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| Distinguished Alumni |
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William R. Carteaux
When Bill Carteaux visits his alma mater, he carries key messages to students in Purdue’s Agricultural Systems Management and Agricultural and Biological Engineering programs: Lifelong learning is key. The day you think you know everything is the day you begin to fail. Never burn bridges. Network.
Then Carteaux returns to Strongsville, Ohio, where, as president and CEO of Van Dorn Demag Corporation and Executive Manager Director of Demag Plastics Group, he lives those same messages.
A good friend originally influenced Carteaux’s decision to attend Purdue University and to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Mechanization. And a former customer, who remembered Carteaux from his high school job as an auto mechanic, helped open his first career door at Pent Incorporated.
Ever since, Carteaux has walked through open doors, and paved new paths in management, sales, marketing, product development, and financial analysis positions.
He joined Van Dorn Demag Corporation, the country’s largest manufacturer
of injection molding machines for the plastics industry, in 1997 as Vice
President of Marketing.
He stepped up as Van Dorn Demag’s president and chief operating
officer in 2002 and also was recently named one of two Executive Managing
Directors of Demag Plastics Group, a new global firm created by the merger
of Van Dorn Demag and its sister company, Demag Ergotech.
Juggling his many professional roles reminds Carteaux of the balancing act he mastered one infamous semester at Purdue, when, as a newlywed, he tackled 21 class hours while serving as:
• President of Purdue’s Ag Mech Club,
• Vice president of the National Council of Student Mechanization Clubs of ASAE,
• Vice president of the Tri-State ASAE Student Branches, and
• One of three co-chairman and coordinators of the First Annual Purdue Ag Exposition.
For his outstanding contribution to the food, agriculture, and natural resources system, the Purdue College of Agriculture is proud to present the Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus Award to William R. Carteaux.
| Their Swings Say It All
Interested in how one of your managers likely will respond to a personnel problem or how a vendor might handle a complaint? How about whether a customer will over-react if there’s a misunderstanding? Spend a few hours together on the golf course, Bill Carteaux suggests, and you’ll have the answer. Walking and playing a few holes can reveal more about your colleague than a 40-hour workweek. An avid golfer whose home is situated strategically on the fifth fairway, Carteaux’s favorite hobby doubles as an insightful business tool. “You get to know someone on the golf course,” he says. “Are they driven? Do they continue to push toward the end, or give up? After four hours together, most people really let down their guard.” Carteaux’s first golf game with the former Van Dorn Demag president, for instance, revealed the fiercely competitive side of an otherwise laid-back, soft-spoken individual. Another revealing round ended with a vendor throwing his putter on the green. “He pitched it so hard it stuck,” Carteaux recalls. “He was a hothead, and it really showed.” Carteaux travels extensively—and rarely without his clubs. And although he’s played on courses around the world—including a club in Singapore where dues totaled $200,000 annually—Carteaux ranks Toledo, Ohio’s, Inverness Club as his favorite. “It’s one of the top 10 courses in the country and has a tremendous history,” he says. “All of the greats, like Palmer, Nicklaus, and Sneed, have played there.” He may not be a legendary golfer, but Carteaux’s hobby claims
lofty roots. “Before I started at Purdue, I never touched
a club,” he recalls. “A friend suggested it, and I loved
the game from the very first swing.” |
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