Donald Rosato

Donald V. "Don" Rosato has extensive technical and marketing plastic industry experience from product development, through production, to marketing, having worked for Northrop Grumman, Owens-Illinois, DuPont/Conoco, Hoechst Celanese/Ticona, and Borg Warner/G.E. Plastics. He has written extensively in emerging plastic material, process and end use areas, authored multiple handbooks, developed numerous polymer related patents, participates in many trade groups (SPE, SPI, PIA, CPPIA, SAMPE), and is involved in these areas with PlastiSource, Inc. (technical development; prototype manufacturing). BS Chemistry, Boston College; MBA, Northeastern University; M.S. Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell; Ph.D. Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Thielen

Dr.-Ing. Michael Thielen, born in 1961 studied mechanical engineering specialized on plastics processing at the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany in connection with the Institut fur Kunststoffverarbeitung (Institute for plastics processing IKV).

After 14 years in the plastics Industry (Kautex Maschinenbau / SIG) as project engineer, sales manager and Head of Public Relations, he left SIG in 2003 to start his own PR conultancy firm Polymediaconsult.

In addition, he founded Polymedia Publisher GmbH in 2006. Today he's a PR consultant (Polymediaconsult) and publisher and editor in Chief of bioplastics MAGAZINE.

Ken Kear

Currently Dr. Kear is a consultant on the application engineering of TPE parts and structural analysis with FEA. He has taught on tooling design for polymer processing. He entered the polymer field through research and teaching in chemistry and the chemistry of rubber. Dr. Kear first entered the TPE field with the commercial introduction of Santoprene TPVs and spent 22 years in TPVs before his retirement from Santoprene Specialty Products, ExxonMobil. His experiences encompass the application engineering of commercially using TPVs including processing technology and tool design, rubber & TPE part design, computer modeling with FEA, computer modeling of injection molding and computer modeling of flow for single and twin-screw extrusion.

Rory Wolf

Rory Wolf holds a Masters in Business Administration from Marquette University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He is currently the Vice President of Business Development at Enercon Industries Corporation, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, USA. Mr. Wolf has 26 years experience within national and international sales, marketing and business management positions in the packaging industry. He has packaging experience in polymer-based flexible packaging, surface treatment systems, corrugated, point-of-sale display, folding carton, and electronic prepress industry segments.
His professional affiliations are as follows: Division Council Member, PLACE Division, TAPPI; Executive Board Member, Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE); Member, Society of Plastics Industry (SPI); Member, Screen Printing & Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA);

Volker Bucher

Dr. Volker Bucher studied Physics in D-Tübingen, D-Stuttgart and BR-Rio de Janeiro. He specialized in Applied Physics and Thin Film Technology. After doing his diploma thesis and PhD at the Natural and MedicalSciences Institute in D-Reutlingen, he joined the company Kleindiek Nanotechnik GmbH doing R&D in nano-positioning tools. After this he joined the Institute for Microelectronics in D-Stuttgart as head of optical lithography. Since 2004 he is working for the company PLASMA ELECTRONIC GmbH in D-Neuenburg. Being product manager for plasma machines and plasma job coating he is in deep contact with the industry and possesses a profound knowledge of the actual demands in industrial applications.

Scott Sabreen

Scott R. Sabreen is Founder and President of The Sabreen Group Inc., an engineering company, specializing in plastics laser marking, surface pretreatments, adhesive bonding, decorating & finishing and product security.
Sabreen has twenty-five years of extensive experience in which he is recognized internationally in the fields of plastics laser marking, material science additives and laser systems. He has invented and developed leading-edge technologies that achieve unprecedented marking contrast results and implementation of Six Sigma manufacturing solutions.
Scott Sabreen earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering at The Ohio State University, and Master of Science at the University of Texas.
Sabreen's advanced technologies are utilized throughout numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, computers & electronics, consumer products, animal identification and anti-counterfeit security.

• First U.S. Military and NASA approved avionic electronics incorporating laser enhancing additives for high performance engineering thermoplastics
• Developed first undercap promotion laser marking formulation technologies for polyolefin beverage closures
• Pioneered high contrast, durable laser marking material science and systems integration for computer keyboards(black marking contrast on white keycaps, and white marking contrast on black keycaps), replacing pad and sublimation printing methods
• Joint laser technology collaboration with leading plastic colorant companies that resulted in the first custom color laser marking materials formulations and process equipment optimization on specific resins
• Conducted laser marking process engineering for the first FDA approved laser additives/processes for direct food contact for polyolefins. Engelhard Corporation patented this technology breakthrough

Prior to establishing his company in 1992, Sabreen was the Director of Engineering and Quality Assurance for AirBorn interconnect systems. Before AirBorn, he was the Manufacturing Engineering Manager for Texas Instruments’ first Global Positioning System (GPS) space satellite program, U.S. Government Secret Clearance.
Scott Sabreen has authored more than 50 publications, including industry journal articles and presentations at technical conferences including keynote speaker. Sabreen is a Senior Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers and a Board Member for the Decorating and Assembly Division.

Ottmar Brandau

Ottmar Brandau is principal of OB Plastics Consulting & Technical Services in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. He grew up in Germany where he was first introduced to blow moulding in 1978 when he started working for Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH in Berlin Germany, at that time the largest supplier of blow molding machines.
He later worked for Husky Injection Molding Systems in Bolton, ON and Magic North America in various capacities. Today he advises clients in all areas of blow moulding and injection moulding of PET preforms, including product development and new plant start-up.
He is a regular contributor to industry magazines and speaks at conferences. He has written and edited two books both covering the PET industry in great detail. He conducts training seminars, in-house and now also on-line over the Internet, covering a wide range of blow moulding processes.
His website is at: www.blowmolding.org, and features among other information articles related to the industry a mini-tutorial on PET processing.

Allan Griff

Allan Griff is an extrusion consultant and educator, and has been working with plastics extrusion since 1955 -- first as a technical service engineer with Union Carbide Plastics, and then independent since 1961. He is primarily concerned with: Extrusion education (public seminars and in-house training); Author and publisher of The Plastics Extrusion Operating Manual and does Private consulting work, including legal assistance. Allan L. Griff, Consulting Engineer, Bethesda, Maryland.

Guenter Beyer

Dr. Guenter Beyer is currently the R&D Manager for Materials & Head of the Chemical-Physical Laboratory of Kabelwerk Eupen AG.
Since 1984 he is with Kabelwerk Eupen AG; B-4700 Eupen - Belgium. He started in the R&D department; since 1996 responsible for the R&D activities for material development & head of the chemical-physical laboratory including the cable fire testing stations. He is also a Board member of the Belgian Polymer Group.