During four decades in the plastics industry, Glenn Anderson held positions of increasing responsibility in direct sales, sales leadership and general management. His special dedication to creating healthy and productive work environments built on strong relationships made him the perfect candidate for his current role as VP of Industry Relations and Member Engagement. In his days as a PLASTICS member, Glenn served as an at-large officer of the PLASTICS board of directors, as chairman of the Plastics Industry Equipment Council and the 2018 chairman for NPE: The Plastics Show.
Has your job taught you anything about the association you didn’t know?
My previous engagement with the association was focused on the equipment side of things. Since taking on my current role, I’ve been blown away by how much the association is doing for members throughout the plastics supply chain. The opportunities for everyone in our industry to experience beneficial touchpoints with PLASTICS are enormous.
Anything specific you’d like to point out?
There’s so much, I don’t want to leave anybody out. In addition to the work that the Equipment Council does, which I’m very familiar with, the people who lead our materials and processors efforts do an amazing job coordinating an incredible level of member engagement, putting together conferences and webinars packed with information delivered by top experts. Our government affairs team does the entire supply chain an invaluable service keeping everyone abreast of legislation and regulations nationwide. And our communications team is great at getting the truth about plastics out to the public.
Is membership an executive or companywide benefit?
Executives certainly benefit regarding networking and industry intelligence but there are great opportunities at other levels to become involved and learn with our councils and committees. We even reach out to the youngest members of the plastics community with FLiP, our Future Leaders in Plastics group. The professional development opportunities FLiP offers through a speaker series, book discussions, mentorships and events that can build career-long and lifelong relationships are invaluable.
So, CEOs should spread the word in-house?
Absolutely. We encourage the leaders of our member companies to designate people who they feel will be great connections between their companies and the association and then encourage those designees to do the same. Allow your people the time it takes to be involved with the association, because the more your company puts into it, the more you’re going to get out of it.
Member Perspective
“Why become a PLASTICS member?
PLASTICS is made up of dedicated individuals who are not supporting the plastic industry out of obligation, but rather their belief that plastic technologies save lives, save energy, enable societal progress and can fully comply with the recycling hierarchy to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover post-use plastic. As Epsilyte works to carve out its place in the industry, stand up and develop into an independent, autonomous and profitable company within the plastics space, joining PLASTICS seems like one of the easiest decisions I’ll have to make.”
Brad Crocker
President and CEO
Epsilyte LLC
