What is your name and position? How long have you been in this role?
Kerri Clark, VP, Packaging R&D at KIND. I’ve been at KIND for two and a half years.
How did you get into the packaging/processing industry and what attracted you to it?
I found my way into packaging at Michigan State University. I had always loved science and engineering but also was interested in business. I held majors on both sides but was having a hard time envisioning a career I knew I could be happy in the long term. Packaging is the perfect blend of both technical and business focuses, and after taking my first job out of school at Nabisco and being able to see the work I was doing on shelves and in the hands of my friends and family, I knew it was the right career for me.
What are some of the challenges that you have faced as a female in a male-dominated industry?
In the early days of my career, I often found myself being the only woman in the room, especially when visiting the manufacturing sites. And unfortunately, this is still the experience many women in our industry have today. While I’ve experienced it to be more challenging to be heard and respected as a subject matter expert as a woman, I have found that fighting some of the biases, often unconscious, is best done through facts and experience. It took me some time to acknowledge that my voice deserves to be heard, but I now find people who are willing to listen. I lean on my female counterparts and seek opportunities to pull more women into the conversation any chance I get.
What has been the most important skill you’ve developed as you advanced your career?
Listening! I am a doer and have a strong bias towards action, so the most important skill I’ve had to learn is to slow down and listen to understand where others are coming from before charging ahead. I think this has led to anticipating the needs and concerns of others better and allows me to bring others along and be an even more effective business partner.
Has there been a person in your life who has inspired or mentored you? How has that impacted you?
I have had many impactful mentors and managers over the years, both men and women. One of my first bosses was a woman, and she taught me the important lesson of standing your ground and fighting for what you believe. When I started a family, I had a mentor who helped me take stock of what was most important to me. She helped me navigate the early years of parenthood and helped me see that there are stages of parenting and that it is okay to navigate your career choices around those stages.
For young professionals looking at future career paths, describe your position - what does a typical workday look like in your role?
No two days are the same, which is part of what keeps the job interesting. The players and priorities will constantly shift around me and my team, and it is my job to seek clarity and drive quality decision-making. As the functional lead for packaging, I am always looking for ways to stay ahead of the trends and bring new and better ways of doing things to my team and the organization. I spend a lot of my time in conversations about where the business is headed and what our biggest needs are to deliver our products to the consumer in a way that ensures freshness and safety while enhancing the overall consumer experience. Because packaging sits at the intersection of cost and manufacturing with the brand and consumer, we are uniquely positioned to impact the businesses we support quite broadly. I think packaging often plays the role of the great mediator finding the balance between the technical needs and the business/consumer needs.
What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in packaging or processing?
Everything needs a package and a process! One of the things that drew me into packaging was the diversity of the career path offerings and how a packaging role can be a jumping-off point for a multitude of other roles. You can choose to go deep technically, work on the upfront materials or equipment development side, or take the path of being an organization or business leader. While I have stayed in packaging for my entire career, I have held a wide variety of roles along my career journey. I’ve held local and global roles, led strategy, had responsibilities for innovation and design, led people and organizational planning, and owned new capability development. The learning opportunities have been endless and there are still so many to come! Approach the job as a lifelong learner and constantly seek opportunities to do something new, talk to new people, or learn a new part of the organization.
