I was interviewed, the GM told me that things were a bit of a rodeo. 3 months after I started, he was fired. During the time I was there (2 1/2 years), every position in the plant changed at least three times except mine. Over that time, I trained two Operations Managers, 3 Production Managers, 4 Plant Superintendents (and I mean, I taught them how to run the plant, how to manage our flow).

It was a rough place to work. It was owned by Richard Pratt, a billionaire from Australia who owned VISY paper. He came to the US and really started the recycle corrugated paper industry (and forced all the big paper companies to take notice and re-tool their paper plants, and use more recycled fiber).

He'd fly in and call a meeting, and he would grill everyone. My first month, he showed up, and management basically threw me to the wolves. He asked my thoughts and I told him his plant was a freaking mess. He asked me if I could fix it. I told him I could. He looked at the then Ops Mgr and GM and told them to give me whatever support I needed.

We had $800,000 a month in returns coming back when I started. In 90 days I helped reduce that to $600,000, and after a year, we were below $100K. Our box quality got better because I worked alongside every operator, and we taught them basic boxmaking. Our equipment was top notch, and by the time I left, we were running 30,000 TONS of paper thru the plant every month (more than 3 times what we were when I started), and only had about $25,000 in returns (almost entirely sheets for one customer, but some pre-printed boxes for a nightmare customer (Diageo).

But it was a love hate job, and as soon as my wife was cleared after her chemo and surgeries, a headhunter called and asked if I wanted to come back to China. I was gone in six weeks by my own choice, and Richard himself flew in to ask me to stay. There was no amount of money could get me to keep working in that hellhole, because their culture was terrible.