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Speaker Bios
Steven R. Block
Commercial Development Manager- Fluorosilicone Business Program
Dow Corning Corporation
Steve is currently Commercial Development Manager for the Fluorosilicone Business Program at Dow Corning Corporation (Midland, MI). His responsibilities are to lead, manage and direct the global commercial development of new fluorosilicone products and applications in the Coatings, Textiles, Construction, Electronics, and Automotive Industries. During his 23 years with the company he has held positions in Technology Management, Strategic Business Development, Supply Chain Engineering, Product Development and Application Engineering. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla and a M.S. in Engineering Management from Wichita State University.
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Winn Darden
Business Manager, LUMIFLON® Fluoropolymer Resins
AGC Chemicals Americas
Winn Darden is responsible for sales and marketing efforts of AGC Chemicals’ LUMIFLON fluoropolymer resins for the Americas. He has over 20 years of experience in the sales and marketing of coating raw materials and specialty coatings. He has authored over a dozen papers for organizations like the Society for Protective Coatings and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, and in journals like the Journal of Architectural Coatings and Bridges Magazine. Winn received his BS in Chemistry and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. He holds 12 U. S. patents.
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 Thad Druffel
Chief Engineer
Optical Dynamics
Thad Druffel is currently Chief Engineer at Optical Dynamics, and leads
a research and development group in the area of optical nanocomposite
thin films. He was the architect of the nanoCLEAR product, an
antireflective coating for eyeglass lenses, which received a Nano50
award from Nanotech Briefs in 2006. He is currently seeking a doctoral
degree at the University of Louisville in Chemical Engineering. He holds
a Masters of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado
State University and a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and is a registered
Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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 Bob Gilbert
Senior Sales and Marketing Manager
Chemguard, Inc.
Bob is currently the Sales and Marketing Manager for Chemguard, Inc. and is responsible for promoting their fluorosurfactant line of products to the Coatings, Petroleum, and Fire Fighting industries. He received his Bachelors of Chemistry from the University of Texas at Dallas and has worked in the electronics industry for over 26 years. His responsibilities included research and development of solder fluxes and cleaners, utilizing a wide variety of surfactants in formulating products.
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 Marcus Hutchins
CYTEC Industries
Marcus Hutchins is a Scientist in the Industrial Coatings Technical Service and Development group of CYTEC Industries. He has worked in the field of UV/EB curing for over 10 years. During those 10 years, he has developed a broad knowledge of acrylate chemistry and expertise in applications such as hardcoats, adhesion to plastic, and various paper coatings.
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 Michael Kelly
CEO / President
Allied PhotoChemicals
As Allied PhotoChemicals Chief Executive Officer and President, Mike Kelly is responsible for solidifying the Company’s Leadership position in the paint, coatings and inks industry.
Kelly brings significant experience in Management – both domestic and international, Sales and Finance and a proven track Record in building and running global companies. Kelly is experienced in developing direct sales, rep. sales and distributor Sales organizations and ensuring the best in customer service.
Kelly has held a variety of management positions, such as Managing Director / Europe/Middle East/Africa & President / Italia Operations for Wonderware Corporation and Sales Manager at McNaughton-McKay Electric.
Before joining Wonderware, Kelly served as Global Account Manager / General Motors Corporation and several other positions for Rockwell Automation / Allen-Bradley.
Kelly received a Master of Finance from Walsh College, Masters in Management from Central Michigan University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University.
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 Robert Langlois
CEO / President
Alliance Surface Finishing
Prior to Robert Langlois’ appointment as President and CEO of Alliance Surface Finishing in 2003, Langlois was the founder, President and CEO of SCI (“Surface Coating Industries) of Mississauga Ontario Canada. SCI was at the time was the largest PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) company in North America. Providing coating services for such notable customers as Motorola. At SCI’s peak, and just prior to Langlois selling his interest in the company, SCI was coating nearly 500,000 cell phones per month, and earned the title as Motorola Global sole source supplier exporting its product around the world.
Taking his years of experience in the finishing industry, Langlois approached Magna International, the world’s largest Tier 1 automotive supplier to inquire as to what there “dream” would be in a finishing world. The response was “a more durable and cost effective method of painting plastics”.
Over the course of the next three years in a lab, Langlois was successful in developing a process, which would revolutionize the painting industry, the Powder Coating of Plastics. Langlois Commercialized this technology in 2003 with the commissioning of the world’s first dedicated powder coating on plastic facility located in Ontario Canada. This facility also serves as the corporate offices, R&D, Styling, training & education center. As interest and acceptance of the technology grew Langlois commissioned a second facility in late 2005, to handle even larger volumes.
With the commercial success of this technology, Langlois is currently focusing on licensing this technology with customers and clients around the world, in a variety of industries.
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 Paul Mills
Fusion UV Systems, Inc.
Paul Mills has been involved in coatings technology since 1994. He spent 10 years as director of sales and marketing for Nutro Corporation, a Cleveland manufacturer of liquid and powder paint finishing systems. While at Nutro Paul spearheaded development efforts in 3 dimensional UV curing and UV powder coatings.
Paul left Nutro in 2002 and began his own business providing technical and marketing expertise to suppliers of coatings and coating equipment. He also founded UV Robotics, a company specializing in robotic UV curing of large and complex parts. He works closely with Fusion UV Systems, the leading supplier of UV curing technology to the US industrial market. Fusion is currently working on a wide range of plastics coating opportunities for automotive, transportation, military and general industrial applications including PVD/UV systems.
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 Robert McMullin
BYK-Chemie USA Inc., Wallingford, CT
Robert H. McMullin has been with BYK-Chemie USA Inc. for 30 years and is Manager of Nanotechnologies. Prior to this position he was the Business Manager for Paint Additives Division and Product Manager for the Instrument Division.
Mr. McMullin’s background includes ten years formulation, transportation, and marketing of protective coatings for U.S. Steel Corporation. He is the author of Short Term Evaluation Techniques for Determining Sedimentation (1978) and of Scratch Resistance in Polyurethane Coatings (2005).
Other activities include participation in the American Chemical Society, the Steel Structures Painting Council, and the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology. Mr. McMullin was granted a B.S. in Chemistry and Masters in Electronics from Northern Illinois University
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 John Owed
ITW Ransburg
John Owed works for ITW Ransburg based in Toledo, Ohio and manages the
Sales Support Group. In this role he has responsibility for the
customer demonstrations lab, sales engineering and customer training.
With the support of his group, they provide these resources to all of
the global Ransburg finishing companies. John has 27 years of
experience in the liquid finishing business and has been extensively
involved in a number of OEM, Tier 1 and industrial finishing projects.
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 Dr. Steffen Pilotek
Buhler Inc.
Dr. Steffen Pilotek studied chemistry at U-Bielefeld (Germany). He held a position as researcher at the INM (Saarbrücken) and joined the nanotechnology group of Bühler AG (Switzerland) in 2002. Since 2007 he represents Buhler Inc.’s unit of Particle Technology (PARTEC).
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 Ken Raby
N.A. Sales Manager
Walther Trowal
Ken has been involved in the metal and plastics finishing industry since 1984, and has worked for Walther Trowal since 2006. His current position is the North American Sales Manager for the Walther Trowal Company. He holds a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University of Kalamazoo, Michigan with a Business Management major and Accounting minor. He graduated in 1982. He currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan and has a wife and 2 children. Developing new finishing applications for customers has been the cornerstone to a successful career in parts finishing.
The Walther Trowal Company is based in Haan, Germany and has been in the metal and plastics finishing industry since 1931.
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 Susan M. Sobek
Emerging Technology Chemist
Akzo Nobel Coatings, Inc.
Susan has been employed in the coatings industry for over 24 years. She has spent the last 19 years in powder coatings. As a senior chemist and project manager, she has been responsible for developing new global product lines and supporting their market introduction. Susan holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and holds three U.S. patents.
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 Richard Stewart
New Business Development, Powder Coating of Plastics
Wright Coating Technologies
Richard is the New Business Development Manager for the Classic Kote, Powder Coating of Plastics, Division of Wright Coating Technologies. He has worked in the plastics industry for over ten years. In his current position at Wright Coating Technologies; he works with OEM’s and suppliers in the Office Furniture, Appliance, Consumer Goods, and Automotive industries, as well as, custom applications for the development of new Powder Coated Plastic programs.
Wright Coating Technologies successfully powder coated plastics in 1993 and started supplying the Office Furniture industry in 2004. Wright Coating Technologies currently provides Powder Coated Plastics to the Office Furniture, Appliance, and Consumer Goods Industries.
Wright Coating Technologies is an ISO 9001 Registered company located in Kalamazoo Michigan and has been an applicator of specialty coatings since 1981.
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I-Hsiung Wang, Ph.D.
I-Hsiung Wang obtained his MS degree at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln and doctoral degree at the University of North Texas, both major in organic synthesis. He did post-doctoral training at the University of Houston in the area of charge-transfer complexes. After several years of working at chemical plant and in consumer products formulation, he is then focusing on developing waterborne industrial coatings. He has two patents and 15 publications.
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 Amy Wylie
Bayer Material Science
Amy Wylie joined Bayer Material Science in 1997. She has experience in
various areas including Paper Colorants and Chemicals, Coatings
Research, and Plastic Coatings. Amy received a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Life Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 1998
and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from The University of
Pittsburgh in 2006. She is currently a Senior Research and Development
Specialist focusing on plastic coatings in the Coatings, Adhesives, and
Sealants Division. Her primary responsibilities include the development
of various resin types (including waterborne polyurethane products,
blocked polyisocyanates, aliphatic polyisocyanates and UV curing resins)
for general industrial and automotive applications.
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 Allen F. Zielnik
Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC
Allen Zielnik is a member numerous scientific societies and an active member of numerous technical standards committees dealing with material degradation chemistry, weathering and solar radiation exposure issues.
He holds an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering (DeVry University) and a B.S. and advanced studies in analytical and polymer chemistry (Michigan State University). He has worked for various companies as specialist in analytical instrumental methods of chemical and physical analysis for the past 33 years specializing in polymer molecular weight characterization of small and large molecules.
For the past fifteen years he has been employed by Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC in various capacities and currently is a Senior Consultant for Weathering Science within Atlas’ global technical consulting operation; he is very involved with Atlas’ client education and global durability-related material and client consulting operations on product testing, product failure and service life prediction.
He has authored over 40 publications on material weatherability testing and spoken at over 30 conferences and symposia.
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