Meet our Polymer Pro, Kim McPhillips, Regional Sales Manager. A polymer industry veteran of over 30 years, Kim brings in-depth experience in corporate strategic planning and international sales team management to co-manage Shell Polymers’ entire U.S. sales team.
Regional Sales Manager
As the construction of its new polyethylene plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania continues, Shell Polymers has been hiring a team of industry experts, aka Polymer Pioneers and Polymer Pros, with proven track records in polymers. In this article, we talked to Regional Sales Manager Kim McPhillips to learn more about her career and polymer industry experience. We also wanted to gain insight into how her experiences have shaped the sales leader she is today.
Kim started her career with Shell in 2019 as a Commercial Manager. Thanks to her impressive credentials in roles across the polymer industry including sales, product management, and market management, she was the perfect fit to become the Regional Sales Manager at the Shell Polymers project.
Looking back at her career in plastics, Kim fondly recalled receiving a duffle bag (that she still uses to this day!) with the inscription “Targeting 30M lbs in the Food and Specialty Packaging Market.” Twenty-five years after receiving that bag, food and beverage packaging is now a multi-billion pound market.
“Over the course of my career, it’s been amazing to see what’s transformed from glass and metal to plastic.”
“Over the course of my career, it’s been amazing to see what’s transformed from glass and metal to plastic.”
Kim McPhillips, Regional Sales Manager
Some of Kim’s fondest career memories include her international work. She held several roles that allowed her to live in Latin America. In another position, she had the opportunity to travel to places like Abu Dhabi. Throughout her experiences, she spent a lot of time engaging with a wide range of cultures and job roles that helped shape her into the dedicated and compassionate sales leader she is today.
From working in Latin America, making major changes in companies, and traveling to other countries, Kim’s career has had its fair share of intense and stressful moments. But it’s also been exciting.
“Being brave has created who I am today and allowed me to have all these experiences.”
“Being brave has created who I am today and allowed me to have amazing experiences.”
Kim further explained, “Traveling, experiencing, and seeing the world has been amazing. I try to pay that forward as much as I can.” In addition to encouraging young women to be bold in their respective careers, she also wants to instill a sense of perseverance in young women.
“When they hear the word ‘capacity,’ I think a lot of women will interpret that as trying to take on more work than anyone else. To me, the better word is perseverance. Meaning, that you are willing to take on challenges and see them through to the end and you are willing to let people know how you can spend your time most effectively.”
Kim wants young women beginning their careers to feel empowered to do the same.
Kim has traveled all over the world for work. This is her in Vienna for a board meeting.
While on trips, Kim loves horseback riding to see the local scenery.
Kim loves golfing with her husband and they have taken several golf trips together.
In addition to golf trips, my husband and I do lots of winery trips with friends. We’ve been to major wine regions in both the U.S. and Canada.
Kim has a group of friends that she travels with and on every trip, they are intentional to go “somewhere we have never been” and do “something we have never done.” On this particular trip, they tried fly fishing!
One of Kim’s favorite passions is gardening. This is one of my last couple of houses, where she had done the landscaping.