Hall of Fame returns

After a brief hiatus, PMMI will again be honoring industry professionals via the Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame. Here, we introduce the Class of 2018.

Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame logo
Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame logo

The Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame recognizes career packaging and processing professionals for their significant contributions to the industry and education. The honor, which PMMI coordinates, had been awarded annually from 1971 until 2014. A new class will be inducted during PACK EXPO International 2018.

The Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame is the top honor a packaging or processing professional can receive in his or her career. Past inductees are packaging leaders who have dedicated themselves to the industry through expanding knowledge and volunteer leadership and have personally advanced the field of packaging.

The 2018 class includes Tim Bohrer, Keith Pearson, Michael Okoroafor, Susan Selke, and Chuck Yuska.

“These professionals have contributed to our industry as advisors, pioneers, visionaries, educators, and innovators and inventors of packaging and processing technology. Their contributions have led the industry to where it is today,” says Jim Pittas, CEO, PMMI.

You can meet the individuals who have been chosen for induction into the Hall of Fame Class of 2018 at this year’s PACK EXPO International in Chicago. They will be honored on Monday night at PACK gives BACK™, the annual networking event to benefit the PACK EXPO Scholarship program. Plan now to attend by purchasing a ticket for the event at www.packexpo.com.

Tim Bohrer, Pac Advantage Consulting


Next time you enjoy the convenience of a bag of popcorn kernels quickly popped in the microwave, you can thank Tim Bohrer, CPP, founder of Pac Advantage Consulting, LLC. Among his many accomplishments in technical innovation and his contributions to the packaging industry, this PMMI Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame inductee led the team that developed and commercialized the first metallized film susceptor packages in the early ’80s. “The first few susceptors were simple in concept, but complicated in execution,” says Bohrer. “But over the years, we developed a very large patent portfolio of technologies and kept pushing the envelope.”

During his 45 years in packaging, Bohrer has been named inventor or co-inventor of 17 patents for microwave packaging technology, composite containers, barrier film, thermoforming, and other technologies. While leading the team that made a whole new market possible through the use of susceptor technology is certainly a highlight of his career, Bohrer can also list a number of others, made possible, he says, by supervisors and managers who gave him the latitude to “stretch.”

One highpoint, he shares, came when he was less than two years out of school, working at American Can. Asked to assess tubular water cooling technologies for blown film, Bohrer scouted out the best option for the company and laid the groundwork for a pilot line that eventually became a part of American Can and its successors’ process. “At a very early stage in my career, having a chance to lead that process and be trusted to go out and find something and make judgements was a very big deal to me.”

Another milestone was his move from an engineering role to a supervisory one during his time at James River, which eventually led to him directing a large technology group there. “I began to learn how to coordinate the activities of multiple people, to choose the right skill sets and assign them to different tasks, and to start being a mentor and a teacher.”

Packaging education, in fact, is near and dear to Bohrer’s heart. For 20 years, he was a Clemson University Packaging Science Advisory Board member, ramping up his participation after starting his consulting business in 2008 as a way to give back. “I really enjoyed my time working with the folks at Clemson,” he says. “I had a chance to meet with a lot of young people and give them direction and advice. I think it’s crucial for packaging companies to take packaging education seriously, even if all they do is hook up with a two-year junior college in their area that teaches the technologies and skills that are needed.”

Especially valuable are internships, he adds. After all, it was an internship at American Can during the summer before his senior year of college that led Bohrer down the packaging industry path. “That’s where I learned the interesting and challenging things that could be done in packaging, and I told myself, ‘This is the company I want to work for. This is the kind of stuff I want to do,’” he recalls.

After finishing his undergrad work in chemical engineering at Michigan Tech University, Bohrer got his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, then returned triumphant to American Can.

Today, Bohrer says he has the luxury of only working on consulting jobs that meet three criteria: The work has to be intellectually challenging, the work must be meaningful, and the clients must be those he genuinely wants to work with. “That’s what I enjoy a great deal,” he says. “It engages me on an intellectual level, it’s satisfying in terms of doing something that makes a difference, and it satisfies me on an emotional level, with friendships and the enjoyment of working with good people.” —Anne Marie Mohan

Michael Okoroafor, McCormick & Co.


With more than 40 patents to his name and a rich history of innovation behind him—think Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle™, the Dip N’ Squeeze at Heinz, and the Herb Grinder at McCormick & Company, Inc.—Dr. Michael Okoroafor certainly qualifies for membership in the PMMI Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame. Further cementing his Hall of Fame bona fides are his many contributions to packaging education, his mentoring of upcoming packaging professionals, and the leadership roles he has had in organizations dedicated to the advancement of packaging.

Talk to colleagues who have worked with him over the years and you’ll conclude that the PlantBottle—the first fully recyclable PET bottle made partially from plants—is the highlight of his career. Making this technology breakthrough all the more impressive is that when Okoroafor left Coca-Cola for Heinz, he negotiated with his former employer so that the PlantBottle technology could be extended to the Heinz ketchup bottle. “It was probably the first time two such major CPG companies partnered on something so transformational,” says Okoroafor. He believes that this kind of collaboration or coopetition will be essential in the future, especially if anything resembling a circular economy is ever to emerge.

Okoroafor won’t argue against the notion that the PlantBottle was a milestone in his career. But he also points to the flexible film packaging material that he helped develop for Coca-Cola’s Freestyle™ carbonated soft drink dispensing system. “There was no film structure at the time capable of withstanding the aggressive nature of the super concentrate that is at the heart of the Freestyle program,” notes Okoroafor. He spearheaded the team that came up with one. To this day the tightly guarded and proprietary material is made exclusively by Coca-Cola near its Atlanta headquarters office.

With an undergrad degree in chemistry and a PhD from Michigan State University, where his field of concentration was organic polymer chemistry, Okoroafor is also a graduate of Executive Development Program, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He joined herb and spice maker McCormick & Company in 2015, where he now is Vice President, Global Sustainability & Packaging Innovation. His passion for sustainable packaging is well documented. As one former colleague put it, “He lives by the adage that ‘what is good for the environment is good for business.’”

He is convinced that packaging can play a key role in reducing the amount of food waste that continues to haunt us. “Food waste in the next five to 10 years must be a primary concern and focus,” says Okoroafor. “People are starving, yet we are producing enough food to feed them all. If we minimize food waste, we can do a better job of feeding people.” —Pat Reynolds

Keith Pearson, World Packaging Organisation


When Keith Pearson accepted the World Packaging Organisation presidency in 2006, the International Packaging Press Organisation noted it was the first time that a WPO president came from Africa. At the time, IPPO pointed out that Pearson was “strongly committed to educational matters, and to helping spread knowledge of packaging to the third world.”

Born on the East Coast of South Africa, this inductee into the Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame has dedicated his life and nearly 50-year career to packaging on that continent—and around the globe. His passion is educating professionals and students about the packaging function’s significance in society, particularly when it comes to reducing or eliminating food and packaging waste in a circular economy and addressing starvation.

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