Problem Solvers

Alumni Feature

FAST-PACED ALLIANCE PASSING WISDOM TO NEXT STEM GENERATION

Process Alliance Founder/President Darren Thompson (left) and Director of Operational Excellence Steve Ghera are chemical engineering alumni and former Eli Lilly and Company retirees who are passing along their career experiences to train future engineers and scientists.

PROCESS ALLIANCE

After nearly 30 years of service in rewarding engineering careers, Darren Thompson and Steve Ghera found themselves with a dilemma experienced by many workers in their early to mid-60s—what to do when offered an early retirement package. In Thompson’s case, the 1983 chemical engineering alumnus wasn’t ready to quit leadership roles within Eli Lilly and Company when he and Ghera, a 1986

chemical engineering graduate, were offered early retirement opportunities in 2017. Both knew they had something more to contribute to engineering and science and wanted to find a better way to solve the problems that they saw in their career. So, Thompson jumped at the opportunity to start Process Alliance, a consulting firm that is designing chemical processes, supervising construction, and solving problems in manufacturing facilities for a variety of pharmaceutical and bio-agricultural clients —becoming one of Indianapolis’ fastest-growing companies. Thompson is the firm’s president after leading all functions of Eli Lilly’s engineering disciplines at a manufacturing site, including process, project, automation, and maintenance. He brought several fellow retirees with him, including Ghera, who is the Process Alliance’s chief operating officer and director of operational excellence.

ALUMNI PROBLEM SOLVERS

Rose-Hulman alumni make up one-fourth of the company’s growing team of more than 80 full- and part-time employees. That list includes triedand-true scientists and engineers John Gardner, a 1978 chemistry alumnus, and Tony Shaw, a 2009 engineering management master’s graduate. Meanwhile, recent graduates contributing to projects throughout the country are Marcela (Chavez) Boone, Logan Crum, and Megan Hawksworth, all 2020 chemical engineering alumni; Ethan Chupp, a 2021 chemical engineering alum; and Matthew Gehrich, a 2018 mechanical engineering graduate. And more could be on the way as the company interviewed prospective 2023 Rose-Hulman graduates this fall to join the effort. “We’ve been there and done that, so nothing really scares us,” says Thompson, a former Eli Lilly project and program manager in pharmaceutical manufacturing. “In our four short years (since early 2018), we’ve proven that we can get things done.” That’s why the company’s promotional tagline is “Problems Solved. Solutions Delivered. Superior Value.” Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a client sought Process Alliance’s assistance in building a vaccine manufacturing facility to help address current and future healthcare demands. Due to the nature of the ever-spreading virus, additional capabilities and capacity were needed to get the manufacturing line up and running. A team of six engineers with a diverse range of skills and experiences filled production leadership roles normally led by a client’s in-house staff. Production was started on schedule, without major equipment or facilities issues.

In other projects, engineers helped bring a new diabetes drug to market by providing automation and validation services, increased production and new products to an animal health plant and brought innovations to a second-generation transportation project that’s bringing COVID therapeutic medication to nursing home patients across the nation. Also, the company has assisted a client with early design of a new facility for a blockbuster new drug substance while another group helped set up several processes for another significant new drug concept. Finally, Rose-Hulman alumni have played a key role in validating the process control systems for a pharmaceutical company and are working on-site to identify potential gaps in production supply, laboratory, and production procedures.

PASSING ALONG KNOWLEDGE

Along the way, the part-time employees of 50 years or older are passing along their knowledge, on-the-job experience, and leadership skills. Process Alliance’s mission is to grow and develop the next generation of pharmaceutical engineers and scientists, and some clients hire end up hiring Process Alliance associates.

Process Alliance was named among Indianapolis Business Journal’s Fast 25 for 2022. This came the company turned its attention to life sciences manufacturing, engineering, and management consulting.

“While providing quality service to our clients, we’re preparing well-rounded engineers who, if they want to, are ready to work for big pharmaceutical companies. After all, we know what it takes to be successful in that environment,” states Ghera, who spent 31 years as a chemical engineer in manufacturing and aspects of research and development. “We look for learn-thirsty people as leaders and associates who have personality, temperament, and a willingness to go into chaos and provide stability. Each of our early-in-career consultants tackles each problem knowing they have seasoned mentors behind them willing and able to help, and we encourage them to use those resources.” n