LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Industry veteran Bob Barlow has been named president and CEO of Zeon Chemicals L.P., effective Jan. 1.
The company announced the move on Sept. 2.
Barlow has been with Zeon for 18 years, holding leadership positions at the company's Hattiesburg, Miss., and Louisville facilities, in corporate engineering, supply-chain management, toll manufacturing, safety and product stewardship.
He most recently served as vice president of operations, as the company recently completed a 25-percent expansion in production of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber at its Texas plant and a 50-percent acrylic elastomer capacity expansion at its Louisville plant.
“Bob has been with us through the worst of times, when we all had to make sacrifices and hard decisions, and has helped position Zeon for strong growth during the recent economic recovery,” Tom Gettelfinger, retiring president and CEO, said in a statement. “He's provided the leadership to help leverage Zeon's strengths in R&D, statistical process controls and advanced production technologies. Bob is uniquely adept at utilizing best practices from our global enterprise, which is a key area for the future of the company.”
Barlow said he is looking forward to continuing Gettelfinger's work.
“After 42 years of exceptional service to Zeon and its predecessor, Tom's legacy of integrity, operating discipline and commitment to a standard of sustained excellence are firmly established in Zeon's culture,” Barlow said in a statement. “We've maintained our focus on the customer, and committed the resources to drive continued product innovation, with an ongoing expectation of 25 percent of sales revenue based on new products within the first five years of their lifecycle.
“Looking out into the future, we are very optimistic about opportunities in the global markets that we operate in, and in particular the growth potential for Zeon,” he added.
Barlow's successor as vice present of operations will be named before the year end.
Zeon Chemicals L.P., which produces elastomers, polymers and specialty chemicals, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zeon Corp. of Tokyo, with combined sales of more than 2.9 billion. The company employs more than 3,300 worldwide.