CEO Interview with Jon Kemp of Qnity

Jon Kemp is President of the Electronics division for DuPont and Chief Executive Officer-Elect for Qnity, the planned independent Electronics Company, which will be an independent, publicly traded company spun off from DuPont’s (NYSE: DD) Electronics business upon completion of the intended separation on November 1, 2025.

With more than a decade of leadership experience in electronics at DuPont, Jon’s strategic vision set a pathway for significant portfolio growth. As president of the Electronics & Industrial business, Jon designed business strategy and operations to capitalize on market trends undergoing a major portfolio transformation and growing the business to nearly $6B in net sales in 2024.

Jon’s career at DuPont began in 2005, where he held several key roles, including President of Electronics and Communications and Global Business Director for Circuit & Packaging Materials. After the merger of DuPont and Dow in 2017, he led strategy and M&A for the newly formed Specialty Products Division.

Jon serves on the International Board of Directors for SEMI, where he chairs the Board of Industry Leaders.

Tell us about your company?

DuPont is targeting November 1, 2025, for the completion of its spin-off of the Electronics business, to be called Qnity. While the name is new, our legacy is longstanding. Driven by a purpose to make tomorrow’s technologies possible, Qnity will be one of the largest global leaders in electronic materials and solutions for the semiconductor and advanced electronics industries. As the partner of choice for our customers today, we have a seat at the design table working to advance their technology roadmaps through materials science and engineering solutions that the next generation of advanced computing and connectivity applications require. Qnity will have about 10,000 employees, 40 manufacturing sites, and nearly 20 R&D facilities strategically located near our customers to enable the speed of innovation.

Speaking of the name (pronounced cue-ni-tee), it’s inspired by the symbol for electrical charge, “Q,” and “unity” — a nod to our history and collaboration model with customers. Our electronics portfolio dates back more than 50 years, with a reputation built on speed, quality, and reliability. Looking forward, Qnity will be a global leader in differentiated electronic materials — supplying key consumables used in semiconductor chip manufacturing, advanced electronic materials for packaging and interconnects, thermal management, and innovative assembly and display technologies. We bring a unique, end-to-end perspective on the electronics value chain, and we’re excited about what’s next.

What problems are you solving?

The convergence of industry mega trends like advanced computing and advanced connectivity is accelerating the pace of innovation. AI and related investments are driving an acceleration of digitization and electrification across different industries, including data centers, electric and autonomous vehicles, smart consumer electronics, aerospace, manufacturing, and beyond. These cutting-edge technologies bring new, complex challenges that require a mix of materials science and engineering expertise. At Qnity, we’re committed to a mindset of continuous improvement to address key issues in high-performance computing, thermal management, signal integrity, energy efficiency, miniaturization, and more.

What application areas are your strongest?

We play a critical role partnering with the world’s semiconductor and advanced device manufacturing leaders for semiconductor chip manufacturing, advanced packaging and interconnects, displays, and more. I’ll break that down into a couple of key areas.

For semiconductor technologies, we offer products and expertise that improve chip performance, enhance manufacturing yields, and enable leading-edge node technology for multiple stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process, especially in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) and lithography.

For interconnects, we provide material solutions that enable the seamless connection of various electronic components to address signal integrity, thermal and power management, advanced packaging, and circuitry technologies.

What keeps your customers up at night?

Supply chain reliability and resiliency is a big concern for customers. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic tested the capabilities of supply chains worldwide. Based on what we learned, we adjusted our strategies to emphasize a continuous improvement mindset and stronger local network across our entire business. As a result, we’ve strengthened our entire network — working closely with suppliers and customers alike to boost speed, agility, and reliability. We are committed to supporting our customers with continuous investments in end-to-end supply chain and manufacturing processes, including quality measurement, automation, rapid design and prototyping, and supply chain management.

Sustainability also continues to be top of mind. Customers are increasingly focused on meeting their goals around material usage, waste, and energy efficiency, and they rely on us to provide innovative materials and solutions that help them get there. We’re committed to embedding sustainability throughout our innovation pipeline to support those efforts.

What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?

Our competitors range from large multinational corporations to smaller, more specialized regional players. Our global scale, strategic operational footprint, world-class process technologies, and robust portfolio that enables us to work both up and down the electronics value chain make us a compelling partner for our customers.

Simply put, we’re designed to facilitate optimal customer collaboration with strong product performance and consistency, high quality, and reliable supply. We’re focused on providing the materials that enable their technology roadmaps and ultimately power the next generation of semiconductor and other advanced electronics applications.

What new features/technology are you working on?

Partnering from the start of the design process through delivery of high-volume manufacturing, we have a seat at the design table working to advance customers’ technology roadmaps. We support the most advanced designs in both logic and memory (including N3, N2, advanced DRAM, and HBM), advanced packaging (including 2.5D, 3D, and heterogeneous integration), and thermal management while helping customers achieve improved performance, efficiency, and sustainability.

We’ve recently announced new product launches in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) pads, post-CMP cleans, high-selectivity etchants, photoresists, and extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) underlayers for semiconductor chip manufacturing, as well as thermal solutions to achieve superior thermal performance and long-term stability for next-gen server and data center applications.

How do customers normally engage with your company?

Our disciplined and experienced team is laser focused on delivering value for our customers. We have a strong track record of collaborating to empower advanced technology roadmaps, working side by side at the design table with customers’ technology and engineering teams. This partnership extends from the laboratory to the manufacturing line, where we work to optimize and customize our solutions to maximize yields and performance in our customers’ manufacturing processes. We’re excited to continue building on this approach, looking to bring an even greater speed of innovation, higher quality, and more reliable supply to our customers.

If you have a technology challenge or want to learn more about what we’re working on next, get in touch with our team at qnityelectronics.com.

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