The ever-popular topics of resin supply, demand, technology, pricing and global trends will be center stage when Plastics News convenes its 2007 Executive Forum in San Diego late next month. The North American presidents of Bayer MaterialScience LLC, Dow Chemical Co. and Basell Polyolefins are among the speakers at the Feb. 25-28 event.
Bayer's Greg Babe, Dow's Howard Ungerleider and Basell's Michael Mulrooney will deliver solo presentations about the polycarbonate, polyethylene and polypropylene resin markets, respectively, before coming together for a panel discussion moderated by Akron-based Plastics News' senior reporter Frank Esposito.
But the fun doesn't end there. On the conference's final morning, Fort Worth, Texas-based consultants at Resin Technology Inc. have helped pull together a panel featuring four processors that consume large quantities of resin. Senior executives from those firms have agreed to share some of the specific strategies they employ for securing the best possible terms for their materials purchases. The executives include:
* Jim Bob Carpenter, Bradenton, Fla.-based executive vice president of global sourcing for Montreal's publicly held Intertape Polymer Group, which produces polyolefin- and paper-based packaging products.
* Jerry Esposito, general manager and director of worldwide sourcing for Camarillo, Calif.-based Technicolor Home Entertainment Systems, a unit of France's Thomson Group, and a major manufacturer of CDs and DVDs.
* Pete Henning, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Plano Molding Co., a Plano, Ill., injection molder of storage systems and organizers for indoor and outdoor applications.
* Jack Riopelle, president of Wisconsin Film & Bag Inc., which custom manufactures PE bags and sheet for industrial and institutional food-packaging markets. Riopelle also is chairman of the Film & Bag Federation, a unit of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.
Bill Bowie, RTi's chief operating officer, will moderate the panel discussion.