With a father and grandfather who both studied engineering, Justin Brown got “quite a bit of push” to opt for an engineering degree, despite his personal interest in business.
In the end, he chose Mac’s engineering management program, followed by an accelerated MBA. It was a choice that satisfied everyone – and one that has opened a world of opportunities for Brown.
Now in Chicago as director of global product management at Honeywell, Brown has spent the last 15 years working and living globally.
“My career has provided a multitude of business travel opportunities on a global level and afforded me various opportunities for personal travel.” he says.
The 2006 materials engineering grad focused on metallurgy after a summer internship with Stelco built his enthusiasm for the steel industry. But once he completed his MBA in 2007, Brown followed job opportunities to the oil and gas sector.
A year after joining pipeline giant Shawcor in Toronto, he relocated to the company’s Singapore office as a business analyst.
A series of increasingly senior Asia Pacific marketing and product management roles put him on job sites in Indonesia and Malaysia, then eventually landed him in Scotland.
“I had the good fortune of being director of integration for an acquisition in Scotland and was able to spend my off-time at several world class scotch distilleries,” Brown says.
In 2017, he moved to Chicago to join Honeywell, where he says one of his strengths is bringing a global and diverse viewpoint that moves teams beyond a North American-centric perspective.
Brown says his engineering background has also proven invaluable in his career development.
“It enables me to pull critical insights from both clients and global subject matter experts,” he says. “The best part of my job is working with global patent-holding experts to solve problems”
