Jeff and Holly Giroux

Why Auburn Engineering?

Jeff - I grew up with a natural desire to always "figure out how things work" so I knew I wanted to go into engineering I just didn't know which discipline I would want to take. I also had interests in possibly going on to medical school.Growing up as an Auburn fan I was fairly certain I would want to go to school there however I wanted to be sure. With that I did the tour of a few of the good engineering colleges in the south east, including that other school in the state of Alabama. I thought the other schools did a good job with the tours but they just didn't stand out as "the one." I toured Auburn last and when I did I knew it was the one. I learned about the options within Chemical engineering with biomedical science focus that seemed to keep my options open. I also loved the atmosphere of the campus. I'm glad I made sure to explore a few other schools before making my decision and I've never regretted it since.

Holly - Growing up I loved chemistry and doing experiments. I was very interested in Chemical Engineering coming out of High School because it is the practical application of chemistry in the world around us. I chose Auburn Engineering because I loved the school on my campus tour and was very interested in the bioengineering option with chemical engineering. I interned at a genetic research lab out of High School and wanted to learn more about bioengineering. I was impressed that Auburn offered many specialties within the Chemical Engineering program.

How did you meet? If you met on campus, could you tell us your Auburn story?

It is very fitting that our first class was literally Chemistry!! We had Organic Chemistry together our sophomore year. I was new to AU and sat behind Jeff and his friends in class. I had noticed him but we did not really talk. Then on the day of the final we had to change our seating arrangements to take the test and he asked me if I was ready for the test. I thought he was a nice guy. We did not have any other classes together until the next year. In the Summer of '02 we had some mutual friends in engineering and went to eat at Niffers together. From there we had a group of friends that were mostly our fellow Chemical Engineering students that we would hang out with and tailgate with. We really got to know each other completing our Senior Engineering Economic project where Dr. Duke put us in the same group. From there we went on to be in the same group for our Senior Design Project with Dr. Eden and after all our projects were completed we realized we enjoyed spending time together and worked well together. We are pretty sure our friends all knew this was going to happen before we did!

Where are you now? Tell us about your engineering journey after graduation!

We live with our family in Priceville, Alabama. I am currently working with Toray Composite Materials America, Inc. in Decatur as the Director of Quality Assurance. Jeff is currently working with GE Aviation in Huntsville as the Value Stream Leader.

Jeff and I both graduated from Auburn in Chemical Engineering in Dec. 2003. I went on to join Michelin North America in Greenville, South Carolina as a process engineer. I transferred to the Tuscaloosa manufacturing facility as a process engineer. I worked at that facility for 12 years where I held various roles as a process engineer, Sr. Process Engineer, Quality Assurance Manager, and Department Manager. I joined Toray Composite Materials America in 2016 as the Quality Manager. As the Quality Director, I am now responsible for our Quality Management System and external certifications at our Decatur, AL and Spartanburg, SC manufacturing facilities. Jeff hired on with Michelin North America and started in Anderson, SC for initial assignment training. After that he transferred to the Tuscaloosa manufacturing facility as a mixing process engineer. He spent just over 12 years in that facility with various progressive roles within the operation that included project leadership, front line leadership, and Operations Leadership. He joined GE Aviation in Huntsville in 2017 to work on the plant startup project in an operations leadership role and recently moved into the Value Stream leadership role to focus on lean manufacturing improvement throughout the facility.