Names in the news: American Kuhne, Bayer, DME, Songwon, Teknor Apex, and more

DME (Madison Heights, MI) has hired a new business development manager and two new field sales representatives. Stephen Byrnes has been named senior business development manager for the Eastern U.S, and Shannon Vaughn has been appointed field sales representative for the Southeastern U.S. Stephane Huot is the new DME field sales representative for Quebec. Byrnes has more than 35 years of plastics industry experience, including graduating from UMass Lowell's plastics technology program. Vaughn comes to DME from Master Precision Global, where he served as plant manager, overseeing a team of 120 employees. Huot served previous stint as a technical sales representative at OHS, a DME affiliate company.

American Kuhne (Ashaway, RI) has appointed Jim Winning to the newly created position of product manager for laboratory and narrow web systems. In this role, Winning will focus on blown film, cast film, sheet extrusion and pelletizing applications. Most recently a senior sales engineer for Davis-Standard, Winning has more than 15 years of experience in the industry.

Teknor Apex Company (Pawtucket, RI) has hired Christopher Cooper as a market manager in its thermoplastic elastomer division, which includes its Sarlink TPEs, as well as vinyl, nylon, and other compounds produced by separate divisions. Cooper came to Teknor Apex from Radici Plastics, where he served for nine years as a technical service and sales engineer. The company also appointed Derek Laffey as market development representative for its vinyl division, focusing on the western U.S. and Mexico. Laffey previously worked for the company for 1992 to 1999. Teknor Apex also appointed David Hash to be the senior account manager for its nylon division. Hash joined Teknor Apex in 2008, holding sales responsibilities for the nylon division in the Midwest and Southeast. He begain in the plastics industry in 1987, working for Detroit Plastic Molding, with subsequent stints at CTS Automotive, RTP Company, and Nyloncraft Inc.

Songwon Industrial Group has appointed Joachim Bayer as its new global business manager for its specialty antioxidants & new products division. Bayer, who has worked with Songwon for six years, holds a degree in Polymer Chemistry and an MBA. Previous positions were in technical sales and business development. Most recently he has acted as Songwon's Director of Global Technical Service and New Product Commercialization. This position will be taken over by Thomas Schmutz.

Bayer MaterialScience has appointed Markus Steilemann as the new head of its polycarbonates business unit. He succeeds Michael Koenig, who joined the board of management of Bayer AG on April 1. Steilemann will also become a member of the Bayer MaterialScience's executive committee. He joined Bayer as an internal consultant within Bayer's corporate organization and planning function in 1999. In January 2008, he moved to Hong Kong to join the polycarbonates business unit. In August 2011, he relocated to Shanghai and the global headquarters of the polycarbonates business unit. He was appointed head of global Industrial Marketing for this unit in July 2012.

EverBank Commercial Finance Inc. (Parsippany, NJ) has hired Kurt Kolesha to its industrial division as a sales manager. Kolesha will be responsible for supporting the manufacturing platform, which focuses on companies nation-wide within the plastics, packaging, food processing and machine tool industries. He will be based in Hampton, NH. Kolesha comes from U.S. Bank Equipment Finance, where he served as a senior sales manager working in construction, general manufacturing, and plastics, among other areas. 

Engineering consulting firm Barry-Wehmiller Companies Inc. (St. Louis) has named Jeffrey S. Hanson VP of international finance. Hanson has 25 years of international trade and banking experience and will be tasked with building Barry-Wehmiller's presence in international markets. At this time, about 35% of the company's revenue is from international sales.