Shin-Etsu Silicones Hires Silane Business Regional Sales Managers to Develop Multiple Growth Markets

In an effort to cultivate innovative solutions for customers in growing silanes markets, Shin-Etsu Silicones of America, Inc. (SESA: A U.S. subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., Japan) recently announced the expansion of their Silanes Sales Team with the addition of new Regional Sales Managers-Silanes Business−Elizabeth Roetger and Bill Severns. With respective territorial coverage of the eastern and western US, their objective will be to educate customers on the benefits of Shin-Etsu’s advanced technology and expand the application of silanes across numerous industries. Elizabeth and Bill will be joining Mike Gunther, Ph.D., International Business Development Manager/Silanes Technology.

Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from North Carolina State University, Elizabeth Roetger has amassed her expertise with over seventeen years of sales and marketing experience in polymers, silicones, and silanes. She spent the last eight years of her career as a Product Line Manager at Evonik Corporation.

Reporting directly to John Heitler, Jr., SESA’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Roetger’s immediate focus at SESA will be to grow the silane business east of the Mississippi River. With her acumen and vast experience in the industry, Roetger plans to hit the ground running by investing extensive time with key customer personnel in their technical centers.

According to Roetger, “Our primary goal is to raise brand awareness and increase market share by fostering relationships with new and existing clients. With a more consultative focus on R&D, we intend to provide innovative solutions across multiple markets.”

Roetger stated that, “Between our US and Japan entities, SESA has high quality silane products with unique properties that offer a myriad of value-driven solutions for a variety of industries. Our goal is to increase the value of our customers’ products. By utilizing our expanded sales team and technical resources in Ohio and New Jersey, we see a great future ahead.”

With a degree in Polymer Science and a twelve-year background in thermoplastics, Bill Severns joined SESA four years ago−serving two years with Manufacturing and Quality Assurance and two years with Inside Sales. Severns will now apply his expertise to managing and growing silanes accounts west of the Mississippi River.

Also reporting directly to Heitler, Severns’ goal will be to grow both workhorse and specialty silanes accounts across a wide assortment of application markets such as: adhesives, sealants, composites, oil & gas, and high-performance paints & coatings for automotive, marine, and roofing industries. An additional target market focus will be cultivating amino silanes for specialty surface treatments across many industries.

According to Severns, “Our pivotal goal is to increase the awareness of Shin-Etsu’s inventive technology by collaborating with our customers−delivering technical support and providing advanced R&D in core and specialty silanes markets.”

Mike’s formal training was that of a synthetic organic chemist. After earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati in the mid-‘90s, Mike began his career in the silane industry as a bench chemist at what is now Momentive Performance Materials, Inc. More recently, Mike worked with Shin-Etsu for three years in a consulting role before joining Shin-Etsu fulltime. He is now in his sixth year as Shin-Etsu’s International Business Development Manager.

According to Gunther, “Even though we are called the ‘Silanes Sales Team’, our reach goes far beyond that of traditional silanes. The Team also promotes Shin-Etsu’s growing portfolio of water-based silanes, oligomeric silanes, and reactive silicone oligomers.”

He concluded in stating, “Elizabeth and Bill bring technical expertise, unique experiences, and diverse skills to our Silanes Sales Team. Shin-Etsu has always had industry-leading technology, and now we have a team that is well-equipped to deliver our innovative solutions to our customers. I am very excited to be part of a team that is poised to expand our sales by helping our customers grow their businesses by delivering valuable products to the market.”