Under Gaylon White's leadership, Eastman Chemical Co. in March 2004 launched the award-winning Eastman Innovation Lab Web site for designers and brand owners, and Material Difference, an innovative sampling strategy that “appeals to the sensualist in every designer,” according to I.D. magazine. The Innovation Lab site received a gold-level 2005 Industrial Design Excellence Award for digital media and interfaces. The IDEA competition is cosponsored by BusinessWeek and the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Prior to his current position, White served as manager of business promotion for Eastman's Specialty Plastics business. He assumed that position in January 1999 after working for two years in Singapore as Eastman's manager of public relations for Asia Pacific.
White started his career as a sportswriter before moving to the corporate world. Prior to joining Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman in 1992 as manager of executive communications and speechwriting, he held a variety of communications-related positions for Hallmark Cards Inc., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Control Data Corp. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, with a bachelor's degree in journalism and broadcasting.
White has written some 75 articles for national and internationa1 publications, ranging from travel to sports to business-related issues. More than a dozen of his speeches have been reprinted in Executive Speeches and Vital Speeches of the Day, including the widely acclaimed speech about hostile corporate takeovers in the 1980s titled, "Terrorists in Three-Piece Suits".