“In 1975 there were 100 coatings companies in the U.S.,
today there are only 31,” said Alexander. “Still the coatings
industry has adapted and changed to meet the demands for
high performance, cost effective coatings. This has helped the
coatings industry achieve success despite the economic crisis.
The industry continues to innovate.”
The technical program featured four sessions running
concurrently. Presentations covered a broad range of topics
and included both paint manufacturers and raw material
suppliers. Presentations included “Powder Coatings in the
Defense Industry,” by Beth Ann Pearson of Sherwin-Williams;
“Supersticky Waterborne Primer,” by Peter Schmitt of Bayer
MaterialScience and “The
Challenging Landscape
of Alkyd Emulsions for
Architectural Coatings in
North America,” by Neal
Rogers of Arkema Coatings
Resins.
The WCS also featured
a Leadership Panel: Let’s
Talk about Money, which
was moderated by Patrick
Kelly of Dowd and Guild
and featured insights from
a variety of experts in the
coatings industry including Vince Anderson of
the Horn Company, Eric
Fernandez of EP Minerals,
John Gilbert of Behr, Sheryl
Southwell of Specialty
Polymers and Wilhelm
Wessels of BYK Chemie.
The Panel offered insight
on a variety of topics. Sheryl
Southwell was asked what were the lessons learned from the
economic downturn? “When times are tough it is really important to focus on teamwork, never give up and communicate,”
she said.
John Gilbert was asked “Based on your experience
where are the opportunities for growth?” He said, “Most
of the opportunity is in creating new goods and services.
When there is slow growth in an industry, you have to cre-
ate value by developing new products. It is very important
for companies to keep up with R&D. There certainly are
opportunities in a slower economy, people have more time
to undertake DIY projects.”
Another highlight of the event was the presentation of
the Samson Adler Distinguished Service Award to two in-
dustry veterans. The WCS selected two recipients for this
honor. The 2012 recipient is John Buckinger and the 2013 re-
cipient is Jarry Moore.
Buckinger has had a long and successful career in the coat-
ings industry. Prior to retirement, he converted Miller Paint to
a wholly employee-owned
company by establishing
an ESOP (Employee Stock-
Ownership Program).
The 2013 Samson-Adler
Distinguished Service Award
recipient, Jarry Moore, had
a career in the coatings industry that included 25
years at Ribelin. He was
also one of the founder
of the Arizona Society for
Coating Technology.
Exhibits/Student Posters
In addition to the technical presentations there were 130 exhibitors, offering their latest products and services for the paint
and coatings industry. During the exhibition there were also
a Student Poster session where students from the California
Polytechnic University displayed their research.
Plans are already in place to expand and improve on the
Symposium for 2015.
“We are always looking into new features and ways to
improve the Symposium,” said Harlan. “One such new feature we had this year was having four of the college students
that submitted posters for our poster session speak about
their posters during an open forum. We plan on expanding
on this by having a University Student Research Track at
the next Symposium where students speak about the poster
submission. We are looking for an all day track if enough
students submit, but it probably more likely will be a morning or afternoon track.” CW
Above: The WCS commenced with
a keynote address on the state of
the U.S. economy. Left: Students
from Cal Poly displayed their
research at the Poster Session held
during the exhibit portion.
