Board Of Governors

Gene Williams

Gene Williams is President of the Optima Chemical Group, LLC, a global supplier of specialty chemicals, toll services and custom manufacturing located in Douglas, GA.

Prior to being named President of the Optima Chemical Group in 2001, Mr. Williams served as the company’s operations manager. He was responsible for completing plant construction, staffing and startup on new manufacturing operations. His responsibilities also include all day-to-day operations with the company, excluding R&D.

Michael Ott

Michael Ott is the owner and operator of Polysciences, Inc., which is a diversified manufacturer of chemicals for the research, medical device, electronic and diagnostic markets. Polysciences produces specialty monomers and polymers, microspheres, histology and microscopy reagents, and have a wide range of materials science applications.

Kate Donahue

Kate Donahue is President and CEO of Hampford Research, Inc., which is a family owned, custom chemical manufacturing firm. It specializes in hi-purity specialty chemicals used in the electronics, dental, cosmetics, engineered materials and printing/lithography industries, and is located in Stratford, CT.

Dr. Keith Silverman

Dr. Keith Silverman is Vice President of Global Operations, Quality and Environment, Health, Safety (EHS) at Ashland LLC. Keith joined Ashland in June 2012 as Vice President of EHS and Product Regulatory. Prior to joining Ashland, he spent twenty-three years in the pharmaceutical industry with Merck & Co., Inc. in a series of roles spanning Research and Development to EHS. Keith has international experience in incident management and emergency response and has provided training and exercises globally.

Ken Zrebiec

Ken Zrebiec is the General Manager of Siegfried USA, LLC located in Pennsville, New Jersey. He has 24 years of experience in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors and has held positions in supply chain, project management, and manufacturing since joining Siegfried in 2001. Ken holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Delaware.

Steel Hutchinson

Steel Hutchinson has been active on various community and industry boards, serving as the President of the McKinley Avenue Employers Association (MAEA) in Columbus, Ohio, and President of the Chemicals and Specialties Management Council (CSMC, a group of privately owned chemical businesses). Heiand is currently the Past Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) in Washington D.C., and is also serving on the Finance Committee for the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio.

Chuck Hinton

Chuck Hinton began his career in the chemical industry in 1973 at Celanese/FII as an R&D chemist. He joined Ethox in 1975, where he worked in technical sales. After 15 years, Chuck became Vice President, and in 2008 he took the reigns as President.

Paul Ameis

Paul Ameis currently serves as General Manager at VanDeMark Chemical in Lockport, NY. He is responsible for the leadership of all plant operations, material planning, plant engineering, and process engineering. During his tenure at VanDeMark, Mr. Ameis has played an instrumental role in the development of many of the company’s proprietary processes and products, as well as the company’s continuous improvement initiatives throughout its manufacturing operations.

Joe Beatty

Joe Beatty is the CEO of FAR Chemical, having joined the firm in early 2015. Prior to joining FAR Chemical, Mr. Beatty held a variety of executive management, sales, and operations positions in the specialty chemical industry. Most recently, he served as President, CEO, & Director of Xolve Inc., and prior to that he served as ColorMatrix Corporation’s Managing Director of North America.

Before joining ColorMatrix, Mr. Beatty was Vice President of North America for MetoKote Corporation and has held senior management positions with Hexion Specialty Chemicals and its predecessor companies (McWhorter Technologies, Eastman Chemical and Resolution Specialty Materials) including Vice President, Coating Resins – Americas; Global Business Director – Coatings; and Business Director, Specialty Resins and Monomers. He began his career in the Industrial Water Treatment industry with WR Grace – Dearborn Division, ultimately being named Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Mara Gliozzi

Mara Gliozzi has worked in the chemical industry for 35 years, all with McGean, a specialty chemical manufacturer near Cleveland, OH, that employees almost 100 people. She started as a summer intern and stayed with the company from that point on.

During those years, the family-owned organization has gone through several iterations, but has always valued its employees and worked diligently to provide a supportive work environment that encourages success.

Throughout her career at McGean, Gliozzi has worked in a variety of jobs, from sales and marketing to purchasing and customer service. Ms. Gliozzi is actively involved in SOCMA, taking advantage of advocacy, educational and networking opportunities, including the Washington Fly-In, Annual Dinner and Committee Week, among others.