HOUSTON—The International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers' Board of Directors has elected an executive of Lion Elastomers as its acting president international.
Bobby Rikhoff, currently Lion's vice president of venture projects, will serve as acting president until the IISRP's Annual General Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, in September. At that meeting, he will be elected as president international, to serve until the association's 2023 meeting in Boston, according to a IISRP news release.
Rikhoff had been elected at the IISRP's 2021 AGM as president of the Americas Section, and would have been elected president this year under the group's traditional succession. The association historically holds its annual meeting in the region where the presiding president is located.
During the 2021 AGM, the group elected Larisa Bondar, head of sales for Russia-based Sibur's Synthetic Rubber, Plastics, Elastomers and Organic Synthetic Division. She was scheduled to preside over the IISRP's AGM in May in St. Petersburg, Russia.
But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IISRP's executive committee decided March 7 to move the annual meeting to Lisbon and reschedule it for Sept. 12-15. Two days later, the association announced Rikhoff's election as acting president international.