Highlighting the stories of very talented Women Breaking the Mold

This is the fourth year in a row that we've published a special report on women in the plastics industry, and we've profiled nearly 100 women over the years. There's no end of interesting stories in sight. We're planning a Women Breaking the Mold conference for October in Chicago and another special report next year.

This project has raised the profile of a lot of bright, ambitious, hardworking women. Their stories have been fascinating and enlightening.

If you could sit in our newsroom the past week, you would have heard a lot of conversations that started something like this: "Did you see this one? She's got a really strong resume."

Or: "I love what this one said about being an engineer."

And: "This company hires a lot of talented women."

But for the team at Colors for Plastics Inc., it's also an opportunity to reflect on a someone who's no longer at the company but who made a lasting impact.

Cindy Verity joined the colorants and concentrates maker started in the late 1970s, a few years after Jack Dalleska founded the company in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Verity started as an office secretary, but her role quickly expanded to include customer service, sales and just about everything else.

"Jack Dalleska and Cindy hired and trained employees early on and were instrumental in the development of what would eventually become our ISO9001:2015-based quality program. Basically, Cindy was part of the foundation of what Colors is today."

That came from a survey that the staff at Colors submitted, nominating Cindy Verity to be a Woman Breaking the Mold. Verity died in 2017, after 37 years at the company.

Operations Manager Shannon Smith said Verity was a mentor to her and other women at Colors and that she's been impossible to replace.

"For me and several people here, she molded us into the kind of employee and person that we are today," Smith said.

On the job, she was a go-to expert, both in-house and for customers.

"Her keen color eye and market knowledge would force our color matchers to put forth their best efforts to avoid getting a call from her to talk about a formula," the company said in its nomination letter.

"She made it a point to know everything she could about our equipment, limitations, raw materials, shipping rates and anything else that would affect the success of Colors for Plastics Inc. and its customers," the letter said. "She was tenacious in her quest to know all she could, so she was prepared with the best information for our customers."

Verity helped pave the way for other women leaders at the company. Smith said Verity loved being "one of the guys" at plastics industry events.

"At any kind of work function, she was often one of the only women. Golf outings, supplier meetings. She would laugh about it. She had to be one of the guys. She loved it. And that really helped her to grow in her position here and in the industry. It helped many of us follow in her footsteps," Smith said.

Colors recently established an annual "Cynthia Rose Award" to an employee who embodies all of Verity's best traits.

"Really, she's part of our foundation," Smith said. "When we read about Women Breaking the Mold, we all thought of Cindy. We wanted to really make sure that she gets recognized outside of our four walls."

It's a nice legacy, and we're happy to include Cindy Verity in our Women Breaking the Mold class of 2018.

Find links to Women Breaking the Mold profiles in The Plastics Blog.

Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog. Follow him on Twitter @donloepp.