Robert Grace
Editor, Associate Publisher & Conference Director
Plastics News
Bob Grace has been editor of Plastics
News since its launch in March 1989. He graduated with a
bachelor's degree in journalism from Ohio University in 1979 and
began his career with Crain Communications Inc. in Akron, Ohio,
in 1980 as an associate editor on Rubber & Plastics News
. The following year, Crain posted him to London, where he directed
the editorial relaunch of the monthly European Rubber Journal
and helped start Urethanes Technology magazine. He
returned to Akron in fall 1988 to help launch Plastics News .
He was named associate publisher in October 1999 and conference
director in July 2000.
A member of the Industrial Designers Society of America, he has
been the newspaper's leading proponent of engaging the design community,
and creating forums where plastics and design professionals can
interact. This is the fourth IDSA-supported Design Day program he
has organized.
Raymond J. Lambert
Santoprene Specialty Products, ExxonMobil Chemical
Manager – Sales & Business Development
Ray Lambert currently leads a sales team for the Santoprene
Specialty Products group of ExxonMobil Chemical. This team provides
supplier support to global original equipment manufacturers in the
development of new products using thermoplastic elastomers. His
team also leads SSP's efforts to support the industrial design community
worldwide. Lambert has been involved in product development efforts
with OEMs in numerous industries for more than 15 years.
He has also produced an hour-long documentary video titled “The
Inn Road” on design innovation. The video uses a series of interviews
with leading product designers, consultants, educators and business
managers who share their views and best practices. In doing so,
they highlight the importance of a design focus and the role for
materials, and how these factors can help to create truly unique
products that will stand out, and command a price premium, in a
marketplace crowded with options. Lambert will show an edited, 15-minute
version of this video to start the Design Day conference and to
prime the pump for the discussions that will follow.
A native of Massachusetts, Lambert graduated from Worcester Polytechnic
Institute with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.
He has held technical and commercial assignments with Monsanto Chemical
Co., Advanced Elastomer Systems LP, and ExxonMobil Chemical. He
resides in Santa Monica, Calif.
Andy Switky
President & General Manager – Asia Pacific Region
IDEO
Since joining Palo Alto, Calif.-based IDEO
in 1998, Andy Switky has worked on and managed many types of programs,
from traditional product development to rethinking teaching and
learning in pharmaceutical manufacturing. He currently runs IDEO's
Shanghai, China, office and is part of the consultancy's consumer
experience design practice.
Switky also runs IDEO's manufacturing group, which includes engineers
and materials scientists who are charged with inspiring IDEO design
with new ways of thinking about materials and processes. The group
also is deeply involved in the business of making products and frequently
consults on manufacturing and supply-chain strategies.
Switky has extensive experience in mechanical and electrical engineering
from his years as a principal engineer at Aptix Corp. and National
Semiconductor in California . He holds numerous utility and design
patents and a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering
from Stanford University .
David Kusuma
Tupperware Corp.
Vice President –Product Development Worldwide
Before joining plastic housewares giant Tupperware
at its Orlando, Fla., headquarters in 2001, David Kusuma worked
for three years as global design manager at Exatec LLC, the Detroit-based,
automotive window glazing joint venture between GE Plastics and
Bayer Corp. From 1987-98 he worked in Pittsburgh as a senior design
engineer for materials supplier Bayer (and its predecessor companies
Miles Inc. and Mobay Corp.), and he began his professional career
in that city in 1985 working as an industrial designer for Fisher
Scientific Co.
The New York native also holds four academic degrees – a bachelor
of fine arts in industrial design from Carnegie-Mellon University,
a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University
of Pittsburgh, a master's of science in management from Purdue University,
and an international MBA from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Additionally, Kusuma is a fellow of the Industrial
Designers Society of America, and currently its international
section chair. He is a former executive board member of the International
Council of Societies of Industrial Design and of IDSA.
Ken Buras
Vice President – Development
PDS Development Inc.
Ken Buras has been involved in product development for more than
20 years, designing everything from computer components and subsystems
to control panels for offshore drilling rigs. He has participated
in the redesign of a launch tower complex at Cape Canaveral in support
of the Atlas rocket program and has acted as a consultant for customers
of injection molding facilities. His experience also includes extensive
product development process consulting focusing on the use of computer-aided
design tools in the development environment.
Buras has been working with suppliers in Asia for more than a decade
in places such as Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and mainland
China . He has played a leading role in establishing PDS Development's
new joint venture in Wuxi, China, spending weeks in China at a time.
As VP of development for PDS – soon to be renamed Point Innovation Inc. – he manages the firm's
Houston office and is responsible for all mechanical development
activities, including worldwide sourcing support.
Brian Roderman
Vice President – Design
PDS Development Inc.
Brian Roderman is vice president of design at PDS
Development Inc., a 22 -person product development firm with
offices in Dallas and Houston, Texas . The company, which is about
to officially change its name to Point Innovation Inc., provides
design, engineering and production services to clients in the areas
of consumer products, housewares, transportation, telecommunications,
business-to-business industries, and toys. The company recently
formed an alliance with a partner in Wuxi, China, and is in the
process of building business there.
Roderman oversees design strategies for the organization along with
the operations management for the Dallas office. Previously, he
was business development manager at Ignition, a product design firm
in Plano, Texas . Roderman has a bachelor of fine arts degree in
industrial design from the University of Kansas .
He also is active with the Industrial
Designers Society of America, having held the positions of Southern
District vice president, Texas chapter chair, and national chapter
vice president.
Paul Magee
Director, Strategic Design & Brand Integrity
Diebold Inc.
Based in North Canton, Ohio, Paul Magee heads Diebold's industrial
and graphic design groups as well as its user interface and accessibility
groups. The company is a global leader in providing integrated,
self-service delivery systems, security and services, primarily
for the financial and voting industries. Diebold
employs more than 14,000 and is represented in nearly 90 countries.
Magee has been with Diebold for more than 10 years, most recently
overseeing the development of a new, award-winning family of automated
teller machines that offer unprecedented levels of innovation, safety
and security. He also has held several positions within the Industrial
Designers Society of America, including his current elected position
as Mideast District vice president and member of IDSA's board of
directors.
Prior to his experience at Diebold, Magee worked at Coon Design
Associates in Erie, Pa., which focused largely in the medical field.
He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology's bachelor of
fine arts of industrial design program. He currently holds 23 U.S.
patents with an additional eight pending.
Richard Freeman
President
Freetech Plastics Inc.
Rich Freeman has been involved in thermoforming for more than 35
years, the last 29 with Freetech Plastics Inc., a 35-employee firm
in Fremont, Calif. His experience providing pressure-formed products
in the close-tolerance, technically demanding and highly competitive
environment of Silicon Valley has led to a number of innovations.
It also has given him valuable insights into production, quality,
marketing and design issues.
Freetech
is considered one of the founders of the West Coast style of pressure
forming, which has changed the way people look at the thermoforming
process. The company has supplied pressure formed parts for seven
ID Magazine award-winning products. Freetech products also
have won numerous industry awards, including the People's Choice
Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers in 1996, 1999 and 2004 — an honor many consider to be the thermoforming industry's top
prize.
A member of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Freeman
has also been on the SPE's Thermoforming Division board of directors
since 1991. He is responsible for that division's Web page and its “machinery for schools” grant program. |
