Celebrating our 2020 Milliken Honors Recipients

As a diversified global manufacturer, Milliken & Company knows the power of people. Our associates are the lifeblood of our organization, showing up each day to uphold our company’s purpose—together, we strive to positively impact the world around us for generations to come.

Each year, during The Milliken Honors, we recognize the associates who champion our purpose and who uniquely drove our success over the past year. These associates embody Milliken’s values and vision, so we updated the award categories to align with our Milliken values: integrity, excellence, innovation, sustainability, and people. Yet the spirit of the awards—to distinguish associates from across the globe who are the very best of Milliken—remains. 

2020, in many respects, was a year we will not soon forget, and this year’s class of recipients truly are a group of leaders. Their efforts took place during a tumultuous year—against a backdrop of economic and social challenges brought on by a global pandemic. As Halsey Cook, president and CEO for Milliken, put it: “While Milliken Honors always draws the best and brightest from across our company, our 2020 class is exemplary for their poise under pressure, their commitment to our values, and their fortitude in pursuit of our vision.” 

We celebrated this year’s honorees during a virtual award ceremony this week, and we invite you to help us congratulate the 2020 Milliken Honors associate and team winners:

Integrity Awards

The Do The Right Thing Award is presented to the associate or team of associates embodying the value of integrity and making a positive impact on Milliken through their ability to do what is right.

Barbara Howard


The Resiliency Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who overcame a challenge and driven something forward to succeed despite adversity.

Mike Madden


The Values Role Model award is presented to the associate or team of associates who modeled Milliken's values: integrity, excellence, innovation, sustainability and people.

Beth Gilbert 

Excellence Awards

The Manufacturing Excellence Award is presented to the team or plant with outstanding operational performance, production ingenuity, quality and process excellence.

MTZ Plant team: Elaine Chen, Chu Ge, Jiandong Gu, Pamela Huang, Tom Li, Peter Qiu, Alan Xie, Eric Zhao

Dewey Plant team: Matt Flood, Mike Greer, Blake Herring, Keith Hill, Melania Hughey, Kairas Parvez, Jennifer Reid, Chris Sculthorpe, Russell Storrs

Nonwoven Manufacturing Leadership team: Vilas Brooks, Kenny Manis, Kevin Patterson, Wyatt Rosenlund, Adrian Rocha



The MPS Results Award is presented to the associate or team of associates that has worked to go above and beyond to deploy and leverage Milliken Performance System (MPS) principles and methodologies to achieve measurable performance improvements and operational excellence in their organization.

Beech Hill Backing Line team: Liam Aitken, Chris Aldred, Iain Bleasdale, Jason Callon, Warren Collier, Wayne Duffy, Steve Ellis, Steve Gale, Tony Hargraves, Brian Halliwell, John Hodlin, Jamie Lewis, Connor Makin, Jayne Murray, James O’Brien, Lee Riley, Dawn Schofield, Barry Townsend, Andy Walsh, Stephen Wood



The Sales & Marketing Excellence Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who has achieved greater financial performance by applying sales and marketing best practices while embodying Milliken values.

Textile Division’s Medical Fabrics Sales & Marketing team: Ann Caudell, Erik Cobham, Mallory Donn, Jeff Dulong, LeAnne Flack, Andrea Gray, Cathy Hands, Steve Josey, Greg Kelly, Rowan Langford, Cammie Mackie, Molly Maurer, Mike Meyerholtz, Tom Moore, Stephen Morrill, Jeff Morris, Meg Patel, Kerry Shumate, Ron Smith, Natalie Swift, Maggi Whiston, Edmund Whiteman, Chris Wulforst



The Enabler Excellence Award is presented to the associate or team of associates in a support function who has demonstrated excellence in operational performance, advancing strategy and business results.

Follow the Sun Liquidity Management team: Jonathan Cote, Donna Markell, Raf Timmers

Innovation Awards

The Breakthrough Innovation Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who demonstrated the innovation of a product, service or process that yielded significant business results.

Textile Division’s Medical Fabrics R&D team: JD Alvarez, Debra Blanton, Drew Child, James Cliver, Tyler Dressler, Connor LeRoy, Steve Lucas, Kevin Kasch, Ramesh Kesh, John McClure, Todd Moore, Chris Romansky, Paul Thompson, Eric Wamsley

Borchers High Performance Catalyst Platform team: Aaron Hoffman, Allie Musto, Simon Oram, Andrew Recker, David Rice, Loulou Rozek, Kellie Salerno, Max Shumba, Neil Simpson

 
The Customer Centricity Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who engaged a customer to build insights and identify a new product or service that helped the customer achieve their objectives and yield a business result.

Jamie Myers


The Growth Catalyst Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who decisively activates and executes growth-oriented strategies more quickly and effectively than competitors.

Borchers Coating Additives Platform team: Mark Allen, Tyler Blouse, Doug Callender, Cassidy Carlile, Andrew Cotton, Herbert De Breuck, Chandis Digby, Natalie Dunham, Cole Dunster, Charlie Ehlers, Frank Fisher, Kantha Goundar, Jeremy Graham, Robert Guest, John Harmon, Elaine Hare Sturm, Martin Haworth, Jessica Hatchell, John Kellam, Kasel Knight, Robb Lanning, Robb Lovegrove, Gerry Murphy, Paul Pruitt, Jeff Ray, Randy Richeson, Russ Rudolph, George Shira, Lee Slusher, Melissa Todd, Wim Van de Velde, Brad Westendorf

Sustainability Awards

The People Goals Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who contribute to Milliken’s 2025 People Goals by demonstrating a commitment to care for one another and the surrounding communities.

D&I Roundtable team: Anna Blanton, Ricaye Harris, Betsy Sikma

The Planet Goals Award is presented to the associate or team who contributes to Milliken’s 2025 Planet Goals by positively impacting the company’s efforts to reduce its global footprint.

Chemical Environmental Compliance team: Mike Mannion, Brian Myers, Anna Pavnica, Rob Wallace

The Product Goals Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who contribute to Milliken’s 2025 Product Goals by positively impacting product sustainability.

Scott Trenor

The Value Creation Award is presented to the business unit that met financial goals and targets for the year.

One-Year: Textile Division’s Medical Fabrics team

Multi-Year: Performance Colorants & Ingredients team

Multi-Year: Chemical Division’s Plastic Additives team

Multi-Year: Chemical Division’s Europe team

Multi-Year: Chemical Division’s Asia team

People Awards

The Leadership Award is presented to the associate or team of associates who consistently demonstrates leadership expectations and is viewed by others as a role model.

Jennifer Reid

The Production Hero Award is presented to the production associate who goes above and beyond in their role to support operational performance and models Milliken's values as a production team member.

John Herrington

Kim Watson

Denis Beras

Hillcrest Technical Supervisors team: Mike Caldwell, Gary Cannon, Jonathan Garcia, Thomas Garrett, Chad Lipscomb
 

The Safety Champion Award is presented annually to the Milliken site, individual associate or team of associates who best represent the Milliken safety culture through their actions and results.

Milliken Occupational Nurse team: Ashley Atchley, Hope Bailey, Melinda Green, Carol Hamby, Nancy Henderson, Courtney Kirby, Karen Owens, Kaylan Petty, Chris Seymour, Jeannine Tanner, Kaye Wingard, Van Wheeles

 
The Roger Milliken Award is presented to the associate who has created lasting, changing and measurable differences within the company and has built a legacy of their own within the organization by creating lasting and measurable differences that have contributed to business success while being a role model of Milliken values as part of their performance.

Chip Winter