2018 Advisory Board

Chris Claussen has over 19 years of elastomer expertise.  Chris currently is the silicone elastomer Global Marketing Manager for Healthcare at Momentive Performance Materials.  Chris has held other leadership roles within Momentive over the last 13 years, including Regional Marketing Manager for Consumer Goods(North America), Field Market Developer(Healthcare & Consumer) and Account Manager. Chris holds an MBA from Indiana University and a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.

Patrick Ellis qualified at the Borough polytechnic as a Plastics Technologist in 1959. He worked for Shell Chemicals first in the field of epoxy resins and later in the development of expanded polystyrene. He left Shell in 1963 to join Borg-Warner Chemicals, where he was responsible for the development of wide ABS sheet, particularly for small marine craft. In 1970 he joined GEP as Area Sales Manager and in 1972 he moved Monsanto to develop their position in the European automotive industry. In 1976 he joined Hercules Europe as Technical Manager responsible for injection and blow moulding PP business.

When Hercules and Montedison formed Himont, he was appointed European Market Development Manager. Later Neste Chemicals bought the Himont Belgium operation, when was asked to become part of Neste Polypropylene as Business Development Manager. In 1991, he left Nest to set up his own consultancy business, where he has carried out numerous single and multi-clients’ studies on polyolefins processes and catalysts, compounding of polyolefins and thermoplastics elastomers, as well as a number of global elastomer studies. He has recently finished a global elastomer study for Smithers and as well as one on global thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) and another on the European market for fibre reinforced thermoplastics (FRT).

Lynn is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  She has a B.S. In Chemical Engineering and an M.S. in Industrial and Management Engineering.  Lynn started her career as a Development Engineer at Mobil Chemical Company in the Plastics Packaging Division.  She then spent 8 years at GE Silicones in Production Management and Technical Global Marketing Management roles.  Lynn left GE to become a General Manager for Chemfab Corp which was acquired by Saint Gobain.  She was the World Wide General Manager of Lab Products at Saint Gobain before leaving in 2002 to start Extreme Molding.  Lynn and her business partner Joanne Moon Duncan are co-owners and active Managing Partners of Extreme Molding in Watervliet, NY.  Extreme Molding is a contract injection molder of both Thermoplastics and Silicones specializing in infant care, pet care and high end consumer products.  Lynn resides in Albany NY with her husband Mark, two orange cats Divot and Hobie and Schnoodle Winnie.  Lynn likes to golf, curl, hike, read, play the guitar and is a history buff in her spare time.  

Mr. Pelletier received a BBA from Western Michigan University and an AS in Science from Schoolcraft College and has taught many classes on Liquid Silicone Rubber Dispensing. He has worked in the LSR & RTV industry for over 23 years mostly in sales and marketing but has been involved with machine programming and development, technical writing and product literature. His knowledge of the systems is largely based on his hands-on approach and enjoys passing this information onto the customers via training classes, customer installations and technical seminars. His current role as Technical Sales of Dosing Systems of Elmet NA allows him to interact directly with customers both domestic and foreign, industry experts and suppliers throughout the world. His world travel offers a unique perspective of the entire LSR market and its diverse segments.

Mr. Pelletier is married and has two sons and a daughter and enjoys Coaching, Skiing, Golfing and spending time with his family in his time off.

Gifford Shearer is the Market Manager for Silicone Elastomers in North America at the Dow Chemical Company, where he is responsible for business strategy and innovation portfolio management.  His primary markets are automotive, aviation / aerospace, electrical, industrial and consumer goods.   Prior to taking on this role, he held various marketing roles within Dow Corning, including industrial, consumer electronics and wearables.

Gifford joined Dow Corning in 2000 after completing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada.  He contributed to the development of TPSiV™ (thermoplastic silicone vulcanizate) and holds 4 US patents.  After its acquisition by Dow Corning Gifford was President of Multibase, a compounder of thermoplastic elastomers with operations in US, France, India and China.  

Sarah Sitz studied chemistry and English at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She spend time at the University of York, England, before she received her degree in 2009. As a scientific staff member at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, she was responsible for the work group "rubber extrusion". In 2015, she obtained her doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University on physical foaming of silicone rubbers in an extrusion process.

She joined corporate research at Robert Bosch GmbH in 2014. Besides research activities, her responsibilities include central material release for elastomers as well as consultation on elastomer materials and processing for all business units at Robert Bosch GmbH.

Rick A. Ziebell, is a Graduate of Chemical and Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic University with advanced studies in Polymer Science and is a multiple patentee in silicone rubber technology. With over thirty years of experience in both rubber fabrication and raw material technologies, he lectures the accredited Two-Semester Basic Rubber Technology Course for The Los Angeles Rubber Group (TLARGI) and the Advanced Rubber Technology courses for ACS Rubber Division. He holds the position of Vice President of Technology & Innovation at R.D. Abbott Company, a leading supplier of rubber polymers and chemicals in North America.