Russell calls Lifetime Achievement Award career a matter of ‘right place ... right time'

During his career in automotive plastics, Tom Russell has worked on projects that took home top prizes from the Society of Plastics Engineers' Automotive Innovation Awards.

He's worked on teams for two vehicle systems that have made it into the SPE auto awards' Hall of Fame.

As he prepares to accept the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from SPE's automotive division, though, he maintains his career has more to do with seeking out interesting projects.

"Early in my career were [projects] that that were right at the leading edge," Russell told Plastics News in an interview. "But I was just kind of lucky in that I got assigned to those projects … in a lot of cases … I was just in the right place, the right time, got the right assignments."

Russell, a founder and retired partner at Allied Composites Technology LLC and formerly vice president of product and advanced engineering at Lear Corp., will receive the award during the SPE Innovation Awards Gala (IAG) Nov. 13 in Livonia, Mich.

During his career, Russell also worked for General Electric Plastics and Ford Motor Co. He pioneered advancements in the automotive plastics industry, including the development of the Ford Medium Duty Truck SMC grille opening and reinforcement panel, which won the Grand Award at the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala in 1979.

Although he won't take credit for many of his achievements, Russell said he did predict that the plastics industry was "where the action was going to be," in the future of the automotive market.

"It's not exactly a high margin business, molding for automotive," he said. "[Molders] were more like … give me the print. I'll tell you whether it's feasible. I'll give you a number. … Give me the business, and I'll make your parts."

For that reason, Russell believed innovation was more likely to come from the resin market, he said.

"In that and in that world, [they] had the money. GE Plastics, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, at that time [they] were investing in R&D to create new applications for materials, and that's where I wanted to be."

People in the plastics industry "tend to be very innovative, and they tend to be optimistic ... and they are problem solvers," he said. "They don't really take no for an answer."

"Sometimes that's frustrating, because sometimes the right answer is no," Russel said. "I've been on a few projects that I was instrumental in getting killed, because they weren't right. … But I've also been on many that … we managed to work our way through, and that that optimism … shows up in the plastics field, in automotive plastic."

When Russell worked for Ford as a product design engineer, he could see "that the real innovation was in things like components. It's changed over the years, but at that time, they were strongly pushing the responsibility for innovation into the [plastics] supplier world. It turns out the suppliers were injection molders who weren't equipped at all to do innovation."

At his first job in the industry, as a product design engineer at GE Plastics in Southfield, Mich., Russell was a key member of the team that developed the materials for the 5 mph, all-plastic front and rear bumper systems for the Ford Escort in 1984, which led to its implementation on the Ford Aerostar, Taurus/Sable, and Contour/Mystique vehicles. The innovation won the IAG Hall of Fame Award in 2004. Russell was also on the team that developed the all thermoplastic fender on the 1988 Buick LeSabre sports coupe. This application won the 1988 SPE IAG Grand Award and a Hall of Fame Award.

"[Russell] is one of the nicest and most humble guys in this industry and in the world," Frederick Deans, the owner of Allied Composites Technology and SPE Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2015, said in the release. "He has achieved monumental success in developing automotive applications with plastics and is continuing to advance the industry as a trusted advisor to our company today."

"Our selection committee has picked a worthy recipient of this prestigious award," Mark Lapain, senior business development manager at Advanced Composites and SPE Lifetime Achievement Award Chair, said. "[Russell's] career accomplishments in the automotive plastics industry were filled with product advancements that were both innovative and commercially relevant."

"I'm humbled by [the award,]" Russell told PN. "I look back and I see all the people I know in the industry, and I think, there are a whole bunch of others who should be in line before me. There are a lot of really good, smart people in this industry. And it's more than just engineering. It's manufacturing, it's marketing, it's in the labs, it's everywhere."

"Thank you to the teams who worked with me over the years to improve automotive vehicles with innovative parts and components with plastic technologies and resulting in my receiving this SPE Automotive Division Lifetime Achievement award," Russell said in the news release. "I also greatly appreciate the support from the companies I worked for, my friends in SPE and beyond, and especially my family for their support over the years."

Russell's education includes a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from California Institute of Technology, and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan.