Plastics Hall of Fame 2024: Wolfgang Meyer

Califon, N.J. — German by birth, and later American by choice, Wolfgang Meyer has used an understanding of both cultures to fashion a decadeslong career in the plastics industry.

Currently serving as a manufacturer's representative for Bekum America Corp., Meyer has spent a lifetime working for a variety of German plastics machinery companies in North America, leading such well-known names as Battenfeld, W. Mueller and Kautex in the U.S. at one time or another over the decades.

Born in 1946 in post-war Germany, Meyer found himself in the plastics industry almost by chance as a teenager trying to figure out what to do with his life.

As a college engineering student, he landed an internship at Bayer AG's plastics business. After graduation, he signed on for a full-time job in 1970.

"My first job after college was at Bayer, the resin manufacturer, which is obviously now Covestro. I worked there for five years," he recalled, spending time as an application and process development engineer helping companies with their injection molding process issues with polycarbonate and nylon until 1975.

Now five decades later, at 77 and an age when most people have long since been retired, Meyer keeps his hand in the game as a sales representative for extrusion blow molding equipment maker Bekum America Corp. covering the Northeast.

It's a part-time job that suits him and his family well at this point in his life. Meyer keeps his hand in the game, maybe working an average of two or three hours a day, through his Plastics Business Consultants business. Not only is Meyer a sales representative for Bekum but also he serves on the company's board of directors.

For his longevity and success in plastics equipment sales and service, Meyer is being inducted into the class of 2024 Plastics Hall of Fame.

Meyer, who holds dual citizenship in both Germany and the United States, credits his understanding of how both Germans and Americans think for his success over the years.

Having an ability to bridge the cultural and language gap between the two countries, Meyer figured he had an advantage while selling German machinery to U.S. customers. But Meyer does not only consider himself a salesman.

"I think to the largest extent my role has been of selling, but probably more so of project management. Getting the order is still relatively easy to some extent, but then making it a successful project that the customer is happy after everything is done and you give him the key for the machine, that's probably more challenging even," he said.

"This is what I think I'm pretty good at, when things become difficult, to be able to manage this. Because I have the connections to the German better than an American would have," he said.

Meyer became a dual citizen of Germany and America about 20 years ago when rules changed. Prior to that, he would have had to give up his German citizenship to become an American, he recalled.

An ability to manage the barriers between German machinery makers and American customers has been a key to Meyer's success. "The Germans think I'm an American. And the Americans think I'm not an American, I'm still a German, and that's OK," he said.

Meyer first came to America in 1975 after he landed a job as a specialist for structural foam applications and processing with Schloemann-Siemag AG working as a liaison with Beloit Corp. Beloit made injection molding machines, and Meyer initially came to the United States expecting to stay a year. A year then became two before he returned to Germany when his father became ill.

Back in Germany, Meyer joined Battenfeld in 1977 and worked in sales in Eastern Europe before becoming sales manager for all of Europe and then later moving back to the United States as president of Battenfeld of America. It is with Battenfeld where he spent the most time of his career, until 2000.

From there, he moved to extrusion blow molding machinery maker Kautex for another 10 years as president in the U.S. until 2010 as president of W. Mueller USA, a maker of extrusion die heads, extruders and control systems, from 2010-17.

The grind of traveling from his home in New Jersey to W. Mueller's offices in Massachusetts eventually became too much, and he decided to finally step back. But then Bekum came calling, at age 71, allowing Meyer to keep his hands in the business on a part-time basis.

"Early in his career, Wolfgang recognized that relying only on expertise from overseas to support customers [that] U.S. subsidiaries needed to be self-sufficient. His accomplishments through a career of more than 40 years included building national and regional organizations with knowledgeable, well-trained staff to support advanced equipment and technologies," his hall of fame nomination application reads.

While the different companies that employed Meyer made different machinery, there has been one thing that's been common for the salesman.

When asked what attracted him to plastics and then kept his attention, Meyer paused for a bit in his home office near Califon to reflect on his years in the business. "I don't know whether there is an easy answer. What attracted me with all of my positions was whether I found something challenging," he said.

"With European equipment, we were always a higher price," he said. "Trying to sell equipment, high-tech equipment, into these niches, I found very, very challenging. I think that is what attracted me not to leave the plastics industry and to stay in this industry. At some point in time, you know so many people in the industry," he said.

And it has been those connections, forged over time, that has allowed Meyer to create a career with one remarkable aspect: He has never had to apply for a job. When there was a need or opportunity to move from one company to the next, industry connections have repeatedly given him the opportunity to advance and change positions as needed.

"At some point in time it feels like a family, and you don't leave family," Meyer said.

"This is a small industry, and I keep telling people they do not leave the industry; they just change their seat on the carousel and stay in it, the same as I have done," he said.