Meet the women shaping the world through more sustainable packaging

Three generations of Amcor engineers share how they’re shaping the world.

As a business with a global footprint, shaping the world for the better is a theme that strongly resonates with people at Amcor.

To honor International Women in Engineering Day, we asked three generations of our talented female engineers to share what drew them to engineering and how their work makes a positive impact.

Meet Elena, Sisca and Mariana, who are part of a global Amcor team that is driving the future of sustainable packaging. They are experts in their fields and they want to encourage more women to consider a career in engineering.

“When I was young, engineering was a heavily male-dominated field“, says Mariana Padilla, Continuous Improvement Lead, Latin America. Mariana is responsible for driving improvement across Amcor’s sites in South America, supervising better waste separation, improved breakdown of waste flows and recycling of both granular waste from co-extrusion and packaging of raw material.

“Being raised in Mexico, it wasn’t typical for women at that time to choose engineering as a career.” Mariana was determined though. “My father was an engineer. He told me you can do anything you want to do – and so I did, I became an engineer.”

Amcor has a global network of pioneering people, like Mariana, whose every day challenge is to work with their teams to take the business closer towards its 2025 pledge: to develop all of our packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.

“I wanted to become an engineer so that I could contribute to creating a better society,” says Elena Peron, a General Manager who has been with Amcor for 20 years, “At Amcor, I really feel that I’m doing this. Not only are we protecting food, drugs and other essentials through our packaging, but we are innovating with our packaging to help protect the planet too”

In her role, Elena develops and industrializes packaging solutions, creating high-performance, flexible packaging that is designed to minimize environmental impact. Being part of shaping a better world is one of the main reasons that Elena loves working at Amcor – that and the variety of the job.

Sisca Ameliawati, a Quality Assurance Executive at Amcor agrees. “Every day is different,” she says. Sisca, who is based in Indonesia, joined Amcor after graduating with a degree in chemical engineering in 2015.

“I’m constantly learning and challenging myself, which I love. Amcor champions diversity; I’ve met so many different people. My role is rewarding and allows me to grow, and I’m contributing to the creation of a better world”. In her role, Sisca is responsible for ensuring quality levels and continuous improvement, supporting key initiatives involving new suppliers, new products and sustainability.

All three women are passionate about advocating for more women in engineering. “I think some women worry about work/life balance in this line of work,” says Elena, “I want young women to know that it is possible to have a great career in engineering and also have a fulfilling personal life.”

“Engineering may have been a man’s world in the past, but this isn’t the case anymore. I want more women to get into engineering so that we can further even the playing field,” says Sisca.

“If you’re a woman considering a career in engineering, my advice is the same as my father gave to me: do it! Only you are holding yourself back,” concludes Mariana.

Amcor is committed to encouraging talented engineers to join us in working towards a more sustainable future for packaging.

Together, we can #ShapeTheWorld.

Find out more about what it’s like to work for Amcor.