About AIChE

Sid Sapakie
University of Michigan

Sid graduated from White Plains, NY high school in 1963 and from the University of Michigan in 1967. He majored in chemical engineering with a concentration in biology. He continued his education while working and received his MBA from the University of Minnesota in 1972.

Sid joined General Mills R&D, right after his BSE, where his first project was developing aseptic processing as a company competency. Over the next thirty-three years he worked on cereals, desserts, frozen seafood, process engineering, technology development, and international business, retiring in 2002 as VP of International R&D.

Among Sid's most satisfying career accomplishments is the production of 14 cereals under his leadership at General Mills, which are still in the market in a category where only about 5% of new products sustain. Other notable contributions of Sid's include cultivating frozen seafood from a commodity into a value-added business, introducing snacks to China and other developing countries, and participating in a joint venture with Nestle-Cereal Partners Worldwide - to introduce cereals to Latin America and Asia.

Sid was heavily involved in recruiting at General Mills, leading numerous educational outreach efforts on a number of campuses, and serving on advisory boards at Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois. Having had influential mentors throughout his own professional development, Sid recognized the importance of education and shared the same knowledge with the next generation by serving as a mentor and teacher himself. He taught product development, food engineering, and a smattering of management as an adjunct at the University of Minnesota, and was an invited lecturer elsewhere.

Sid’s involvement in AIChE began as an undergraduate and continued through participating in the Twin Cities Local Section and the Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division, where he held a number of leadership positions over the years. He has chaired many sessions and presented a number of papers at national meetings, and ultimately, with a group of others, founded COFE, the Conference of Food Engineers. In 1995 he was elected to AIChE’s leadership Council and in 2001 he was elected Vice President, succeeding to serve as the Institute's president in 2002. His leadership efforts at AIChE have been focused on ensuring the Institute's relevancy among the constantly evolving, diverse population of chemical engineers.

Sid has also served as AIChE’s representative to and president of the United Engineering Foundation, an umbrella group for the five founding engineering societies. He is a registered professional engineer and has also had affiliations with the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Association of Cereal Chemists.

Sid and his wife Linda were married in 1972. They have two daughters, Rebecca — a TV news director, and Johanna — a professional dancer and choreographer.

The path that led me to chemical engineering was both serendipitous and a confluence of seemingly unrelated events.

Childhood and Education | College | The Workplace | Giving Back | AIChE Involvement

Lessons Learned and Managerial Style | Family and Personal Interests | Outlook and Advice

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Childhood and Education

I grew up in a home of modest means in downtown White Plains, a suburb of New York City. My father was a pharmacist and my mother was an elementary school teacher. From an early age, I recognized the opportunities afforded to me by my parents and I aspired to find all possible ways to take advantage of them. My family's diversity in career choices exposed me to a broad scope of options. My uncle's professions spanned doctor, lawyer, and accountant, but, at the time, none of these fields appealed to me. My mother, however, had a cousin who was an engineer involved in construction in the city. Although as a young man I knew little about the different fields of engineering, I recognized, even in its generality, that engineering seemed like an interesting career possibility for me.

I attended White Plains High School, a large, diverse, and academically vibrant school. Although my academic performance was good, I certainly wasn't the top student in my class. Like many future engineers, however, I did excel in math and science. Harnessing these skills, my career inclinations ranged from pharmaceutical research to actuarial work.

By the summer of 1962, between my junior and senior years, it was time to get serious about college. My older (and some would say smarter) brother was at Cornell in the chemical engineering curriculum. Like most of my friends, I was thinking about Ivy League and other eastern schools. That July, I attended a Boy Scout/Explorer national conference at the University of Michigan. This provided me the opportunity to explore the campus and spend quality time with my uncle, a graduate of the University of Michigan whose passion for his alma mater was inspiring.

In the fall when it was time to apply to colleges, Michigan was high on my list. The strong academics, excellent athletic program, relaxed social atmosphere and beautiful campus added up to a compelling combination. I applied to the liberal arts college because my family believed in receiving two years of general education before determining a major. When my admittance letter arrived it was accompanied by a suggestion, based on my high school record and skills, that I consider majoring in engineering. This push tipped the scales and I continued to follow that fundamental advice.

College
In 1963, all freshman engineering students in Ann Arbor took the same curriculum. We were expected to use the year to gather information, explore our interests, and decide on a specific department. Personally, I found it difficult to get direction from the faculty at that time, and I chose chemical engineering primarily because I liked chemistry. By the time I had figured out that chemical engineering was not a very good descriptor of the field, I had grown to like what I was studying. Due to the difficulty of the courses, people a lot smarter than me were transferring out of the department, but I seemed to have had an acute affinity for the subject matter.

Thus one of the most important decisions of my life was based on numerous seemingly random occurrences. To my everlasting good fortune it was the right choice for me.

While at Michigan, I had the opportunity to study and develop a good relationship with Professor Lloyd Kempe, one of the early practitioners of biology in conjunction with engineering. As I recall, he had joint appointments in Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and the Medical School. Our relationship continued for many years as we kept in touch throughout his consulting work and my recruiting efforts at Michigan. Dr. Kempe, together with Professor Jerry Schultz, had developed a course sequence within the Chemical Engineering department that focused on, what was then called, biochemical engineering. This instructive course introduced me to subjects such as microbiology, biochemistry, fermentation, food processing, and water quality. My senior plant design was a fermentation facility to produce beta carotene.

The Workplace
When it came time to start a job search I focused on the food and pharmaceutical industries. It was 1967, and the demand for chemical engineers exceeded the supply, so I had a number of opportunities to choose from. Initially, I was looking for an internship which would allow me to attend graduate school, perhaps at Cornell, which also had a biochemical engineering program. Once again, fate —this time in the form of an empty check book — intervened and I chose to take full-time employment with the intention of either continuing my studies at night or working a few years before returning to graduate school.

I chose General Mills because of my interest in food processing, its location in a mid size city, and its friendly and relaxed yet highly focused corporate culture. Moreover, it was a company where an engineer with only a bachelor’s degree could work in R&D and hold meaningful responsibilities. I was young then, so the infamous Minnesota weather was not an issue. I enjoyed many outdoor activities, and learned to ski and skate.

My first assignment was to develop aseptic processing as a company competency. This technology uses High-Temperature Short-Time processing to sterilize food, which is then filled in a sterile atmosphere into a sterile container, thus cutting “cooking” time from hours to minutes. It was a new technology and a perfect project for me to cut my teeth on, utilizing heat and mass transfer, fluid flow, and microbiology. A big challenge at that time was proving that math modeling could be applied to an area which historically had been considered more of an art. Writing a computer program to perform the laborious time temperature calculations, in the days before commercial software, was also a difficult task. Succeeding at such challenges, we went on to tackle particulate processing/sterilization using some innovative approaches.

Shortly after joining General Mills, I began attending night school with the vague notion of pursuing an MBA. I took a couple of courses each quarter to acquire prerequisites. In 1969, I was admitted to the graduate program at the University of Minnesota from which I received my MBA in 1972. After graduating, I opted to transfer to the marketing/business side of the company. I found this transition to be a great learning experience but not what I wanted to focus my life's work on, so I transferred back to R&D, aiming to develop a career in technical management.

Thirty-four years later I retired as VP of International R&D. I had spent my entire career with one company, a common theme in those days but less so in today's rapidly changing corporate climate. I had many chances to leave General Mills but never found a reason which could surpass my comfort level in Minneapolis. Money and titles, although important to me, never dominated the top of my priority list. I was content working for what I considered an excellent company in a challenging industry. Moreover, given the diversity of the company, I never found myself working in the same area for too long, thus keeping my creative juices flowing. I had a chance to work on exciting projects and lead efforts on cereals, yogurt, seafood, canned products, and long term technology development, to name a few.

My last ten years at General Mills was spent in the international arena, working on joint ventures, starting new businesses and supporting existing subsidiaries. Late in my career I experienced a very steep learning curve. I realized there were not only vast differences amongst cultures around the world; there were also vast differences amid companies around the world and the various ways in which they operated. Today, I feel proud when I look back on my contributions to Cereal Partners Worldwide, where I helped pioneer factories and businesses in Latin America and Asia, as well as my influence in establishing the snack business in China and strengthening our Canadian business operations.

Additional career achievements for which I take a great deal of pride in include the introduction of 20 new cereals in six years, of which I believe 14 are still in the market. This was unprecedented success in a business where about 5% of new products sustain. We also took a small yogurt business [Yoplait USA ] and revolutionized the category in this country. We helped turn frozen seafood from a commodity to a value added market segment. We got our share of patents, but in truth, success in consumer products is measured by two things — sales and profits — of which, I am proud to say, General Mills contributed to in a major way.

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Giving Back
As I rose through the corporate ranks at General Mills, I became heavily involved in college recruiting, eventually taking the lead in our efforts at a number of universities. This not only allowed me to strongly influence our hiring, but also afforded me the chance to begin mentoring relationships with a number of our young engineers. I became good friends with many faculty and had the opportunity to serve on advisory boards at schools such as Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois.

Throughout my career I had a number of mentors who took the time to provide me with guidance and support. They ranged from faculty, such as Lloyd Kempe, to immediate supervisors, the most influential being Dr. George Daraving as a PhD Food Scientist, who provided me with real insight into how to succeed in corporate America. Others included Dr. John Luck, Sr. VP of Technology, who took me under his wing, and Ross Clouston, the president of Gorton’s Foods, who encouraged me to stretch the envelope and was the first to really teach me about business. I believe whatever success I found was directly attributable to their guidance and teachings. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned was that you are only as good as the people you work with. If your subordinates are happy and motivated they will do great work which reflects back on you.

As my expertise grew, I did my best to share my wisdom with others, through mentoring, teaching at the University of Minnesota, and giving invited presentations at conferences and universities. I am convinced that the low success rate for new food products is caused by a lack of deep understanding of why products succeed and/or fail and how to receive relevant information from consumers. To this end, I designed and taught a graduate course in new product development. I have also taken the highlights from the course and reduced it to a two-hour seminar, which has been presented at a number of venues.

Lessons Learned and Managerial Style
On the managerial side we all develop our own style. To summarize the high points of a style that worked for me:

Technical knowledge is the building block. The softer skills cannot substitute if this is missing. But technical people must also have a working knowledge of their business to ensure their work is relevant.
Loyalty works both ways. You will be amazed what your subordinates will do if you fully support them.
Hire good people, make sure they are working on the right things and get out of their way.
Pass the credit, accept the blame.
Work hard, play hard.
If you are not an expert in a particular technical area for which you are responsible, make sure your subordinates are.
Don’t fall in love with your technology. No matter how creative you are, a new development is valueless unless adopted by its intended users.
Recognize differences in culture. These exist at different company locations, between companies and between countries. When in someone else’s “house,” listen and be sensitive.
Politics are everywhere, both in industry and academia. You must be aware of this but don’t let it change you from what makes you special.

AIChE Involvement
I joined AIChE as an undergraduate. When I entered the workplace I became active in our local section as well as the Food, Pharmaceutical & Bioengineering Division, which at the time had a strong food engineering component. Over the years I held a number of offices in both groups and formed friendships with many of the leading practitioners in my field, both industrial and academic. I presented numerous papers and chaired many sessions at AIChE national meetings, striving to bring a practical, industrial perspective to the proceedings. Ultimately, a group of my colleagues and I came together and founded the Conference of Food Engineers (CoFE), now active as a topical within AIChE’s Annual Meeting.

In 1995, Ed Cussler, a professor at the University of Minnesota and outgoing AIChE president, asked me to run for Council (now called the Board of Directors.) He was trying to attract more senior corporate executives to the Institute’s governing body. I agreed to run, believing that I had no chance to win because of my limited exposure within the organization. Surprisingly I was elected and served a three-year term, which was quite an experience. Discovering the particulars of how the Institute operated and participating in meetings with highly intelligent people, who often shared vastly different perspectives on how the world worked, was a challenging experience. We debated, disagreed, formed compromises, forged change, balanced conflicting constituencies, and developed lifelong friendships.

Two years later I was asked to run for president and was elected to serve three more years as president-elect, president, and past president. To say I was honored would be an understatement. The list of past presidents read like an honor roll of our profession. I really did not consider myself a peer of many of these distinguished individuals. I was now sitting next to and interacting with many of the “gods” such as Stuart Churchill, who had not only written the textbooks that I learned from but also trained my generation of chemical engineers, as well as those before and after us.

It was a challenging time wrestling with the changing nature of our profession and the financial difficulties of the Institute. The dual themes of my presidency were recognition that many of us no longer worked in the traditional Chemical Processing Industry and finding new ways to make AIChE relevant to the entire diverse group known as chemical engineers. I strongly believe that the Institute that has emerged since then is on a sound financial footing and will continue to provide all of the products and services that are valuable to our members. Further, our new partnerships with ACS and ASME, in conjunction with new entities such as the Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) and the Institute for Sustainability (IfS), make AIChE stronger and more relevant than ever.

As if this wasn’t enough, I woke up one day to find myself AIChE’s chosen representative to and ultimately President of the United Engineering Foundation, made up of the five founding engineering societies. I also belonged to the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC), and was a registered professional engineer. These were additional opportunities to form new relationships, this time with colleagues from other disciplines.

Family and Personal Interests
I met Linda in 1971 and a year later we were married. She is a talented commercial artist who ultimately chose to stay home and raise our two daughters. Rebecca is now 28 and is a TV news manager. Johanna, 25, lives in LA and is a professional dancer and choreographer. To say that I am a proud father is an understatement.

Two areas apart from engineering and my career of which I am most passionate are history and sports. As a young man, I wanted to be a history teacher but was talked out of it because, in those days, it was difficult to support a family on a teacher’s salary. In college, I took as many history courses as my schedule permitted, which only increased my fascination with the subject. Today, the spates of newly published history books keep me busy reading.

I love sports, both as a spectator and participant. I often think my grades would have been better if I spent less time on the athletic fields and in the stands. If I wasn’t playing, I was often refereeing to help pay for school. I am good at many sports, very good at none, but it doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm. In the fall, I spend my weekends watching more football games than one can count. My wife can’t understand it, but this is a passion of mine and retirement provides the time to indulge in that passion.

Outlook and Advice

Looking back I realize how fortunate I’ve been. Clearly the choice of chemical engineering, as serendipitous as it was, was perfect for me.

To wrap up, then, what advice do I have for young and future chemical engineers?

First, it is difficult. Few college curricula are as challenging. Go in with your eyes and mind open. If you make it, you will undoubtedly learn more than equations and modeling. You will learn how to think and problem-solve, skills irreplaceable in any endeavor.

Second, our profession is undergoing profound change. I’d opine that the “chemical” in chemical engineering has been outdated since the profession evolved from what was basically industrial chemistry. During my career, I thought process engineering was a better term, but today, that is also a term too narrow. The good news is that there are jobs for us in almost every industry.

Sid Sapakie University of Michigan

Sid Sapakie
University of Michigan