Speakers

Roger W. Avakian, Owner of Avakian PolyChem Consulting LLC, is currently consulting in the graphene, specialty chemicals, polymer blends and non-halogen flame retardant additives fields for several clients.

Roger Avakian retired from PolyOne (now Avient) after 19 years in May 2019. He was PolyOne’s first CTO and retired as their first PolyOne Fellow. His group contributed to the commercial development of many PolyOne’s developments including biomaterials, high temperature polymers and non-halogen flame retardant technologies.

Prior to joining PolyOne, Roger was employed at GE Plastics for 20 years in various technical and technology management positions. He has 86 issued U.S. Patents, including 12 that are on flame retardant compositions. Roger has given numerous presentations globally and has several publications. He became a Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Fellow in 2020 and has held leadership positions in the SPE including his most recent position as the Chairman of the Business Development and Technology Committee. Roger is a member of the American Chemical Society, SAMPE and is a professional member of PINFA-NA, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating consumers and stakeholders on the benefits of sustainable flame retardants.

Roger Avakian earned his B.S. in Chemistry with Honors from the University of California, San Diego in 1973. He is a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma.

Tim Reilly worked for Clariant for thirty-five years. He spent 15 years in manufacturing positionsmainly concerningthe production of colorants (pigments & dyes).Twenty years of his career wasspent in the technical marketing of Clariant’s colorants and polymer additives including Exolit®flame retardants. Currently, Tim is a consultant to Clariant’sflame retardant business.

Tim is chairman of the Phosphorus, Inorganic & Nitrogen Flame Retardant Association -North America. He considers flame retardants to bean interestingand dynamic market involving multiple stakeholders.

Tim is a graduate Brown University and has a graduate degree from Tufts University. He resides in New London, CT.

James Zhou has been working for Avient Corporation for five years in Corporate R&D. Before his Avient tenure, he worked for SABIC Innovative Plastics for 10 years in product development role. In his career, he has spent time developing non-halogenated flame retardant products in form of films, sheets, and fiber reinforced composites for transportation, electronics, and building applications.

James is Avient's representative for PINFA-North America organization, and a member of SPE. He enjoys science behind flame retardant materials, and considers the technical challenges to balance public safety and sustainability aspects of flame retardant materials very important issue to address.

James has a Ph.D. degree from Georgia Tech in field of Polymer Science and Engineering. He resides in Avon, Ohio.