The following industry professionals have recently received appointments or promotions.
BYK-Gardner Instruments has appointed Jörg Krames as president and CEO. Krames previously spent 15 years at ALTANA, most recently as vice president, Global Key Account. Prior to that, he worked for BASF Coatings.
His main goals at the company are to drive forward brand perception and the digitalization of business processes, as well as planning for upcoming generational change, transformation projects, and employee development.
Krames is a trained mechanical engineer with a doctorate in chemical engineering from RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau.
Nippon Paint Automotive Coatings has announced the appointment of Michael Leonard as president and CEO of the Nippon Paint Automotive Americas Group. Leonard, who is succeeding Robert Angart who has retired, will lead Nippon Paint Automotive Americas, Nippon Paints Automotive Coatings Mexico S. A. de C. V., and Nippon Paint Automotive Brazil.
Leonard has been with the company more than 32 years and has a wide range of experience and expertise. He started as a chemist in 1992, and then took various roles in Field Technical Service before moving to sales as a commercial director and then vice president of Sales & Marketing. Leonard holds a master’s from DePaul University.
Juanjo Ardid has been named president of Carboline, a manufacturer of coatings, linings, and fireproofing. Ardid succeeds Chris Tiernay, who has led the company since 2016.
Before joining Carboline, Ardid, a native of Barcelona, Spain, was employed by PPG since 1993, most recently based in Pittsburgh, PA, as vice president of Protective and Marine Coatings for the United States and Canada. Ardid’s other prior roles include general manager for Global Automotive Adhesives and Sealants and market director roles for Europe, Middle East, and Africa automotive markets.
Holcim Building Envelope has appointed Lauren Pagano to president and Jason Loftus to vice president of Commercial for both the Adhesives, Coatings & Sealants and Spray Foam business units.
Pagano, who previously served as senior vice president of the Adhesives, Coatings, & Sealants business unit, will also oversee the Spray Foam business unit. Before Pagano joined Holcim Building Envelope this year, she was global business director at Trinseo.
Loftus will be taking over as vice president from Pagano and will be responsible for all customer interfacing roles, with a focus on sales, customer service, and technical service for brands such as Enverge Spray Foam and the Gaco line of products.
The consulting firm The ChemQuest Group, Inc. recently elevated four directors to vice president roles: Eric Casebolt, Rich Gibson, Crystal Morrison, and Prem Patel. The company says the promotions are part of its plan to enhance business development activities.
Casebolt joined ChemQuest in 2023. Casebolt’s career started at Johnson Polymer Inc., and evolved to include roles with BASF and Eastman Chemical Co. He has worked to develop and market many resin technologies and formulation additives for use in numerous applications. He holds a master’s degree in chemistry from DePaul University and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
Gibson joined ChemQuest in 2021, following a more than 30-year career at Milliken & Co., where he most recently served as director of corporate strategy. His expertise includes market segmentation, value chain analysis, business intelligence, econometrics, voice of the market, due diligence, and risk management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Tennessee.
Morrison joined ChemQuest in 2018. Prior to joining ChemQuest, she held several roles at Los Alamos National Laboratory and later joined PPG, where she led global research for industrial and packaging coatings technology. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in macromolecular science and engineering from the University of Michigan.
Patel, who most recently served as managing principal of Third Eye Advisory, developed extensive strategy, marketing, sales, operations, and product development experience in roles for companies such as Rogers Corp., Lear Corp., Milliken & Co., and Ingevity Corp. He holds an MBA from Duke University.
RPM International Inc. has announced that Matthew E. Schlarb has been appointed vice president–investor relations and sustainability, while Paul R. Darwin has taken the role of vice president–procurement.
Schlarb joined RPM in 2022 as senior director–investor relations. In his new role, Schlarb will have oversight of RPM’s investor relations and the Building a Better World sustainability initiative.
Schlarb joined RPM from Lottery.com, where he was the vice president of investor relations. Prior to that, he served as the head of investor relations at Fairmount Santrol and held investor relations roles at Mettler Toledo.
Darwin, who will be responsible for the execution of the company’s multi-year global procurement strategy, has been at RPM for 17 years. After starting with Tremco Illbruck as purchasing manager in 2007, Darwin led the newly formed RPM group purchasing team in 2012. He then held roles of increasing responsibility, including director of global procurement and most recently, senior director–procurement.
BASF has announced Markus Dinslacken will assume the role of managing director the Global People & Culture Coatings unit at BASF Coatings GmbH on September 1. BASF Coatings has approximately 11,600 employees at 70 sites worldwide.
Dinslacken joins BASF with a wide range of experiences in human resources management and IT. During his career, he has held various positions at the Henkel Group, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and most recently, as chief human resources officer at Fresenius Kabi.
PPG has appointed Amy Mercante as general manager of specialty products, a role in the Company’s Specialty Coatings and Materials strategic business unit and a newly formed segment to offer solutions to high-growth industries and markets.
Mercante, who joined PPG in 1991 as a chemistry trainee, has more than 30 years of industry experience. In her new role, she will provide strategic and operational leadership to the newly formed specialty products segment, comprised of the specialty synthesis group, optical monomers and coatings, and TESLIN® products business lines to ensure their profitable and sustainable growth.