Susan M. Simmons, Sr. Resident Engineer St. Louis Brewery

Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

BS Chemical Engineering, 1984

While at UMR, Sue attended an AIChE student chapter meeting where an Anheuser-Busch brewing process manager sparked her interest in the blend of art and science involved in the brewing process and brewing industry.  Having had that experience and later meeting an Anheuser-Busch recruiter at the UMR Career Fair, Sue was convinced she wanted to seek a career with Anheuser-Busch some day.  Sue graduated at a time when jobs were scarce for Chemical Engineers (securing interviews literally required camping out over night on the parking lot of the Buhler Building) and Anheuser-Busch was not hiring. 

Upon graduation, Sue began her career with Monsanto at the Wm. G. Krummrich Plant, Sauget, IL, as a Process Engineer.  She spent the first year and a half of her career in this role affecting process improvements and executing small capital projects in Monsanto?s rubber chemical operations.  Monsanto offered Sue the opportunity to apply unit operations and process control technologies in a large-scale plant environment and to learn from a large network of talented engineers, process managers, operators, and maintenance technicians. 

In 1986 Sue joined Anheuser-Busch as a Project Engineer in a centralized Corporate Engineering organization responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in capital execution annually.  Sue spent the next 16 years working in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership with multi-discipline project teams to modernize and/or expand Anheuser-Busch breweries throughout its system.  Sue worked on projects and spent time in each of Anheuser-Busch's 12 breweries in the United States.  In addition, Sue spent some time working with a partner in Japan implementing process changes required to brew Budweiser there.  She also spent some time doing project work in the Anheuser-Busch brewery in England.  Sue transitioned into the St. Louis Brewery organization in late 2002.  There she first took on a development role as Brewing Process Support Manager responsible for maintenance and capital projects in the Brewing area.  She later transitioned in to a Utilities Manager role where she was responsible for daily operation and maintenance of the St. Louis Brewery Utilities area including coal fired steam generation, power co-generation and power distribution, incoming water treatment, ammonia refrigeration, CO₂ processing, wastewater treatment, and spent grains handling.  As Sr. Resident Engineer for the St. Louis Brewery, Sue now has responsibility for capital planning for the facility, capital execution at the brewery level, and maintenance strategies across the plant in addition to overall responsibility for the St. Louis Utilities operation.

Sue plays a key role in recruiting new technical talent and leadership for Anheuser-Busch and enjoys staying active on the UMR campus in order to stay connected with students and faculty.  Sue is a past member of the UMR Corporate Development Council where she served on the COOP committee.  She is an active member of the UMR Chemical and Biological Engineering Advisory Council.  Sue usually visits campus twice a year to help represent Anheuser-Busch at the UMR Career Fair and recruit new talent.  Sue occasionally speaks to student classes and organizations such as the AIChE where she enjoys sharing her career experiences and hopefully sparking the interest of some future Anheuser-Busch leaders.