Wayne Willkomm

 

Address                    2801 Odell Drive, Erie, CO 80516

 

Education                 Ph.D. Chemical Engineering , University of Minnesota, 1990                                              

Thesis: Processing and Property Development in Polyurea Reaction Injection Molding

Advisor: Chris Macosko  

 

B. S. Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, 1984

 

 

Experience              Intrex Corporation, 1815 Boxelder Street, Louisville, CO 80027

June 2006 to            President, Intrex Tool and Molding Division

Feb. 2007                  Complete P&L responsibility for injection molding and tooling division of Intrex Corporation.

Turned around performance of the unprofitable business to prepare for sale.  Reduced total costs of the division by 9% resulting in profitability in 2007, after 2 ½ years of losses.  This was achieved by increasing operational efficiency, built employee buy-in for change, and revamping production scheduling to better fit process needs.  Reduced late shipments to customers by 40%.  Strategic sourcing reduced raw material acquisition costs while also improving vendor response time.  Product standard cost accuracy was improved, facilitating judicious price increases to customers.  Finally, underutilitized production assets and space were rationalized, all reducing costs and laying the ground work for company growth.

 

May 2000 to              Kryptane Systems, LLC, 740 South Pierce Ave. Suite 5, Louisville, CO 80027

June 2006                 President

Led company through a sale, allowing original owners to cash out.  Complete P&L responsibility for a polyurethane molding and materials business.  Small company size required broad responsibilities including general management, strategic direction, sales and marketing, research, product development, finance, and HR. 

 

Turned around company that was experiencing a major sales decline (sales dropping 15%/year 1998-2001) and increasing losses.  Returned company to growth in 2002 and to profitability in 2004.  Increased sales /employee by 50% through productivity improvements, high employee retention, and outsourcing non-core manufacturing.  Changed the business model from a job shop to develop proprietary product lines with higher margins and reliable sales.  Proprietary products increased from 15% to 50% of sales in 2006 with a product pipeline that has the opportunity to double the company sales within four more years.  Identified the market niche of agricultural rollers for root crop where polyurethane offered large performance advantages over incumbent products. 

 

September 1989     Dow Chemical Company, Freeport, Texas 77541

to May 2000              Market Development Manager

                                    Focused on building new growth businesses for Dow Polyurethanes.  Project Manager

for new automotive application of polyurethane elastomers, leading an eight person multifunctional team.  The project ultimately lead to a Joint Development Agreement between Dow Chemical and Michelin for polyurethane use in run-flat tires.  Explored for new opportunities for polyurethanes and business models to exploit them.  Evaluated market data, discontinuities, technical changes, and capabilities to build value propositions.  Opportunities were founded around common capabilities, building upon each other to create sustainable, broad business platforms.  Performed financial analysis to select business models and to prioritize projects to enable substantial growth for Dow’s polyurethane business.

                                     

Senior Research Specialist

Led R&D effort to create polyurethane dispersion pressure sensitive adhesives, including

polymer design, application development, and customer qualification.  Led team for

assembly and start up of laboratory polyurethane dispersion apparatus. 

 

Project Leader

Engaged in product research and development in the applications areas of forest products, flexible foams, copolymer polyol, and dispersions.  Led exploration effort that shaped and analyzed carpet backing as the sponsoring application for polyurethane dispersions.  Participated on team that launched polyurethane dispersions for carpet backing as a new product.  Developed polymer composition that is now used in the carpet dispersion.  Designed novel copolymer polyol composition to achieve flame retardancy in molded foams using Dow raw materials.  Participated on a team which developed new raw materials for producing polyurethane slabstock foams without CFC's.  Designed new polymeric isocyanate based systems for a paper coating application in forest products.  Led the ISO 9000 implementation for the product R&D group.

 

                                    Senior Research Engineer

Engaged in product research and development in the applications areas of reaction injection molding (RIM) and forest products.  Coordinated efforts for experiments at a national laboratory for measurements of real time morphology development through dynamic small angle x-ray scattering.  Designed a new high temperature internal mold release for RIM through fundamental research of release technology.

 

Patents and            Earned patent protection for a series of inventions in projects worked or managed.

Publications           These inventions include the application areas of rollers for agricultural equipment,

run flat automobile tire systems, polyurethane latexes, polyurethane adhesives, and inherently flame resistant polyurethane foams. 

 

U.S. Patents 7,201,713; 7,129,279; 6,989,065; 6,800,715, 6,779, 572; 6,746,387; 6,720,385;

6,548,616; 6,316,108; 6,087,440; 5,959,027; 5,824,712; 5,74,847.  

 

Quantitative Evaluation of Internal Mold Release Agents  for Polyurea RIM

by the Measurement of  Release Forces, with R.M. Jennings and C.W. Macosko, Plastics, Rubber and Composites Processing and Applications, 19, 69-76 (1993) .

 

The Use of FT-IR and Dynamic SAXS to Provide an Improved Understanding of the Matrix Formation and Viscosity Build of Flexible Polyurethane Foams, with J.V. McClusky, R.D. Priester, and M.D. Heaney, SPI-PU World Congress, Vancouver (1993).

 

Thermal, Mechanical, and Fracture Properties of Copolyureas formed by Reaction Injection Molding: Effects of Hard Segment Structure, with A.J. Ryan, T.B. Bergstrom, C.W. Macosko, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 43, 1023-1039 (1991).

 

Dynamics of Microphase Separation during Fast, Bulk Copolymerization: Some Synchrotron SAXS Experiments,  with  A.J. Ryan, C.W. Macosko, J.T. Koberstein, et al., Macromolecules, 24,  2883-2889 (1991).

 

Properties and Phase Separation in RIM and Solution Polymerized Polyureas as a Function of Hard Block Content, with Z.S. Chen, C.W. Macosko, D.A. Gobran, and E.L. Thomas, Polymer Engineering and Science, 28, 888-900 (1988).