He looked back at the Swearingen Engineering Center one more time before driving to his job. He knew that homework would not be the only thing waiting for him at home that night. His wife and kids would be anticipating his return. 

Greg Beckwith knows how to balance school, work and family life. His journey to an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering was unconventional, but it provided him with the skills he uses today at Michelin. 

After graduating from high school, Beckwith started at the University of South Carolina as a mechanical engineering major in 1991. But he paused his education for the military in 1994. 

“I joined for discipline, to get my mind back in order and pay for school,” Beckwith says. 

Beckwith started his career in computers and engineering with the U.S. Army as a telecommunications operator-maintainer and a field service engineer. He fixed hundreds of computers, conducted software development and provided technical support for all telecommunications equipment. 

Beckwith’s experience in the Army led him into a systems integration engineer job in 1998 at the former Solectron electronics manufacturing facility in West Columbia, South Carolina, where he met colleague Rick Gayle. 

“Success in technology roles requires not only strong technical capability, but the ability to collaborate effectively, solve problems creatively and follow through reliably,” Gayle says. “Greg consistently demonstrated these qualities.” 

The military and his job at Solectron rewired Beckwith’s approach to school, motivating him to finish what he started. With a newborn daughter and toddler son, he initially attended Midlands Technical College before returning to USC in 2003. 

“I thought, ‘If I don't do this now, I'll probably never do it. It's going to be tough, but worth it,’” Beckwith says. 

As a student, employee and father, he returned home as late as 8 p.m. on weekdays and spent weekends working on projects. Despite his busy schedule, Beckwith was grateful for the experience.

“It was a blessing that it worked out that way,” Beckwith says. “Most employers in the field would say, ‘no,’ to only working nights.” 

When Beckwith returned to the school where he started 12 years earlier, he opted for a different major. Instead of mechanical engineering, he pursued a degree in electrical engineering. He joined the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers while at USC and shared his military and unique work experiences with peers. After graduating in 2007, Beckwith began working as a technical marketing engineer at Intel.  

After two years at Intel, Beckwith accepted a position as a staff technical marketing engineer with Kontron in 2009. But he returned to Intel in 2012 as a graphics validation engineer and was later an Intel Xeon server validation engineer and scrum master. Then, a chat in 2017 with USC alum Rick Chowdhury (’07, electrical engineering) led to Beckwith’s current position at Michelin. 

“He was working at Michelin, and I ran into him during my transition time,” Beckwith says. “He said, ‘We have an IT manager job at the Lexington [South Carolina] Earthmover tire plant.’ I threw my hat in the ring, and next thing you know, I'm at Michelin.” 

Beckwith earned a promotion in 2020, prompting him to move to the Michelin North America Headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina. Since then, Beckwith has worked as an information systems regional manager with responsibilities across 28 manufacturing sites across the Americas. Preventing cyberattacks and providing technical support are at the forefront of his duties as manager of the Americas operational manufacturing cybersecurity teams.

“No attacks have hit Michelin so far, but it’s a problem all around us,” Beckwith says. “Now, about half of my job is cybersecurity.”  

The military fueled this interest in computers, while electrical engineering gave Beckwith the spark he needed for his career path. 

“That degree gave me the foundation, showing me how things work and connect across different computer technologies,” Beckwith says. “The discipline of the engineering degree is definitely what helped me focus on IT.”