Manufacturing Today - May/June 2017 - 136
Maryland Paper www.marylandpaper.com / Headquarters: Williamsport, Md. / Employees: 155 / Mathew Chakola, CEO and president: "Experience is still very much important to us." Northeast he says of his employees. "No matter what their skill or position, people who share with me the same heart, the same beat and the same sense of responsibility. Without them I would never be where I am." Entrepreneurial Spirit maryland paper sources waste materials from the regions around its three manufacturing facilities. Responsible Recyclers maryland paper's management structure enables direct communication. by tim o'connor Mathew Chakola gets frustrated whenever he hears someone complain that workers today are lazy. Automation and technology in manufacturing have changed rapidly over the last decade and it often takes half the number of workers on the floor for production. Chakola believes it's not that workers don't want to work, "they just need to know how these changes affect their roles within the company." As a small-business owner, it's been Chakola's experience that good management, effective communication and clear directives are key to devel136 manufacturing-today.com MAY/JUNE 2017 oping a workforce with a sense of purpose and loyalty. Chakola, CEO and president of Maryland Paper, is protective of workers because of the loyalty and hard work his own employees have given him during the past 28 years. When the company was founded in 1989, many employees volunteered to work unpaid overtime to ensure it would turn into a success. Now, Maryland Paper is one of the largest producers of roofing paper and building products in the United States. "I met the most beautiful people," Chakola's approach to manufacturing and people was instilled at an early age. His father ran a family-owned manufacturing business in India and passed his entrepreneurial DNA to his children. After spending the early part of his career working as an engineer for Flintkote Co. in Georgia, and in Maryland for Tamko Asphalt Productions, Morgan-Keller Inc. and Laser Applications Inc., Chakola began to feel that entrepreneurial spirit growing inside himself. By the late 1980s, he was ready to start a company of his own. "This is the land of opportunity," Chakola says. "If you are willing to work hard you can build anything you want." At the time, the state of Maryland was interested in supporting new projects and companies related to recycling. Chakola's plan to use waste paper instead of pulp to manufacture dry felt paper fit Maryland's goals and the state ended up providing some of the start-up funding for the business. Chakola decided early on that Maryland Paper would not only sell products made from recycled materials, but that its own operations would evoke that sustainability message. The company's production process is designed to recycle all of the water used to disintegrate paper into pulp and no chemicals are used in the process. The water itself is heated using natural gas to limit the amount of emissions at each of Maryland Paper's three factories in Maryland, California and Alabama.