Josh Guilliams, Vice President of Consultancy, leads Smithers’ technical consulting team based in Akron, Ohio. Josh manages client relationships and works with other Smithers experts on complex projects. He also conducts in-depth investigations of a wide variety of rubber materials and final products on behalf of clients.
Before joining the team at Smithers, Guilliams spent several years in leadership at Polymer Valley Chemicals, Inc., as Technical Director and Vice President of Technical Operations. Prior to his time at Polymer Valley Chemicals, he held technical and commercial roles at Hankook Tire, EASTMAN Chemical Corporation, LANXESS Corporation, and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations.
Coming soon...
Xu Wenying, female, born in 1972, is a member of the Communist Party of China with a master's degree and a senior engineer. She is currently the President of the 10th Council of China Rubber Industry Association. Since 1994, she has successively held the posts of Manager of Consulting and Cooperation Department, Manager of Exhibition Department, Assistant to General Manager of China Rubber (Group) Corporation, Director, Deputy Secretary General, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Information Exhibition Department of China Rubber Industry Association, and Director General of Rubber Material Professional Committee. Since October 2012, she has served as the Vice President and Secretary General of the 8th and 9th Council of China Rubber Industry Association.
Experience: CSRC&CCC/Round Star/Black Cat
• 1995 Researcher (for CRSC take over CCC)
• 2004 Specialty Black (Maanshan Plant)
• 2007 CSRC Lin-Yuan Plant Manager →
Maanshan Plant Manager
• 2013 CSRC China General Plant Manager (for three plants)
• 2014 Consultant for Round Star
• 2016~ Consultant for Black Cat
Paul Ita runs Notch Consulting, a Massachusetts-based research company dedicated to the market research needs of the global specialty chemicals industry. Mr. Ita focuses on raw materials for the global tire and rubber industries, with a particular focus on carbon black, silica, and rubber chemicals. Through Notch, he publishes the Carbon Black World Data Book and the Carbon Black Quarterly Newsletter.
Jia Weijie received master degree of chemistry from Tsinghua University in 2010. He joined EVE Rubber Institute in 2013 and worked as chemical engineer, manager of department of Rubber Chemicals, and Vice-President. His research area is about fundamental science in reinforcement and vulcanization.
Prof. Jarrn-Horng Lin graduated from National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan, in 1989 and received his Ph. D in 1999 from the Department of Chemistry. He is a Professor at the Department of Materials Science of the National University of Tainan since 2013 and became the Chairperson of Dept. Mater. Sci. of NUTN since 2019. Additionally, he served as a Researcher and Project manager at the Research & Development Center of the Chinese Synthesis Rubber Corporation (CSRC) during 1993-2003. He established the Carbon Society of Taiwan (CST) in 2017; served as the General Secretary of the CST during 2017-2020 and is a standing supervisor of the CST since 2020.
His research activities focus on carbon nanotubes, general and e-conductive carbon black, polymer reinforcement, energy storage materials (mainly EDLC and sodium-ion batteries), and environmental wastes converting into carbon materials and hydrogen fuels. He has published over 50 SCI papers with a WOS h-index of 19, i10 index of 30. He has given over 25 plenary/keynote/invited lectures at various conferences and won eight times Reward College Talents of MOST(2013-2020), Taiwan, and the Best paper award at the international Nano-Micro Conference in 2018, Dec. 17-20, 2018, Jeju Island, Korea. He also holds and as the chair 8 times of the cross-stair symposium on new carbon materials since 2012.
Dr. Jerry (Zhen) Lai is the R&D Director at Birla Carbon based in Atlanta, USA. Jerry is responsible for new product development and technical service for Specialty Blacks applications in Coatings, Plastics, Inks, Sealants and Niche. Prior to Birla Carbon, Jerry held multiple technical leadership positions at Xerox, Momentive, and Hexion, with years of experience in product development in the chemical industry.
Jerry Holds Ph.D. degree of Chemical Engineering from Leigh University, a Master, and a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Tsinghua University. He has over 20 publications, 30+ granted patents, and many conference presentations.
Career
Vice President, Sustainability & CSR – Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore. October 2021 – Present
Director, Sustainability Strategy – SABIC, Singapore.
Senior Manager, Corporate Sustainability – SABIC, Singapore.
Education
Ph.D, Polymer Syntheis, Structure, Property Relationships – Eindhoven University of TechnologyMaster of Technology, Polymer Science & Engineering – Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
