UA Engineering Recognizes Outstanding Alumni Volunteer for 2017

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama College of Engineering recognizes Shaw Gilmer as the 2017 Outstanding Alumni Volunteer.

Gilmer, a Birmingham native, has demonstrated consistent loyalty to the College. Since 2010, he has been an active board member of the Capstone Engineering Society.

Gilmer graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University in 1993. Today, as the biogums strategic platform director for CP Kelco, A Huber Company, Gilmer leads a $270 million global biogums business, which sells into food, pharma, industrial and energy markets.

In 1995, the UA College of Engineering began a yearly tradition recognizing an alumnus who provided excellent volunteer assistance as the Outstanding Alumni Volunteer.

While a member of CES, Gilmer has chaired the CES Golf Tournament twice, in 2012 and 2016, and he has served on the golf committee since 2010.

He has been an alumni mentor to several engineering students since 2013 in the Mentor UPP: Undergraduate Professional Partnering program and participates in the CES networking receptions.

His career started in the Harrison Division of General Motors in Tuscaloosa where he worked as a manufacturing engineer. Later, he took a position as a production supervisor/project engineer for Stabilus, USA, in Gastonia, North Carolina.

In 1996, Gilmer began working for J.M. Huber Corp. where he continues to work today. He started in Etowah, Tennessee, where he spent six years in the positions of process development engineer, assistant operations and quality systems manager, engineering and quality manager, and director of the Six Sigma program in consumer and industrial.

Gilmer received Six Sigma Black Belt Certification in 1999 and became a Six Sigma Master Black Belt in 2001. Also in 2001, Gilmer took part in the J.M. Huber Corp. Mini MBA Program.

Next, he moved to Atlanta, where he has taken on positions in the company such as new product development manager, industrial; North American business manager, coatings; global production manager, industrial specialties; global director of productivity; global director of planning, energy and sustainability; global director of operational excellence; and global director of strategy and business development.

An inventor, Gilmer has a patent for a semi-bulk vacuum packer. In 1999, he designed and published the second edition of Etowah Plant Quality System, and he authored the article, “Pigments for Pipelines,” in the magazine World Pipelines, in 2005.

Gilmer and his wife, Heather, live in Atlanta with their children, Madeline and Mallory.