Axalta Coating Systems has opened a dual Refinish and Powder Coatings Learning and
Development Center in Houston, Texas.
The Center, built adjacent to Axalta’s
powder coatings manufacturing plant,
serves Axalta’s collision repair and commercial coatings customers by providing the latest learning and development
programs designed to improve technician
and business performance.
The Learning and Development
Center is expected to attract thousands
of collision repair professionals to the
Houston area for multi-day classes that
provide students with classroom education and hands-on experience. The center
features three classrooms equipped with
technology for distance learning, innovative seating pods to support collaboration, two paint mixing stations, two
spray booths, and space for the build-out
of the powder coatings training program
in 2016. Classes will be available in both
English and Spanish.
“We are proud to offer a centrally-located, multi-lingual training facility to
serve customers in the South,” remarked
Jeff Blake, Axalta business director. “The
investment in this high-tech facility reinforces our commitment to help our
customers continue education through
in-person technical training and eLearn-ing programs that are hosted here in
Houston and can be broadcast to customers throughout North America,”
Blake added.
The Learning and Development
Center opened with a celebratory pro-
gram that featured Ray Evernham, three-
time NASCAR champion crew chief and
TV host, Houston Rockets cheerleaders,
and a special scholarship and grant pre-
sentation to students attending Universal
Technical Institute (UTI) collision re-
pair program. The event culminated in
a ceremonial ribbon cutting by Blake,
Evernham, Nigel Budden-Axalta vice
president and Jeannie Bollinger-Houston
West Chamber of Commerce president.
Axalta customers, partners, and employ-
ees enjoyed the program that was fol-
lowed by tours, photos with the No. 24
Axalta Chevrolet SS NASCAR racecar,
spray paint sessions and more.
PPG Completes Colorful
Communities Project in
Bursa, Turkey
PPG Industries has announced the completion of a Colorful Communities char-itable-giving project in Bursa, Turkey,
which helped revitalize the Bursa Merkez
Learning Unit of TEGV (Educational
Volunteers Foundation of Turkey). The
Colorful Communities program incorporates employee volunteers, products and
financial contributions to bring color and
vitality to communities where the company operates around the world. Launched
earlier this year, the program expands
PPG’s investment in global communities
by committing an additional $10 million
over 10 years.
PPG donated $16,000 to TEGV,
along with TRILAKT brand paint products by PPG, to beautify the Learning
Unit in Yildirim, Bursa, which serves local children who have limited access to
education. The project brought together
approximately 50 PPG employee volunteers from the company’s Bursa plants
and Istanbul office, who used the Trilak
paints to complete the project.
TEGV creates and provides educa-
tional programs and extracurricular ac-
tivities for children aged 6-14 in order to
build on the basic education extended by
the Turkish state and offer benefits from
modern educational opportunities. The
foundation, headquartered in Istanbul,
operates in 31 provinces with 38 Learning
Unit locations - along with Education
Parks, Firefly Mobile Learning Units and
City Representative Offices – where it of-
fers unique programs for local children
with the support of volunteers. TEGV
signed the Global Compact in 2007 and
has helped nearly two million children
have a brighter future with help from its
10,000 volunteers.
“The Learning Units provided by
TEGV are crucial for children without
access to proper out-of-school educa-
tion,” said PPG Turkey general director
Günes Evgin. “With the renovation of the
Learning Unit in Bursa, we aim to help
TEGV to add color to and beautify more
children’s and parents’ lives.”
The PPG Colorful Communities initia-
tive aims to enhance, protect and beautify
the neighborhoods where the company
operates. Together with community part-
ners and PPG employee volunteers, the
program supports projects that transform
community assets using donated PPG
products. Other Colorful Communities
projects involved revitalizing and improv-
ing the safety of a playground in Poland;
transforming classrooms and corridors,
and adding to the science curriculum, at a
charter school in Pittsburgh; and creating
a more welcoming and positive environ-
ment at a children’s hospital in Italy.
The Colorful Communities program
is currently engaged with a number
of communities and expects to complete more than 14 projects in 2015 in
North America, South America, Europe
and Asia. PPG has completed six other
Colorful Communities projects to date:
in the United States, Italy, Poland, the
Netherlands, South Korea and China.
In 2014, PPG and the PPG Industries
Foundation donated more than $5.7 million to hundreds of community organizations across 24 countries around the
world. These investments focused on:
education programs that teach young
people skills needed to succeed in studies
and careers related to science, technology,
Axalta Coating Systems Opens Dual Refinish,
Powder Coatings Learning & Development
Center in Houston
