Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) officers began their one-year terms in conjunction with the opening of SPE's ANTEC conference, with Jon Ratzlaff acting as the new president, succeeding James S. Griffing. Ratzlaff is technical services manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP. At ANTEC 2014, Ratzlaff will be succeeded by the new president-elect, Vijay B. Boolani, president of Boolani Engineering Corp. (Mumbai, India). An SPE member since 1995, Ratzlaff held the positions of president-elect in 2012-13 and senior VP in 2011-12.  He is an SPE Certified Plastics Technologist and one of the authors of the SPE Injection Molding Technicians Toolbox guide. Ratzlaff served as chair of the SPE Rotational Molding Division in 2001-2002 and president of the Oklahoma Section in 2002-2003.  He served four years as chair of SPE's International Committee (2004-2008).

Rounding out the 2013-2014 executive committee will be:

battenfeld-cincinnati USA has appointed Kurt Waldhauer to the newly created position of group VP global accounts. In this post, Waldhauer will be responsible for identifying customer needs and handling the participation of battenfeld-cincinnati's worldwide production facilities in major global projects. Waldhauer's previous role as president and CEO of battenfeld-cincinnati USA will be assumed by Grant Flaharty, who previously served as battenfeld-cincinnati USA's CFO.

William Mills has joined Davis-Standard (D-S; Pawcatuck, CT) as VP of sales for North America, making him responsible for leading the North American sales team for equipment sales across all D-S product lines. Mills has 15 years of experience across multiple manufacturing industries, coming to D-S from composite sheet manufacturer Azdel Inc.

Teknor Apex Company (Pawtucket, RI) named David Cobb as its western regional sales manager for the Vinyl Division, making him responsible for business development and management of the sales team in the western U.S. and Mexico. Cobb has 27 years of experience in the industry, most of it in management positions with the Nexeo Solutions, the former Ashland Distribution business. Prior to joining Ashland in 1990, Cobb spent three years as a sales representative with Clariant Color. Cobb, will be based in Southern California, is a past president of the Ontario section of SPE.

Nordson EDI (Chippewa Falls, WI) has appointed Scott Niedfeldt to the position of aftermarket sales representative for the upper Midwest and Northwest regions of the U.S. Niedfeldt will provide sales and customer support, with a specific focus on remanufacturing of extrusion dies, Nordson EDI or other suppliers, as well as custom engineering of die components, and stocking of a wide range of spare parts. Niedfeldt joined Nordson EDI in 2011 as a sales coordinator for the its Premier Coating Division. Prior to joining the company, he spent 5 years in business development and sales positions with two business consulting and information technology firms.

Songwon (Ulsan, Korea) has appointed Shunichi Watanabe as its new executive VP of operations for Japan. Watanabe has almost 30 years of experience in the chemical industry, working for a number of international corporations in Japan and elsewhere working in general management, sales and marketing, and business development. Watanabe holds a masters degree in Applied Sciences in Polymer Chemistry from the Nagoya Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Songwon, he held senior positions at DNT (Dai Nippon Toryo) Singapore Pte. Ltd., Chemipro Kasei Kaisha Ltd., as well as Ciba Specialty Chemicals K.K. and Musashino-Geigy Co. Ltd.