Photo of Paul M. Cook

Paul M. Cook

  • National Medal of Technology and Innovation
  • Management

For his vision and entrepreneurial efforts, his technical accomplishments and his business and technical leadership as the key contributor in creating a worldwide chemically based industry.

Paul M. Cook is an innovator, inventor and entrepreneur who led his company in supplying technology-intensive products to customers in sectors such as aerospace, automobiles, construction, telecommunications, and utilities. Since founding Raychem Corporation in 1957, Cook and his company have pursued a consistent and ambitious strategy: to master a set of core technologies and create thousands of proprietary products based on those technologies.

With Cook at its helm, Raychem has designed and manufactured thousands of products that quietly impact our daily lives. Raychem engineers’ materials that connect, seal and protect signal-carrying cables for telephone networks and cable television systems. It manufactures much of the high-performance wire and cable that runs through military and commercial aircraft. The company’s self-regulating heaters ensure the smooth flow of oil through pipelines in harsh environments.

“To be an innovative company, you have to ask for innovation. You assemble a group of talented people who are eager to do new things and put them in an environment where innovation is expected,” Cook said in an interview. “Without innovation we die.”

By Jen Santisi