Bill Bowie has spent the last 18 years focused on the purchasing of plastic raw materials for industry leaders. He began his plastics career as a management trainee for blown film processor Poly-America Inc., and gained experience in all aspects of the company. He managed Poly-America's compounding operations, before moving into materials management for the Texas firm, which consumed more than 500 million pounds of resin per year.
Bowie then went to work as resin manager at Doskocil Manufacturing Co., a maker of injection molded pet products. There he established a continuous-improvement system that encompassed manufacturing, engineering, sales, product development and finance. The success of that program – devoted to maintaining high product quality standards while driving down resin costs – prompted Doskcoil to invest in a compounding facility capable of handling 120 million pounds a year. In 1996, Doskocil promoted Bowie to president of Spectrum Polymer Inc., a separate but commonly owned firm.
In 1998, Bowie, a psychology graduate from the University of Wisconsin, joined with Garland Strong to co-found Resin Technology Inc., a consulting company in Fort Worth, Texas. In less than 5 years, RTi (www.resinpros.com) has grown to 14 employees representing more than 2 billion pounds in annual client material purchases. The firm aims to empower its clients with knowledge that in turn allows them to make more informed buying choices.