Chair
Erik Foltz
The Madison Group
Erik Foltz is a Senior Managing Engineer at The Madison Group. He specializes in design and manufacturing optimization for plastic and composite components. Through his work he is able to help find solutions that drive more robust assemblies while keeping costs low. Erik received his M.S. Degree from the Polymer Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His specialties include plastic part design verification, process optimization and troubleshooting for injection and compression molding, and plastics failure. Erik is also a Certified Professional Moldflow® Consultant. When he is not working, he likes to spend time outdoors with his family.
Past Chair
Albert McGovern
Al McGovern retired in July 2021 after 43 years–and 11 issued patents–in the product and part design field as a Mechanical Engineer, Director and Servant Leader. His expertise encompasses numerous materials and manufacturing processes, domestic and international engineering and manufacturing, and use of additive manufacturing for design and production since 1991. He is passionate about his family, giving back to help those in need, and offering his experience to smooth out the journey of future product and part designers and engineers. Visit Albert (Al) McGovern | LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertmcgovern/) to learn more.
Councilor
Vikram Bhargava
Vikram Bhargava is a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers and Past Chairman of its Product Design and Development Division. In 2014, he retired as the Director of Mechanical Engineering Services at Motorola Solutions in Holtsville, NY where he headed an international group of professionals overseeing plastic material selection, design, analysis and simulation, tooling, and processing.
Vikram has over 40 years of experience in product design, development, manufacturing, and management, especially in plastics. In addition to his management responsibilities, Vikram chose to remain a hands-on mechanical engineer until his retirement and designed or supervised the creation of hundreds of innovative products.
Vikram holds 21 U.S. and International patents and has a BSME from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. He currently lives in Somerset, NJ, U.S.A. with his wife Pushpa and is actively consulting and conducting training and seminars in plastics and Six Sigma. Visit https://vikpedia.org/ to learn more.
Secretary
Chris Siler
Dow
Chris is a Senior Research Scientist at Dow working in a design center to support all of Dow’s businesses. Chris is a mechanical engineer by degree and has built his career with an expertise in machine and product design. He has been working in the design and manufacturing field for over 20 years, and he has a passion for solving problems with unique and simple solutions.
Membership Chair
Mark Maclean-Blevins
Maclean-Blevins & Associates, Inc.
Mark MacLean-Blevins is an independent product design consultant in practice since 1993 with fifty-four patents issued for innovations developed as a result of his creative work. Mark is also the author of Designing Successful Product with Plastics, published in 2017 by Elsevier. Mark and Kim MacLean-Blevins and their family of eight children (one still at home) live and work in Westminster, Maryland. Visit www.maclean-blevins.com to learn more.
Technical Program Chair
Akanksha Garg
Dow
Akanksha Garg earned her Ph.D. degree in Computational Mechanics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 and received her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, India in 2009. She joined Dow in 2017 and is currently a Research Scientist in Product R&D, Packaging & Specialty Plastics. Akanksha has led product development from concept to commercialization of Dow’s first ever Revoloop(TM) PCR products in North America and globally; she has also led the next generation processing aid supplier strategy for Dow. She was recognized by Plastic News as a ‘Rising Star’ in 2021.
Treasurer
Larry Schneider
Schneider Plastics, Inc
Larry is President and founder of Schneider Plastics, Inc. located in Wadsworth, Illinois; the company was formed in 1999 to provide product design and consulting services for all processes in the plastic industry. He has been an SPE member since 1983 and was named an Honored Service Member in 2006; he was also named a member of the Plastic Pioneers Association in 2005. He has held positions in numerous professional societies and holds several U.S. and International patents.
Division Historian
Glenn Beall
Glenn Beall Plastics Limited
Glenn joined SPE in 1960 and has been awarded Honored Service, Fellow and Distinguished Member of the Society. He was one of the Founders of PD3 and has been past chairman and emeritus member of their Board of Directors. He is a Member of The Plastics Hall of Fame.
Member at Large
Eric P. Rose, NPDP, MBA
Pinnacle Product Innovation, Inc.
Eric P. Rose, NPDP, MBA is a product innovation and management consultant. He has more than 35 years’ experience in plastic product design & development in the consumer, medical, and industrial product industries. Eric is the former Chair of the SPE San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles area) Chapter.
Member at Large
Ed Probst
Probst Plastics Consulting
As Principal of Probst Plastics Consulting, based in Milwaukee, WI, Ed Probst has 40 years of experience in the thermoforming industry. For 28 years he worked at Profile Plastics Corporation, Lake Bluff, IL, in sales, manufacturing, engineering and design. One of his first jobs was teaching the relatively new thermoforming variation of pressure-forming to industrial designers and engineers throughout North America. In his career he has participated in the design of thousands of thermoformed parts and molds. He is a past Treasurer, Secretary, and Chair of PD3.
Member at Large
Michael Paloian
Integrated Design Systems, Inc.
Michael Paloian has designed hundreds of products and thousands of plastic parts throughout his 50-year career as an industrial designer and plastics engineer. He graduated from Lowell Technological Institute (currently UMass Lowell) in 1972 with a BS in Plastics Engineering, and Rhode Island School of Design in 1976 with a master’s in industrial design. He is currently President of Integrated Design Systems, Inc., a full-service product development firm located in Oyster Bay New York and established in 1983. He has lectured throughout the world, written hundreds of articles, and has been a contributing author to various design textbooks. He holds more than 45 patents and has served as Past Chair for both the Rotational Molding Division and Product Design and Development Division of SPE.
Member at Large
Mark Wolverton
Mark Wolverton, a Past President of PD3, is now an Educator with the PlastiVan outreach from the SPE Foundation. He relays to the next generation of plastics parts users and developers his enthusiasm for plastics parts development through the fundamentals of good design, manufacturing planning, materials selection and processing. This enthusiasm sustained a 50-year career as manager and individual contributor in technical service and applications development.
Web/Newsletter Editor
Elizabeth Detampel
Elizabeth Detampel is the Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Sussex IM, a high-volume custom injection molder in Sussex, WI. In her role, she is responsible for brand management, social media presence, website maintenance, and all marketing initiatives. Elizabeth enjoys plastics and the manufacturing industry in general and is looking forward to her role as the Web/Newsletter Editor on the SPE PD3 board.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-detampel-24314583/