Whenever Glenn Fish is asked about any of his accomplishments, he is quick to note that it's all a combined effort.
"It's really a team effort, and it's really great to be part of this team," the executive vice president and chief financial officer said in May when asked about his career highlights. "The reflection that I am a nominee and now a finalist is very much a reflection of the collective efforts of people at Tekni-Plex, not the CFO."
Winner of Plastics News' CFO of the Year for 2017, Fish said he always had an interest in manufacturing, "even going back to kind of my developing career days where I worked the night shift in a plastics factory."
"I just felt like the ability to manufacture — see the outcome of a manufactured product each and every day — was something that, from an early-on stage in my career development, I always took pride in that and being part of that product manufactured and my efforts going into that," he said.
Fish, 49, added that his early experiences in manufacturing were "quite impressionable" on him and led to his long career.
"In every job that I've had, I kind of think that you barely scratch the surface, and there is always opportunity for improving a product's quality, the cost to manufacture the product, the utility of the product, ideas for improvements or new products," Fish said. "Even in a financial leadership or an overall leadership role, your efforts touch on all the attributes of those levers."
Fish graduated from Northern Illinois University with a bachelor's degree in accountancy and from DePaul University with his master's degree in finance. He is also a certified management accountant and certified public accountant.
In the mid-1990s, Fish joined Lawson Mardon Packaging in Bellwood, Ill. — acquired by Alcan Inc. in 2000 — as plant controller and then vice president of finance, vice president of strategy and business development and general manager. In early 2009, Fish became senior vice president and chief financial officer of Portola Packaging Inc., of Naperville, Ill.
"When I joined Portola, they were bankrupt, just coming out of bankruptcy," Fish said. "It was a turnaround project, really, with the management team. Just under five years later, we sold that business to Silgan [Holdings Inc.] in late 2013."
Then Fish joined Tekni-Plex Inc., of Wayne, Pa., in February 2014, right after private equity firm American Securities LLC acquired the company. With 2,700 employees worldwide, Tekni-Plex celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.