KYOTO, Japan—Abraham Brink, president and commercial director of Karbochem (Pty.) Ltd. in South Africa, was elected president international of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers for 2014-15 at the association's 55th annual meeting May 21.
He succeeds Shinobu Watanabe, who becomes the past-president international.
Brink joined the Karbochem Division of Sentrachem Ltd. in 1977 as head of research and development. In 1981, Karbochem expanded its synthetic rubber activities to solution elastomers at a new greenfield site at Newcastle, KwaZulu Natal (South Africa) and transferred him to coordinate plant start-up and project activities. He held other job titles until he was appointed as general manager of the Karbochem Rubber Business in 1987.
He transferred to Sentrachem head office in 1995 as group general manager, technology, but rejoined Karbochem in 1997 just before the company was taken over by the Dow Chemical Co. He served as Dow regional general manager, elastomers, until 2003, when he was involved in a management buyout of the synthetic rubber and related businesses of Dow South Africa. The name Karbochem was then reinstated for the elastomers business, and Brink been in that position since.
In addition to Dr. Brink, who will also serve as President to the EMEA Section, other members elected to the Institute Executive Committee for the year 2014-15 include:
• Far East Section: Kisu Ro of LG Chem, vice president and Yoshimasa Fushimi of Zeon, vice president.
• EMEA Section: Thierry Hombert of ExxonMobil, vice president.
• Americas Section: Juan Ramon Salinas of Dynasol, President, Christopher Mudd of Dexco Polymers, Vice President, and Tim Gorman of Ashland, standing member.
• Continuing to serve on the executive committee are Shinobu Watanabe of Ube Industries, past-president international; Wei-Hua Tu of TSRC as treasurer; and James L. McGraw, IISRP's managing director & CEO, assistant treasurer and secretary.
The IISRP is an international not-for-profit association with 60 corporate members in 21 countries who produce 80 percent of the world's supply of synthetic rubber. Incorporated in 1960 and headquartered in Houston, the IISRP has regional offices in Milan, Tokyo and Beijing.