The committee approved the plan with no discussion of how to fund the $3+ million package, save for a single comment: “I’m not worried Bill will figure out how to make this work.” Later that month, Bill presented the finance committee with a plan for a much-needed restructuring of the organization such that the package could be covered, and he met with each of the association’s thirty board members over the next several months to gain support. With a persistence that refused to take no for an answer, he eventually met with each industry leader, developing friendships and collecting information to assist in molding his next move.Īfter learning that Japanese sales were down 90 percent and later receiving a call that the European exhibitors were also planning to pull out of the show, Bill spent the following two weeks working with his officer group to develop a stimulus package. Instead of watching the association’s opus unravel before his eyes, Bill hopped a plane to Japan within a week to meet with the key exhibitors that collectively controlled 55 percent of the injection molding market in the U.S. He remembers a particularly adrenaline-pumping period beginning in February of 2009, when large blocks of exhibitors began to consider withdrawing from the trade show scheduled only several short months later. The show traditionally umbrellas one million square feet of exhibition space and 70,000 attendees from around the world assembling to buy, sell, explore, and admire all that the plastics industry has to offer.Īs has been the case with so many business sectors, the past several years have wrought difficult and unpredictable conditions for the plastics industry-a period that may have spelled out the end for SPI, were it not for Bill’s experience and leadership. This plethora of efforts is punctuated by SPI’s ownership and management of various trade shows and conferences throughout the year, with its centerpiece being the triennial occurrence of the largest plastics trade show in the Western Hemisphere. ![]() Their influence extends laterally to state activity through the determination of public policy, as well as internationally to address trade issues that specifically impact the plastics industry.īeyond advocacy, SPI also focuses on communications and marketing within the industry regarding the industry, now aiming to extend these lines of communication externally to the general public as well. In this capacity, SPI is recognized as the preeminent organization worldwide for working on food contact plastic applications with the FDA. Advocacy remains a primary focus of the organization as it targets plastic-specific federal issues as well as tax and healthcare-related work coalitions. SPI is the largest plastics trade association in the country and represents the broad interest of the entire industry, uniting material suppliers, processors, moldmakers, and equipment manufacturers throughout the entire value chain of the industry. Now President and CEO of the SPI Plastics Industry Trade Association, Bill’s journey is a testament not so much to being in charge, but to taking charge, living with a fierce perseverance that has carried him to where he is today. Born the youngest of four children and raised in a small farming community in northeast Indiana, it was almost as if the renowned Midwestern work ethic had been ingrained in his soul long before he got his first job at the age of fourteen bailing hay for a buck an hour for the preacher across the road. ![]() If one were to talk to the people who knew Bill when he was young, they would tell you he was always in charge. You can bet that, when it came to dogged determination, no one else came close either. The document had predicted the questions of the interviewers to a tee, winning him the position over 28 other candidates worldwide. Maximizing his nuanced knowledge of the business through the proactive and thorough creation of a discussion document, he had come to his first interview with copies of the piece for each person at the meeting. ![]() ![]() After traveling to Germany only to have the CEO cancel their meeting, Bill then pulled a series of maneuvers to obtain a twenty-minute window with the man several days later, which proved enough to get his name thrown in the hat. “If you want an opportunity, you’re going to have to convince our CEO in Germany that you’re capable of doing this,” they had told him. The higher-ups at Van Dorn, now Demag Plastics Group, had originally told Bill Carteaux that they were not going to entertain any internal candidates to fill the vacant position of President and CEO of the Americas. “You didn’t just hit it out of the park, you hit it out of the universe,” came the headhunter’s voice over the phone.
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