Trevor Evans
Namepak, Ltd.
Inducted 2009
Trevor Evans (1945 – ), chairman at Nampak Ltd., is a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) food and beverage packaging pioneer. He is well known for his innovations in the design and manufacture of plastic packaging and his overall leadership of the packaging industry in South Africa. He is the first South African to be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame.
Trever Evans is a 1966 graduate of Rhodes University with B.S. degrees in chemistry and geology. Upon graduation, he joined the Plastics Division of the Metal Box Corporation as a laboratory researcher. After several years, he was promoted to marketing director and Managing Director at Metal Box. Under his leadership, Metal Box became the first company outside of the U.S. to produce two-liter PET carbonated beverage bottles for Coca-Cola, even though many critics felt the hot climate and transportation distances would limit the use of PET bottles in South Africa. Evan was named the packaging division’s chief executive when Metal Box merged with Nampak, another packing company, in 1985. He became a managing director at Nampak and was appointed Chairman in 2003. Under his leadership, Nampak became a progressive, world-class plastics packaging manufacturer known for quality, innovation, and its union and affirmative action policies.
Trevor Evans was active in several professional societies and received numerous awards for his dynamic leadership in the plastics packaging industry in South Africa. He held leadership positions for South African Professional Societies, including the Plastics Institute, the Institute for Packaging, and the Plastics Federation, receiving the latter organization’s Herman Steigler Award in 1991. In 1993, the Black Management Board recognized him as the “Most Progressive Chief Executive” in South Africa. He also received PACSA’s Packaging Achiever Award in 1997.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics packaging