Tony Huang (B.S. '82)

Director of Finance (ret.), Clorox

Tony and his wife, Melissa on vacation in Ireland.

Tony Huang graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1982. 

“I always liked chemistry, and I picked chemical engineering because I believed there would be more opportunities to apply chemistry in my career as a chemical engineer. I knew that I wanted to work in industry after college. Back then, we didn’t have things like biotechnology.   The big industries here were oil, pulp and paper, and chemical companies.”

While working as an engineer for several years with Procter and Gamble, Tony ran operations and managed the production of laundry detergents. He successfully consolidated the West Coast production of detergents to the Sacramento facility through a capacity expansion project. Gaining these valuable business experiences piqued his interest in other aspects of business practices, and he was inspired to deepen his education in that area. He went back to school and earned an MBA with a concentration in finance from Columbia Business School in 1990. From there Tony continued his career with a 27-year run at Clorox, starting as a Senior Financial Analyst and ultimately serving as Director of Finance before retiring.

Tony’s full 33-year career largely preceded the implementation of what is now standard technology in the corporate workplace. Without a personal office computer as is customary today, he often had to do calculations manually when determining quantities of production materials. Office presentations were given on glass slides instead of a digital PowerPoint file. Among Tony’s accomplishments included facilitating Clorox’s adoption of enterprise software for their, a process that took four years to implement.

In his address to the ChemE graduating class of 2023, Tony remarked that while the way that we do business will continue to change, the qualities of a successful leader will not.

Today, Tony is retired and spends his time volunteering at the local hospital and traveling the world with his wife.