SPE names Bill Kent as Thermoformer of the Year

The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Thermoforming Division has named U.S.-based industry veteran Bill Kent as its Thermoformer of the Year.

The award will be presented during SPE’s Thermoforming Awards Dinner, held in conjunction with the 23^rd SPE Thermoforming Conference, which will take place September 15-18, 2014, in Schaumburg, Ill.

Kent’s career with Beaverton, Mich.-based Brown Machine began in 1961. He started as a technician, assembling machinery on the shop floor and traveling to customer facilities for machine installation and service needs. Promoted to sales engineer in 1965, Kent spent the next 46 years working in machinery sales and market development, becoming vice president of advanced technology in 1985. His 51-year career in the thermoforming industry concluded with his retirement from Brown Machine in 2012.

Kent was also one of the founding members of the SPE Thermoforming Division and sat on the first Board of Directors in the early 1980s. He was re-elected to the Board in 1998 and served on it through 2011. During his tenure, he was active on the Machinery Sub-Committee and worked on the technical programs of most of the Thermoforming Division’s twenty-three Annual Conferences.

“Bill’s numerous and valuable contributions to the thermoforming industry are really quite remarkable,” said Mark Strachan, SPE Thermoforming Division Chair. “During his career, he logged over six million flight miles as he travelled around the world promoting thermoformed products and the process that made them possible.”