Acrisure Stadium

Neal Rothchild

Enterprise Development – International Logistics, Penske

Neal Rothchild is a 25-year logistics professional, serving in the International Freight Forwarding industry.

Mr. Rothchild is distinguished by his vast international knowledge on ocean and air logistics and consummate customer service. Neal is very active in several supply-chain related communities including the CSCMP, ACS, ISM and EACC.

Neal is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati where he studied Physics, and Communications.

Neal resides in West Chester OH with his wife of +25 years and two children attending Washington University in St Louis and the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

Bill Welge

President & CEO, CGT Stafffing

Bill Welge currently serves as President & CEO of CGT Staffing, a national full-service staffing firm based in the greater Pittsburgh area. Under his leadership, CGT Staffing has expanded its diverse portfolio of industry domains to include clients in engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, and finance, ranging from diverse localized businesses to Fortune 500 entities. Prior to joining CGT Staffing in 2016, Welge spent twenty years as an executive in the title and mortgage industry. From 2005 – 2011, he served as President and Founder of RecordFusion, a proprietary solutions provider for the land title records of county governments and commercial businesses.

Executive Panel

Mitchell Toomey

Vice President of Sustainability and Responsible Care®, American Chemistry Council

As Vice President of Sustainability and Responsible Care®, Mitch Toomey is responsible for leading the strategic implementation of ACC’s world-class EHS&S performance initiative and executing the industry’s commitment to sustainability – through innovation, collaboration, and technologies that enhance the safety and environmental impacts of ACC member products and operations.

In his role at ACC, Mitch is focused on strengthening industry’s role as a solutions provider across six key areas: monitoring and improving air quality; conserving and protecting drinking water; increasing product and process safety; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; expanding recycling; and creating a more diverse workforce.

Prior to joining ACC in September 2022, Mitch served as Director of Sustainability for BASF Corporation, the world’s largest chemical company. At BASF, Mitch led a team working across twelve businesses to embed sustainability in the company’s business strategies, including leadership of long-term renewable power purchasing agreements, non-fossil feedstocks for circular economy value chains, and customer-centric portfolio evaluations and expansions based on emerging sustainability drivers. Mitch also led the BASF Sustainability Champions Network and Leadership Sustainability Council.

Samir Hifri

President and Chairman, Covestro LLC

Starting on July 1, 2023, Mr. Samir Hifri will be the President and Chairman of Covestro LLC. Prior to this, Mr. Hifri was the Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Covestro Hong Kong.  In this role, he is also responsible for the Supply Chain & Logistics Center for the Asia Pacific region.

Samir, a US Citizen, holds a degree in International Finance from Duquesne University in the United States and an Executive degree from INSEAD in France.

After initially working in the Investment Banking industry, Samir joined Bayer in 1998 in the U.S as a management trainee.  In 2003, he transferred to Bayer’s headquarters in Germany as Global Product Manager. Following a 3 year assignment in Germany, Samir was appointed as Director of NAFTA Product Management located in Pittsburgh, USA.

Mark Nikolich

CEO, Braskem America

Mark Nikolich is the Executive Vice President for Braskem’s North America business unit based in Philadelphia, PA. His business unit is responsible for the manufacturing and marketing of Polypropylene, Polyethylene, and the UTEC specialty polyethylene brand. Mark has built a career in the Petrochemicals and Polyolefins industry over the past 34 years with leadership roles at Braskem and the heritage companies of Sunoco, Inc., Epsilon, and LyondellBasell.

Mark has led several M&A transitions through the years serving in key transformational roles through Braskem’s acquisition of Sunoco Chemicals in 2010, and after the acquisition of Dow’s polypropylene business in 2011, Mark established and built Braskem’s European operations. Upon returning to the US in 2014, he led Braskem’s US Polypropylene business before assuming responsibility for the North American business unit. Mark currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Braskemldesa joint venture in Mexico.

Hilary Mercer

Vice President, Pennsylvania Chemicals Shell

Hilary Mercer was appointed as Vice President Pennsylvania Chemicals on August 1, 2017.

Hilary was previously responsible for the Shell worldwide portfolio of integrated Gas Projects spanning Onshore and Floating LNG, Regassification and other gas related projects. She served as Executive Director for Shell’s Prelude project in Geoje Island, South Korea and was instrumental in leading the project to successful sail-away.

Hilary joined Shell in the UK as a Maintenance Engineer at Stanlow refinery in 1987. In 1994, she moved to the Netherlands where she worked in concept engineering developing small scale LNG offerings.

In 1997, she was appointed Lead Mechanical Engineer for Construction in Oman, after which she worked for Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., first as the Commercial Manager for the project and later as Construction Manager and Project Director. She was appointed Technical Director for Iraq South Gas Venture in 2009, supported the utility project within Pearl GTL in 2010, and served as LNG Project Director at Arrow Energy where she grew the company from start-up to a competent operating and development organization.

John Thayer

SVP Sales & Marketing, Nova Chemicals

John Thayer is the Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, responsible for driving market leadership and sales strategies for the Polyethylene and Ethylene businesses for NOVA Chemicals. He also is responsible for leading NOVA Chemicals’ long-term Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, working with value chain partners, customers, government officials, industry associations and others to find innovative solutions to advance a plastics circular economy and climate care. He oversees NOVA Chemicals’ new partnerships and development agreements in mechanical and advanced recycling to support the company’s rapidly growing portfolio of post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins.

Thayer joined NOVA Chemicals in 1997 and since then has served the company in multiple roles, including positions in Human Resources, Operations and Site Leadership, Global Business Director, and General Manager, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, of, Polyethylene (PE) Business at NOVA Chemicals’ U.S. Commercial Center. His 30 years of experience in manufacturing and the plastics industry have helped him become an expert in strategy development, sustainability, organizational capability, commercial leadership, and change management. Prior to joining NOVA Chemicals, Thayer held roles in Human Resources and Labor Relations at Weyerhaeuser Company.  He has also been involved with several industry associations where he has been an advocate for the value of plastics and circularity.

PPG Panel

Keith Moquin

Manager of Strategy, Science and Technology, PPG

Keith Moquin is PPG manager of strategy, corporate science and technology (S&T). He is accountable for disseminating strategic technical information throughout the organization, leading a global, cross-functional intellectual property security team and highlighting the company’s vast global innovations. Keith assumed this role in July 2020.

Prior to this, Keith served in a variety of analytical, chemistry, portfolio management and strategy roles of increasing responsibility over his decade-long career with PPG, including global portfolio manager, group leader and senior research chemist. Prior to PPG, Keith served as postdoctoral research associate for Carnegie Mellon University’s biology and chemistry department.

In addition, Keith previously served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Chemistry and received the Hurd Safford Graduate Teaching Award for excellence in teaching in 2006. He has also remained involved in a number of industry organizations, including the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Mass Spectrometry and Directors of Industrial Research Analytical Group.

A native of Pittsburgh, Keith earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.

Joe Szul

Global Low Temperature Process Design Engineer, PPG

Joe Szul is PPG global low temperature process design engineer. Since 2015, he has been working with the resin production, technical and development community to identify, vet and implement opportunities for productivity, energy, water and waste savings. Joe has been with PPG for 37 years, holding multiple engineering roles in both the paint and resin productions areas as well as operations management. He also led the process technology research and development group at PPG for many years. Joe earned a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Paul Holcomb

Research and Development and Resin Plant Manager, Springdale, PPG

Paul Holcomb is the research and development and resin plant manager at PPG’s Springdale facility. He is responsible for all standard operating procedures, environmental health and safety, and manufacturing activities on the 5-acre, 150-person resin manufacturing site. Paul assumed this role in December 2020. 

Prior to his current role, Paul served in various positions in PPG’s procurement, operations and engineering functions. Prior to PPG, he worked for Kimberly-Clark. Paul earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron and his Master of Business Administration from Duquesne University.

Nathan Silvernail

Global Technology Platform Leader, Mobility, PPG

Nathan J. Silvernail is a leader in the materials science industry with over 15 years of experience in the development of novel materials for the automotive and industrial coatings segments. His expertise and management have led to numerous patents, publications and the commercialization of new innovative products. In his current role at PPG, Nathan leads a team focusing on coatings for the electric vehicle market as PPG’s global technology platform leader for mobility. He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from North Dakota State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.