Kevin Herrington, 32
Research Scientist, Braskem
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Herrington said most of his team has been working from home since March. The challenge has been in finding new ways to work and communicate with one another, but it has also created more time to examine and…
2021 Rising Stars: Maggie Highberger
Account Manager, M. Holland Co.
Maggie Highberger said she became drawn to the plastics industry because of its continuously growing opportunities and technology.
Highberger was born in Kansas City and graduated from Pittsburg State University in Kansas with a bachelor s degree in plastics engineering technology. Her first plastics-related job was an internship at Kohler Co. in Sheridan, Ark., making toilet seats and components. The internship taught me not only how to work with my hands, changing molds, but also how to build relationships with everyone involved in the manufacturing process, Highberger said. My experience at Kohler taught me so much that it could fill a book, and every day I am grateful that experience was my first look at the plastics industry.
2021 Rising Stars: Casey Blabolil
Laboratory Manager, Materials Engineering, Mar-Bal Inc.
Casey Blabolil s first job was as a product development chemist with thermoset compounder and molder Premix Inc. He said he had no idea about the thermoset plastics industry prior to joining. In fact, before my interview, I looked up the company to gain some insight on what the job was. However, I got confused when I saw they made plastics but was molded into so many different things I didn t know what they actually did, said the Madison, Ohio, native.
Blabolil, now laboratory manager, materials engineering, for Chagrin Falls, Ohio-based thermosets molder and compounder Mar-Bal Inc., has a bachelor s degree in chemistry from the University of Mount Union in Ohio.
2021 Rising Stars: Andrew Dickinson
Sales Manager, Schwing Technologies
Andrew Dickinson has a bachelor s degree in psychology from Rutgers University and certificate of proficiency in manufacturing technology from Mercer County Community College in New Jersey.
His first job out of college was as a process technician at Procedyne Corp. in New Brunswick, N.J. He also worked as inside sales associate and sales manager for furnace products. I gained experience with a number of industries and materials: plastics, metals, ceramics, etc. The plastics industry is young in comparison to the processing of other materials, like metals, said the Atlantic City, N.J., native. It is interesting to see the development of plastics materials, manufacturing processes, their use and recycling evolve.
With NPE canceled, Antec moves to May
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The Society of Plastics Engineers is moving its 2021 Antec event to May, as a result of the cancellation of the in-person NPE trade show. The unfortunate cancellation of NPE gives SPE the opportunity to move its annual technical conference back to its traditional May timeframe, SPE CEO Patrick Farrey said in a Jan. 20 news release.
In recent years, when Antec fell in the same year as NPE, the conference and trade show had co-located. For 2021, however, SPE originally planned to hold Antec separately from NPE, as an in-person event in Denver.
In December, however, SPE announced that the 2021 Antec would be a virtual event, starting March 22. Now that schedule is changing again, Antec 2021 now will start May 5.