For the second time this year, DuPont Co. is changing management at its plastics-related business unit.
Randy Stone has been named president of Performance Materials for Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont. He replaces Patrick Lindner, a 20-year DuPont veteran who was named to that post on Jan. 1. Lindner has resigned to take a position with Gore-Tex fabric maker W.L. Gore & Associates.
Stone has been with DuPont since 2007, most recently serving as global business director of high performance solutions for Performance Materials. Stone “will help drive growth through a strong innovative pipeline of products that meet customer needs,” Executive Vice President Marc Doyle said in a March 14 news release.
DuPont's Performance Materials unit was formed Jan. 1 when DuPont merged its previous Performance Polymers and Packaging & Industrial Polymers units. Performance Materials' product mix now includes nylon, acetal and polybutylene terephthalate resins; thermoplastic elastomers and biopolymers, as well as polymer modifers and additives and specialty resins used in adhesives, barriers, sealants and peelable lidding.
It also includes the DuPont Teijin Films business, which ranks as North America's fifth-largest film and sheet business, according to a recent Plastics News ranking, with estimated sales of almost $1.4 billion in 2014.
DuPont announced on Dec. 11 that it was merging with fellow plastics and chemicals giant Dow Chemical Co. But a March 4 Bloomberg media report indicated that German plastics and chemicals power BASF SE may make a competing bid for DuPont.
None of the three firms have commented publicly on BASF's rumored interest. If DuPont or Dow backs out of the merger, the agreement calls for a $1.9 billion break-up fee.