Trevor Evans, chairman at Nampak Ltd., will be formally inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame at a Society of the Plastics Industry gala banquet June 22 in Chicago. Evans, a 1967 graduate of Rhodes University in South Africa, has been previously honored by the Black Management Forum as the “Most Progressive Chief Executive in South Africa,” an award that recognized his leadership role in the transition period from apartheid to democracy.

Though Evans originally intended to become a geologist after college, he took the advice of an old man in Queenstown to pursue a career in plastics and applied for every job he came across that had the word “plastics” in it.

Evans joined the plastics division of Metal Box R.S.A. as a lab assistant. In 1977, Evans negotiated with Coca-Cola Co., then managed the first polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle plant for producing beverages outside the U.S. When Metal Box was acquired by Nampak Ltd. in 1983, Evans was working as managing director of the plastics business unit. In 1985, he became divisional chief executive of the merged plastics packaging businesses of Metal Box and Nampak. Evans was named to his current position with Nampak in 2003.