Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON) has named Gerardo Chiaia to the new role of president, hot runners, establishing the hot runners unit as its own stand-alone business, and promoting Keith Carlton to VP Global Sales beverage packaging, filling the role formerly held by Chiaia. The supplier of molds, hot runners, and injection molding machines is also creating a new business development team dedicated to launching new products. Husky President and CEO John Galt told PlasticsToday that the company's hot runners unit was previously run as a market-aligned team within Husky's overall organization and had access to shared resources and support. "Today, it is a stand-alone business with dedicated resources and support," Galt said. Chiaia, who joined Husky in 1994, has worked across the company's service, sales, and manufacturing operations. Since December 2011, he acted as the Beverage Packaging business VP Global Sales, a role that will now be filled by Carlton. Carlton, who joined Husky in 1999, has held a number of senior engineering and management positions within the company, including acting as COO since 2008. In Husky's previous organizational structure, Carlton was accountable for all manufacturing operations globally. In the new structure, operational accountability has been aligned with each of the company's core markets, according to Galt. Kees Meeusen has been promoted to Vice President, Global Beverage Packaging Operations and will assume a large portion of Carlton’s former responsibilities. Robert Domodossola, a 15-year Husky veteran, has been charged with running a dedicated team responsible for developing, refining, and launching products, taking the title of VP engineering and business development. Domodossola has been Husky's director of development engineering since December 2008. In this new role, Domodossola will join Husky's executive team.

Engel North America (York, PA) is expanding its customer support in the Western U.S., adding Jozsef Selley to its Western Region sales team. Selley will provide sales and technical support to customers in central California and Arizona, working from the company's 7300-sq-ft Corona, CA technical center. Engel's Western region team includes five sales personnel and nine customer service representatives, supporting the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, as well as the Maquiladora region of Northern Mexico from Juarez to Tijuana. Selley, a 10-year Engel veteran, will report to regional sales manager, Jeff Hershey.

Songwon Industrial Group (Ulsan, South Korea) announced that Thomas Schmutz has taken over the role of director of global technical service from Joachim Bayer, who moves into a strategic business management role. Schmutz will lead the technical service team across the company's entire product range, including antioxidants, light stabilizers, acid scavengers, PVC stabilizers, tin intermediates, plasticizers, lubricants, surface coating agents, polyurethanes, alkylphenols, biphenols, and flocculants. Schmutz will work directly on Songwon's recent addition of OPS (one pack systems) products and the pending start up of additional manufacturing facilities in Houston this year and Kizad, Abu Dhabi in early 2014.

Schmutz's résumé includes stops at  Chemtura Europe, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, and Dow Europe. Songwon also named Jungdu Kim as its new technical service manager for the North East Asia (NEA) region. Kim, who will report to Schmutz, joined Songwon's R&D team in 2006, working on metal catalysts and organic synthesis related to antioxidants. Since 2008, Kim has supported the company's Global Application Community (GAC).

Yaskawa America Inc.'s Motoman Robotics Division has named Hiroyuki Nagatsu as its senior VP, global sales team. In this role, Nagatsu will be tasked with managing Motoman's relationship with its Asian American customers, according to a release, and working as an advisor to Steve Barhorst, president and COO of Yaskawa America's Motoman Robotics Division. Nagatsu joined Yaskawa Electric in 1989 and has previously held positions in the robotics division, including working as the general manager of the business planning department and as general manager of the international sales department.

Niels Rune Solgaard-Nielsen has succeeded Hans Telgen as president of the European Plastic Pipes and Fittings Assn. (TEPPFA), with Tony Calton replacing Pierre Favrot as general manager of the Brussels-based organization. Solgaard-Nielsen is CEO for the Austrian company, Pipelife Group. Calton has manufacturing and marketing experience with the U.K. activities of the Aliaxis Group of companies. Calton has served on various TEPPFA committees, including recent work promoting the technical investigation into the association's Sustainable Municipal Pipes project.

Gloucester Engineering company, Pearl Technologies Inc. (Savannah, NY), has promoted Linda Gillette to be its first general manager and named William Weston as its manager of sales operations. Gillette has been with Pearl Technology for five years, working her way through several management positions. In this newly created position, she will not only manage the day-to-day needs of the company, but will also take on responsibilities for financial operations and work with the sales team. Weston will be tasked with bolstering sales, overseeing customer service, and supervising the inside sales department. Pearl, which designs and manufactures consumable parts for converting and extrusion capital equipment, was founded in 1985.

Plastic product design development firm, Shore Plastic Technologies Inc. (Millville, NJ) has hired Lee Meyers to help it expand its capabilities in design verification, product validation, and regulatory submissions for clients. Meyers' professional experience includes roles in sales and marketing; research and development; and roles in quality assurance and regulatory affairs.

Argotec Inc. (Greenfield, MA) has appointed Colin Chute to the position of senior process engineer for the company's specialty film & sheet extrusion business, making him responsible for process development and process improvement activities across all its product lines. Chute comes to Argotec from Specialized Technology Resources Inc., where he was responsible for managing and coordinating pilot plant trials, scaling up to production lines, and transfer and implementation of new products throughout the company's worldwide facilities.