Names in the news: Solvay, Plastics Color Corp., Emerson Industrial Automation, Polymera

Emerson Industrial Automation, a business of Emerson, recently announced the appointment of Joseph Dillon as President of Branson Ultrasonics Corp. In his new role, Dillon has responsibility for overseeing the worldwide operations of Branson - a provider of customer focused solutions for plastic joining, ultrasonic metal joining and precision processing. Branson has more than 1,800 employees and 70 sales and service centers throughout the world.

Joe Dillon is succeeding Ed Boone who has been appointed as VP of Supply Chain for Emerson Asia Pacific, Hong Kong.

Joe Dillon joined Emerson in 2000 as a Corporate Strategic Planner of Emerson Electric Company. He has held various managerial positions, most recently, Vice President & General Manager of Emerson Process Management -Tescom, Minneapolis- St. Paul area.

Commenting on his new responsibilities Dillon's states, "We at Branson will continue to create value to our customers' manufacturing processes and work as their long term strategic partner." He further stated that "we are positioned to support our customers wherever they operate, with our leading industry expertise. Our mission to provide a high return on investment to our customers, employees and shareholders is foremost - and we are committed to the quality of our products and services."

Dillon holds an undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Joe Dillon and his wife have four children and have relocated from Minneapolis to the greater Danbury, Connecticut area.

PCC (Plastics Color Corp.), a supplier of color concentrates, compounds, custom-functional masterbatches and other polymer technologies for the plastics industry, has hired Brian Keller as Product Manager for Additives, bringing the total number of sales staff to 15.  He will work out of Northeastern Ohio and report to North American Director of Sales, Dave Minor. Keller has more than 30 years' experience in the plastics and additives industry with a focus on specialty chemicals and performance materials. He has both a BS and an MS degree in polymer science from the University of Akron.

According to Minor, "Brian brings the additives experience we need to grow our specialties markets. He will largely be focusing on the sales of our FlamaSol fire retardants, MicroBlok antimicrobials, MiBatch anti-counterfeiting line and SoluPur biodegradable additives. He's the first of several product line managers we plan to bring on board this year as we continue to grow our business."

Keller joins PCC after several sales and marketing executive positions within the plastics and specialty additives industries. "Plastics Color Corporation is growing at an impressive rate. This is an opportunity to contribute to a company that knows where it's heading and how it's going to get there," he said.

Solvay Specialty Polymers, a global supplier of high-performance thermoplastics offered for use in a range of markets including implantable and non-implantable medical devices, has announced several key organizational changes to further expand its focus on the healthcare industry and meet the growing needs of its global customers.

Among these changes, Solvay has named Maria Gallahue-Worl Business Manager-Healthcare.Gallahue-Worl will oversee Solvay's global healthcare business team, which will now focus on the medical implant market (Solviva Biomaterials), the hemodialysis market, and new future growth segments within the global healthcare industry.Solvay's non-implant business includes medical grade plastics for instrumentation, reusable and single-use devices, medical equipment, and sterilization cases and trays. Over the last two years, Gallahue-Worl has been responsible for Solvay's non-implant healthcare business.

"With our broad product portfolio, we are firmly positioned as a strategic supplier to the healthcare industry and the organizational changes signal our further commitment to our customers," said Gallahue-Worl. "We are leveraging our extensive expertise in polymer manufacturing and adding substantial new resources to give our customers a competitive edge in meeting their end-use requirements."

Other key appointments include Dane Waund as Global Market Manager-Healthcare. He will move from his prior position as global sales development manager and now focus on the hemodialysis market and non-implant healthcare marketing activities. In addition, Shawn Shorrock has been named Director of Global Regulatory Affairs for the healthcare business. Her appointment reflects Solvay's continued commitment to providing focused global regulatory support to the healthcare industry. For the last five years, Shorrock has served as project leader for the launch of the Solviva Biomaterials business.

Polymera Inc., the central Ohio-based producer of WPC (wood/natural fiber polymer composite) materials, announced that Russell Miller has joined the company as Vice President of Sales. Russ has over 30 years of experience in the plastics industry, starting his career as a design engineer, transitioning to technical sales leader, sales manager and director of sales.  

"Miller's background in both the plastic equipment manufacturing industry and raw materials production make him uniquely qualified to lead Polymera's growth", stated Maan Said, president and CEO of Polymera. Prior to joining Polymera, Miller was Director of Sales - Vinyl Division for Formosa Plastics Corporation USA, focusing on GP PVC sales. He was promoted to that role following his success as Business Manager for ITC Formosa LLC (a Formosa Plastics Corp USA joint venture) where he focused his efforts on sales and business development in the value-added GP PVC and PP resin markets. Earlier in his career, Miller was a Sales Engineer for industry giant Cincinnati Milacron, offering both single and twin screw extrusion equipment in the SE region.

"By joining Polymera I have the opportunity to utilize my experience with Formosa, a world class resin supplier, and Cincinnati Milacron, a global leader in extrusion equipment, and apply this experience to the wide variety of WPC markets. I have been very fortunate to have worked with the very best in both the plastic processing equipment and resin supply industries and this experience will prove very valuable as we focus on the continued aggressive growth at Polymera".

Polymera is uniquely positioned to supply a wide variety of markets including fenestration, construction, automotive, furniture and others. "Our objective is simple; to be the best WPC material option available to our customers, and to provide them a competitive advantage by keeping them at the forefront of technology," stated Miller.