"A Conversation with DuPont's Chairman and CEO, Edward Breen"

Edward Breen, chairman and chief executive officer of DuPont, sat down with Delphi Automotive Chairman Raj Gupta at the December 8 meeting of the Boston College Chief Executives Club at the Boston Harbor Hotel. Breen, who served on DuPont's board before assuming the helm of the chemical-manufacturing conglomerate last year, engineered a proposed $130 billion merger agreement between DuPont and the Dow Chemical Company. (The deal is subject to regulators' approval, which Breen said he expects is forthcoming.) Breen and Gupta talked about the DuPoint chief executive's success in turning around Tyco, a company that was very close to bankruptcy when he took over as CEO in 2002. Breen said the experience taught him the importance of "living with your customer," and the critical role of teamwork in any company. "A lot of people like politics and talking behind people’s backs, and I don’t want any of that," he said. David Torchiana, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare, introduced Breen and Gupta.