In July 2015, when industrial giant DuPont spun off its performance chemicals division and named it Chemours for "chemistry" plus the "Nemours" part of DuPont's full name, the new company was saddled with debt and potentially toxic assets. "I think investors were worried if we were going to be solvent ," then-CEO Mark Vergnano told Fortune in 2016. "Were we going to make it through this or not?" Vergnano proceeded to pull off a dramatic turnaround by slashing costs, selling off non-essential businesses and gaining market share for its refrigerants business.