McHenry, Ill. — The Plastics Pioneers has named three new members: Mark Bruner, Clare Goldsberry and Phil Shoemaker.
The non-profit PPA has more than 200 members, all of whom have at least 25 years of experience in the plastics industry. The group's main purposes are to award scholarships to students seeing a career in plastics, and to preserving the history of the industry.
The new members were announced at the group's fall meeting, held Oct. 11-14 in Pittsburgh.
Bruner
Mark Bruner retired in July after 43 years of service to the industry, most recently as president of O'Neill Color and Compounding Corp. He worked at several materials companies, including Shell Chemical, Huntsman Chemical (where he served on the board of directors of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.), Albis North America (he was president and CEO) and Muehlstein Compounded Products (general manager).
He joined O'Neill in 2010.
Bruner has been involved with SPI and the Society of Plastics Engineers throughout his career.
The 25-year SPE member has been active in the South Texas Section.
Goldsberry
Clare Goldsberry has been writing and reporting about plastics since 1982. She first worked in marketing and public relations for Tech Group Inc., then was the marketing and sales manager for Mid-West Mold.
Goldsberry started her career in plastics journalism with Plastics News in 1989. In 1996, she joined Injection Molding Magazine, now part of PlasticsToday.com, where she is a regular contributor.
Goldsberry also has written six books about injection molding and mold making, including a three-book series on improving their sales and marketing efforts.
She also speaks at schools about the plastics industry and its value to society.
Goldsberry has been involved with SPE, SPI and the American Mold Builders' Association. She edited SPE's Arizona Section newsletter from 1983 to 1995, and was section president from 1986-87. She was public relations chairman of SPI's Western Section and has served AMBA in various public relations capacities.
Shoemaker
Phil Shoemaker joined molder HMC Inc. in 1982 as a process technician — beginning his plastics career. After HMC was sold in 1994, he embarked on a 20-year journey that resulted in him becoming a major authority on pelletizing technology.
He joined Rieter Corp. as sales manager in 1995, where he rose to the post of vice president of the pelletizing machinery department, which was responsible for sales, service and aftermarket business of Automatik GmbH of Germany. He became president of the newly formed Automatik Inc. in 2008.
Following the merger of Automatik and Maag Pump Systems in 2011, Shoemaker was named general manager of Maag Automatik.
He currently is executive director of the Polymers Center of Excellence in Charlotte, N.C.
Shoemaker has been an SPE member since 1983, and he has made many technical presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops about pelletizing and compounding. SPE named him an honored service member in 1998. He has been active in SPE's Carolinas Section, and has been a voting member of SPI since 1995.
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