Plastics Personnel Moves: OCTEX, SPE, PLASTICS, battenfeld-cincinnati, and Engel

John W. Hoskins (below) has been promoted to president of The OCTEX Group and its operating companies. Hoskins joined OCTEX in 2014 as executive vice president, joining the company with more than 20 years of executive management, business development, operations and plastics manufacturing experience. ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 certified, the group includes OCTEX, Omnia Scientific and Choice Tool & Mold, with a medical focus and capabilities in metrology and injection molding.

The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE; Bethel, Conn.) has named Patrick Farrey (below) as its new CEO, succeeding Wim De Vos, who stepped down in June after leading the society for five years. Farrey comes to SPE after a 23-year career in the publication and association management sector. Most recently as vice president at the association management firm, Kellen, Farrey supported several associations and was the acting executive director for some. Raed Al Zubi took over as international president of SPE in May, replacing Scott Owens.

The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS; Washington, D.C.) has hired Perc Pineda (below) as its chief economist. PLASTICS noted that this is a new role intended to bolster the association’s in-house data-driven counsel, research and reports. Pineda comes to PLASTICS with more than 20 years of experience, includ time in academia and at trade associations. Most recently, Pineda served as the senior economist for the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) where he tracked macroeconomic trends, conducted economic research and wrote articles for publications. Pineda will receive his Ph.D. in Economics from the New School of Social Research, where he also earned his M.Phil. in Economics. He also holds an M.A. in Economics from American University and a Masters in International Management from the University of Maryland. Pineda taught macroeconomics at St. Francis College and microeconomics, finance, and economics of regulations and the law at the City University of New York. Before that, he worked for the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

Battenfeld-Cincinnati USA (McPherson, Kan.) has named Marko Koorneef as its new director of sales. Koorneef has 25 years of management and sales experience with global manufacturing organizations within the plastics industry. Michael Ferlic has joined battenfeld-cincinnati USA as its sales manager, with primary focus on Latin America. Ferlic has more than 20 years of sales experience successfully managing teams delivering equipment to the plastics industry into the European, North American, and Latin American markets.

Peter Hammer has been promoted by battenfeld-cincinnati to be VP special projects for North America in Construction applications. Hammer was most recently the VP technology at battenfeld-cincinnati Austria and general manager service & chief quality officer of battenfeld-cincinnati. He is now based in Florida. Albert Fuerst is also transitioning from battenfeld-cincinnati Austria, where he was director of service. He will now act as battenfeld-cincinnati USA’s as manager of after market sales and service. Mark Mulone has accepted the position of sales manager infrastructure for North America. He has more than 25 years of experience in plastics and extrusion sales for North and South America.

Joachim Kragl (below, second from right), head of application technology at Engel Machinery, Inc. (York, Penn.) has been awarded the Ernst Schmitz prize for 2017 by the Austrian association for the promotion of plastics technology (Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Kunststofftechnik; GFKT). For 25 years, Kragl has worked in development and application technology for injection molding machine producer Engel (Schwertberg, Austria). His main area of interest is MuCell foam injection molding, and he was part of the team that devised the technical fundamentals that enabled Engel to offer the technology developed by Trexel as an integrated injection molding solution across all national markets. In Canada and later the U.S., Kragl set up application technology departments for Engel. In his current position, he oversees application technology for Engel’s U.S. branch. Kragl is the third recipient of the Ernst Schmitz prize to come from Engel, joing Peter Pokorny, head of application technology at the company headquarters in Schwertberg; and Andreas Steurer, head of application technology at the large-scale machine manufacturing plant St. Valentin, Austria.