Plastics Pioneers name five new members

The Plastics Pioneers Association has named five new members: Dennis Don, Dennis Knaus, Dan Raher, Wylie Royce and David Schultz.

The non-profit PPA, based in McHenry, Ill., is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2018. It is comprised of plastics industry leaders who have at least 20 years of experience. The group's main purposes are to preserve the history of the plastics industry and support the next generation of plastics leaders through its scholarship program.

PPA inducted the new members at the association's fall meeting, held Sept. 29-30 in Louisville, Ky.

Dennis Don, who started in plastics in 1974, has spent his entire career at Bamberger Polymers Corp. He started as a sales trainee after graduating from Stony Brook University.

He currently is president and co-CEO of the global resin distributor based in Jericho, N.Y. . Bamberger sells 1.2 billion pounds of resin globally and employs 155.

Dennis Knaus, who graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, is an expert in foam extrusion who holds several U.S. patents. He began his career at National Rubber Machinery in Akron, Ohio, where he designed extrusion machinery. Later, he became director of research and development for Packaging Industries Group of Hyannis, Mass. In 1971 Knaus designed and built a system to extrude very low density polyethylene foam, which was economical to use for protective packaging. It also was the first low-cost reliable foam for personal flotation devices. Today, Sealed Air Corp. and Pregis LLC use his technology to make most of their PE foam products, according to PPA.

Knaus founded Enviro-Tek in 1991 to improve the environment through the development of new foam technologies. The United Nations hired Knaus in the early 1990s as its primary contractor to implement the Montreal Protocol, PPA said.

Knaus has been a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers since 1970.

Dan Raher is vice president of sales and marketing at Deltech Polymers Corp. in Troy, Ohio. His 42-plus years in plastics include work in sales and marketing roles for Nova Chemicals Corp., Univar USA and Huntsman Corp. through Ohio Valley Plastics distribution.

Raher received a bachelor's degree in economics from St. Anselm College and a master's degree in plastics engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He has been a member of SPE since 1978 and has been active in the Plastics Industry Association, the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the National Polystyrene Recycling Council. PPA said Raher fought for plastics initiatives during a period when foam packaging and single-serve items were under attack from those who favored paper and cardboard.

Wylie Royce is owner and director of Royce Global, which is celebrating its 89th anniversary as a global supplier and manufacturer of color concentrates, additive masterbatches and liquid color dispersions to the plastics industry. He is a speaker, author and advocate for plastics in food, drugs and cosmetics packaging. Royce was instrumental in developing early technologies for reprocessing and color of post-industrial polystyrene.

Royce is the current chairman of the Plastics Industry Association, and past chairman of the trade association's color and additives compounders division. He is treasurer of the association's food, drug and cosmetic materials committee. He also is a past board member of the Foodservice Packaging Institute and a member of the technical advisory board of Health Beauty America.

David Schultz, the technical director at Harwick Standard Distribution Co. in Akron, Ohio, has been in the plastics industry for more than 40 years. He started his career at Ohio Rubber Co.

Schultz earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Akron in 1978, and a master's in polymer science in 1984. He has been very active in SPE for many years, serving as president of the Akron section, national councilor and secretary. Schultz has been involved in various activities within SPE's recycling and polymer modifiers and additives divisions. The Akron section named him to the Plastics Hall of Honor in 1995.

Schultz also has been active with the Intersociety Polymer Education Council as a leader for Polymer Ambassadors, helping promote polymer education to teachers and pre-college students.