'I've always been glad to talk about my career track," says Bruce Wallington. He joined Merck & Co (White House Station, NJ) twenty-two years ago as an assistant engineer working on modeling process air emissions and making regulatory evaluations. For the last seven years he has headed up environmental compliance at the company's Rahway, NJ manufacturing and research facility.
His recent promotion to senior director makes him responsible for Merck's global environmental and safety advocacy. He's moved his office from Rahway to corporate HQ at White House Station, NJ.
Between these assignments, Wallington literally had a world of environmental experience. He traveled across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, auditing facilities as a member of a Merck environmental team.
"The audit experience was very developmental," he notes. "Working on field assessments, I gained a broad picture of the company, and I learned to be sensitive to different cultures and local issues."
Interfacing with all levels
In his new senior director job, Wallington has oversight for legislative and regulatory issues that impact Merck's environmental and safety programs around the world. He and his new team monitor proposed new laws and regulations, assess their impact on Merck's business, and lobby to ensure that sound science and good policy are behind new laws and regulations that are under consideration.
"I'll be interfacing with Merck people at all levels from plant operations to senior management, and externally with legislative and policy folks," he explains. He and his handful of staff members will be dedicated to finding the most cost-
effective ways to handle the environmental aspects of Merck's business.
Interesting and challenging
Wallington's entry-level environmental work at Merck introduced him to the complexities of the field. "I had to use my engineering skills, but I also had to sell the validity of my analyses," he says.
The environmental field, he notes, is challenging because of the many interfaces of laws and regulations, science, technology and the political process.
"It's a very interesting stew to cook," he says with a smile. "You have to be able to defend the science and at the same time understand where the regulating agency, the permit reviewers and the legislators are coming from.
"When I mentor people, I always tell them that negotiation is a basic requirement. It's a soft skill that isn't taught in school but has great career value."
From school to Merck
Wallington grew up in Baltimore, MD and got to New Jersey by way of North Carolina, where he met his future wife when they were working on a student development program. "She's from Newark and went to Rutgers-Newark. It's right across the street from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where I got my ChE degree in 1982."
He went straight from school to Merck. "It was a bad year in the economy," he says. "I was offered a job in Colorado in the oil industry, and then the job was gone the next week. I was going to go on to grad school, but then I got a call from Merck to come in for an interview."
Career-enhancing experiences
Besides the world travel, Wallington did a variety of other fascinating environmental work with Merck. For example, he was on a team that did real-time air sampling at a time when it was an emerging technology for odor investigations. "Our analysis proved inconclusive, but our groundbreaking efforts advanced the techniques," he says.
He got deeply involved with the Clean Air Act. "We put together a clean air taskforce, and I was fortunate to be the chair. I worked with other Merck plants as we collected data and prepared to apply for permits for our manufacturing ops. I went to Washington, DC to work with our legislative contacts and attorneys and many trade organizations.
"I never really had a plan" for a career track, he admits. "As projects came along, I said I was interested and available. Now it's twenty-two years later and that's how my career has unfolded."
A good organization will develop you
"If you do a good job on the project you're working on, the future will take care of itself" is Wallington's philosophy. "When you're a good performer people keep an eye on you, and that's really part of the development process.
"I've had some good role models at Merck who've been very helpful," he adds. "Your first one or two supervisors are very important because they set an example and invite you to emulate them."
In the early 1980s there were a number of African American managers at Merck, but not in Wallington's area. "I found them through Merck's Black Employees Network (BEN)," he says. "I'm an extrovert and I've always been good at seeking opportunities to learn."
He found that BEN could help shape his professional development. "I took advantage of the opportunities to share with seasoned professionals as well as people just starting their careers."
Wallington has been active with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) as a Merck recruiter. He's also served as a Merck recruiting captain at NJIT and is currently a mentor in Merck's manufacturing development program.
"It's a fabulous feeling to help develop people," he says. "Whatever difference I can make in starting or helping a career, I'm always open. I get a lot from that."
Telling it
Wallington started college as an architectural major. "Then I thought I'd build bridges," he says. "A professor recommended that I take a course in chemical engineering. I loved it and when I went home, I told my wife I had found my career."
Wallington has two teen-age sons now, and "I don't think either is going to pursue engineering," he says. "I'm trying not to pressure them because I found it so liberating when my family didn't pressure me."
In his spare time Wallington is writing a book. "It's about some of the experiences I've had at Merck, the lessons I've learned, the leadership behaviors I've witnessed," he says.
"I tell people that whether you're African American, Asian or anything else, the calling card you present to the world is your character, your integrity and the quality of your work. That's not to say there isn't discrimination and all the other ills that you can think about, but your calling card is the only thing you really have control over.
"That's been my philosophy and it was my grandfather's too. He was not formally schooled, but he was a great observer of people and he had a lot of wisdom that he worked hard to teach me."
Wallington used to do a presentation for new hires. "It was called 'You are the enterprise,' and that's what my grandfather was telling me," he notes. "You are who you are and you do the best you can with the package you have.
"That's what you've got to offer the world."
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