Barry-Wehmiller names new vice-president of strategy, technology and key initiatives

The role is a new position at Barry-Wehmiller, and one which will see O’Neill lead the effort to examine Barry-Wehmiller’s long-term vision, and the organizational and technical infrastructure needed to ensure its success.

O’Neill brings an extensive background in leadership, packaging and manufacturing, as well as consulting and information technology, to the role. She began her career with a management consulting firm in Boston and led productivity improvement efforts at the New York City Transit Authority before entering the packaging world as director of performance improvement at Sealed Air, where she took on many roles including chief information officer and senior vice-president of business development.

O’Neill left Sealed Air to run a 300 million USD private food company in Chicago until she was enticed back into the packaging industry to run Spartech’s (now PolyOne) packaging business.

She left PolyOne to join Barry-Wehmiller as a consultant to support the acquisition and integration of Arcil, the Paris-based fresh dairy packaging firm acquired by the company in December 2013.

Barry-Wehmiller is a two billion USD-plus organization and a diversified global supplier of engineering consulting and manufacturing technology for the packaging, corrugating, sheeting and paper converting industries.

Its chairman and chief executive officer Bob Chapman said: ‘We’re considering a significant number of new acquisitions which, along with anticipated organic growth, will help grow Barry-Wehmiller into a five billion USD organization in the near future.

‘This plan for targeted robust growth of both our business and our cultural initiatives calls us to make sure we remain steadfast in our commitment to our highest purpose – meaningful work and a secure future for the team members who devote their lives every day to our success.’

‘I have been tied to the Barry-Wehmiller organization for almost a decade now and have always felt a powerful affinity for its culture and values,’ said O’Neill. ‘Over the years I have challenged Bob and his team to do everything possible to ensure that those values and the culture they’ve carefully nurtured pervade this organization for generations to come. I am thrilled to be in a position to directly contribute to that effort as a part of the Barry-Wehmiller team.’

In the summer, Barry-Wehmiller named long-term team member Rhonda Spencer its first ever chief people officer as part of its ongoing efforts to advance its people-centric cultural initiatives.

Chapman added: ‘Being able to bring on someone of the calibre – both in experience and character – of Carol places the review of our long-term strategy and its impact on our people-centric culture into extremely capable hands.’