Brenton S. Halsey
University of Virginia
 |
Brenton S. Halsey parlayed an interest in chemistry, a fascination with improving manufacturing processes, and an inherently analytical nature into a career as a corporate trailblazer. He and a partner took two unprofitable paper manufacturing facilities in Richmond, Virginia, and turned them around, creating James River Corporation, which expanded from a local firm with $4 million in annual sales to become a global giant in the paper industry with sales reaching nearly $8 billion.
Born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1927, Halsey attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy and earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1951. After service in the U.S. Navy and a brief stint in the fertilizer industry as a process development engineer, he was recruited to join the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company in Richmond, Virginia. He learned the intricacies of the paper industry at the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin, rising through Albemarle’s ranks to serve as vice president and director of planning.
After Albemarle bought Richmond-based Ethyl Corporation, a joint venture of Standard Oil of New Jersey and General Motors, in 1963, Halsey was named president of Interstate Bag Company, a subsidiary in Newburgh, New York. When Ethyl put Interstate on the market in 1968, Halsey returned to Richmond, where he was named president of Ethyl’s Richmond papermaking businesses.
Halsey was given the okay to consider the purchasing of these businesses while overseeing its operations. With partner Robert Williams, a former Albemarle colleague, he borrowed aggressively to buy the two Ethyl papermaking facilities. The duo transformed these struggling enterprises into a profitable manufacturer of automotive air and oil filter papers, successfully launching a new company in the process. James River Corporation went public four years after its 1969 establishment.
Halsey led James River for more than two decades, as chairman and chief executive officer, before retiring in 1992. In addition to acquiring 44 paper manufacturers located throughout North America and Europe, he and Williams increased production and improved profits through market focus, innovative process improvements, and developing leading research and development activity in the industry. Under their leadership, James River Corporation achieved Fortune 100 status. As one of the nation’s largest paper companies, it also gained recognition as one of the best-managed American businesses in any field.
Halsey has received a variety of honors from the paper industry over the years. A fellow of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry and a member of the Paper Industry Hall of Fame, he is a former Paper Industry Management Association Man of the Year. A community leader and director of several corporations, he is the former chairman and trustee of The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia, a former long term trustee of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, and Halsey currently serves on the board of the School of Business Foundation at Virginia Commonwealth University. He formerly chaired the boards of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which manages Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and the Virginia Historical Society. In 1992, the Virginia General Assembly (the State legislature) named Halsey the year's outstanding Virginian.
_________________________________________________________
Profile
Ask Brenton S. Halsey about his career, and he walks to a bookshelf in his office in downtown Richmond, Virginia, and pulls a slender volume from the shelf. “I gather you haven’t read my book,” he says, offering a copy of James River Corporation: A Personal Memoir. “Please read, as it will tell you only the good stuff.”
Halsey wrote his memoir shortly after his 1992 retirement from James River Corporation. In its pages, he describes how, during his tenure as chief executive officer and chairman, the corporation expanded from a local firm with $4 million in annual sales to an extraordinary global company with sales of nearly $8 billion. James River ultimately achieved Fortune 100 status as one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world.
Halsey could not possibly have anticipated the opportunities that awaited him when, as a boy in 1942, he left Wilmington, North Carolina to attend the Episcopal High School, a college preparatory boarding school near Washington, D.C. A motivated student, he was encouraged to pursue interests in math and science — especially his favorite subject — chemistry. His father, a Cornell graduate who worked as a mechanical engineer, also inspired him. “Watching him at work convinced me that engineering would be a challenging and interesting profession.”
After attending the United States Merchant Marine Academy, he enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he majored in chemical engineering. Well-prepared for Virginia’s rigorous program, he remembers the positive benefit of the English courses required of its engineering students. “It was a relatively small school, the classes were interesting, and I made friends who have been helpful to me personally and professionally over the years.”
Armed with his degree, he joined the United States Navy’s Amphibious Forces in 1951 and served in the Pacific during the Korean War. Halsey reveres his navy career: “I wish more college graduates had the opportunity and interest in experiencing working with individuals from a large cross section of America, developing leadership capability, and serving one’s country.”
Returning to Virginia two years later, he took a job in Richmond with the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, where he became a process development engineer. “I worked in the research lab, learning the processes involved in producing phosphorous-based fertilizers,” Halsey recalls.
Two years later, Halsey’s brother’s boss at another Richmond firm, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, recruited him to learn a new industry. Already recognized as a talented chemical engineer, Halsey was intrigued by the growth of this company. He was also impressed that Albemarle was willing to pay for his training at the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin. “I was not pursuing a degree but was cramming two years of courses into one year and I came out of there with the equivalent of a master’s degree, and an in-depth knowledge of paper technology” says Halsey, who returned to Richmond and the company’s Brown’s Island mill, situated in the middle of the James River. Shortly thereafter, Halsey started a research department in a nearby Albemarle facility with the goal of creating new paper products for the company. He spent 15 years with Albemarle, eventually becoming vice president and director of planning.
When Albemarle’s CEO, Floyd Gottwald, purchased Ethyl Corporation in 1963 through one of the country’s first leveraged buyouts, Halsey aspired to be part of the action. Ethyl, a joint venture of Standard Oil of New Jersey and General Motors, was four times the size of Albemarle. Gottwald had directly overseen Halsey’s work on several Albemarle projects and was quickly appointed President of Interstate Bag Company, an Ethyl subsidiary based in Newburgh, New York.
Five years later, Halsey learned that the Company planned to sell Interstate and its paper assets. “The sale would eliminate my business connection to Richmond, to which I had counted on returning as future opportunities arose,” Halsey wrote in his memoir. He approached Gottwald and his son with the idea of purchasing the Company’s Hollywood operation, an unprofitable Richmond paper mill, and the Riverside converting plant. “I viewed ‘Mr. G’ as my mentor,” he wrote. “He was an extraordinarily creative man with visions which reached further than most of us could see… He encouraged my career at every turn and I owe [him] a debt of gratitude.”
Gottwald, however, discouraged Halsey from attempting the purchase. He and his son had other plans for the talented young executive. Halsey persevered, however, and they accommodated his wishes by offering him the presidency of a new Ethyl subsidiary that would include the very facilities he hoped to buy. “While in his capacity, I would be free to pursue the possible financing of the Hollywood/Riverside purchase,” Halsey wrote in his memoir. “I jumped at this opportunity, as there appeared to be no down side.”
Halsey was not intimidated by the challenges of raising funds for the purchase. He moved his wife and children to Richmond, and lined up a former Albemarle colleague, Robert Williams, as a partner. He and Williams began to seek financial backers for their venture.
The partners developed a game plan that would serve them well in ensuing years. As experts in the paper business, they knew that the majority of the industry’s sales focused on commodity grade papers, such as linerboard, kraft bag papers, plain white and coated printing paper, boxboard, and newsprint. Specialty papers were typified by small orders and custom technical specifications, and accounted for only a small segment of the market. Large commodity mill owners usually treated specialty paper as an unprofitable sideline. Halsey and Williams, on the other hand, were convinced it had great potential. They believed they could increase production and improve profits through technical market focus and product innovation. They planned to grow their business over time by acquiring other specialty paper manufacturers and divisions of large producers. “It is management’s belief,” they wrote in their first prospectus to potential investors, “that there are numerous such small, privately held companies, as well as specialty divisions of large paper manufacturers, which could be purchased on favorable terms. The small size of the markets served by these entities tends to limit the interest of the major paper companies in competing in such markets.”
Halsey and Williams were not afraid of taking risks, and they were fortunate to identify lenders who believed in them. Borrowing mightily, they engineered a $1.5 million leveraged buyout of the Ethyl papermaking facilities, founding James River Corporation in 1969. The partners put their plan into operation immediately. By gaining the trust of a General Motors Division, which specialized in automotive oil and air filters, they were able to identify improved technologies that resulted in a better product — and landed them a major contract in the bargain. With this and similar successes, they were able to move their new company from a manufacturer of kraft paper to a producer of automotive air-filter papers and similar products which sold for four times as much per ton.
This became the modus operandi of James River Corporation over the next two decades. With Halsey in the role of chairman and chief executive officer and Williams functioning as president and chief operating officer, the corporation began to acquire specialty paper operations whose assets would help boost its capabilities in the market. The leaders never acquired companies through hostile takeovers, and they were not afraid of getting their hands dirty. Working six days a week, initially right in the factory alongside their employees, they took James River public in 1973. According to a biographical sketch of Halsey written for his 1988 induction into the Paper Industry Hall of Fame, the corporation manufactured “thousands of products ranging from green confetti for Easter baskets to sophisticated filters for jet fuel,” commanding 17 percent of the specialty paper market just seven years after going public. In December 1983, Dun’s Business Month identified James River as one of the five best-managed manufacturing companies in the United States. By 1990 it had established a truly formidable world presence, employing more than 45,000 employees in locations across North America and Europe. Having diversified its acquisition program, it claimed top market share in disposable consumer products, food and consumer packaging, and specialty industrial and packaging. James River managed the leading pulp and paper research and development activity in the world. Its consumer paper manufacturing included branded products such as Dixie Cups, Brawny paper towels, Northern® bathroom tissue and Vanity Fair napkins, to name but a few.
James River was much more than the sum of its acquisitions, however. Halsey and Williams had carefully crafted a culture based on the following six basic principles, which were clearly communicated to its employees around the world:
1. Demonstrate ethics and fair play in all transactions and relationships.
2. Deliver superior value to the customer.
3. Involve employees in decision-making, called “finding a better way,” to achieve the best results.
4. Provide all employees the opportunity to become owners of the company.
5. Make job creation a priority.
6. Manage with a profit focus.
Halsey relinquished the CEO role to Williams in 1990 at age 62. He continued as Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 1992. Dedicated to his profession and community, he has received numerous awards and honors over the years. A fellow of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, he is a former Paper Industry Management Association Man of the Year. The recipient of an honorary doctorate in humane letters from St. Paul’s College, he received the William and Mary College Business Medallion Award, as well as the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Virginia Engineering Foundation at the University of Virginia . In 1992, the Virginia General Assembly (the State legislature) named Halsey the outstanding Virginian for that year.
Since retiring, he has had more time to devote to his family, including wife Lindsay, his partner in raising four children, and the couple’s 18 grandchildren. He has also pursued other personal interests. An avid sailor, he made his mark in ocean racing, finishing first in his class in a number of premier East Coast ocean races between 1990 and 1996, including Annapolis to Newport, Marblehead to Halifax, the Virginia Cruising Cup Race, and the Maryland Governor’s Cup Race. He currently co-owns a marina in Deltaville, Virginia, and serves on numerous boards. A former Chairman and Trustee of The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia, he served as a long time Trustee of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, and is currently active on the Board of the School of Business Foundation at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has chaired the Board of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which manages Jefferson’s home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia and the Virginia Historical Society and continues to be active in both organizations.
From his office overlooking the area of Richmond where James River Corporation got its start, Halsey is quick to attribute a significant component of his career success to his broad-based training in engineering. “Engineering breeds an inherently analytical nature that I believe serves engineers well in the business world. We made 44 acquisitions and never had a failure,” he says. “We considered every angle before making decisions so we would be assured of success.”
Back to Top
_________________________________________________________