Dave Bening was promoted in July to general manager of Ashland Distribution Co.´s General Polymers Division, with responsibility for developing GP´s long-range, strategic business plans and programs. A 20-year Ashland veteran, he had been GP´s director of source management for commodity resins since April.
Bening succeeded GP vice president and general manager Daniel W. McGuire, who co-founded the Dublin, Ohio-based resin distribution firm in 1973. Ashland Chemical Co. acquired GP in 1983. McGuire has remained active during an interim transition period, and will retire on Jan. 1, 2000, at which time Bening will assume full responsibility for directing the division.
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Bening earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from St. Lawrence University of Canton, N.Y., and a bachelor´s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. He joined Ashland Chemical Co. as a chemist in 1979, served as a chemical buyer for several other divisions from 1986-88, and then for the next eight years held a variety of manufacturing, marketing and management posts within Ashland´s Composite Polymers Division. Bening then worked for two years as director of GP´s Eastern Region, before assuming the previously noted director´s post in the commodity resin business.
Ashland Distribution Co., a division of Ashland Inc., describes itself as the largest distributor of chemicals, plastics and fiber reinforcements in North America and as a leading pan-European distributor of plastics. Ashland Distribution (www.ashdist.com) has 100 distribution centers serving North America and Europe.