Business

Wayne Brinster has been appointed president of Wheaton. In that role, he succeeds Stephen R. Drozdow, who remains as chief executive officer. Brinster had been vice president and general manager of Synthon Pharmaceuticals, a privately owned manufacturer of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. Based in Millville, N.J., Wheaton designs and delivers sample containment and packaging products for the laboratory research, diagnostic, and specialty pharmaceuticals industries.

Paul E. Huck, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Air Products & Chemicals, will retire on Feb. 28 after more than 33 years of service to the company. Scott Crocco, currently vice president and controller, will succeed Huck.

Edzer Huitema has joined Solliance as its commercial director. In his new position, he is responsible for business and partnership development as well as marketing activities for the company. Most recently, he served as chief technology officer of Polymer Vision. Based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Solliance is a partnership of R&D organizations working in the thin-film photovoltaic solar-energy sector.

Charles Kraft has been appointed vice president of global manufacturing and process development at Amyris, a renewable chemicals and fuels company. Prior to joining Amyris, Kraft was vice president of operations at DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts.

Ashish K. Kulkarni has been named chief technology and innovation officer of Celanese. He had been the company’s vice president of research and development for advanced engineered materials (AEM) and emulsions. Kulkarni will continue to lead global research and development efforts for AEM and emulsions as well as increase collaboration across the company’s four business segments. He will also expand Celanese’s relationships with universities, research institutes, and start-up companies. Prior to joining Celanese, Kulkarni was vice president of engineering for Carrier Corp.

John K. Lynch has been promoted to chief scientific officer of Cedarburg Hauser Pharmaceuticals. He will oversee all scientific operations including the process development, research and development, and analytical groups. He has served as Cedarburg Hauser’s director of R&D for the past three years. Prior to joining the company, Lynch spent 15 years at Abbott Laboratories, working on a variety of process development and medicinal chemistry projects. Cedarburg Hauser is a contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates.

Michael R. Lyons has been appointed vice president of Charkit Chemical. He will focus on managing the company’s hydrazine hydrate and hydrazine derivatives business in North America. Most recently, he was a business manager in the Oxygenes & Derivatives Division of Arkema.

Michael Radossich has been named president of Cytec Specialty Chemicals. He had been the vice president of Cytec’s Safety, Health & Environment organization. Radossich will continue to be based at the company’s global headquarters in Woodland Park, N.J. He succeeds Frank Aranzana, who is now leading the company’s Coating Resins business, which is being sold to Advent International.

Prasad Raje has been appointed vice president of science and technology at Cambridge Major Laboratories. Most recently, he was president of Smithers Pharma Services, a contract research organization with expertise in analytical services, pharmaceutical R&D, and agrochemicals. Joe Otto has been named vice president of information technology and chief information officer at Cambridge Major. Previously, he was vice president of information technology at DDN, which provides outsourced services to the life sciences industry. Cambridge Major is a service-based chemistry outsourcing company that produces pharmaceutical intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and other organic fine chemicals.

Dennis Roederer has joined Heumann Environmental as senior sales manager. Roederer had been regional sales manager for Fisher-Klosterman. Based in Louisville, Heumann Environmental provides engineering consulting services and designs and manufactures industrial particulate separation equipment for air pollution ­applications.

Hartmut Schiemann has joined AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry as technical manager for personal care. As part of its EMEIA group, he will oversee product development and technical support for AkzoNobel customers in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa. He will also manage the personal care applications laboratory located at the AkzoNobel Research & Technology Centre in Navi Mumbai, India. Before joining Akzo­Nobel, he worked at Procter & Gamble in Brussels as section head for the company’s microprocessing technology platform. Puck van Doorn has joined the Surface Chemistry EMEIA group as marketing project manager for personal care applications. She will lead and support marketing projects serving AkzoNobel customers worldwide. Previously, she was a marketing manager for AkzoNobel’s Industrial Chemicals business unit. Both Schiemann and van Doorn are based in Sempach Station, Switzerland. AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry supplies specialty surfactants and synthetic and biopolymer additives to industries including home and personal care, agrochemicals, asphalt, mining, oil field, and water treatment.

Ralf Spettmann has been appointed senior vice president of BASF’s Pigments & Resins Europe business unit. He had been senior vice president of the company’s Fuel & Lubricant Solutions unit. Spettmann succeeds Jan-Peter Sander, who has become head of the Personal Care Europe unit. The Pigments & Resins Europe unit is part of the Dispersions & Pigments division of BASF.

Stephen Thong has joined Ranir as vice president of global technology and development. Most recently, he had been director of global oral care R&D at Church & Dwight. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Ranir is a global producer of private-label consumer oral and personal health care products.