The FLiP Files is a blog series spotlighting young professionals who are active in PLASTICS’ Future Leaders in Plastics (FLiP), a group for plastics professionals under the age of 40. For this FLiP File, we spoke with Ryan Erickson about his experience working in the plastics industry.
The FLiP Files: Ryan Erickson
A hockey lover turned tractor designer? That may not be who you would expect to find in a plastics career, but that is how Ryan Erickson found himself in this industry.
Ryan Erickson is a product design engineer at John Deere. He didn’t always know he wanted to work in the plastics industry, but his passion for designing equipment for his favorite sport, hockey, led him to a very specific degree path.
In college, Ryan studied composite materials engineering at Winona State University. This degree would be necessary in order to design hockey sticks and other hockey gear. Nearing the end of his degree, he realized that all hockey manufacturers were located outside of the US and he did not want to live internationally. With his internship and job experience during his undergraduate career, Ryan eventually found a position with John Deere in their plastics engineering development program. His design rotation includes working on the next generation of tractors.
Read the entire FLiP File here.
