SHROPSHIRE, United Kingdom (June 2) — Rapra Technology Ltd. has appointed Hugh D. Pace as vice president and managing director, effective immediately.
Pace succeeds Andrew Ward, who left the company to pursue other interests.
Pace joins the European rubber and plastics consulting firm from Goodyear, where he spent a 30-year career in several senior executive positions, including president in the Asia Pacific region, Mexico and Argentina. His career is hallmarked by his progressive leadership style, which led to major organizational restructuring and marketing initiatives resulting in unprecedented sales growth, operating improvement, and profit levels in those Goodyear businesses, Rapra said.
Rapra became a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S.-based independent testing, consulting and contract research organization the Smithers Group in April.
"I am thrilled to be part of the Smithers Rapra team and to have this unique opportunity to lead the change process at this exciting time for the organization," Pace said. "The combination of know-how within the Smithers Group provides almost limitless opportunity to develop an enhanced range of technical services to our global customer base."
Said Michael Hochschwender, Smithers CEO and president: "It is Hugh´s impressive track-record in the international business arena which left us in no doubt that he is the right person to undertake this lead role in integrating Rapra Technology into the Smithers Group, which has operations in the U.S. and Switzerland."