Ellen J. Kullman is the President and CEO of Carbon.
Prior to this Ellen was the Chairman and CEO of DuPont. She was the nineteenth executive and the first woman to lead DuPont in its 212-year history. During her seven years as CEO, Kullman led the company’s focus on growth in emerging international markets and championed the power of DuPont science and global market knowledge to transform industries. She executed a strong plan and decisively positioned the company for its next generation of growth.
Ellen is co-chair of the Paradigm for Parity coalition and a board director of United Technologies, Dell Technologies, Amgen, and Goldman Sachs. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and past president of the U.S. China Business Council. She serves on the board of trustees of Northwestern University. Ellen has been named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune and one of the “World’s Most Powerful Women” by Forbes.
Nora Toure: What advice would you share with someone looking into a career in additive manufacturing in 2020?
Ellen Kullman: It’s truly an interesting time to be in this industry. We’re starting to realize the potential for digital and additive manufacturing technologies to reimagine how products are designed and made. The COVID-19 crisis in 2020 has only underscored this. Additive companies have stepped up to meet challenges to help address supply shortages caused by regional shutdowns and disruptions.
The pace of product innovation has also been remarkable. For example, to address the shortage of swabs needed to increase testing capacity for COVID-19, Carbon production partner Resolution Medical launched a new Lattice Swab, Crafted with Carbon™ Technology that’s been assessed by Stanford and others to be a safe and effective solution.
The process from design to production took only 20 days, and clinical assessment with 400 patients happened in 50 days. This type of accelerated product innovation—and accelerated product introduction—can’t happen with traditional manufacturing methods.
It’s inspiring to see how far our industry has come. Additive manufacturing can provide ways to circumvent problems disrupted global supply chains are having and get needed products to market faster; I think this has big implications for a digital future for manufacturing. You can reimagine how supply chains work with digital additive technologies.
This is a big reason why I’ve always been so inspired by what we are doing at Carbon—redefining how products are made and brought to market. My advice would be to zero in on what’s going on in this industry right now and how companies are meeting urgent product needs. And see how you can apply your talents in this growing industry.
Nora Toure: When hiring, what are you looking for in a candidate?
Ellen Kullman: I always look for people who are passionate about what they do and who are open to a lot of new ideas and approaches. Our work is challenging and the problems are solvable, but they are hard. We need people who believe in what we’re doing, and who are motivated by hard problems and committed to solving them.
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