Thomas C. Osborne,  CEO of Tnemec and outgoing chairman of the National Paint and Coatings Association (NPCA), was presented with the 2005 NPCA George Baugh Heckel award.

The award -- which is kept secret until its presentation--is NPCA’s highest honor.  Osborne accepted the award in Cleveland yesterday afternoon at the Honor’s Luncheon.

Osborne took on the role of NPCA chairman in 2003. He has spent more than 30 years in the paint industry, starting as an accounting trainee at Glidden in 1973 and working his way up the corporate ranks. After Glidden was sold to ICI Paints in 1984, Osborne was named executive vice president in charge of ICI Paints stores in 1989 and later took the post CEO of ICI Paints North America. He left ICI to join Tnemec in 1998.

Today, Osborne hands the NPCA chairman’s gavel to Edward J. Donnelly Jr. of DuPont Coatings & Color Technologies..