AVON LAKE, Ohio—PolyOne recently appointed Christopher Pederson as senior vice president of its specialty engineered materials unit.
He replaces Michael Garratt, who had led SEM on an interim basis since the departure of Craig Nikrant in April. Garratt now will resume his prior position as chief commercial officer for PolyOne.
The SEM unit posted sales of just over $624 million in 2017.
Pederson has more than 25 years of experience in engineered materials, including stints at Boeing and Cytec. Most recently, he served as vice president of strategy for Hexcel Corp. In those roles, PolyOne officials said that Pederson "has leveraged both his highly technical expertise and (profit-and-loss) business leadership to great success."
In an email, Pederson said he welcomes his new role as an opportunity to build on and grow PolyOne's capabilities to serve customers.
"What's exciting about our full engineered materials portfolio is its breadth and strength in helping customers overcome their challenges with the polymer or composite solution that makes the most sense, regardless of its chemistry," Pederson said. "Couple this with our design, service and color offerings, and I believe we'll continue to exceed customer expectations in both the short and long term."
In a news release, Patterson said that engineered materials "remain at the core of our specialty portfolio and key technology platforms for growth in the future."
In 2017, SEM was the smallest of PolyOne's four operating units, generating 18 percent of total sales. Its product mix includes high-performance compounds based on engineering resins and thermoplastic elastomers.
Paderson's appoint is one of two made recently by the Avon Lake-based company. The firm also named Walter Ripple to the newly created position of vice president of sustainability.
PolyOne is North America's largest compounder and concentrates maker and one of the region's largest resin distributors, according to Plastics News data. It posted full-year sales of $3.2 billion in 2017.