Growing up in a small copper-mining town, Anita Riddle ’93, ’96, loved to look at stars. Astronomy is a hobby to this day, begun when her father bought a telescope so the family could marvel at the galaxies twinkling above the Arizona desert. He also inspired her to be an engineer.
Today, Riddle is a star in her own galaxy, and her meteoric career rise has made her an executive in the petrochemical industry. Lamar University played a starring role in that career, in which Riddle serves as U.S. manufacturing procurement manager and global advisor for ExxonMobil.
Honored by the Southeast Texas Business and Professional Women as a “Woman to Watch,” she is a member of Lamar’s Chemical Engineering Advisory Council. Riddle is also an athlete, having lettered in four high school sports, and she still plays on a softball team. A bilingual Latina, she is a world traveler and an nationalparks devotee who has a great love for the great outdoors
She and her husband, Steven Schmidt, who live in Fairfax, Va., are also great friends of Lamar University, where their generosity has supported educational excellence in areas from faculty enrichment in chemical and industrial engineering to scholarships and the Society of Women Engineers, as well as other areas.
Inspired by the engineering faculty’s impact on her career, Riddle has contributed to her alma mater for 14 consecutive years, culminating in the gifts she and Schmidt made to Lamar’s current comprehensive campaign, “Investing in the Future.”
Their $100,000 campaign gift created the Riddle and Schmidt Faculty Development Endowment in Chemical Engineering and the Riddle and Schmidt Faculty Development Endowment in Industrial Engineering. The engineering faculty is close to Riddle’s heart, and she credits that faculty for her career success.
“The university has been key in helping me become a better person, a better leader, a better professional. I took management classes, and I took technical classes, and it’s made me a more effective employee,” she said. “I have always been so impressed with the engineering professors’ willingness to work so closely with industry to meet industry’s needs.
“I don’t want the professors to have constraints. If there’s anything I can do to help them teach better—or teach more—that’s why I do it.”
“We are most appreciative of this gift and are excited about the impact it will have,” said Camille Mouton, vice president for university advancement. “When I visited with Anita about her campaign gift, she told me about the wonderful mentoring she received from our engineering faculty and asked what she could do to support faculty. This endowment will provide flexibility so faculty members have opportunities to further their professional development and ensure that our engineering students continue to receive a top-notch education.”
For Riddle and Schmidt, ExxonMobil’s program of three-to-one matching gifts has proven inspirational. “There is a lot of opportunity, and I want to take full advantage of it. As my husband and I continue to work, we’ll continue to give to Lamar.”
Riddle’s success story begins in the copper-mining town of Bisbee, Ariz., where her father, John “Jack” Riddle, worked as a mining engineer. “I think since fourth grade, my teachers recognized I was good at math,” Riddle said. “My dad recognized that early on, and he encouraged me.”
Hers is a family of engineers. Her sister, Yvette, is a geological engineer in the mining industry. Their brother, Sergio, recently retired from the Army Corps of Engineers. Jack Riddle met Anita’s mother, Silvia, a teacher, while in the copper mines of northern Chile. “My mother (now deceased) taught me Spanish, so I am bilingual,” said Riddle, who encourages daughters Sierra Katherine, 7, and Christine Silvia, 4, to speak Spanish.
In high school, Riddle lettered in volleyball, basketball, track and tennis and was student body president.
After graduation, she followed her sister to the University of Arizona, deciding a year later to transfer to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., with an Army ROTC scholarship. At Cornell, she wascaptain of the women’s volleyball team.
Riddle graduated from Cornell with a chemical engineering degree, then spent six years on active duty in the Army, stationed in Germany, Colorado and Alabama, where her duties included ammunition management and bomb disposal. In the early 1990s, her travels led to Beaumont.
“I loved the Army because I was getting all kinds of leadership experience, but I wanted to be an engineer as well as a leader,” she said. “I needed to find a place where I could do chemical engineering, get a graduate engineering degree and do part-time Army Reserve work. “Beaumont had everything for me. The refinery was a wonderful place to work. I immediately applied at Lamar for a master’s program. And the Army Reserve gave me the command of a transportation company on College Street. It was a wonderful place to start a career.”
Tom Moeller, ExxonMobil Director, Refining Americas, ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co., and a former regent of The Texas State University System, was then manager of the Beaumont refinery. “He inspired me to continue my education (at Lamar). “I could immediately apply what I was learning at work. In fact, my doctoral project was on the process unit for which I was the engineer. It was a perfect combination,” said Riddle, who earned her master of engineering management in 1993 and doctor of engineering in chemical engineering in 1996.
“Anita Riddle is an extremely talented analytical problem solver,” said Jack Hopper, dean of the College of Engineering and executive assistant to the president for economic development and industrial relations. “Moreover, she is providing a very valuable role for the College of Engineering as demonstrated by her high level of commitment and support for Lamar.”
Adds Victor Zaloom, associate dean of engineering and chair of industrial engineering: “Anita has a wonderful and uncommon set of attributes, including high intelligence, high ethical standards, motivation to succeed and caring of others. She was a model student. It is even more rewarding to know her and see her grow into a wonderful, caring person.”
Beaumont changed Riddle’s life in another significant way. She met her husband at a conference on campus. Both were doing environmental work, Riddle at Mobil and Schmidt at the DuPont SabineRiver Works in Orange. They were married Nov. 11, 1995, with a reception on the eighth floor of the Mary and John Gray Library. The setting held special significance on campus, in view of the company that gave her a career and beginning her life with Steven. “The sunset was gorgeous. Everything was coming together.”
Soon after Riddle earned her doctorate from Lamar, she also earned one of her first key leadership positions as a shift superintendent, with the responsibility to execute the orders of management and to ensure the safety and the environmental responsibility of all the operations. “I was working a rotating shift schedule, where the team works a series of days, then a series of nights. It was challenging. I have a lot of respect for folks who do that for many years.”
She went on to a leadership position over the lubricant-processing plant. It was a perfect fit because her Lamar doctoral project was about solvent extraction.
“That was the first time I had complete accountability for all the safety, environment, proper business controls, operations, profit and loss, and efficiency of that business,” Riddle said.
From Beaumont, Riddle went to the Joliet, Ill., refinery, as manager over the storage
and transport of gasolines and diesel fuels from the refinery to the gas stations.
During her first assignment in Fairfax, she was in charge of optimizing the crude oil
purchases for all refineries in the Americas. “That was right after the merger, so it was a
very exciting time for the company,” she said.
Assigned to corporate headquarters in Irving as environmental advisor for safety, health and environment, Riddle led efforts to set aside undeveloped acreage at the headquarters as a wildlife habitat. By then, Steven had left Du Pont for ExxonMobil. “Our life became a little less complicated, and I thank him for that sacrifice, as I do for all
the other sacrifices he makes for my career,” she said.
Transferred to Baton Rouge, Riddle was in charge of the operations of crude oil distillation, resid coking and lubricants processing. She returned 31/2 years ago to Fairfax, over procurement of services and materials for ExxonMobil’s U.S. refineries and chemical plants.
“It’s exciting. It’s fulfilling. It’s challenging.” she said. “I feel like ExxonMobil is taking full advantage of what I can give—and pressing me for more creativity and even better leadership.”
