Wacker's Mary Beth Hudson helping pave way for women in manufacturing

Mary Beth Hudson
Mary Beth Hudson

Mary Beth Hudson recalls it was a fifth-grade teacher who interested her in science.

Today, she's the site manager for Wacker in Charleston, Tennessee, where the German company has already spent $2.5 billion on a polysilicon production facility and is building a $150 million expansion to make pyrogenic silica.

Hudson, 50, is helping pave the way for women in not just the manufacturing arena but in the chemical industry.

"No one told me I couldn't do what I wanted to do," she says.

The Bowling Green, Kentucky, native graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1989.

"You get to do something," Hudson says of her career, adding she likes the idea of making something.

At the University of Kentucky, there weren't a lot of women in the classes she took in her field. But she insists that women in manufacturing can be successful.

"They're natural communicators," she says. "I think it's an advantage."

Hudson began her career after college as a process engineer at Air Products and Chemicals in Calvert City, Kentucky. When joint ventures were formed between that company and Wacker in 1998, she became Wacker's plant manager at the Calvert City dispersible polymer powders operations.

Later, she became vice president and site manager for both the powders and dispersions polymer operations for North America for the company in Calvert City.

Last year, she was promoted to vice president of Wacker's polysilicon division in the Americas region, responsible for all aspects of manufacturing, supply chain, sales and profitability of the unit throughout the region, so she moved to Charleston.

"This was too great an opportunity," says Hudson, who is married and has two children.

The plant makes polysilicon that is used in the production of solar power panels. The expansion at the site will produce what Wacker calls HDK, which is used in a wide variety of goods ranging from toothpaste to cosmetics to paint.

Upcoming Events