Chicago — Dan Felton asked himself if he was crazy for changing jobs at age 60, but he took the plunge.
The former executive director at Ameripen is the new CEO of the Flexible Packaging Association, a job he is just settling into in an industry that he knows well.
"I honestly wasn't looking for a change," Felton said during a sit-down interview at the recent Pack Expo in Chicago. "I love Ameripen and was happy there."
But when Alison Keane left as leader of FPA for a new job at the International Sleep Products Association, Felton figured he probably should look into the opening.
Ameripen represents the entire packaging industry while FPA represents those in the flexible packaging business, covering plastic, paper and metal products. The skills he used to lead Ameripen, Felton figured, would be a good fit at FPA as well.
And there was the chance to work at a larger organization.
"FPA is about twice as big as Ameripen in terms of number of members. But there's still, I believe, great growth potential," Felton said.
Ameripen was able to triple in size — in both membership and revenue — during Felton's tenure there, but he's quick to point out that plenty of people helped expand the organization. "I know how to grow. We'll see if we can tap into that," he said about his new job.
Moving to FPA also provides Felton with an opportunity to work with more staff. He also was the only full-time employee at Ameripen, while there are six full-time workers at FPA.
FPA has about 200 members and next year is the organization's 75th anniversary. So maybe the goal should be to add 75 new members over time, Felton said.
As soon as it became clear that Felton would be leading FPA, he said he started hearing from members with a consistent request. "The drumbeat is can we be doing more on the policy side?" he said. "There are some serious concerns about whether some of the policy moving forward may result in packaging bans, particularly on the flexible side. We don't want that, but we need to probably be a little more active on the policy side."
FPA advocates for the association members' interests. That's what trade groups do and is a key reason they exist. Part of that advocacy involves engaging politicians and regulators in charge of policy decisions.
A key policy area for FPA, and really the entire packaging industry, is the growing trend of extended producer responsibility or EPR. The idea of EPR is that manufacturers are financially responsible for the management of their products once they meet their end-of-life.
Momentum is now building for EPR to address packaging, and a handful of states already have approved measures. Others are considering action.
Felton, in these early days on the job, said he cannot really say for sure what FPA's increased policy efforts will involve. But the organization knows that backers of policy targeting the industry are not going away.
Felton said he sees a multi-pronged approach to creating a better understanding of the importance of his members' products. "I think policy makers don't always, frankly, they don't always understand the value of the packaging, right?" he said.
FPA actually supports EPR but wants to make sure any rules that are enacted make sense from its point of view. That's why the trade group sees importance in having a seat at the table during any discussions, he said.
Felton should be busy with EPR in the years ahead at FPA. He's not limiting how long he will stay with FPA, but figures this could be his last job before retirement. He spent five years at Ameripen and said a lot was accomplished during that time.
"I hope in five years I can look back and say we did a lot," he said. "But I'm not, at 65, planning on retiring."
"I can see a commitment in my mind's got to be five years at least to really see how you can shape things and move the needle. ... Check back in five years and see what we've done," he said.