Live from Spec Summit 2026, in this episode hosts Laura Foti and Matthew Wright sit down with Cory Connors, host of the Sustainable Packaging Podcast and Sustainable Packaging Sales and Marketing leader at Atlantic Packaging. Cory discusses the industry’s shift from sustainability ambition to urgent execution, as evolving regulations like EPR and PPWR force companies to rethink how they manage packaging data and compliance. The conversation highlights a growing divide between organizations still relying on fragmented systems and those investing in connected, AI-ready specification data to reduce costs, improve reporting, and scale sustainable innovation. Ultimately, the episode reinforces a clear message: companies that act now—leveraging collaboration, technology, and better data—will lead, while those that delay risk rising costs, inefficiencies, and competitive disadvantage.
Beyond Packaging is presented by Specright, the leader in Specification Management.
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Laura Foti
Laura is the Chief Customer Officer at Specright, where she leads teams across professional services, customer success, and support to ensure customers thrive.
She also co-hosts the “Beyond Packaging Podcast,” with Matthew Wright, where they discuss industry trends, interview leading innovators, and discuss the history of different types of packaging.
Prior to Specright, she led advertising and analytics at GE Digital, GE’s Industrial Internet software business. Before that, she was a consultant at Deloitte Digital working in enterprise digital transformation. Laura was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for marketing and advertising and Brand Innovators 40 Under 40 and 100 Women to Watch lists. She graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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Matthew Wright
Matthew Wright is the founder & executive chairman of Specright, the first cloud-based platform for Specification Management. Specright has been recognized by Fast Company’s prestigious Most Innovative Companies list, named a Gartner Cool Vendor, and as one of the Top Places to Work by the OC Register and Built in LA. Wright is also a published author and his book, “The Evolution of Products and Packaging,”was named to the Amazon Hot New Release List for Industrial Relations Business and has a five star rating.
Prior to founding Specright, Wright spent more than 25 years in the packaging industry, holding leadership positions at International Paper, Temple Inland, and rightPAQ — a packaging company he co-founded. He has also been involved in leading multiple M&A deals in the packaging industry, currently sits on the MSU School of Packaging and Industry Advisory Board and previously served on the Packaging Advisory Board at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.
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Cory Conners
Cory has been in this industry for 2.5 decades, and has been focused on sustainable packaging and helping companies be more sustainable with their packaging. Working in a Weyerhaeuser corrugated production facility to pay his way through college helped Cory understand how corrugated is made and how it can be more efficient and sustainable. He’s married to an amazing wife and they are so happy to have two wonderful kids. As the host of Sustainable Packaging Podcast, he’s learned so much about new sustainable products that are coming out to the market soon and he’s seen how urgent this issue of change is for our environment.
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