Women in Tire & Rubber: Amy Randall

Profiles of the inaugural class members of Rubber & Plastics News' Women in Tire & Rubber will appear daily through Aug. 21. Edited profiles of the entire class were published in the July 27 issue of RPN.

Amy Randall

Executive Director, Global Research, Development and Engineering

Firestone Building Products

Location: Nashville, Tenn.

Education:

• University of Akron, Graduation August 2006, Ph.D—College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering: Specialization: Polymer Rheology.
• University of Minnesota ,Graduation May 2002, B.S., Chemical Engineering/B.S., Chemistry/minor French

Career highlights:

• Led the Global Product Development and Engineering Strategy through a stage gate process for continuous product improvement with 25-30 new product launches per year to support $2 billion in global sales revenue for Firestone. Improved vitality index from 3 percent in 2016 to 9 percent in 2018. Budgetary responsibility for $20 million in four locations globally with about 85 people.
• Led the quality organization (2017-19) including supplier quality, customer quality and advance quality engineering.
• Led the Process Engineering and Manufacturing Equipment Engineering teams across 15 global plants.
• Led Global Innovation Process for new value creation technology to protect the future.
• Lea Codes and Regulations group to ensure products meet all third party certification requirements (i.e. ASTM, UL, FM, LEED, CRRC, Florida Building Codes).
• Led the Product Stewardship for EHSS compliance and Dangerous Goods Management. Lea product sustainability strategy with third party certifications, such as Living Building Challenge, Product Lens, EPD, and HPD.
• Planned the transition of the Research and Technology team from Indianapolis to Nashville due to corporate headquarters relocation. Currently managing a team across four global locations.
• Manage two R&D laboratories for testing capabilities ranging from analytical chemistry to large scale destructive wind up-lift, hail, fire and adhesion.
• Responsible for the integration of Gaco Western and their liquid applied silicone and wall foam technology into the Firestone R&D department in 2017.
• Interim Director of Quality, Firestone Building Products, from April 2017 to April 2019.

Associations you belong to or actively participate in:

• Invited Speaker on "Why Materials Matter for Performance" at National Women in Roofing, held in Nashville in August 2019.
• National Roofing Day Washington D.C. Lobby, April 3-4, 2019, and NRCA member since 2018.
• University of Akron: College of Polymer Science and Engineering Advancement Council 2019.
• Invited Speaker on "How to Structure your Business for Innovative Success" at the National Women In Roofing Day 2019, held in Nashville on Feb. 9, 2019.
• Invited by the Ontario Rubber Group to speak on "New Technology and Innovation for the Rubber Industry's Sustainability" at the CIC/ORG Technical Meeting in Toronto in May 2016 .
• Invited Panelist at the Summit of Sustainability for Summit County (SOSA), hosted in November 2015 in Akron.
• Invited Speaker on "Driving Sustainability" at the Tire & Rubber Summit in Toronto, hosted June 2015 by the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada
• Invited Speaker on "Driving Innovation to Drive Markets" at the Rubber Recycling Symposium in Montreal, Quebec, hosted in October 2014, by Tire and Rubber Association of Canada
• National Women in Roofing Member since 2019
• Women's Unlimited Professional Training LEAD Graduate and Mentor (2013-19)

What drew you to the rubber industry, and what has made your career in the industry rewarding?

I was drawn into the rubber industry through an internship in polymer non-wovens at Kimberly-Clark. This experience introduced me to the topic of polymer rheology. I decided to pursue my Ph.D at the University of Akron, College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. I continued to study my interests in polymer rheology. After graduating, I realized that I was linked to the polymer valley in Northeast Ohio. I networked and enjoyed meeting people in the rubber industry and seeing its history and its future projection. My polymer network in Northeast Ohio helped me to find a position as a research scientist at Bridgestone in 2006. My career has been progressing ever since. Now as an alumni of the polymer college in Akron and as the leader of an R&D team, I look back to this area to hire the next generation of talent for the rubber industry.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

My greatest achievement is my family. My greatest professional achievement has been to help turn around a company that was struggling with negative people, culture, headquarter relocation, product quality, loss of knowledge, disappointed customers, etc. When faced with daily leadership challenges of epic proportions for three years, I am proud to have stayed the course and used all my leadership skills to help guide, fix and improve the company back to a growth state.

What do you count as your biggest failure and what has it taught you?

I do not look back at my career and see anything as a failure. There were certainly challenging times as a scientist or as a leader of others. I think each of those challenges has helped me grow personally and professionally. The closest thing I can link to a "failure" was a decision that I made after having my second back surgery to return to work within the same week. I felt pressure to lead my team through a challenging business situation, and I did not let my body heal properly. The most important thing that I learned from that was a good leader has to take care of themselves as well as their teams. Pushing myself too hard physically only served to mentally exhaust me and prolong my recovery. I should have trusted my team, who are capable professionals. I was trying to prove something to myself about how strong I was and instead I set a bad leadership example of micromanagement and overwork.

Who or what inspires you?

My professional motto is to DRIVE innovation and technology through cross collaboration, empowerment, coaching and people development. Products, Technology and Engineering: Delivering Today and Creating Tomorrow with excellence to delight our customer.

Who were your career mentors, and what role did they play?

I have had a couple great career mentors at Bridgestone, James Kozy and Tim Robinson. They helped to guide my early years in management. They advocated for me and my career when there were not many women in leadership positions in the technical roles in Bridgestone. They both have daughters similar in age to me. They realized the importance of advocating for diversity because they did not want their own daughters to face discrimination. They taught me that building a team and developing people was more important than money or awards. The team is stronger than the one. Diversity of thought is better than group thought. I take those lessons of servant leadership with me today.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

The best advice that I have received is to be true to yourself. Sometimes it is easier to do the "wrong" thing and harder to do the "right" thing. The stronger you are in your self-awareness and in your emotional intelligence, then the easier it will be to do the "right" thing.

If you were CEO of a company, what would you do first?

As a CEO, the two most important things to me would be: 1. The company culture. What are our values and our people mission? People are the backbone of an organization. They can achieve great results when they believe in what they are doing, when they feel like they are a part of a greater cause, and when they feel like they are respected and treated fairly.

2. What is our 5-year strategy for sustainable and steady growth? It is too common for a CEO to feel pressure to show immediate growth. It is too easy to cut operating expenses to try to drive a financial result. I think companies that can constantly lay out a clear 5-year strategy of reasonable growth are poised for short-term and long-term success.

What would you tell someone considering a career in the rubber industry?

I would tell someone who is interested in a career in rubber to follow their passion. I think that it is still a great industry. It is growing in new areas like medical, packaging and sustainability, rather than just the historical areas of tires, belts, tubes, etc. I would challenge them to look for companies in this industry that are focused on 10-15 years out. What is the next new rubber or material problems that need to be solved?

In your opinion, what needs to be done to encourage females to pursue STEM-related careers?

We need more industry advocacy for women at various career stages. The initial stage of getting women into science and engineering careers is a good start. I think a lot of effort has been focused there at the high school and university levels. I think that there is a women's brain drain at mid-career (middle management) and late career (executive level). There are still few solutions to support career STEM women with options to balance professional and personal. I also believe and feel personally that a glass ceiling still exists for women in the C-suite roles in STEM. I have never worked for a woman in my entire career. There are NO technical women in my current organization in North or South America that is a higher level than me in a STEM role. We still need women role models in higher and higher professional levels to help pave the way and pioneer new ways of thinking and working for women in STEM. So encouraging women to pursue STEM-related careers is not the problem in my opinion. It is ensuring that they have the same career opportunities as men when they enter into STEM in industry or academia.