Roger Young began a nearly two-decade career working for Dow Plastics in 1973 with assignments in research, manufacturing, and new-technology commercialization and product development. He held both management and scientific roles, before leaving the
Young was a 40-year-old development scientist in the engineering thermoplastics business when he quit Dow, with visions of sailing the world. The Long Island, N.Y., native bought a 44-foot sailboat in 1989, left Michigan and spent his next two years at Dow working from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., before quitting to start his product-development consulting firm called Young Ideas Inc.
His noteworthy successes while at Dow included:
* Pioneering low-gloss ABS for automotive interiors;
* Developing and introducing its Pulse-brand polycarbonate/ABS blends;
* Managing development programs for the firm's Isoplast engineering thermoplastic polyurethane and Questra syndiotactic polystyrene materials.
A 1973 chemistry graduate from
Projects typically involve engineering thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, polypropylene compounds, compounding or automotive technologies and markets. For nearly the past decade he has been based in