Business

George Austin has been appointed vice president of new business development at Darien, Conn.-based Charkit Chemical. He oversees the sales and development of new business with a focus on new products and custom and proprietary products.

Doug Chrisope has joined Delta Petroleum as lab manager for the company's Metairie, La., blending facility.

Al Dzermejko has been named vice president of engineering, Curt Rothman has returned as vice president of industrial sales, and Tom Wank has been promoted to vice president of marketing at Magneco/Metrel, a producer of nanoparticulate colloidal silica-bonded refractories. The company is based in Addison, Ill.

Michael J. Graff has been named president and chief executive officer of Air Liquide USA and a director of its U.S. subsidiary businesses, which have headquarters in Houston. He previously held a number of leadership positions at BP Amoco, serving a variety of industrial sectors.

Stephen Jose has been named the business manager for kaolin clays, Americas, in BASF's North American functional polymers regional business unit, which is based in Charlotte, N.C.

George Kipouras and Kristin Taylor have been hired as business development managers, and Debra Darby has been hired as a brand director at Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix. They will support demand growth for the company's Mirel plastics.

Michael J. Knauf has been appointed vice president and general manager for bioindustrials at Codexis, a biotechnology firm in Redwood City, Calif.

Christopher Kulp has been promoted to director of the contract services business, and Keith Crumley has been promoted to manager of product sourcing at Richman Chemical, a custom chemicals manufacturer based in Lower Gwynedd, Pa.

Louis S. Massimo has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer, and Steven C. Giuliano has become vice president and chief financial officer of Arch Chemicals, which has headquarters in Norwalk, Conn.

Glenn McEvoy has been appointed director of strategic raw materials for Bayer MaterialScience. The company, based in Pittsburgh, is a producer of polymers and high-performance plastics in North America and a part of the global Bayer MaterialScience business.

Anne P. Noonan has been named group president for polymer additives at Chemtura, which has its headquarters in Middlebury, Conn. In addition to her business leadership role, she is also responsible for flame-retardant advocacy initiatives.

Randy Schussler has joined Richardson, Texas-based Zyvex Instruments as its general manager. The company provides tools, instrumentation, and applications to the semiconductor and advanced research markets.

Laurent Suspene has been named vice president of Sartomer Asia in Hong Kong; Phillipe Thepot will become general manager of the Sartomer Europe Division of Cray Valley, based in Paris.

John Televantos has been promoted to principal at Arsenal Capital Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm that invests in health care and specialty manufacturing and services companies. Before joining Arsenal in January 2006, he had been a vice president of Hercules and president of its Aqualon Co.

Megan Turner has been named the business development manager for ionic liquids in BASF's intermediates regional business unit in North America, which is based in Florham Park, N.J.

Todd A. Werpy has joined Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland in the newly created position of vice president for biofuels and biochemical research. He had been a relationship manager for the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.