Cohen enjoys a 'gratifying' career: this Michigan State School of Packaging grad says he's not stopping until he's 80

Food & Drug Packaging, July, 2005 by Lisa McTigue Pierce

D. Bruce Cohen, director of U.S. Packaging Services at GlaxoSmithKline, is a four-time survivor of a merger or acquisition over the course of his 33-year career as a packaging professional. His secret? Having the right attitude.

"What's the worst that can happen? I lose my job and I'll find another. My feeling has been and still is: The King is dead. Long live the King,'" Bruce intones. "My allegiance is to the company. The question is, how do I help you? What do we have to do to make this successful? As long as you have that attitude, it's clear what your road is and where you go."

It's the same advice he's given his team members during stressful post-merger times. "Concentrate on your job and do the best you can. If you do that, you're going to get recognized."

With numerous promotions under his belt, Bruce is no stranger to recognition. But he's the first to admit that he can't do it alone and that it's important to listen to other experts. "I attribute a lot of my success to the people around me--the people who work for me and the interaction we've had with suppliers," he says. "Some of the best things that we've done were stimulated by conversations we had with suppliers."

Bruce also credits his packaging education. "I had a great education from Michigan State University, School of Packaging," Bruce says. "It wasn't specific in some little nuance in packaging. It opened up everything. It allowed me to get into other areas--art classes, business writing--areas I would not have done purposely on my own, but they were forced upon me because of the curriculum."

Bruce has also been fortified by his choice to work in the pharmaceutical industry. "It's gratifying to know that what you do helps patients in their lives," he says. "That's one of the reasons I consciously got into the pharmaceutical industry over 30 years ago. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to hear a customer thank us for a particular medication which has helped them enjoy their life more than they did before. It's nice to see the good, as well as some of the problems."

Some of the "problems" have also become his passions, specifically child-resistant and tamper-evident packs. He started his career in 1972, the same year that the Consumer Product Safety Commission enacted its C-R regulations. "I watched that struggle between regulators and manufacturers and suppliers to try to find packs that worked," Bruce recalls. "I've pushed that at the companies I've worked for to make sure that our packs meet those regulations and that we don't do any harm to patients or children."

The 1982 Tylenol tamperings were another milestone. Bruce had accepted the job at Sterling Drug just two weeks before the incident. For the next six months, all he did was concentrate on tamper-evident packaging. "As I look back on it now, it was a great time. It was energized. Everybody was doing everything they could to protect products from any kind of tampering," he says. "A lot of decisions had to be made, where we pushed one way versus another. To this day, a lot of the packs that we created in early 1983 are still on the market in the same format as we developed back then."

This August marks his 23rd year with GlaxoSmithKline. Ironically, Burroughs Wellcome (which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline) was one of two offers he received just out of school--the one he didn't take. But when the opportunity came up with Glaxo in 1983 at the company's new manufacturing facility in Zebulon, N.C., he jumped at it. "I was there when there was dirt. I remember walking through mud to get to a trailer to work on things," Bruce says. "It's been a wonderful adventure, to say the least."

While it's good to look back, Bruce is more comfortable looking ahead. "People kid me about retirement and I say I'm not stopping work until I'm 80. I love the business. I like what I do. I enjoy the interaction with people, both the positive and the challenging. And I enjoy helping patients."

--Lisa McTigue Pierce, Editor-in-Chief

D. Bruce Cohen

* Jan. 2005 to present: Director, US Packaging Services, GlaxoSmithKline

* Jan. 2001 to Dec. 2004: Director, Packaging Technology for North America, GlaxoSmithKline

* Aug. 1995 to Dec. 2000: Director, Packaging Technology, GlaxoWellcome Inc.

* Sept. 1994 to Aug. 1995: Director, Production Technology, Glaxo Inc.

* July 1992 to Aug. 1994: Director, Packaging Technology, Glaxo Inc.

* Feb. 1988 to June 1992: Manager, Package Engineering, Glaxo Inc.

* July 1986 to Jan. 1988: Manager, Packaging Technical Services, QA, Glaxo Inc.

* Aug. 1983 to June 1986: Manager, Package Development, Glaxo Inc.

* Oct. 1982 to July 1983: Manager, Package Engineering, Steding Drag Inc.

* Oct. 1977 to Oct. 1982: Manager, Manufacturing Engineering, Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics

* Feb. 1977 to Sept. 1977: Packaging Engineer, BBL (Bioquest) Inc.

* June 1972 to Jan. 1977: Senior Packaging Engineer, Alcon Laboratories Inc.