Names in the News: Metabolix, Viking Plastics, Venture Plastics, Radius, Unicep, and Hall Star

Metabolix Inc. has appointed Celeste Beeks Mastin to its board of directors. Mastin has more than 20 years of experience in the global chemicals and performance materials sector. Mastin recently served as CEO of building materials company MMI Products Inc.. Prior to MMI Products, she spent 17 years in the chemical industry, including stints with Ferro Corp. and Shell Chemical. Richard P. Eno, president and CEO of Metabolix, said in a statement that Mastin will help the company "develop and implement effective strategies to commercialize our leading-edge technology in both PHA bioplastics and renewable industrial chemicals."

Radius Product Development has named Anthony Annibale as the managing director of its Chicago studio. Annibale has more than 20 years of product development experience in medical, commercial, and consumer markets. Prior to joining Radius, Annibale co-founded and served as principal of Arrisphere, an engineering and design firm that was acquired by Insight Product Development.

Injection molding company Viking Plastics (Corry, PA) has hired Bob Holbrook to the newly created position of director of sales and marketing. Holbrook has more than 30 years of plastics industry sales and marketing experience. He most recently led True Precision Plastics (Lancaster, PA). He also served as president of York Imperial Plastics (York, PA).

Custom injection molder Venture Plastics Inc. has named John Lenton as a project engineer for its Ohio facilities. Venture has processing facilities in Newton Falls and Middlefield, OH, as well as El Paso, TX. Lenton has more than 25 years of project engineering, including diverse responsibilities at large automotive, consumer products, and metal companies, with stints at Northern States Metals, Roth Brothers, and Dinesol Plastics.

Kirby Krause has been promoted to director of program management at contract packaging company Unicep Packaging Inc. (Sandpoint, ID). Prior to Unicep, Krause was employed by SprayCool (now Parker Aerospace), in Liberty Lake, WA, as a program manager and supply chain manager, holding program management and engineering positions in a manufacturing environment for the past 15 years.

Robert Shengkui Hu has joined The HallStar Company's senior management team as VP R&D. Before joining the supplier of plastic additives, Hu served as VP of Global Technology at Beckers Consumer Design Finishes (CDF), a division of Beckers Industrial Coatings/Lindengruppen.