Born: I was born May 10, 1954, in Fort Benning, Ga. My dad was a sergeant in the Army, and he always joked that they had to pay $3.18 for me. They weren’t sure if they got a bargain or not.
Education: I earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management in 1976 from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
Family: My wife, Nancy, and I have been married 43 years. We have four daughters—Michelle, Laura, Tracy, and Jennifer—and five grandchildren, with a sixth due this summer.
When and how did you enter the papermaking and/or paper recycling industry? During high school, I was an Explorer Scout for Alton Boxboard Co. in my hometown of Alton, Ill. That particular chapter of Explorer Scouts—part of the Boy Scouts—specialized in introducing young adults to different manufacturing processes. At the time, Alton was one of the largest recyclers in the country. After I graduated, the company asked if I’d be interested in going to college on a work co-op program. I’d go to school for a semester, then the next semester I’d work in the company’s different departments, including its recycling department. So I basically started in the recycling business when I was 19 years old.
After I graduated from college, Alton Boxboard offered me a job in Louisville, Ky., at one of its scrap paper plants. Over three years there, I learned how to operate a forklift, fix balers, manage the books, do sales on the road, and more. It was a great training experience. Then in 1979 I went to work for Fort Howard Paper Co. in Green Bay, Wis. That was an exciting time because the company spent a lot of money developing new grades of recovered paper, especially high grades. Around 1985 I became head of the company’s fiber procurement department, working from Green Bay and buying for its mills in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Georgia. Then in 1988 Fort Howard started its Ecosource program—one of the first high-grade MRFs in the country—and it asked me to manage that operation.
In 1990 I took a job with Scott Paper Co. in Philadelphia, which wanted to expand its recycling program. I worked there three years, then I returned to Milwaukee and worked for The Newark Group as VP of the Midwest Region for three years. I moved to Kalamazoo in 1995 to join James River Corp., which had the largest clay-coated board mill in the country. James River spun off its clay-coated board division to Graphic Packaging International in 1999. I stayed there for 25 years, until I retired in June 2020.
What was it about the industry that prompted you to build a career in it? Though recycling has been around a long time, it didn’t become mainstream until the 1970s. I found it very exciting to be part of that evolution. I began my career right at the beginning of the modern-day recycling industry.
What have been your most rewarding professional achievements? I enjoyed being the head of fiber procurement at Fort Howard in the 1980s. It was one of the biggest users of high grades in the country, and I found it exciting and challenging to run that department for several years. I also found it rewarding to help start Fort Howard’s Ecosource MRF for high grades. In 2004 I won the Buyer of the Year Award at the Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show. And in my years with Graphic Packaging, I helped consolidate various operations into one home-grown computer system that the company still uses today.
What are you passionate about? Professionally, I’m passionate about training. Over my career, I had the opportunity to train a couple dozen buyers, and I really enjoyed that. Personally, I’m very passionate about my family. I spend a lot of time with my family, which I think is important.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people. I had the lead role in several high school plays like “Up the Down Staircase” and “Brigadoon.” I’ve also become quite a cake expert now. My 5-year-old granddaughter and I just completed a six-layer unicorn cake.
If you could improve anything about yourself, what would it be? I think most people who worked with me would say, “More patience.” Being a perfectionist is both a blessing and a curse, right?
What do you like to do in your free time? My wife and I are doing a lot of hiking, walking 4 to 5 miles a day. We also have several trips planned but on hold due to COVID. Our plans include a four-week trip to New Zealand and a four-week Mediterranean cruise. I’m also trying to learn how to play golf. That can be a very frustrating sport, especially when you start at my age.
What’s the main challenge facing the papermaking and paper recycling industries? Finding consistent quality in secondary fiber. I think single-stream collection was not the best idea for the recycling business. It was great for capturing more of the recycling stream, but it wasn’t great at the sorting end. Single-stream does not improve the overall quality of the recycling stream.
