Gary Burton has spent over 50 years in the metal finishing industry, working on all sides of the spectrum, including as an applicator and with suppliers.

Burton graduated from Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1962 with a degree in industrial chemistry technology and worked at Utility Platers in Kingston, New York, as a Plant Chemist until 1968.

He joined Allied Research Products/Allied Kelite as a technical service specialist and was promoted along the way to a sales representative for upstate New York and a district sales manager for the Southeast sales district.

Burton joined Enthone Products in 1985, where he served as a sales representative for upstate New York, district manager for the Northeast District, and sales representative for upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio until 2010.

Burton returned to his roots in running plating operations when he joined G.W. Lisk in 2010 as a plater and chemist, a role he still holds today.

“When I first started at Lisk as an employee, I was an electroless nickel plater, and it was fun because I got to play with all the chemicals that I had been selling for all these years,” Burton says. “I knew enough about all the plating processes so I could plate the EN, the sulfate nickel which we still have, phosphate, and zinc. I learned about passivating because we had never sold any of those chemicals.”

He also gives some advice for those just getting into the finishing industry.

“I like to tell people that are just coming in, like our new platers, ‘Don't be scared of the chemicals,’” Burton says. “I say ‘Don't be afraid of them; if you wear the proper PPE and treat them with respect, you'll be fine.’”