Bob Pasquale Named President of ARC

ARC Elects Officers, Directors

GREENVILLE, SC — Members of the Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters (ARC), a global non-profit trade association serving the flexible metallizing, printing, coating and laminating industry, elected four officers and six directors at the ARC Summit (April 23–24, 2024; Golden, CO). The 2024–2025 board consists of President Bob Pasquale of New Era Converting Machinery, Vice President Gregory D. Williams of Transcontinental Advanced Coatings, Treasurer Rod Sosa of Fres-co System USA and Past President Andy Jack of Emerson and Renwick Ltd.

Two new directors-at-large, Andy Palmer of Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Mike Sellers of MTorres Diseños Industriales, were elected, and four directors-at-large were re-elected, Joseph Perdue of ECKART America Corporation, Martha Sloboda of Duraco, Robert Malay of VDI – part of Madico, Inc., and Todd Luman of Interprint, Inc. The officers and directors represent a broad spectrum of converters and suppliers to the industry.

“The roll-to-roll community is fortunate to have a strong network of volunteers and leaders. The 2024–2025 Board of Directors is a great example of dedicated contributors supporting our industry and association,” notes Chris Kerscher, executive director of ARC. “We appreciate their continued commitment and the continuity they bring to the leadership of ARC.”

ARC OFFICERS 2024–2025

President Bob Pasquale is one of the founders and co-owners of New Era Converting Machinery and has served as its president since 1996. He holds several patents related to web processing and has delivered many technical presentations. He has been a member of the ICEC USA steering committee and has long been active in ARC and its predecessor, the Association of International Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators (AIMCAL). His experience includes technical sales, project engineering and management, and supervision of manufacturing, engineering and new product development.

Vice President Greg Williams currently serves as vice president – Global Technology & Development for Transcontinental Advanced Coatings. He has been with the Advanced Coatings business for 31 years, mainly in product development and technology roles focusing on precision, cleanroom film and foil-based coated products. An active member of ARC’s Web Coating & Laminating Committee, he has served as its co-chair. His passion is working with customers to solve technical problems and enable rapid introduction of products.

Treasurer Rod Sosa of Fres-co System USA has served multinational corporations in operations and plant management, new product development and graphic design management. Since 2006, he has been an active member of the Gravure Association of the Americas (GAA), now the Gravure Committee of ARC, as well as the Gravure Education Foundation (GEF). He is a board member of the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) and has been inducted into the Gravure Cylinder Society. A two-time winner of the GEF Technical Writing Competition, he also has published four research publications related to gravure printing.

Past President Andrew Jack joined Emerson & Renwick in January 2019 and currently serves as lead process and equipment development engineer at E+R Group. Previous employers include Vacuum Depositing, Inc. (VDI), in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Bobst Group of Heywood England, a leading producer of metallizing equipment. As an active member of the Vacuum Web Coating Committee and its co-chair for more than seven years, Jack has presented technical papers at ARC and Society of Vacuum Coaters conferences. He is a resident of Burnley, Lancashire, England. Interests include golf and “proper” football.

ARC DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE 2024–2025

Todd Luman joined Interprint Group to launch its laser engraving division for gravure cylinders. In 2013, he became involved with GAA. He served on its Board of Trustees, held cabinet positions in the GAA and GEF, judged the Golden Cylinder Awards, served on the board of the PGSF and has been involved in gravure training seminars. In 2014, he was inducted into the Gravure Cylinder Society. Before joining Interprint Group, he spent 15 years at Harper Corporation of America.

Robert Malay, technical manager at VDI – part of Madico, Inc., leads research and development work for the custom roll-to-roll metallizer and is responsible for process engineering projects and initiatives. Prior to this, he was a doctoral researcher at Binghamton University, working on integrating flexible glass into roll-to-roll (R2R) systems, as well as fabricating and characterizing electronic devices made with R2R techniques. He serves on ARC’s Vacuum Web Coating Committee and is an active member of the Society of Vacuum Coaters. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, as well as a Master of Science and doctorate degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Binghamton University.

Andy Palmer of P&G currently chairs the ARC Web Handling Committee. He has worked at P&G for 23 years, most of that time directly involved in web-handling-related technology, across multiple product areas throughout the company. Before joining P&G, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University and Master of Science, also in Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis in controls, from Purdue University. He and his wife have seven children and one grandchild and live in Lebanon, Ohio.

Joseph Perdue joined ECKART America Corporation as a product development chemist in 1998. Since then, he has served in technical, product management, marketing and project management roles in the Graphic Arts (printing) business. In 2012, he assumed responsibility for a new production facility in Schererville, Indiana. As head of Operations, he integrated the newly acquired operation and helped re-establish the product line’s position as a market leader. Today, he focuses on driving continuous improvement and product innovation.

Mike Sellers has been involved with capital equipment sales for more than 30 years working with both European and domestic manufacturers. Since 2013, he has been the North American sales director of Mtorres Diseños Industriales, a manufacturer of unwinding, automatic splicing and rewinding equipment. A member of ARC/AIMCAL for 20 years, he currently serves on the Web Handling Committee. Previously, he was on the Web Coating & Laminating Committee. Over the years, has written and presented technical papers and has been involved with the Fall Technical Conference (now R2R USA).

 Martha Sloboda is the vice president, chief commercial officer at Duraco Specialty Materials. She joined Duraco from Scapa plc, where she was global director and oversaw commercial and technical functions for the Industrial business. Her background includes stints at Adhesives Research, ARx LLC (pharma spinoff from Adhesives Research), Scapa Healthcare and Dunmore. With more than 22 years of experience in custom development, coating and converting, she has worked on applications from masking tape to converted wound-care dressings, supported acquisitions and integrations and developed technologies, talent and teams.

About the Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters (ARC)

The Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters, formerly AIMCAL (the Association of International Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators), is a global, non-profit trade association with a 50+ year legacy of educating, connecting, and growing the roll-to-roll converting industry. Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, the group encompasses more than 325 members representing a variety of manufacturing processes, markets and geographic regions. ARC supports the converting industry across the supply chain from research to finished products. Membership information is available at http://www.rolltoroll.org.