Michelman Announces Organizational Changes

Michelman has introduced what it calls “an improved organizational structure” consisting of three Strategic Business Groups.

“The new structure will help Michelman better anticipate and serve its customers’ needs by driving collaboration between its experienced industry focused business teams – now fully integrated into the Strategic Business Groups – that serve customers in the flexible packaging, paint & coatings, fibers & composites, engineered wood, paper & corrugated, digital printing and other industries,” the company said in a statement. “The resulting open flow of ideas, solutions, and application expertise will allow faster introduction of new technologies and applications and reduce customers’ concept-to-commercialization time.”

The three groups are Coatings, serving coating formulators with advanced polymers and additives; Industrial Manufacturing, whose teams work hand-in-hand with discrete product manufacturers to improve productivity and end-use performance; andvPrinting & Packaging, providing the industry with solutions in print receptive, functional and barrier coating technologies.

Michelman has appointed the following people, all with extensive global experience, to lead the new groups: Dr. Gautham Parthasarathy has been hired as Group Director, Coatings. Gautham comes to Michelman from Emerald Performance Materials, where he was VP and General Manager of the K-Flex specialty plasticizers business. He has held leadership roles with responsibilities for strategic development, marketing, business development, M&A, R&D, and operations. Mr. Michael Annis has been hired as Group Director, Industrial Manufacturing. Mike was most recently with Celanese Engineered Materials, where he held the position of Global OEM Manager and North America Business Development Manager in the Electronics Business Unit. He has previous experience in R&D, operations, sales, marketing and quality functions. Dr. Rick Michelman, Michelman’s Chief Technology Officer, has assumed the role of Group Director, Printing & Packaging on an interim basis.

All three strategic groups are supported regionally around the world by enhanced management teams led by Mr. Jean-Marc Verhaeghe, VP/Managing Director, EMEA, Mr. Steven Wong, VP/Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, and Mr. Marty Riehemann who will assume the new role of VP/Managing Director, Americas in addition to his corporate role as Chief Commercial Officer.

According to Mr. Steve Shifman, President and CEO at Michelman, “As always, organizational and management decisions at Michelman are made first and foremost to ensure all of our customers are provided the very best environmentally friendly products, service and support.  These steps will allow us to improve the customer experience, and provide a platform for continued strategic growth.”gnal to customers of Michelman’s commitment to forward-looking, agile solution development.