Kevin Gilligan

Education

• Indiana University Bloomington, Marketing and Operations, MBA, 1992
• University of Michigan, Industrial Engineering, BSE, 1988

Career summary

Kevin Gilligan is a business leader with extensive executive experience running complex organizations including a $700 million paper business, a global operations team of 1800 people and the Asia Pacific region for a specialty chemical company. Before his current position, he served as chief executive officer and board member of Appvion, a specialty paper company. Before joining Appvion, Kevin enjoyed a 20-year career with H.B. Fuller, a $2 billion in revenue global specialty chemical company focused on adhesives. He served as global operations vice president; region vice president for Asia Pacific businesses; general manager of H.B. Fuller Window; North American operations director; e-business director; product line manager; and plant manager. He began his career as a manufacturing engineer for Texas Instruments. 

Kevin currently serves on the Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative Board of Directors where he is Finance and Audit Chair and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Board of Directors where he is a member of the executive and governance committees. He also serves on the Industrial and Operations Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Michigan.

Q&A

What do you look for when hiring early career professionals?

I was not the best student at the University of Michigan. I prioritized fun, maybe more than I should have, so I’m not all about the highest GPA. I think if you went to a school like Michigan or if you majored in engineering here, you’re smart, but I’m not as concerned about that. What I look for is grit. People who grind, who put the work in to find a better way, or think something could be done differently and more effectively regardless of the job. I look for evidence for that because I think that’s kind of the secret sauce that makes people effective in their careers especially when they’re early on.  

What do you do for work and why do you love it?

My current job is president of the food and nutrition business for Graham Packaging. Graham Packaging makes blow-molded plastic bottles. They were founded by a Michigan IOE alumnus about 60 years ago. He invented the bottles that contain most of the grocery items we sell in my business. These are items like JIF peanut butter, Heinz ketchup, Folger’s canisters and the list goes on.

There are three divisions: One is food nutrition, which I’m in charge of, and then there’s one for household and industrial needs, such as lubricants for your car or Tide Pods, and the third is beverage, so lots of Tropicana or that kind of thing. I enjoy the company because one, it’s fun to make things people use and recognize on a daily basis, and most of my career have had industrial jobs that’s like two or three steps back in the supply chain and nobody knows or cares about what I do even though it’s important subsequently. Two, just the stage I’m at in my career. They’re a very distributed company, so my boss lives in Florida, my peers live in Memphis and South Carolina, and I live in Wisconsin. I just have to go to our headquarters once a month and visit customers and factories. The third is that since I’ve been here at Michigan, I really enjoy manufacturing and we still make stuff and we’re always trying to make it more effectively and efficiently. The problem-solving I learned here at Michigan is the problem-solving I use every day.