While running a $1.5 billion business requires a demanding office schedule, West Pharmaceutical Services CEO Eric M. Green still runs to the Exton company’s laboratories to get energized.

“I love to come to the laboratory because it’s about innovation,” Green said in a Philadelphia Inquirer report by Jane Von Bergen. “It’s a great way to think differently and clear your mind. It’s about intellectual curiosity. It really is refreshing to talk about something else.”

That intellectual curiosity is a big reason why West Pharma brought Green in from St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich Corp. when former CEO Don Morel retired, and it’s a key piece of advice from Green to aspiring CEOs in the business world.

“I’ve been in operations and in commercial. I’ve been in the lab,” he said. “I’ve been all over. I’ve run (operations in) countries. I’ve run regions. I built the business in Asia. None of them really came together — until you see what I’m doing now.

“I always tell individuals, ‘Don’t plot your career as a linear path with different grades or different job titles that you’re aiming for. It (should be) the experiences that you’re aiming for.’”

Read more about Green’s role as CEO in the Philadelphia Inquirer here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of West Pharma here.