The chief economist for the Plastics Industry Association and a member of its senior leadership team, Perc Pineda, has left the trade group.
The association confirmed the change in a Feb. 17 email, and said it was looking for a replacement for Pineda, who joined the Washington-based group in 2017.
Pineda had a very public role with the association, writing commentaries and analysis of economic conditions in the plastics industry, working on data-heavy reports on the industry's economic position domestically and globally, and being quoted in trade press and mainstream business media.
He joined the plastics group after stints in trade associations for credit unions, dairy exporters and at the International Monetary Fund.
Pineda's departure comes after two other members of the Washington-based association's senior leadership team, Susan Krys, vice president of trade shows, and Brendan Thomas, vice president of voice and advocacy, left in mid-2021.
Krys resigned after the association was forced by the coronavirus pandemic to cancel its mammoth NPE2021 trade show, which had been scheduled for May 2021.
That event, which happens every three years, is a significant source of funding for the association's operations.
Thomas had been named to his job in April 2020, after President and CEO Tony Radoszewski took over the association in 2019 and made several changes in its senior executive ranks in early 2020.
The association said it was seeking a new vice president of communications, but said it had eliminated the vice president of trade shows role.
The association has seen other staff in public roles leave recently.
Michael Werner, the director of the group's Equipment Council, left in January to return to a position with his previous employer, injection press maker Shibaura Machine Company America, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He had joined the association in September 2020 as director of membership sales.
The director of its Processors Council, George Southworth, also left in January to become executive director of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association. He also headed plastics association's Brand Owners Advisory Group.
As well, its primary media spokesman, George O'Connor, left the group in January to work as a vice president for Washington, D.C. public relations firm Nahigian Strategies.
O'Connor joined the plastics association in March 2021 as associate director of communications, after working as a press secretary in Congress and at the U.S. Department of Transportation. O'Connor had been a deputy of Thomas.
The association in January promoted Patrick Krieger to vice president of sustainability, joining its senior executive team.
