Names in the news: Wittmann Battenfeld, Teknor Apex, Clariant, Songwon, Tech Mold and more

Wittmann Battenfeld Inc. has established a new scholarship in the name of its founder,  Werner Wittmann. The Werner Wittmann Scholarship Program will provide a graduating senior from the Kennedy High School in Waterbury, CT with $1000 a year for four years of the student's college career. The scholarship will go to a a graduating senior who is active in Kennedy's First Robotics Team and has been accepted into a college where he or she will pursue a technical degree. The first winner of the scholarship is Anthony Hernandez of Waterbury, CT, who will be attending Boston College, where he will major in Physics.

Teknor Apex Company (Pawtucket, RI) has hired Jeffrey E. Dickerhoof as a senior market manager in its Thermoplastic Elastomer Division. Dickerhoof will be responsible for TPE sales and business development in the North American transportation market. Dickerhoof began in the plastics and elastomers industry in 1998 when he joined Advanced Elastomer Systems, now part of ExxonMobil Chemical. He subsequently spent 10 years with Zeon Chemicals in marketing positions chiefly involving elastomers for automotive applications. His last position with Zeon was that of business manager for polyacrylate, styrenic, and TPV elastomers.

Songwon Industrial Co. Ltd. (Ulsan, Korea) has appointed Anas Nowarah to be its Sales, Technical Service & Marketing Manager for the Middle East & Africa region, effective July 1. In December 2011, Songwon acquired Additives Technology Greiz (ATG) in Germany, one of Europe's largest manufacturers of one-pack systems (OPS) for the polymer industry. The company also announced a series of OPS manufacturing and commercial JV's to be located in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, with the first manufacturing facility to come online in 2013. The company said the creation of this position is partially in response to those business moves.

Hans-Joachim Müller, a member of Clariant's executive committee, will leave the company effective June 30, for personal reasons. Clariant said his current responsibilities will be transferred to the other members of the executive committee.
Müller was appointed as a member of the executive committee in July 2011.

Pacific Rim Traders (PRT), an importer and supplier of PET resin to customers throughout North America, appointed Dale Behm as its business general manager effective June 24. Behm is a long-time plastics industry executive, having worked for the past four years as the COO for Mastercraft Companies (Phoenix, AZ), until that company's sale to Flambeau. He is taking over the position recently vacated by Vincent Di Mizio who left PRT to pursue other interests and return to his family home in Ohio, said PRT. Behm's experience in PET includes being a member of the original development team that commercialized the very first one-piece PET beverage container that has become the industry standard, according to information from PRT. PRT (San Francisco) distributes PET throughout North America and will be expanding into South America. It was founded in 2006 as the importer for Dragon Special Resin of Xiamen, China, and its partnership with Dragon Special Resin allows PRT to import resin from Asia at a competitive price.

Tech Mold Inc., a Tempe, AZ-based designer and manufacturer of high-cavitation production molds, LSR molds and manufacturing cells, announced the appointment of Paul Saltrick as a technical sales person. In addition to a career that includes manufacturing management with other companies, Saltrick has more than 12 years with Tech Mold in various capacities. Tech Mold, which is celebrating 40 years in business this year, serves Fortune 100 OEMs in the medical disposable, pharmaceutical, packaging (caps and closures), and high-production consumer products markets. The company employs 85, and continues to be headed by founder and CEO Bill Kushmaul.

American Tool & Mold Inc. (Clearwater, FL), a manufacturer of complex, precision multi-cavity molds for a variety of industries, has hired Mark DeHaven as its new business development manager. DeHaven has more than 30 years of experience in injection molding and tooling. , and "is a welcome addition to the company," according to a release.  American Tool & Mold is a woman owned business, headed by CEO Emlia Loulourgas-Giannakopoulos.

Specialist plastics packaging technology business Petainer has appointed Jörg Lauer as global sales and business development manager for large container products. Lauer has spent more than six years with beverage plant and machine-line manufacturing firm, KHS.

Arlington Plastics Machinery Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) has hired Garrett Benson to its sales team as a sales associate. Benson comes to the company from Aerotek. Garrett earned his Bachelor's degree in Communications from Northern Illinois University in 2010.  Originally, from Schaumburg, Garrett now resides in Chicago. Arlington Plastics buys and sells all types of plastic processing equipment.