Gary Brewer (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
Industry Introduction After graduating in 1992 with two Bachelor of Science degrees, Brewer left his home state for the first time, tak- ing a position at St. Joe Paper Co., a paper mill in Port St. Joe, Florida. “I started out as a process engineer and believed I would be in management in that segment of the
work outside the home, we moved around a lot. I grew up all over North Carolina.” Brewer’s career interests were shaped early on. Ini- tially, he assumed he’d follow in his father’s footsteps and work in accounting. Then, he discovered chemistry. He didn’t see himself as a chemist in a lab, though. Instead, he leaned toward chemical engineering. And that led him to NC State’s Engineering Department and the related pulp and paper science and technology program. “Paper sci- ence is simply specialized chemical engineering,” he says, “so that was my backdoor into the chemical engineering program.” Just as he knew he didn’t want to be a lab chemist, Brewer also didn’t foresee spending an entire career working as an engineer. “I didn’t want to be in the trenches doing project work or process work all my life,” he says. “I wanted to manage people and processes at a higher level. That was my goal from the start.” Engineering and higher-level process management appealed to Brewer’s technical mindset. “I enjoy solving problems, fixing things, digging into cause and effect,” he says. “The single biggest thing I got out of engineering is understanding how to approach a problem. Give me all the data—all the ifs, ands, or buts—let me analyze them, and then I can help guide you to a conclusion or a decision that needs to be made.”
industry,” he says. “I never imagined the career change to corrugated boxes. But my education, my experience, and my technical knowledge ended up making me attractive to a corrugated box company in North Carolina, which re- cruited me.” That company was Carolina Container. President Paul Ingle needed someone with mill experience to manage the company’s containerboard purchasing. And as it hap- pens, Carolina Container also was where Brewer’s father, CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 Gary Brewer on the floor of his facilty in High Point, N.C.
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February 3, 2025
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