FEATURE
It’s sunrise over Provo Canyon. Clusters
of broad-backed mountains snake along
the river beneath a low lid of sky. The
air is clear, tinged with the salty smell of
freshwater from Bridal Veil Falls and the
musty odor of surrounding trees and rocks.
The morning is silent but for steady puffs
of breath and the furious whir of pedaling.
Seated atop a bike, a solitary man can be
seen setting out to cover miles of trail under
the pulsing morning sun. Despite the sweat
on his brow, the expression he wears is
serene, at peace with the freedom to be and
embrace all that he is.
EYES ON THE SKY
“A cardboard box and a steak knife was
nirvana… because I’d carve them up
into forts and cars and build things…
There was always an engineer in me.”
One of three sons born to hardworking
parents, Kenneth “Ken” McAlister, Vice
President of Sales, Technology, and
Innovation at Intarome Fragrance
Corporation and Secretary of Fragrance
Creators Association’s Board of Directors,
grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. “Smell
was all around us then,” he says. “We had
a large hedge of gardenias near the house.
I can remember just going out there and
smelling that captivating, sultry scent. I
also remember driving through the orange
groves and smelling the neroli blossoms in
the spring, which is just fabulous… I was
always attuned to scent.” His father had
served as a World War II B-17 Bomber
Pilot and his mother was a piano teacher
and homemaker. “It was a typical 1960s
childhood,” he says, recalling key events of
that decade—the Kennedy assassination and
Vietnam.
Growing up in Florida, Ken had a front
seat for the activity around NASA’s moon
shots—he remembers watching the Saturn
V rockets, which launched the Apollo
flights to the moon, pass over his family
home. These early years sparked a life-long
interest not only in the space program but in
how things work. “That’s part of my geeky,
nerdy, engineering side,” he says. From an
early age, he says he was always building
things—TINKERTOYS, ERECTOR sets. “A
cardboard box and a steak knife was nirvana
for me, because I’d carve them up into forts
and cars and build things like that. I loved
building models. There was always an
engineer in me.”
FAST FACTS:
––
CURRENT ROLE:
Vice President of Sales, Technology,
and Innovation, Intarome Fragrance
Corporation
FAVORITE SCENT:
“Gardenia, Jasmine, Neroli—I love
florals.”
PERSONAL HERO:
“Leonardo Da Vinci—A true genius who
mastered both engineering and art.”
WHO WOULD YOU CAST TO PLAY
YOU IN A MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE?
“Split between Richard Gere (many
folks have said I look like him) and
Steve Martin.”
BEST ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED:
“You can always sell somebody
something. But, if you solve a problem
for somebody, they’ll remember you
forever.”
WHAT’S ON YOUR WORKOUT
PLAYLIST?
“Lots of electronic dance music (or,
EDM) stuff leftover from my spinning
instructor days but one of my favorites
is “Hartseer” by Bart Claessen. Also,
“Once Upon a Night Volume 1” by Ferry
Corsten—the entire album is great. I
love it because I can just ride to the
beat and let my brain check out.”
Although he had his sights set on
attending the Air Force Academy, after his
parents’ divorce, Ken lacked the resources
and guidance to navigate the rigorous
application process. “It was just not in the
cards for me,” he says, “but, luckily, things
turned out pretty good for me anyway.” His
older brother, Steve, seven years his senior,
helped him find another path. “He said,
‘Look Ken, you like chemistry and you like
math, why don’t you become a chemical
engineer?’ I didn’t know anything else, and
he was basically my dad at the time, helping
to guide me, so that’s what I chose.” After
securing loans and grants, he set off to the
University of Tennessee, where he stayed
active in the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and
Judo team and earned a Bachelor’s of
Science degree in chemical engineering.
LEARNING THE ROPES
“There’s nothing that’ll make you fall in
love more than a 3:00am job making
peanut butter, right?!”
Ken recalls that in Jacksonville at that time
there were two chemical companies that
took turpentine and fractionated it into
aroma chemicals. Steve worked at SCM-
Glidco Organics, which is now part of IFF,
and got him a co-op job at the plant after he
had a year or two of schooling under his belt.
“That was my first exposure to aroma
chemicals…as a 19 year old!” he says.
Over the course of his four years there, he
learned the basics of terpene chemistry,
terpene hydrocarbons, how to do the organic
Ken with his wife Virginia, daughter Sarah, and son Heath
Issue 2, 2019 | FRAGRANCENOTES.ORG | 9