Executives Randall Fortin and Larry Johnson no longer are with materials firm Star Thermoplastics Alloys & Rubbers Inc.
Both left the firm “by mutual arrangements” earlier this month, a company spokeswoman said April 16. Fortin had joined Broadview, Ill.-based Star in March 2014 as chief operating officer. Johnson came on board in June as vice president of business development and sales.
The spokeswoman said no timetable has been set to find replacements. In the interim, she said, owner and President Tom Dieschbourg will take a larger role in Star's sales operations. As recently as late March, both Dieschbourg and Fortin took part in an interview with Plastics News at NPE 2015 in Orlando, Fla.
Both positions were new ones for Star when Fortin and Johnson were hired. Dieschbourg told PN in June that he “needed to share some of the load” that he had been carrying since he founded Star in 1993.
Star had been a client of Fortin's consulting firm — VCS 2 LLC of Avon Lake, Ohio. Johnson also worked for Fortin at VCS. Prior to VCS, both Fortin and Johnson had been with North American compounding leader PolyOne Corp.
Fortin also has extensive specialty chemicals experience, primarily with Nalco Chemical Co. Johnson has a lengthy plastics resume, including stops at Ticona and Deerfield Urethane. He also briefly worked for Dieschbourg in the late 1980s at GLS Corp., which later was acquired by PolyOne.
In an email, Fortin confirmed that his leaving Star was by mutual arrangement. Johnson was not available for comment. Star makes compounds based on several types of thermoplastic elastomers, selling into automotive, medical and other markets.
During 2014, Star added 54,000 square feet of manufacturing space and bought the building it occupies in Broadview. By the end of 2016, the firm plans to install two new twin-screw extrusion lines.
Privately owned Star does not disclose sales figures. Officials previously said the firm's 2014 sales were up 10-20 percent.
