Eric Packer brings a lifelong love of model aviation, engineering discipline, and hands-on leadership to guide Guillow’s into its next century of flight.
When Eric Packer talks about Guillow’s, he doesn’t just speak as the company’s new president. He speaks as a builder.
Packer joined Guillow’s in November 2020, bringing a career path that might seem unexpected for the leader of America’s most iconic balsa wood model company. While he has lived within 7 miles of the Guillow’s factory for over 25 years, Eric began his professional life as a geotechnical engineer, working on major infrastructure projects like Boston’s Big Dig and the Old Colony Railroad.
He later earned his MBA and transitioned into high tech and financial services, specializing in information security management. But long before engineering calculations and cybersecurity strategy, there were gliders.
Where the Love of Building Took Flight
“The gliders were always around when I was a kid,” Eric recalls.
His father gave him his first stick-and-tissue model when he was about ten years old and taught him how to build it. He still has that first airplane; now gathering dust in the basement, a reminder of the hours spent studying plans and fitting fragile pieces together.
What struck him most wasn’t just the finished airplane. It was the instructions.
That patience and respect for detail probably guided him toward engineering at the start. Like many young builders, he experimented, often quite wildly. A few childhood models didn’t survive when he added bottle rockets to the wings. “Balsa and tissue burns nice,” he jokes.
Today, that same spirit of curiosity remains at the heart of how he sees Guillow’s future.
Craftsmanship Isn’t Accidental
If you ask Eric what truly sets Guillow’s apart after nearly a century, he doesn’t hesitate: attention to detail.
He saw it firsthand during the redesign of the company’s 100 Series kits for the 100th anniversary. Designers were passionate about historical accuracy. Instructions were carefully rewritten. Every component was scrutinized.
Inside the factory, the culture may not resemble a whimsical toy workshop, but that’s intentional.
“It’s a dedicated manufacturing space where safety truly comes first,” he explains. Everyone plays a part in quality assurance, from carefully cutting raw wood to packing the final kits. And if something doesn’t quite meet Guillow’s high standards, team members are encouraged to speak up and share their concerns.
That pride in craftsmanship is not nostalgia. It’s discipline.
Honoring Tradition Through Innovation
As Guillow’s approaches its 100th anniversary, Eric believes honoring tradition doesn’t mean resisting change. In fact, it means the opposite.
“The best way to honor tradition is to encourage innovation,” he says.
But innovation, in his mind, isn’t just about new products. It’s about reversing the technological tide, encouraging people to step away from screens and rediscover hands-on, mind-strengthening activities like building model airplanes.
It’s about creating space for focus. For patience. For the quiet satisfaction of shaping something real.
Expanding the Reach of Flight
One of Eric’s biggest goals as president is simple: availability.
Too often, he hears people say, “I remember those gliders. Can you still buy those?”
The demand is there. The challenge is visibility.
He sees opportunity in the places where people still shop in person, such as grocery stores, hardware stores, craft stores, pharmacies, museum gift shops, bookstores, etc.
Impulse buys matter, just as the tactile experience of discovering a glider on a shelf does.
For Guillow’s stick-and-tissue kits and hobby wood, he sees strong alignment with STEM, and what he refers to as “STEMA” – programs in schools, universities, and camps.
Model building isn’t just a pastime; it’s an introduction to engineering, physics, and design thinking.
In an increasingly digital world, exposure matters both in brick-and-mortar stores and online. “As that enthusiasm grows, we’re right there,” he says.
Leading by Example
For Eric, leadership isn’t about titles or corner offices.
It may be more exhausting than “sitting behind a big mahogany desk with a bar cart…barking orders,” he jokes. But it’s the only way he knows how to lead.
Perhaps that’s the engineer in him again: show the work, respect the process, stay close to the details.
At home, that same steady commitment defines his life. Eric and his wife met in high school. They married and had four boys in five years. The youngest is now 20.
Community, family, and continuity are not abstract ideas. They’re lived experiences.
Looking Toward the Next Century
As Guillow’s enters its second century, Eric hopes the company continues to represent what it always has: good memories, past and future.
He hopes that five years from now, when someone builds their very first Guillow’s model, it feels the same as it did 100 years ago. A sense of pride. Accomplishment. And maybe even a little disappointment that encourages experimentation.
“There needs to be some error,” he says. Because there is learning in that error. In that learning, there is growth. And in that growth, there is flight.
As president, Eric Packer isn’t just stewarding a brand. He’s stewarding a tradition, one built on balsa wood, careful hands, detailed plans, and the belief that something simple and tangible can still lift off the ground and inspire the imagination.
And for the next hundred years, that mission remains clear: Build it. Fly it. Learn from it. Repeat.
