Twin Screw Extruder and Polymer Processing Consultant

Expertise

• Mixing and design of single and twin screw extruders, working with new materials, polymer processing, and membrane module design and assembly.
• Design and development of new extrusion based systems in plastics processes.
• Creating significant advances in devolatilization of solvents and monomers from acrylic polymers.
• Develop new novel reactive extrusion processes and mechanical design of extruders
• Extrusion process models for predicting and optimizing mixing and devolatilization performance for PMMA and PMMA copolymers.
• Extrusion process design, quality systems, and twin screw extruder design, and development of a twin screw extrusion processes.
• Twin screw extruder training.
• Innovator of new products through commercialization and innovation of new polymer products and processes.
• PTFE hollow fiber membrane contactors and a high velocity coaxial cable core construction.
• Building sustainable high performance and continuous improvements.
• Converting materials or processes into product platforms.
• Creating technical and business model innovations to facilitate companies' diversification from single to multiple lucrative products in diverse markets.

Experience

Undisclosed Company, Vice President and Market Development, 2005 - Present

• Strategize and lead technology, research and development, manufacturing, business development, commercialization, and IP strategy for a $35 million specialty fluoropolymer processing company.
• Direct employees and as member of executive team collaborate on strategic planning and operations management.
• Synthesize technology, science, and engineering from dissimilar fields and markets into new products.
• Establish and leverage strategic partnerships to enable penetration into multiple specialized markets otherwise inaccessible to a small business.
• Authored Joint Development Association with membrane partners.
• Set the vision, strategy, and unique business model that diversified Markel from an automotive industry resin converter to a device manufacturer in diverse markets.
• Created new-to-the-world PTFE hollow fiber membrane module platform for separation and filtration.
• Established a new business targeting food, chemical, and environmental industries, achieved bulk sales profit margin of 77%, projected to yield 50% of company revenue within 5 years.
• Generated portfolio of patents to protect process and devices.
• Developed a novel advanced coaxial cable core enabling groundbreaking data transmission speed and reliability for high-end cable producers, positioning company as sole source supplier for aerospace, medical, military, and communications markets, achieving gross profit margin of 70%, and conservatively projected to yield 10% of company's annual revenue within 3 years.
• Eliminated external rejections of coaxial cable core from 30% to zero.
• Instituted safety program for non-chemical company entrance into hazardous materials manufacturing, with zero safety incidents.
• Extended life of mature abrasion resistant liner business, which was 70% of company revenue, via novel formulation changes and product re-design that better reflected changes in market demands.
• Advent of Eclipse Hollow Fiber Membranes® and Hi-Vec® advanced coaxial cable facilitated company sale to Alliance Holdings.

Fluortek Compounding, Inc., FCI), Easton PA, 2000 - 2005

Vice President and General Manager, 2002 - 2005

• Provided full profit and loss responsibility for a $10 million rapidly growing compounding, profile extrusion, and reprocessing company serving high speed data communications and electronic chemicals industries as well as other fluoropolymer end users.
• Directed a five-day, 24-hour operation and 35 employees.
• Led development and commercialization of a proprietary compounding technology, increasing revenue by 71% with three years.
• As new market entrant, became the fastest response supplier in the U.S. through innovative product portfolio and intensive customer service, achieving 25% market share and reshaping the market by forcing multinational competitors to restructure their approach.
• Transformed a monolithic organization, business model, and culture from a reprocessing business to the #2 U.S. supplier of fluoropolymer color concentrates, additives, and extruded profiles for multiple industries.
• Grew revenue 22% per year in a wire and cable market that collapsed 35% during the same time period, and increased profitability from 7% to 12%.
• Formed key customer partnerships by creating tailored products that locked in business and generated 45% of monthly revenue from stable proprietary business.
• Cultivated partnerships with DuPont, Daikin Americas, and Dyneon, resulting in FCI product recommendations to their customers and decreasing raw material costs 15%.

Operations Manager, 2000 - 2002

• Restructured the manufacturing organization and work flow, eliminating two layers of plant supervision, instituting lean manufacturing, reducing cycle time 30% and indirect wages by 35%, and increasing facility throughput 200% per capita.
• Promoted from Operations Manager to Vice President and General Manager.

Extrusion Technology and Innovations, Inc., Chalfont, PA, 1999 - 2000

Consultant-Plastics Process Development

• Provided project and program management consulting on specialized twin screw extrusion design, separation operations, and reactive extrusion.
• Streamlined time to commercialization and improved quality of a new process for isolation of a PVC/rubber blend.
• Key contributor in developing a novel modifier for PETE; streamlined and focused the development program and reduced the commercialization timeline.

Rohm and Haas Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1980 - 1999

Manager of Technology-Plastic Components, Flat Panel Display, 1998 - 1999

• Built and led an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and marketing professionals to innovate and market new flat panel display technology.
• Strategized, led development of, and commercialized Rohm & Haas's first product platform of devices.
• Created new-to-the-world stress free optical plastic sheet to replace glass in liquid crystal display substrates, improved spacer particle for better display resolution, and introduced scattering polarizer film to improve display light efficiency.

Manager of Technology and Technology and Manufacturing, 1995 - 1998

• For the Optiflex™ Flexible Light Pipe Division built and managed the operation and team for optical fiber technology development and manufacturing.
• Cultivated strong, productive relationship with the plant union and successfully negotiated non-uniform practices.
• Co-established and directed an integrated technology function-research and development applications, and optical fiber manufacturing facility-generating a seven-product portfolio, streamlining the development cycle, integrating early-process QA, and creating a successful joint venture.
• Established a culture of continuous improvement that increased process yields and efficiencies of over 90% range and reduced sampling needs by a factor of four.

Process Development Manager-Specialty Chemicals, 1991 - 1995

• Provided program and technical leadership for incubation of new stand-alone businesses, including programs in flat panel displays, powder injection molding feedstocks, and plastic fiber optics.
• Championed use of integrated manufacturing and customer end-use perspectives within product development cycle, decreasing cycle times and ensuring better fit with customer needs.
• Introduced and established routine use of design and program planning tools including rapid prototyping, concurrent engineering tools such as FMEA, DFM, cost of quality, and robust design.
• Research Fellow in plastics and exploratory plastics research. Developed significant advances in devolatilization of solvents and monomers from acrylic polymers (PMMA and PMMA copolymer). Also developed several novel reactive extrusion processes and developed a family of extrusion process models for predicting and optimizing mixing and devolatilization performance.

Honors & Publications

Credentials

• Certified as a Quality Manager from ASQ and as a Certified Enterprise Integrator from SME Computer and Automated Systems Association.

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Society of Plastics Engineers (Board of Directors, Extrusion Division)
• American Society for Quality
• Society of Manufacturing Engineers

Awards

• Recipient of the Otto Haas Award for outstanding research as well as election to Research Fellow.

Patents

• Inventor-Co-Inventor of numerous patents.

Education

• M.S. Chemical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
• B.S. Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA