From engineering and environmental compliance to global strategic marketing, PPG’s Meghan Barrera told members of the Women in Canmaking Association how customer focus, transferable skills and strong mentorship have shaped both her career and the company’s approach to packaging coatings.

Speaking during a recent Women in Canmaking Association (WICA) forum, Barrera reflected on her 22 year career at PPG, which has taken her from environmental engineering and manufacturing through to commercial leadership and global strategic marketing. Throughout the discussion, she returned repeatedly to one central message: understanding customers and building strong relationships has been the common thread running through every stage of her career.

Introducing Barrera, WICA co-founder Janis Osborn described her as “an absolute legend”, pointing to her experience across multiple PPG business segments and her leadership in launching new product categories before taking on responsibility for the company’s global packaging coatings marketing strategy.

Barrera began by outlining PPG’s global footprint and the breadth of its coatings business, explaining that packaging coatings form one part of a much wider portfolio serving industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to architectural coatings. Within metal packaging, PPG supplies internal and external coatings for beverage and food cans, easy-open ends, aerosol containers, caps and closures, while continuing to develop alternatives to traditional coating chemistries.

She noted that the company was the first to introduce a BPA-NI internal beverage can coating with PPG Innovel and highlighted that PPG Nutrishield is for a wide range of food packaging, alongside decorative finishes such as the PPG iSense portfolio for external can design.

“It was one that I will say within PPG, I had not participated in and realised it’s one of the most exciting, and I have to say, my favourite so far,” Barrera said of joining the packaging coatings business.

Rather than presenting her career as a series of planned moves, Barrera described it as a sequence of opportunities built on transferable skills.

Beginning as an engineering trainee in Ohio, she moved into environmental, health and safety roles before taking responsibility for compliance across multiple manufacturing sites. That experience eventually led her into commercial positions spanning marine coatings, automotive refinishing and strategic business development before joining PPG’s packaging coatings leadership team.

Looking back, she said one of the biggest lessons was recognising that technical expertise could translate into commercial success.

“I had a mentor that ran businesses… and said to me, actually, Megan, you really have,” she recalled after expressing concern that she lacked customer experience.

“What I learned was that when I was in EHS types of roles, being able to sell an idea… that’s really important… all of these things are perhaps internal selling skills that are a lot easier that you could take right over to a customer.”

One story that illustrated that transition involved her first customer meeting in Singapore shortly after moving into a commercial role.

Initially nervous, Barrera quickly realised that technical knowledge alone would not determine the outcome.

“I realised all he wanted was someone to listen to what his problem was, and say, ‘I’m gonna help you fix it,'” she said.

The conversation soon moved beyond business, with the pair discussing recent travels and shared experiences before returning to the customer’s challenges.

“I’m solving a problem, which is exactly the same things I had been doing whenever I was in some of my more technical roles.”

That customer-first mindset now shapes PPG’s approach to packaging coatings.

Reflecting on discussions with customers during this year’s METPACK exhibition in Essen, Germany, Barrera explained that PPG had invited visitors to identify their highest priorities. The exercise reinforced the company’s focus on developing coating technologies that remove materials of concern, improve productivity, reduce waste and support customers’ sustainability objectives.

“Our greatest commitment from a PPG packaging perspective is you. It’s our customers, it’s our brands, it’s across the industry,” she said.

Beyond technology, mentoring emerged as another recurring theme.

Barrera credited both formal mentoring programmes and informal relationships with helping shape her career, describing them as invaluable sources of confidence and practical advice.

“I’ve had both. I’ve had informal and I’ve had formal, but I will say that they have been critical for me working through some tough situations, also understanding what career paths I needed, or even what skills I had that gave me the confidence to go after some jobs that I wanted, but maybe would not have otherwise.”

Responding to questions about women working in manufacturing and packaging, Barrera said she had been fortunate to work in environments where results mattered more than gender.

“If you’re able to bring a solution, and you listen to people, and you’re able to bring results, people don’t necessarily care if you’re a man, woman, blue, white, red, purple. People want someone that’s a willing teammate and is going to be able to get the job done.”

She also pointed to the number of women now occupying senior leadership roles within PPG’s packaging coatings business, saying that different perspectives strengthen decision making and help teams achieve better outcomes.

Questions from attendees also turned to balancing leadership responsibilities with family life.

Barrera rejected the idea that there is a perfect work-life balance, instead describing what she called “ruthless prioritisation”.

“We’re always juggling something, and the balls that you have, sometimes they’re glass, and sometimes they’re rubber,” she explained.

“You gotta understand which one is glass and which one is rubber.”

She added that support from her husband and wider family had been fundamental to her career, while making a conscious effort to explain her work to her children, even joking that her youngest son now enjoys seeing her go to work because it helps keep his favourite ginger ale stocked.

Closing the session, Barrera encouraged attendees to remain curious, continue learning and avoid becoming confined by traditional career paths.

“You know, your superpowers are your specialty skills,” she said.

“They aren’t detours. They’re things that are really building on each other.”

Her final message was simple.

“Take a risk… say yes to that thing that really makes you uncomfortable, because that’s how you can grow.”