About this episode

Brian Livingston shares his inventive journey from engineering to entrepreneurship, highlighting key experiences and lessons learned along the way.

In this episode of Inventive Journey, Devin Miller sits down with engineer and entrepreneur Brian Livingston to explore a career path that somehow connects Peanut Butter M&M’s, billion-dollar industrial projects, Caterpillar, and diesel fuel innovation. Yes, really. Brian shares how his childhood obsession with taking things apart eventually evolved into a chemical engineering career that spanned General Foods, M&M Mars, NutraSweet, and Caterpillar. Along the way, he discovered that while engineering fascinated him, understanding people fascinated him even more. That insight ultimately shaped his leadership style and project management approach throughout his career. The conversation dives into Brian’s early internships, corporate growth, and experiences navigating office politics, layoffs, international engineering projects, and large-scale operational leadership. One standout story involves his role helping manage a major project in France involving Japanese, American, and French stakeholders — an experience that earned him the nickname “the James Baker of project management.” And then there’s the Peanut Butter M&M’s story. Brian explains how his team helped develop…

People in this episode

Host: Devin Miller

Guest: Brian Livingston

Topics covered

• entrepreneurship
• engineering
• project management
• leadership
• innovation
• corporate growth

Keywords

• Peanut Butter M&M’s
• diesel innovation
• engineering career
• project management
• leadership style
• corporate politics
• international projects

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: General Foods, M&M Mars, NutraSweet, Caterpillar

Places: France

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