The Halocarbon Team

C.E.O.

David Bacon

B.S. Chemical Engineering
University of Arkansas: magna cum laude

David Bacon joined Halocarbon Products Corp. as CEO in 2015. David was the first Halocarbon CEO to be hired from outside the company. His vision is to build the New Halocarbon and position it as the strategic growth partner for innovation in fluorochemistry. David has over 15 years of experience leading businesses in General Manager roles where he consistently improved operations and profitability. Prior to Halocarbon, he served as President of the LSP Products Group (a division of NCH Corporation) and as General Manager of the AT Plastics (EVA) division at Celanese Corporation. Prior to his general management roles, David was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He began his professional career as a chemical engineer at Exxon Corporation.

Director of Finance

Julie Fortunato

B.S. Accounting | University of Maryland, College Park
Graduate, Tax Executive Institute | University of Michigan/Ann Arbor
Certified Public Accountant (Maryland)
Certified Management Accountant

Julie A. Fortunato holds the Certified Public Accountant (Maryland) and Certified Management Accountant designations. Ms. Fortunato has worked for Halocarbon since August 2015 as Director of Finance.

Prior to joining Halocarbon, Julie held various positions with Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, most recently seconded to Arab Potash Company in Amman, Jordan as VP of Finance and Administration. Her chemical plant experience includes over 24 years working in both the Nitrogen and Phosphate divisions of PotashCorp as Plant Controller and Manager of Accounting. Julie has more than 34 years of experience in accounting, procurement, maintenance and warehouse operations.

Director of Supply Chain

Derek Brown

B.S. Mechanical Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology
B.S. Mathematics | Morehouse College

Derek Brown comes to Halocarbon with many years of supply chain leadership experience with companies including INVISTA, LSP Products/NCH Corporation and Celanese Corporation. Derek’s career began in production and operations, but for more than 16 years, Derek has held management roles with increasing responsibility in the area of supply chain, including inventory management, purchasing and customer service.

In his new role as part of Halocarbon’s leadership team, Derek is responsible for developing strategies that drive continuous improvement in customer service, procurement, warehousing and distribution, and inventory management.

Director of Strategy and Innovation

Sidd Shenoy

M.B.A. Executive General Management | Drexel University
Ph.D. Organic Chemistry | University of California, Irvine
B.S. Chemistry, University of Virginia

Siddhartha (Sidd) Shenoy joined Halocarbon in May 2016 as the Director of Strategic Marketing, where he helped design the Halocarbon corporate-level strategy and its current business segment architecture. Sidd assumed the role of Director of Strategy and Innovation in 2018. His top priorities include designing and implementing new strategic growth initiatives for Halocarbon, and interfacing with both the Commercial and Technical/R&D teams at to build the company’s innovation pipeline.

Prior to joining the Halocarbon Leadership Team, Sidd worked at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, where he held multiple business and technical leadership roles, serving markets and applications ranging from industrial biotechnology, agriculture and nutrition to electronics and fluorinated materials.

Director of Human Resources

Kevin Hyman

B.S. Industrial Management
Clemson University, South Carolina

Kevin Hyman is responsible for directing and developing Halocarbon’s people assets and culture in accordance with the company’s strategic direction, ethics and governmental regulations. He directs all aspects of Human Resources for Halocarbon.

Hyman joined Halocarbon in 2014 bringing with him over 25 years of domestic and international Human Resource experience from the textile and chemical industries. He is an active member of the business community and SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management).

Director of Research and Development

Carl Walther

B.S. Chemical Engineering
Oklahoma State University

Walther joined Halocarbon in July of 2016 as Manager, Technical Services/Support being promoted to his current role in March of 2017.   His most recent employment had been with Chemours as a Technical Service Senior Consultant in the Krytox Performance Lubricants business, which included both product and application development in a range of markets from industrial to aerospace as well as targeted R&D projects and manufacturing plant support.  Walther is recognized as an authority in his field, has written papers, and made presentations to organizations such as AISE, IEEE PCIC, NLGI, NORIA, SAE, SMMA and STLE.

Walther joined Halocarbon with more than 30 years of experience in product and application development driving sales of specialty products into new and existing market spaces around the globe.

Director of Environment, Health and Safety

Norman Guest

B.S. Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology
Oklahoma State University

Guest most recently served as Director EHS – Safety Culture for Momentive Performance Materials, where he was responsible for EHS at 20 sites globally in 2 business sectors. Guest also partnered with all levels of the company on EHS/PSM compliance, safety leadership skill development. Prior to his role at Momentive, Guest served in various global, regional, and local EHS leadership roles at Celanese Corporation. While at Celanese, he led the achievement of setting new company EHS performance records; negotiated site operating permit approvals; developed and implemented the companies ALERT process and global communication plan; led EHS / PSM audits globally; developed and implemented global EHS management systems such as safe work permit process; and applied six sigma principles resulting in improved EHS performance and efficiency.

Guest joined Halocarbon in 2016 with more than 20 years of experience in driving world-class EHS performance bringing industry best practices to lead the company’s next phase of EHS performance, growth, and product innovation.

Director of Quality

Jim Beatty

B.S. Biology and Business Management
University of South Carolina

Jim Beatty joined Halocarbon in 2011. Jim has served in various roles of increasing responsibility and is currently leading the Quality Organization. In his role as the Director of Quality, Jim is leading a team of quality assurance and quality control scientists responsible for the development and implementation of strategies and protocols that meet or exceed the high-quality standards of Halocarbon products. Jim has demonstrated a steady track-record of leveraging a wealth of knowledge in quality management systems, which he developed while serving in the QA/QC departments of various industry leaders such as Pfizer and AmbioPharm.

Jim’s team ensures commercial product consistency, compliance of quality management systems, and the facilitation of a proactive, quality-focused corporate culture at Halocarbon. Jim is an enthusiastic professional who takes pride in ensuring that the quality and performance of Halocarbon products are second to none.

Manufacturing Director, Engineering Fluids & Electronic Solutions

Ameya Acharekar

B.S. Chemical Engineering
University of South Carolina

Ameya Acharekar directs the plant operations group responsible for both the Halocarbon Engineered Fluids & Halocarbon Electronic Solutions businesses. In this role, Ameya leads a cross-functional team of engineers and scientists that are responsible for providing a reliable supply of consistent and high-quality fluoroproducts for our customers globally. In addition, Ameya brings a strong foundation of experience in both production and design engineering to the development, scale-up, and production of new products, providing the solid manufacturing basis to fuel the growth of Halocarbon.

Ameya joined Halocarbon in 2007 and held roles as a Project Engineer and Process Development Manager prior to being promoted to Manufacturing Director in 2019.  Prior to joining Halocarbon, Ameya worked at Eastman Chemical Company as a Process Improvement Engineer.

Manufacturing Director, Life Sciences

Mark R Frye

B.S. Chemical Engineering
Clemson University, SC

Mark Frye is the director of manufacturing the Halocarbon Life Sciences business segment. Mark Frye has over 30 years of production engineering experience in the specialty fluorochemical chemical industry. Mark joined the Halocarbon team in 1990 as a production engineer. Since then, Mark has assumed several roles in production management and leadership. Mark has been instrumental in the growth of Halocarbon over the past two-and-a-half decades by leading his team in all aspects of plant operations. His determination and drive for excellence has allowed Halocarbon to succeed both internally through continuous improvement and efficiency gains, and externally through high customer satisfaction and retention. Before joining Halocarbon, Mark worked as Operations Supervisor at Carolina Metals, a depleted uranium hexafluoride processing plant located in South Carolina.

Director of Reliability and Engineering

Brian Wintrode

B.S. Electrical Engineering | Pennsylvania State University
M.B.A Bloomsburg University

Brian Wintrode has over 25 years of experience in industrial maintenance, reliability, engineering and plant operations. Brian started his career as a shipboard electrician for the United States Navy and is a veteran of the Gulf War. Upon receiving his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, Brian entered the Paper industry and assumed roles of increasing responsibility including: Electrical Maintenance Engineer, Department Maintenance Superintendent, Maintenance Reliability and Engineering Manager, and Power and Utilities Manager.

In his role as the Director of Reliability and Engineering, Brian is leading a cross-functional team of engineers responsible for design and execution of capital projects, maintaining plant assets and utilities, and improving the overall plant reliability and operations at Halocarbon.

Operations Director - Life Sciences

Marisol Martinez

B.S. Chemical Engineering
University of Houston

Marisol Martinez joined Halocarbon in 2020 with 30 years of experience in the chemical manufacturing and petroleum industry. She is responsible for all aspects of production in our Life Sciences business with a particular emphasis on culture change, work process implementation and leadership development.

Through international work assignments for Fortune 500 Companies including Shell Canada Limited and Celanese Corporation, Marisol has proven strengths in change management, organizational change, technical leadership, process safety management, project management, production scheduling and planning.

Marisol is a dedicated professional offering compassionate leadership, coaching and problem solving expertise fluently in English and Spanish.

Director of Sales – Life Sciences

Jeff Clements

B.S. Economics | Texas A&M University
M.B.A. | University of Houston

Most recently, Jeff spent 15 years as National Accounts Manager and Senior Accounts Manager for Celanese EVA Polymers, where he was responsible for Celanese’s top revenue and margin accounts, in addition to new account acquisition. Prior to Celanese, Jeff spent 11 years in sales and sales management at Chevron, in both polymers and on-line lubricants and oils platform.  Jeff went to Chevron after completing his graduate business studies at the University of Houston. Prior to that, Jeff was District Manager for Dover Corporation.

Clements joined Halocarbon in 2017 with more than 27 years of experience in sales, business development, and marketing, bringing a consistent record of annual growth, value-added sales, and profitability.

Sales Director – Engineered Fluids

Francisco Torres

B.A. Political Science | Texas A&M University
B.A. Spanish | Texas A&M University

Francisco brings more than 30 years of sales experience to the Halocarbon team. He has worked in chemical distribution for Ashland Chemical, ethyl alcohol sales with Grain Processing Corporation, polymer sales management with AT Plastics and Celanese Corporation and most recently as Sales Director in the new home construction industry at NCH Corporation. Throughout his career, he has successfully managed businesses in various regions of the United States, Latin America and Asia. He has a proven track record of double-digit sales growth, strengthening customer relations, developing new business strategies and providing positive energy and enthusiasm to an organization.  Francisco is responsible for the Engineered Fluids division and well as specialty products related to the semiconductor industry.  He is committed to taking Halocarbon to a new level of growth and customer relations.

Sales Director – Electronics Solutions

Bill McCormick

Joined Halocarbon Electronics Solutions in January 2019 as Director of Sales. Bill will be charged with elevating the strategic customer relationships to new heights, ensuring Halocarbon’s leading-edge technology is delivering on the customer’s unmet needs. Furthermore, Bill will facilitate the commercialization of new innovative fluorocarbon technologies serving the semiconductor and lithium-ion battery industries. Bill comes to Halocarbon with over 20 years of commercial leadership experience. Much of his career was developed with BASF Chemical Company, spearheading commercial execution for the coatings, fiber bonding, adhesives, and hygiene industries. Prior to joining Halocarbon, Bill worked for Pall Corporation serving as Global Account Manager for the chemical industry.

C.E.O.

David Bacon

B.S. Chemical Engineering
University of Arkansas: magna cum laude

David Bacon joined Halocarbon Products Corp. as CEO in 2015. David was the first Halocarbon CEO to be hired from outside the company. His vision is to build the New Halocarbon and position it as the strategic growth partner for innovation in fluorochemistry. David has over 15 years of experience leading businesses in General Manager roles where he consistently improved operations and profitability. Prior to Halocarbon, he served as President of the LSP Products Group (a division of NCH Corporation) and as General Manager of the AT Plastics (EVA) division at Celanese Corporation. Prior to his general management roles, David was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company. He began his professional career as a chemical engineer at Exxon Corporation.

Director of Strategy and Innovation

Sidd Shenoy

M.B.A. Executive General Management | Drexel University
Ph.D. Organic Chemistry | University of California, Irvine
B.S. Chemistry, University of Virginia

Siddhartha (Sidd) Shenoy joined Halocarbon in May 2016 as the Director of Strategic Marketing, where he helped design the Halocarbon corporate-level strategy and its current business segment architecture. Sidd assumed the role of Director of Strategy and Innovation in 2018. His top priorities include designing and implementing new strategic growth initiatives for Halocarbon, and interfacing with both the Commercial and Technical/R&D teams at to build the company’s innovation pipeline.

Prior to joining the Halocarbon Leadership Team, Sidd worked at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, where he held multiple business and technical leadership roles, serving markets and applications ranging from industrial biotechnology, agriculture and nutrition to electronics and fluorinated materials.

Director of Research and Development

Carl Walther

B.S. Chemical Engineering
Oklahoma State University

Walther joined Halocarbon in July of 2016 as Manager, Technical Services/Support being promoted to his current role in March of 2017.   His most recent employment had been with Chemours as a Technical Service Senior Consultant in the Krytox Performance Lubricants business, which included both product and application development in a range of markets from industrial to aerospace as well as targeted R&D projects and manufacturing plant support.  Walther is recognized as an authority in his field, has written papers, and made presentations to organizations such as AISE, IEEE PCIC, NLGI, NORIA, SAE, SMMA and STLE.

Walther joined Halocarbon with more than 30 years of experience in product and application development driving sales of specialty products into new and existing market spaces around the globe.

Customer Service Manager

Belinda Edwards

Belinda joined the Halocarbon Team in 2015 as a consultant in preparation for the launch of a more robust Customer Resource Management system.  Prior to that Belinda spent 14 years as a consultant in project management and business development with NScope Project Management. During her tenure with NScope she was responsible for working with customers from private and federal entities, on technology-based projects. Preceding NScope, Belinda spent several years in IT Project Management at the Weather Channel; perfecting skills in internal and external customer relations, as well as managing high performance teams.  In the earlier years of Belinda’s career she served on the project management team for Attachmate Corporation as well as in account management/leadership in other technology-based firms.

Inside Sales Manager

Jake Cusick

B.S. Business Management | Clemson University

Jake Cusick joined Halocarbon in April 2018 as the Insides Sales Manager. His primary focuses include enhancing customer relations, exploring new product applications, and expanding Halocarbon’s business partnerships. As an Eagle Scout, Jake brings the drive, determination, and discipline to continue improving customer relations.

Prior to joining the Halocarbon Commercial Team, Jake worked at Capitol Materials, Inc. where he held various business roles as part of a Management Training Program including inside sales, inventory control, as well as logistics assistance. He graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Business Management, a minor in sustainability, and an emphasis in Entrepreneurship.

Principal Investigator

Neville Pavri

Neville Pavri, Ph.D. is a Principal Investigator at Halocarbon Electronics Solutions. In this role, he is the technical lead for Halocarbon’s electronic solutions segment which includes electrolyte additives and co-solvents for lithium ion batteries. He is currently using structure-activity relationship principles for the development and commercialization of fluorinated compounds that improve the safety and performance of the electrolyte in Lithium Ion Batteries. He has a B.S. in Chemistry from the State University of New York-Albany and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of New Orleans in natural product synthesis.

Principal Investigator

Jason Spruell

Jason Spruell joined Halocarbon in September 2018 as a Principal Investigator to lead the research and commercial initiatives in semiconductor chemicals. His focus is to foster partnerships across the semiconductor value chain to enable innovations through fluorochemical solutions. As an innovator with numerous patents and awards, including the invention of an R&D 100 Award winning product, Jason brings innovation leadership to Halocarbon. With over eight years of experience developing and commercializing new technologies in the specialty chemical and materials industries through technical leadership roles at both Milliken and Company as well as Eastman Chemical Company, Jason has consistently enabled value creation for the partners with whom he works.