Legacy Voices: Jesse “Jay” Stone on Quality, Safety, and Continuous Improvement at Kuraray America
From technician to a leadership role supporting quality and safety, Jesse Stone, "Jay", has built his career at Kuraray America, Inc. (KAI) around strengthening processes, supporting safe operations, and continuous improvement.
As part of our #LegacyVoices series celebrating Kuraray’s centennial, we are highlighting Jay’s journey at KAI’s Fayetteville, NC plant, home to SentryGlas® and Trosifol® lines. Today, Jay serves as Site Quality and Safety Manager.
Jay began his career at the Fayetteville site 38 years ago as a technician with DuPont, continued through the 2014 Kuraray acquisition, and saw firsthand how KAI’s investment in the site and its people helped shape the next chapter of his career.
Building on What Came Before
For Jay, the transition showed him that KAI valued more than the just business itself. The company valued the people who had helped build the Fayetteville site and understood its operations from the ground up.
That mattered. That sense of appreciation became one of the reasons he chose to stay.
“When KAI invested in our future, I knew I had found a company I wanted to grow with,” Jay says.
Supporting Standards. Strengthening Safety.
Jay supports two central areas: quality systems and plant safety.
On the quality side, he helps maintain the sites ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certifications while supporting systems that help the site meet customer and business expectations, while his work around safety is more visible on the plant floor. That includes reinforcing site protocols and working with the leadership team to ensure employees follow the policies that help support safe and consistent operations.
Fayetteville finished 2025 injury-free and strives to do the same this year as the site continues strengthening its safety culture through KuraSafe. With the site’s First Impression Analysis complete, Fayetteville is building its Safety Culture Improvement Team (SCIT) to help identify site-specific improvement opportunities and carry the program across the Fayetteville plant.
Looking Forward
Jay believes staying with Kuraray came down to feeling valued. After the acquisition, he saw a company that respected the experience already in place, invested in new lines and site upgrades, and wanted to grow with the Fayetteville team, not simply take over the business.
As Kuraray approaches its 100th anniversary in June 2026, Jay’s story reflects the people behind that legacy: employees who take pride in their work, support one another, and continue looking for better ways to move the company forward.
“Companies last a hundred years because their people keep looking for a better way. That is the work I want to keep doing here,” Jay says.