Digital Collections

Oral history interview with Worley H. Clark, Jr.

  • 1994-Nov-08

W. H. Clark begins this interview by reviewing his growing-up years in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and his early interest in journalism. He continues with his subsequent decision to major in industrial engineering at North Carolina State University, where he became interested in technical selling. He then discusses his first job at SOHIO as a sales engineer and his move to Nalco Chemical Company, where he spent the rest of his career. He describes his early experiences at Nalco, as well as the role Nalco's technical salespeople play in meeting customer needs and inventing new products. As the just-retired CEO, he discusses chemical industry changes and their impact on the chemical industry: most notably the environmental movement, Bhopal, and today's government regulations. He further presents his views on promoting successful creativity, innovation, and teamwork; management-employee relations; communicating company goals to outside audiences; and sales and management opportunities. He then discusses his current project, helping set up technical selling training programs in US universities. He closes with his views on the future of chemical innovation in this country.

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PDF — 1.2 MB
Clark_WH_0116_SUPPL.pdf