Mike Sanchez ’81 Named Site Manager of One of DuPont’s Largest Facilities

Mike Sanchez ’81 knows a thing or two about hard work paying off. The electrical engineering graduate has been moving up the DuPont ranks since he left Lafayette.

Sanchez is site manager of the Sabine River Works plant in Orange County, Texas. One of DuPont’s largest locations, it is home to 1,000 DuPont employees, nearly 600 contractors, and about 600 employees from another company working on-site.

“The job of site manager is really one of making sure that the right systems, processes, resources, and daily executions are in place to support the business strategy,” Sanchez explains. “The most rewarding part of my job is helping and mentoring people and watching them grow as they achieve the business objective. The buck stops with the site manager. You have tremendous responsibility in the way of facilities, but also you have a huge people investment. We work really hard to make sure we are continually improving the value equation for our customers.”

Starting out as the only electrical engineer at DuPont’s Flint, Mich., site, Sanchez learned early on how to thrive while handling large responsibilities.

“We had a $17 million expansion project,” he recalls. “I was the only electrical engineer on the project, so it wasn’t like you were carrying around plans for the senior engineers. It was a tremendous learning opportunity. I was the engineer, and the business was counting on me to review designs and start up on time. It involved a very broad manufacturing operation; I got to work on everything from power to digital electronics, which was my focus area at Lafayette.”

Sanchez saw the lessons he learned on campus directly translate to life in a fast-paced industry.

“The educational experience at Lafayette is very broad,” he says. “We were very involved in a number of outreach activities through Association of Black Collegians and organizations like that, but there was an opportunity to reach out more and really expand the experience. You have to find that balance while you’re at school and in life in general. I found that it was a well-rounded experience, which was something the dean talked about every time you had an interaction with him.”

Sanchez remembers several professors in the electrical engineering department (now electrical and computer engineering) who shaped his work ethic and understanding of business. Thomas Reilly kept students abreast of industry trends and CharlesReifsnyder’s “tough love” approach taught Sanchez how to meet high standards.

“I remember Thomas Reilly was very involved with business and making sure we had projects the business world would support,” Sanchez says. “I always thought that was pretty neat – his linkage and connection to the outside world, bringing the current reality to the classroom. He had a really neat way of keeping in front of us that there was significant change occurring even as we were sitting in the classroom.

“Reifsnyder taught a number of power and energy courses. He was one of these hardcore guys – I really appreciated his very military-like approach to training and education. When I got into industry, I saw a lot of people just like him. It reminded me of working in his labs. Understanding that things have to be done in a certain way and certain order to meet expectations was critically important to learn in a developmental phase rather than when your livelihood depends on it. In our industry, the safety of our facilities and people requires an operating discipline that I can trace back to my years at Lafayette and his affectionate toughness with attention to details.”

With DuPont, Sanchez has progressed through a number of manufacturing roles in production, maintenance, power, engineering, employee relations, and training at plants throughout North America. He was business manager and leader of the Americas Business Team for Teflon FEP, fluoroproducts unit manager at the Chambers Works site in New Jersey, and plant manager at the Louisville, Ky., site.