Conference Speakers - 2010

Mark Badger President & CEO, Canadian Plastics Industry Association Mark was a Vice President of Royal Group from 1995 through 2008. His responsibilities at Royal included corporate communications, marketing and corporate development. While working with Royal, the TSX and NYSE listed company was North America s largest pipe and profile manufacturer, with operations located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and South America. Subsequent to Georgia Gulf's acquisition of Royal Group in 2006, he also led Georgia Gulf s investor relations activities. Mark graduated with an Honours Degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario in 1980. Since graduation, he has worked with leading firms in the plastics industry, including BF Goodrich Corporation of Canada, Epton Industries Inc. and Royal Group Inc. He received a Queen's Jubilee Medal from the Governor General of Canada in 2002, in recognition of his leadership roles with charitable organizations.
	Paul Blanchard Senior Consultant, Chemical Marketing Associates, Inc. Paul joined Chemical Marketing Associates, Inc. (CMAI) in 2007 as Senior Consultant focused on expanding CMAI's engineering plastics practice area. Paul brings with him over 30 years of experience in the plastics business. Prior to joining CMAI, Paul's earlier positions include: Product Manager, Compounds at Albis Plastics Product Marketing Managaer at LNP Engineering Plastics, Inc. Director of Sales, Marketing and Technology for Clariant Performance Plastics Several positions over a 20-year career at General Electric Company's Plastics Business including: Industry Manager, Compounders and Secondary Markets Marketing Manager, Packaging Programs Product Manager positions in Noryl® resins and Valox® resins Paul began his career with GE in Finance where he held multiple positions, the last of which was Manager Finance, Composite Polymers Operation
	Gus Garrett Director of Education, Resin Technology Inc Gus joined Dow Chemical Company in 1965 working in many areas of the company including polyethylene sales, distribution, and marketing management. Gus became Senior Distribution Manager at Dow Plastics in 1984 with the responsibility of establishing, launching and maintaining a prime plastic resin distribution network for all of Dow's thermoplastic resins. He also managed all off specification thermoplastic resins from characterization, price, channel selection and eventual sales; a five hundred million pound business. In 1988, Gus developed and implemented curricula for sales, marketing, and technical service people as Senior Group Training Manager. Then in 1992, he was promoted to Senior Marketing Executive with the charter to develop and implement market/product plans for commodity polyethylene. Responsibilities included collaborative involvement with sales, R&D, manufacturing and financial functions as well as executive interaction with clients. In addition, he participated in leading negotiating and finalizing significant multi-year, large volume, complex contracts. Gus retired from Dow in 2001 after 36 years of service. He began working with RTi in January 2002 and is currently the Education Director leading workshops and speaking around the country. Gus has a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
	Chris Gick Manager, Industry Dynamics, NOVA Chemicals Inc. In over 27 years of employment with NOVA Chemicals, Chris Gick has held many positions within the Company. These positions have spanned many functions and include Commercial and Technical Management, and Investor Relations. Since mid-2009, he has held his current position as Manager, Industry Dynamics for Nova. In this position, he is responsible for economic and business research, including analysis of changes and trends that affect the dynamics of the industries within which NOVA participates. Chris Gick was born and raised in Montreal. He holds a Degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University and an MBA from the University of Calgary. He has spent periods of time living and working for NOVA Chemicals in Calgary and Montreal. He currently resides in Pittsburgh where he works at NOVA's United States Commercial Center.
	Patricia M. Mohr Vice-President, Economics & Commodity Market Specialist, The Scotiabank Group Patricia Mohr is Vice-President, Economics, at Scotiabank's Executive Offices in Toronto. Pat is responsible for commodity market research in Scotia Economics and works closely with Scotia Capital's Corporate and Investment Banking groups -- including the Oil & Gas and Mining teams -- with Scotia Capital's Institutional Equity Sales and with Global Trading. ScotiaWaterous is a leading global M&A advisory firm in the energy sector, with offices in Calgary, Houston, London, Singapore, Beijing and across the Asia Pacific. Scotia Capital is the top corporate mining bank in Canada, is among the top two in North America (No. 1 in deal count) and is a leading provider to the mining industry internationally, with extensive offices throughout Latin America (Chile, Peru and Mexico) and the Far East. ScotiaMocatta is the world's top physical trader of precious metals, has recently become a member of the Shanghai Gold Exchange and is a member of the London Gold Fixing and the permanent chair of the London Silver Fixing. Ms. Mohr developed the 'Scotiabank Commodity Price Index' - the first of its kind to measure price trends for Canadian commodities in export markets. Ms. Mohr is a member of the Board of Directors of the 'Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy'. Ms. Mohr holds an Honours B.A. Degree and a Masters Degree in Economics from The University of British Columbia and originally comes from Vancouver. Prior to joining Scotiabank, Ms. Mohr spent a number of years with Alberta Energy Co. Ltd. (now EnCana Corp.) in Calgary and with CP Ships and Canadian Pacific Bermuda in London, England as Corporate Economist. Pat began her career with Natural Resources Canada in Ottawa.
	John Moisson President, JAMPLAST Inc., St. Louis, MO John Moisson is the President and founder of JAMPLAST Inc. , a leader in the distribution of plastic resins, biopolymers, biocomposites and additives. The company is in its 15th year of business and sells a full line of thermoplastic resins to over 250 plastic processors across North America. John has over 25 years of experience in the petrochemical industry. After completing a Bachelors Degree in Logistics and Marketing from the University of Tennessee, John began his career with Dow Chemical in Freeport Texas. While at Dow, he held positions in manufacturing, sales and marketing management. In 1994 John and his wife Carolyn started JAMPLAST Inc. and since then have grown the company in to a successful resin distribution business specializing in biopolymers.
	José Rangel Manager, Aromatics & Derivatives Economic Services, DeWitt & Company, Inc. José Rangel has 12 years of consulting experience in the chemical industry. He has worked as a business analyst in projects related to transportation, process improvement, systems and strategy implementation, market analysis, supply and demand, and pricing for polymers and the polyester chain. Prior to joining DeWitt 9 years ago, José worked for Accenture in the chemical industry group as a process consultant. Additionally, José spent a year working for the firm UHY Advisors as a senior consultant performing contract audits for the refining business of large oil companies. Presently, José participates in business development activities for DeWitt's aromatics division and manages special projects related to PET and its raw material chain. At DeWitt, José has developed expertise in market, pricing, and cash cost analysis for the PET chain and contributes to DeWitt's PET Chain Strategic Analysis publication and the Toluene, Xylenes and Isomers PET Resin & Fiber Newsletter. José holds an MBA degree from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University.
	Esteban Sagel Director, Polyolefins and Polystyrene - North America, CMAI ESagel@cmaiglobal.com Esteban joined CMAI in 2006 as Director of Polyolefins - North America, and in 2009 became Director of Polyolefins and Polystyrene for the same region. He brings to his role over 13 years of industry experience, which has provided him with the opportunity to work throughout the industry's value chain. Esteban began his career in Spain with Repsol Quimica in 1994 as an Account Manager for Specialty Plastics, moving from there to the packaging industry as Caribbean Sales Manager with Tetra Pak. He later joined New Castle Industries as a Latin American Sales Manager for plastic processing equipment, completing his cycle of experiences in the producer and converter side of the industry. Since then, he has worked for a diverse group of industry management consulting firms, including Townsend Tarnell as a Polyolefins Analyst for North and Latin America and Nexant Inc. as a Senior Consultant and Manager Latin America for the Chemicals division. He also worked as an external consultant with ExxonMobil Chemical's Strategic Marketing Research Group. In 1994 Esteban earned a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering and an Industrial Management Diploma from the Institut Quimic de Sarria in Barcelona, Spain, and an MBA from Rice University's Jones School of Business in May of 2003.
	Mark Stephen Managing Editor, Canadian Plastics Magazine Mark's educational background includes an Honours B.A. (History) and an M.A. in History from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, N.S., where he also worked for a number of years as a historian and teacher. He entered the plastics industry by first working as a set-up man in an injection and blow molding plant, and then as a technician/operator in an extrusion plant. He followed that with several years' experience in plastics machinery sales, before joining the staff at Canadian Plastics.
	Judith Taylor Editor, ICIS Judith Taylor has been an ICIS editor for 11 years, and has extensive experience covering a wide range of petrochemical markets. She currently has responsibility for the US chlor-alkali markets, including chlorinated solvents, caustic soda and PVC, as well as co-ordinating with the ICIS portfolio of Latin American chlor-alkali reports. Ms. Taylor holds degrees in Biology and English, and has an industry background in surfactant chemistry and biofuels. She is well known in the sector for her expertise on chemical pricing dynamics and logistics, and she has spoken at many industry events and ICIS training courses. About ICIS: ICIS is the world's largest provider of real-time news and pricing information on the petrochemical, oil and natural gas markets, and publishes reports on more than 120 commodities. The pricing information is gathered by teams of reporters in London, Houston, Singapore and Shanghai to offer the most complete, authoritative and up-to-the minute independent market information available. ICIS has a global staff of 170 and is part of Reed Business Information (RBI), a unit of Reed Elsevier plc - the world's leading publisher and business-to-business information provider, with 37,000 employees and annual turnover of more than $8 billion. www.icis.com
	James David Virosco Manager of Special Projects, Strategy, Nexant Chemsystems Mr. James Virosco is Manager of Special Projects, Strategy in Nexant's Global Chemicals consulting practice. In this role, he manages and contributes to strategic planning engagements, such as long term strategic plan formulation, market and industry analyses, competitive positioning, and feasibility studies. In addition to his strategic planning consulting activities, Mr. Virosco is also responsible for Nexant's North American polymers practice, covering materials such as commodity polymers, engineering and performance polymers, thermoplastic elastomers, and other specialty polymers. In this role, he assists clients in market analysis, competitive economics, trend analysis, and growth strategy development. Over the course of his 23 year consulting career, Mr. Virosco has performed projects covering basic petrochemicals, commodity polymers, engineering thermoplastics, thermoplastic elastomers, and specialty chemicals. Before joining Nexant, Mr. Virosco was a Research Engineer in Union Carbide's Polyolefins Division. He holds B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
To view the 2009 Speaker Line up, click here.