Directors
James A. Alongi
MAAC Machinery • 590 Tower Boulevard, Carol Stream, IL 60188
Tel: 630-665-1700 • Fax: 630-665-7799
Email: jalongi@maacmachinery.com • Web: www.maacmachinery.com
Jim Arnet
Hagans Plastic Co. • 121 W. Rock Island Rd., Grand Prairie, TX 75050
Tel: 972-974-3516
Email: jarnet@hagansus.com • Web: www.hagans.biz
Jim has been involved in the plastics industry for the past 27 years, dealing with both thermoforming and extrusion in both thin and thick gauge materials. Jim has extensive experience in both plastics and sales. Prior to joining Hagans in 2013, Jim was with KYDEX LLC. as the Central Region Sales Manager for five and a half years. Jim was the Western Regional Sales Manager with Primex Plastics for three years and before that he was with Reynolds Packaging (previously known as Ivex Packaging Corporation) for 15 years in many different roles, including sales management, export, and national accounts.
Jim is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a BS degree in Industrial Distribution. A retired U.S. Army Officer, Jim, his wife Sherry of 32 years, and his family reside in Flower Mound, Texas.
Robert L. Browning
McConnell Co. • P.O. Box 450633, Atlanta, GA 31145
Tel: 770-939-4497 • Fax: 770-938-0393
Email: robert@thermoformingmc.com
Currently, a Partner with the McConnell Co. Inc., one of the premier thermoforming consulting firms, Robert has also had his own design consulting firm, Isosceles, Inc., since 1984. With degrees in Business Management and Industrial Design, he has successfully worked with companies such as John Deere, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, NASA, Disney, NCR, American Standard, Yamaha, and BMW, to define problems, develop alternatives, and implement solutions. At the present, he is an active member of the Industrial Design Society of America and is a Senior Member of the Society of Plastic Engineers.
Steve Clark
Monark Equipment • 4533 Garfield Road, P.O. Box 335, Auburn, MI 48611
Tel: 989-662-7250
Email: sclark@monark-equip.com • Web: www.monark-equip.com
T.P.S. initially launched in support of the after-market replacement parts needs for the thermoforming industry. Business rapidly grew to more advanced thermoforming equipment needs such as retro-kit systems and complete thermoforming equipment rebuilding services. The company eventually expanded to include newly designed and constructed thermoforming equipment.
I am currently the president/owner of Monark Equipment Technologies, which was started in 1996 as an extension of the work that began at T.P.S. The company focuses primarily on the custom equipment needs of the thermoforming industry. Monark is one of only a few equipment manufacturers that offers both cut sheet/heavy gauge and roll fed/thin gauge thermoforming equipment.
My work history at Brown Machine, T.P.S. and Monark has given me a diversity of exposure within the industry and allowed me to personally meet many of the great individuals that make our industry work on a variety of levels. I have also been involved with local educational institutions to help promote manufacturing and the thermoforming industry.
I reside in Sanford, Michigan, and I have been an SPE Thermoforming Division Board Member since 2015. I’ve enjoyed the work ethic and dedication of the volunteer board who promote the thermoforming industry here in the States and abroad. The experience has been eye-opening, and I would encourage others to reach out and get involved as well. Our ship sails best when we all paddle together! I would be honored to continue to participate with my fellow board members in support of the SPE Thermoforming Division Executive Committee, and the vision for growth of both SPE and the Industry.
Juliet Goff
President/CEO, Kal Plastics • 2050 East 48th Street, Vernon, CA 90058
Tel: 323-581-6194, ext. 223
Email: juliet@kal-plastics.com • Web: www.kal-plastics.com
Her active involvement with the SPE Thermoforming Division started in 2008 at the Minneapolis Thermoforming Conference. There Kal Plastics was honored as a Gold Medal winner in the annual parts competition. Since then she has regularly attended the Thermoforming Division Board meetings and in 2010 she became a Director. Her Board assignment is recognition and the annual Thermoformer of the Year award.
She brings with her the collective experiences of having served on several boards and non-profits throughout her career, in various leadership roles, including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Vernon Chamber of Commerce, and The Vernon Community Fund. Currently she serves on the Executive Board for the Vernon Chamber of Commerce and as Chair for the Vernon Community Fund.
Brian Golden
Product Manager, SencorpWhite • 400 Kidds Hill Road, Hyannis, MA 02601
Tel: 508-771-9400 ext. 7287 Cell: 508-737-5779
Email: BGolden@sencorpwhite.com • Web: www.sencorpwhite.com/
Brian has served as a Technical Sales/Service Engineer, Manufacturing Manager for a custom thermoforming company, Project Manager, Director of Customer Satisfaction and Senior Account Executive for a machinery OEM as well as a Product Manager for an OEM in the pharmaceutical industry. Brian has been directly responsible for introducing new thermoforming technology in North America, creating and presenting OEM sponsored training programs performed on-site at customers or OEM’s facilities as well as predictive maintenance programs used to assess the current operating condition and value of production equipment.
SemcorpWhite is a leading US machinery manufacturer of capital equipment globally serving the packaging, medical, pharmaceutical, food and electronics industries.
Roger Jean
Simona PMC • 2040 Industrial Drive, Findlay, OH 45840
Tel: 567-208-9758
Email: Roger.Jean@simona-pmc.com • Web: www.simona-pmc.com
Prior to joining the PMC team in 2009, he held positions including Marketing Manager and National Sales Manager at Wilbert Plastic Services, and Market Development Manager at Solvay Engineered Polymers. Roger and his family reside in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Phillip Karig
Mathelin Bay Associates LLC • 11939 Manchester Road #148,
Saint Louis, Missouri 63131
Tel: 314-630-8384 • Fax: 314-596-4653
Email: karig@mathelinbay.com • Web: www.mathelinbay.com
Previously he led the procurement and logistics functions at Uniroyal Technology Corporation, which produced Royalite brand extruded sheet products, Naugahyde brand vinyl coated fabrics and Ensolite brand foam products.
Prior to Uniroyal, he was at Leaseway Transportation Corp. (Currently Penske), a $1 billion public company, as a Strategic Planner before assuming Profit and Loss responsibility for a network of bulk plastics warehouses and rail to truck plastics transfer facilities.
During his career he has purchased billions of pounds of resins in multi-million pounds annual quantities including ABS, ASA, SAN, Acrylic, Polycarbonate, APET, PETG, PVC (suspension and dispersion), Polystyrene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene and more.
Phillip earned his Master’s degree at Harvard University and his Bachelor’s at the State University of New York. He is a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Fellow, has taught Game Theory and Decision-Making, and has also worked with the Department of Commerce and the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee. He speaks German.
He serves as a Director on the Society of Plastics Engineers Thermoforming Division Board, is a member of the Research & Development Committee and oversees the Division’s website.
Travis Kieffer
Plastics Unlimited, Inc. • 303 1st St. N.W., Preston, Iowa 52069
Tel: 563-689-4752
Email: TravisK@plasticsunlimited.com
Travis attended Iowa State College and is grateful for the scholarship he received from the SPE Thermoforming Division in 2008 and strongly believes it is a program that should continue to help other students reach their potential and continue the path forward in the plastics industry. After graduating from Iowa State University in 2012 with an Industrial Engineering Degree, Travis started working in the R & D Department and helped improve the production system. During this time, Plastics Unlimited was invited to speak at the 2012 SPE Thermoforming Conference on their patented Toolless Engineered Composite process. Travis represented the company as one of the speakers for this presentation. Since then, he has been promoted to the COO position and manages the day-to-day operations of the company as well as being involved with the R & D department. He continues to use his training from Iowa State to help improve production speed and capabilities within Plastics Unlimited.
Jay Kumar
Universal Plastics • 5 Whiting Farms Road, Holyoke, MA 01040
Tel: 607-227-1034
Email: kumarj@UniversalPlastics.com • Web: www.universalplastics.com
Since then, I have acquired two other thermoformers: Mayfield Plastics in Sutton, MA, and a manufacturing operation near Albany, NY (the former Kintz Plastics). Prior to 2012, I was a trader at JPMorgan. I studied Computer Science and Operations Research in college where my internships were focused on the tech industry. I have been fortunate in my career to have experienced several industries and a taste of different career paths.
I believe that this industry has a lot of opportunity and can provide a very useful niche in the manufacturing world. As a collection of processors, material suppliers, and machine manufacturers, we need to work together to educate the industrial community on what thermoforming can do for them. I believe I can bring a lot of value to the board given my experience before entering the industry, but also through my experience in the industry as a relative “newbie.”
Dennis Lemmon
Cascade Engineering • 1701 Magda Drive, Montpelier, OH 43543
Tel: 419-485-1110, Ext. 7380
Email: dennis.lemmon@cktech.biz • Web: https://www.cktech.biz
Dennis grew up around manufacturing as his father owned an injection molding company, Northwest Molded Plastics. Dennis worked there from a young age and eventually started running the company at age 21. He received his associate’s degree from Northwest State Community College in 2012, and attended Penn College for a hands-on workshop in thermoforming. He joined Cascade engineering in 2015. He has utilized thermoforming in many ways. Including thermoforming thin sheet paint film and using them as inserts into an injection mold, in-mold-coating for injection molding, distortion print forming, foil transferring, tooling, and processing injection and thermoforming. He has worked with major material companies in developing and testing new materials for injection and thermoforming. He has also worked with acoustical sound barrier materials and compression molding. Dennis was also hand-selected to learn robotics and computer numerical control systems at Fanuc and brought that knowledge back to the company.
Dennis currently services the entire family of companies within CE because of his education and experience in many areas of expertise, including information technology, internet securities, injection molding, thermoforming and agricultural sensors. He still utilizes all of these skills making him one of the most well-rounded and dependable employees of CE. He even helps instruct Kung Fu in his spare time, which speaks to his discipline, respect and commitment to his profession.
Ian Munnoch
MSA Components, Inc. • 6556 County Road KP, Mazomanie, WI 53560
Tel: 812-322-5080
Email: imunnoch@msacomponents.com • Web: www.msacomponents.com
Stephen R. Murrill
Profile Plastics, Corp • 65 S. Waukegan, Lake Bluff, IL 60044
Tel: 847-604-5100 • Fax: 847-604-8030
Email: smurrill@thermoform.com • Web: www.thermoform.com
Prior to his purchasing Profile Plastics he acquired his Plastics background working for the Plastics Department of Exxon Chemical Co. and from his father who was a “Plastics Pioneer” working 38 years for the Plastics Division of the DuPont Co.
Laura Pichon
Ex-Tech Plastics • 11413 Burlington Road, Richmond, IL 60071
Tel: 847-829-8124 • Fax: 847-829-8190
Email: lpichon@extechplastics.com • Web: www.extechplastics.com
Laura has been attending SPE thermoforming conferences since 1992. Laura became active with the board as a moderator for the 2002 Conference in Nashville and many subsequent conferences, serving on the board since 2004. In 2004 she chaired the Thermoforming Conference in Indianapolis. Laura has also served as technical chair and headed the publications committee from 2008 to 2013. Laura is currently heading the membership/nominating committee and active on both AARC and Materials.
Laura is a member of NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) and is a volunteer at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
Dan Sproles
Sproles Business Consulting LLC • 5210 Canton Street, South Bend, IN 46614
Tel: 574-747-7997
Email: dan@sprolesbusinessconsulting.com • Web: www.sprolesbusinessconsulting.com
Dan has 35 years of experience in the plastics industry, working in the fields of extrusion and heavy gauge custom thermoforming. His extensive experience in and knowledge of extrusion includes running the extrusion line (sheet, profile, pipe),
materials, machine set up, and problem solving. Dan has worked with all types of thermoforming equipment, including single station, rotary, twin sheet, and pressure forming machines.
Throughout his career, Dan also worked in material development, design (from concept to production), tooling (aluminum and ceramic), product development, project management and sales.
Dan recently launched his own plastics consulting and business development company. He previously served as Director of Sales at Medallion Plastics for 13 years, and also held roles at Triangle Plastics and Paramount Plastics. Dan was appointed to the SPE Thermoforming Division Board of Directors in May 2018.
Brian Winton
PTi • 2655 White Oak Circle, Aurora, IL 60502
Tel: 630-585-5800 • Cell: 331-452-7452
Email: bwinton@ptiextruders.com
Brian Winton is the Sales Director for Processing Technologies International (PTi). Brian has over 35 years of experience in domestic and international capital equipment sales and project management. He began his career in the thermoforming industry in 1985 and continued into extrusion and plastic recycling. Brian has worked primarily for equipment manufacturers in manager, director and vice president capacities, with past technical sales and marketing teams including John Brown Plastics Machinery, Modern Machinery, Lyle Industries, and The Brown Machine Group.
Brian has extensive process and industry knowledge, and started his career managing turnkey projects for sheet extrusion and thermoforming operations. This included designing and properly sizing ancillary features, downstream equipment and plant utilities, while coordinating comprehensive installation and training services. Brian works closely with his customers to clearly understand their current and future needs. He also collaborates with suppliers and other engineering sources to technically define and promote the latest cutting-edge solutions.
As a graduate of Michigan State University, Brian further promotes the plastic industry through his involvement with schools, colleges and universities. He is an active member of his local Plastics Sector Alliance, which identifies and matches the educational needs of individuals with companies that require a properly educated workforce.
Brian is highly involved in the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Thermoforming Division and has served as a board member since 2002. He continues to serve on the Promotion Committee, AARC Committee and Student Activities Committee, and has previously served as ANTEC Technical Program Chair and Conference Chair.