Neurodiversity Pride: a perspective on innovation

Julien’s inspiring journey takes him from apprentice all the way to leading some of our best innovations, demonstrating there is no singular path to success.

“I started in the R&D design office as an apprentice for 3 years, which allowed me to complete my degree in Mechanical Engineering. I was then taken on permanently after graduating.

From there, I took on management responsibilities within the design office, where I oversaw all design activities and finally in the summer of 2025, I became Product Development Director. This involves the design and development of new products, as well as the improvement and optimisation of existing products.“

Julien’s perspective on Trivium's R&D landscape brings to light the co-creation and diversity needed for innovation:

“Trivium R&D is an international, multicultural team made up of technical experts in various fields. All this diversity allows us to share and compare different points, which is a major advantage.

Together with our customers, we run tests with a varied panel in order to gather as much feedback as possible, drawing on both our team’s diversity and a diverse community to create innovative solutions.”

Diving deeper, we asked him to share about the process and the different steps within innovation and what might be needed there:

“To innovate, it’s important to draw on the intellectual richness and variety of our teams. During our development work, we face all sorts of situations. When ideas are first taking shape and we’re creating the early, non-functional prototypes, we need very creative, curious and exploratory people.

In the development and industrialisation phase, we generally rely on calm, rational and analytical people. And when something goes wrong - a malfunction or a quality issue, for example - we need very responsive people with a problem-solving mindset, the “firefighter” type, who can react very quickly.

It is only through leveraging these different types of voices that we can actually create solutions that function the way they should.”

When asked what kind of environment is needed to best leverage these different ways of thinking, he described:

“For us, it’s important to encourage the sharing of ideas, and we have several ways of expressing ourselves. Together we create an environment of genuine teamwork: open, collaborative, where everyone is different but all are working towards a common goal.

The whole team loves a technical challenge, and when things get difficult a kind of alchemy takes hold and we achieve fantastic results thanks to this blend of minds.

Everyone feels proud and a great sense of satisfaction when an idea comes to life and becomes a reality, but to achieve that, we must learn to listen to each other and accept different points of view. You learn an enormous amount alongside different people.”

When we mentioned what kind of challenges there might be when it comes to attracting different minds and great talent to our industry, he outlines:

“Generally speaking, there isn’t enough awareness of metal packaging, unlike other types of material packaging. Many people may not know what we do and the opportunities we can offer for different kinds of people.

Younger generations are increasingly mindful of sustainability and concerned about global warming, and about sorting and managing waste. Working within our industry is a great way to contribute to that.”

When asked why someone should join R&D Specifically, Julien had a clear message:

“It’s in R&D that everything begins, where innovations come to life. In general, an R&D department is the best place to let the creativity in each of us express itself.”