In each issue, FlexPack VOICE® interviews an industry leader. In this edition, we talk to Apurva Shah, vice president of strategy and customer development at Charter Next Generation (CNG) and a board member of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA).
CNG is a manufacturer of specialty films and sustainable solutions, Shah points out. “Our company differentiates itself by harnessing the power of material science with advanced extrusion capabilities to develop solutions for a wide range of customers and end-use markets,” he says.
In his role as vice president of strategy and customer development, Shah focuses on helping the company look at how it can leverage its capabilities and strengths in a broader context.
“The underlying motive,” he adds, “is to continuously evolve our business and the value we bring to our customers.”
Shah also is one of the newer members of the FPA board, having joined in early 2024. He says his experience so far has been focused on learning and listening. Since he joined, FPA hired a new president and CEO, Dan Felton.
“I’m looking forward to taking a more active role in 2025 as Dan leads the organization into its next chapter,” Shah says.
Shah’s path to the packaging industry wasn’t a direct one.
“I’d love to say that getting into packaging was always the goal, but, honestly, it was by pure circumstance,” he says. “I graduated during the ’09 recession and had intended to go into finance.”
With the collapse of the banking industry, he looked for other opportunities and found one at Dow Chemical, taking a job in its commercial development program.
“My first sales role was in specialty plastics, which kicked off my career in the industry,” Shah says. “I couldn’t have asked for a better way to join the industry and am thankful to have worked under some incredible leaders who afforded me the opportunity to take on a breadth of responsibilities early in my career.”
FPA has been focused on recruitment and retention for the industry, creating the Emerging Leadership Council (ELC) about five years ago to help with those efforts. Shah is one of the ELC’s founding members and helps to coordinate the FlexPack Crash Course held at PACK EXPO International the last two times it was held in Chicago. The crash course is geared toward people new to the industry or hired within five years so they can get a broad overview of the industry all along the supply chain, from raw materials to finished packages.
Here is a closer look at Shah’s career and his advice to those considering a move to flexible packaging.
FlexPack VOICE®: What would you tell someone who is thinking about a career in the industry if they were to ask for your advice?
Apurva Shah: If I think broadly, careers in materials and specifically packaging are likely often overlooked. But for anyone who is looking for breadth in their career, the flexible packaging industry provides just that—from companies small to large, global, and local, niche vs. diversified—and the chance to work in an industry that is rapidly evolving.
FPV: Is there a particular experience that stands out in your career, good or bad, or both?
AS: In between graduate school and joining CNG, I spent a short stint in strategy consulting. While I enjoyed the rapid pace and getting to work on projects across a broad set of markets, I also realized that I missed working in our industry and the valuable friendships I’ve had the opportunity to build. It has made me appreciate and value the experiences I’ve gained in this industry. So, ironically, I would say “leaving” the industry, albeit for a short period, was an experience that certainly shaped my career.
FPV: Who was your mentor, and why were they important?
AS: My father has certainly been a critical role model and mentor throughout my professional life. Being an immigrant to this country who moved here in the late 1980s, he came to this country with nothing and harnessed the power of curiosity for people and business to build his career. He taught me to appreciate the struggle and the joy of learning something new. Now as a father of two young children, it has been fun to embed similar qualities in our children as they experience the world.
FPV: What advice would you give to a hiring manager who is seeking people to fill various positions?
AS: Depending on the role, I always think one of the foundational skills is assessing people on their critical thinking skills and their ability to build an ecosystem of advisers when trying to solve a problem. Directly speaking, it’s how they take data to form insights to drive action, and I look for how they blend qualitative and quantitative data points to get their head around something.
FPV: What do you see as the major challenges facing the industry in 2025, globally and/or domestically?
AS: I’ll maybe speak more locally to the context of this article. One of the challenges I see in the industry is building a new generation of leaders that has the bandwidth and passion to serve in industry-level service. It’s a slight nod to the macro challenges facing the flexible packaging industry around sustainability but in a more local context of why I am eager to get to work on the FPA board. This, of course, was the primary driver behind starting the ELC—to build that pipeline of future leaders. So, I am proud of what that group has and continues to do to maintain a pipeline of talent to lead the industry forward.
Thomas A. Barstow is senior editor of FlexPack VOICE®.