Legacy Voice: Mary-Lynn Duffy on Leadership, Integration, and Global Impact at Kuraray America

Behind every century-long legacy are the people whose dedication and experience helped shape it. Our hashtag#LegacyVoices series highlights those individuals and the lessons they carry forward.

Meet Mary-Lynn Duffy, Senior Manager of Product for PVOH at Kuraray America, Inc. (KAI), as one of our Legacy Voices.

Mary-Lynn’s father designed bird-strike experiments for aircraft engines, sparking an early curiosity that helped shape her initial path. She earned her mechanical engineering degree at The University of Delaware. Her career started as a contractor accountant at DuPont. Within one month, she was offered a full-time role and served in various roles across accounting, IT, and business consulting before ultimately moving into supply chain management.

Mary-Lynn spent 32 years with DuPont before her division became part of Kuraray America through the 2014 acquisition.

Building One Team 
“In many acquisitions, the process can feel very transactional. Teams are consolidated quickly, relocations are common, and people are expected to adapt overnight.” said Mary-Lynn.

Kuraray America chose a different path. The team remained intact, employees were able to stay in Wilmington, DE rather than relocate to Houston, TX, and the company created a three-year transition period to help integrate systems and processes.

“From day one, they made it clear we were part of the team; that approach meant a lot to us.” she said.

A Global Perspective
Kuraray America recognized her decades of supply chain expertise and sought to apply it across the organization. Within her first year, Mary Lynn was on a plane to Tokyo, Japan, helping build a global sales and operations planning tool.

She later served as the global product management leader for her PVOH business unit, a three-year assignment that brought her to Tokyo multiple times each year, as well as to Singapore and Germany.

That global reach, and the trust behind, helped shape how she approaches her role today.

Driving Digital Transformation
Mary-Lynn is helping lead one of KAI’s most ambitious operational shifts: a multi-year Aspen Technology implementation replacing spreadsheet-based planning with an integrated digital platform. The transformation began with demand management, moved into master scheduling, and is now advancing toward plant-level optimization.

When complete, the system will connect demand forecasting to global production assets, allowing the company to evaluate where products can be made most efficiently and route production accordingly.

Looking Ahead 
For Mary-Lynn, the centennial is personal. She has two granddaughters, and her hope is that they might one day walk the same halls.

"I would love for my grandchildren to work here, thrive here, and help Kuraray in their next hundred years." 🎉

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Mar. 12, 2026