Tuesday Geeting, 31, calls herself "a small-town girl living in a manufacturing world."
"As a fourth-generation manufacturing and materials science industry employee, I'm deeply passionate about the things we make, how we make them and the impact they have on the day-to-day lives of people all over the world," she said.
Geeting has a bachelor's degree in business management from Northwood University. Joining Teknor Apex Co. as a product marketing manager was her first role in the plastics industry. She is now senior innovation marketing manager at the company.
"Though I spent 12 years at Dow in other functions and divisions, silicones most recently, when the opportunity presented itself to learn a new industry and help promote the virtues of often misunderstood and misrepresented plastics solutions as a value-added material in our lives, I was in," said the senior innovation marketing manager.
Geeting is heavily involved in her community and work, including an animal rescue organization, a Little League team and the junior high pompon squad. At Dow, she participated in founding and growing VetNet, an employee resource group, and its sister organization, the Great Lakes Bay Veterans Coalition. Geeting was honored with several awards at Dow, including bronze awards for delivering innovative solutions and generating customer value, as well as silver and gold awards for collaborating for superior results. She's also a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers.
"I think about my future in the industry a lot less in terms of specific roles and a lot more in terms of finding opportunities where I can make real, measurable impact and work with people I love," Geeting said. "The right team, the right time and the right fit for me to make a difference — that's the job I really want to have in the future."
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Q: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Geeting: "The things that make you different are the things that make you invaluable." I started my professional career at only 16 years old at a Fortune 50 company and then spent the subsequent 10 years trying to fit myself into the box that was a young female in corporate America. When I received this advice from a friend and mentor in my mid-20s, it finally became clear to me that I could make a bigger impact and enjoy my work more if I were comfortable with myself and able to use my quirks and less traditionally corporate traits to bring more value to my work and the teams I belonged to. Since then, I've been having fun every day, building relationships that last and contribute in ways I never knew I could — and I've never looked back.
Q: What is your greatest achievement?
Geeting: The achievement that I'm most proud of in my career is very little related to what I do and much more closely tied to doing my best to make an impact in my community and on the folks I work with. As site implementation leader for the Michigan chapter of the Dow Veterans Network from 2017-18, I was able to partner with several cross-functional leaders at Dow and our military contacts in the community to create and implement the first Military Degree Equivalency hire. This allows for the incredibly valuable education, skills and traits learned and practiced through military experience — and not necessarily in a classroom — to be applied as bachelor's degree equivalents. I'm incredibly proud and thankful to have been able to use this program to assist in the hiring of a contract employee, and all-around amazing guy, for a role that was perfect for him but would have required a bachelor's degree he didn't yet have.
Q: What about the plastics industry surprises you?
Geeting: Without a doubt the most interesting and surprising thing to me since joining the plastics industry is the level of connection that exists for folks who have been in the industry for a longer period of time. As a newcomer, it seems like everyone knows each other. From company to company and region to region around the globe, it truly feels like there's a sense of community in the industry, and I love it.