Dow Coating Materials appoints Jose Maria
Bermudez general manager for North America
Dow Coating Materials has named Jose
Maria Bermudez the new general manager
for North America. In this role, Bermudez
will lead all aspects
of Dow Coating
Materials’ business
in North America,
including sales, manufacturing and engineering, technical
services, supply
chain, customer
service and marketing. Bermudez has
served in a variety of
senior leadership
roles with Dow (and previously Rohm
and Haas) for more than 20 years, most
recently as the general manager for Dow
Coating Materials in Latin America. In
addition to his Dow role, Bermudez has
served on the board of directors for Fondo
Unido (United Way Mexico), the American Chamber of Commerce, and ANIQ
(Asociacion Nacional de la Industria
Quimica). He will be based at Dow Coating Materials’ corporate headquarters in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Jose Maria
Bermudez
AFG FlameGuard appoints new
president and CEO
AFG FlameGuard Ltd. (AFG), a technology focused company that provides
products and services to the fire suppression and prevention industry, has appointed Thomas Bell as president and
CEO. Mr. Bell has served as a director of
AFG since October 12, 2011 and held
the position of vice president, corporate
development and communication until
his current appointment.
AFG markets an innovative line of environmentally friendly products for battling fire including the Dry Sprinkler
Powder Aerosol (DSPA) technology and a
complete line of non-toxic and easy to
apply thin-coat intumescent paints, coatings and sprays. The company said its
product line led by the DSPA- 5 has the
potential to significantly transform the
firefighting and prevention, renovation
and construction industries.
Engineered Resin Solutions
hires two executives
Engineered Resin Solutions (ERS) of
Chester, Pa., has added two executives to
the ERS team following a recent distribution agreement with ErgonArmor.
Chris Lehman
has been named
technical sales manager bringing nearly
20 years of technical sales and sales
management experience in the high
performance coatings field to his new
position with ERS.
Previously Mr. Lehman worked for Bel-zona and Thortex.
Jon Kligerman has joined ERS as the
new distribution sales manager and will
help ERS continue to develop its marketing push within the aforementioned states.
Mr. Kligerman previously worked for
more than 20 years at Rohm & Haas as
distribution account manager, and in sales
and technical service roles.
Jon Kligerman
Sudarshan strengthens
management team
Christine Gehres has joined Sudarshan's
pigment division as the new vice president
of global marketing
and strategy. She
will lead the pigment division's
global marketing
initiative and provide strategic direction in all aspects of
the pigment business. Sudarshan
said the hiring will help it achieve its goal
of becoming the fourth largest pigment
player in the world by 2014. Gehres is an
experienced business executive with
broad international marketing and pigment experience gained over more than
20 years at global chemical companies including Hoechst (Clariant), Engelhard
(BASF) and Ciba.
Aakash Chemicals names
Thompson VP, sales, North
America
Aakash Chemicals has appointed Duke
Thompson vice president, sales, North
America. Thompson has served the
chemical industry for the past 21 years
and the last 10 years in the area of pigments. He joins Aakash as a thought
leader that will assist with significant
growth in the inks, coatings, and plastics
markets. Apart from Duke’s experience
in the pigments market, Duke will be responsible for leading Aakash’s new sales
strategies across new ventures and partnerships globally.
MetoKote Corporation names
new president and CEO
MetoKote Corporation has promoted Jeffrey Oravitz to president and CEO.
Oravitz replaces former president and
chief executive DeWayne Pinkstaff. The
company also appointed Robert Lee to
executive chairman of the board.
Oravitz joined the company in 2005,
and has held key executive positions within
MetoKote's operations and sales areas, including his most recent role as the company's vice president of global business
development. Prior to joining MetoKote,
he was employed by PPG Industries, Inc.
for twenty years in a number of roles
throughout their coatings businesses.
Lee has served on the company's board
of directors since 2010 and has a broad
leadership background in the chemical industry, as well as processing and manufacturing companies, including
Millennium Chemicals, Quantum Chemicals, SCM Chemicals, Grove Crane and
Cavenham Forest Products. CW
