TUCSON, ARIZ. — John Gaither, chairman, president and CEO of Reichhold Inc., will deliver the keynote address at the SPE Thermoset Topical Conference, set for Feb. 24-26 in Tucson.
Gaither will address unsaturated polyester resin composites, both present and future, and look at trends, growth and partnering opportunities.
The Topcon event is sponsored by the Society of Plastics Engineers' Thermoset division.
Gaither started his career with Reichhold in Vienna, Austria, developing the Eastern European sales territory. Later he created the company's stand-alone polyester resins division in Jacksonville, Fla., which became the world's largest unsaturated polyester resin company.
Following the recession, Reichhold started to rightsize the company's manufacturing footprint in the mature markets of North America and Western Europe while investing in emerging markets. In recent years, Reichhold has grown in Turkey, India and China.
The Thermoset division is SPE's fastest-growing division, and Topcon will include attendees from thermoset composite manufacturing (SMC, BMC, phenolic epoxy, rubber, melamine and others), raw material additives (including resins, glass, fillers and pigments), mold design and production, and part design and production.
Other speakers include:
• Joseph Rakow, principal engineer from Exponent Failure Analysis Associates.
• Peter Mooney, founder and president of Plastics Custom Research Services.
• Willem DeVos, SPE's CEO.
• Chip Jarvis, vice president of engineering & business development at Cambro Manufacturing.
• Scott Sims, chief metallurgist, Rosemont Copper Mine.
• Matt Lieser, key account and specification manager, Owens Corning.
• Tim Langschwager, lead development chemist, Quantum Composites.
For information on Topcon, see www.spethermosets.org.