Lale LovellAlumni Engagement Medal Award 2022

Sr. Engineering Manager, Seagate Technology
Longmont, CO

Career Path

Dr. Lale Lovell (PhDChemEngr’01) is an alumna of the chemical and biological engineering department and also completed a CU Engineering/Industrial Management Certificate. Upon finishing her chemical engineering Ph.D. degree in 2001, Dr. Lovell spent two years at Agilent Technologies implementing new photolithography processes for polymeric films on CMOS image sensors. She then moved to Lexmark International where she spent 15 years in a variety of roles spanning research & development, operations, and manufacturing. During this time Dr. Lovell became interested in combining her chemical engineering background with business methodologies, to create better flow for organizations.  She embarked on a series of management positions at Lexmark, culminating in her final company role as Senior Area Manager in charge of photoconductor product development, engineering, and manufacturing. As a Certified Lean Master, she championed operational excellence initiatives using lean methodologies to create a culture of sustained continuous improvement. 

Switching industries, Dr. Lovell moved to Seagate in 2018 where she has spent four years as a Senior Engineering Manager, currently of Firmware DevOps for hard drive systems.  In addition to her functional role, she became a Scaled Agile program consultant and is part of a team leading change initiatives, based on Agile and Lean methodologies, within the Emerging Products and Solutions division.  Augmenting her volunteer work, she is also Vice Chair of the Colorado Chapter of Women in Manufacturing.

Contributions to the chemical and biological engineering department over the past year

Dr. Lovell has been a consistently positive presence in the department of chemical and biological engineering (ChBE) for years, helping students and the department in a myriad of ways. She is a strong believer in paying it forward and enabling the next generation of engineers be successful in their endeavors.  

Over the past ten years, Dr. Lovell has mentored five ChBE students, two Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) students, and one Engineering Leadership Program (ELP) student. Her mentors have mentioned how insightful her advice has been and how much time she has devoted to their professional development. Dr. Lovell also served as the Lexmark - Boulder Site CU Liaison; in this capacity she organized Lexmark’s attendance at career fairs, championed intern recruiting, and represented Lexmark at the Engineering Scholarship Dinner (Curlander Scholarship). She has given various professional development and leadership talks and served on class panels for over a decade, often coming in for a talk during both the fall and spring semesters. She is also slated to give a talk to graduate students during the next GAANN retreat. Finally, she co-leads the Chem-E Buff Chats program which brings in alumni speakers from a variety of industry sectors to talk with graduate and undergraduate students about how to leverage skills and education for career success.

Dr. Lovell has also been a member of the department’s External Advisory Board (EAB) since 2014, serving as Chair-Elect from 2017-18 and Chair from 2018-19. As Chair, Dr. Lovell drove semiannual meetings and the agenda, leading discussions that led to several new initiatives in the department.