This commercial procurement role enables John to combine his chemical engineering, operational and business expertise.

A key part of John’s role is developing and implementing transformative category strategies that improve safety, efficiency, sustainability and margins. He believes this is best achieved through long-term strategic supplier partnerships that harness external expertise across bp globally. John is a subject matter expert in additives, water treatment and corrosion, and has helped develop and introduce several environmental technologies, including low-friction ship coatings, sustainable packaging, greener chemistry, biofuel initiatives and waste-to-fuel conversion.

John is a Supply Chain Optimisation leader with more than 36 years of industrial experience across the FMCG and Oil & Gas sectors. A regular keynote speaker, interviewee, panellist and judge at major conferences, he was named a 2026 Empower Top 7 Role Model by Involve and YouTube. He has also received multiple global accolades recognising his long-standing, values-driven contribution to innovation, sustainability, digitalisation and engineering.

Sponsored by Chevron as a student, John graduated in Chemical Engineering with a first from UMIST. He completed a placement experience with both bp Chemicals and Shell Chemicals, before switching industries and beginning his career with P&G in the FMCG sector.

During the first 13 years of John’s career, he held various commercial & technical positions including Technical Brand Manager, Group Packaging Manager, Technical Manager and Head of Optimisation with some of the leading FMCG multi-nationals before returning to his chemical engineering roots and continuing his journey with Royal Dutch Shell for the next 15 years, covering roles in operations, procurement, supply, manufacturing, trading and shipping. John has now come full circle and for the last 10 years has worked within bp International.

John views professional body membership and registration as crucial to ensuring professional high standards and career development. Having been an IChemE member since 1987 when he was an undergraduate, he converted to chartered member (MIChemE) in 2005 and  Fellow (FIChemE) in 2020. He is an IChemE mentor and has coached many aspiring young engineers with their career progression.

John’s interest in the environment began early, through a university project to redesign a PVC processing plant to reduce emissions. In his early career, he helped develop sustainable packaging in the FMCG sector, earning an Ameristar Award for creative packaging from the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP) and securing an international design registration for a child-resistant closure system. Since returning to the Oil & Gas industry, he has delivered numerous optimisation projects to reduce carbon footprints, reduce water consumption, eliminate single-use plastic, lower emissions and improve supply chain efficiency. His current focus is accelerating sustainability and digitalisation through his work to support the energy transition.

John’s passion and environmental expertise motivated his decision to become a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) via the IChemE in 2005. He says being a CEng, FIChemE, and CEnv has provided him with an USP (unique selling point), demonstrating his dedication to the profession as well as cross-disciplinary expertise, technical knowledge and experience and reinforcing his credibility in the industry; something he describes as more important than ever having moved into a more commercial role.

John embraces the opportunity to highlight the benefits of both registrations to IChemE members and is committed to increasing the number of Chartered Chemical Engineers & Chartered Environmentalists in procurement as alternative career options. He encourages IChemE members to talk to as many peer professionals as possible about registration, and not to be afraid to ask questions of the friendly teams at IChemE and SocEnv.