People briefs -- HPC, May 2009

Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of Marty Kendrick as VP of operations. She will be responsible for the Park’s operations in Asia, Europe and North America with the exception of the company’s Park Advanced Composite Materials Inc. advanced composite materials subsidiary in Waterbury, Conn. Previously Park’s VP of North American operations, she joined Park in 1984. Kendrick will report to Brian Shore, Park’s president CEO. The company also appointed Tom Pursch as president of two of its subsidiaries: Park Aerospace Structures Corp. (Lynnwood, Wash.) and Park Aircraft Technologies Corp. (Newton, Kan.). Pursch was previously president of Park’s Nelco Products Inc. subsidiary in Fullerton, Calif. In other Park news, Jim Stewart was appointed as  Nelco’s VP of operations, after serving in sales management positions at Nelco and Park before he was appointed as Park’s VP of sales and marketing in 2000. Pursch and Stewart will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of their respective facilities, reporting to Kendrick. John Jongebloed will continue  as president of Park Advanced Composite Materials Inc. and will report to Brian Shore.

J.D. Lincoln (Costa Mesa, Calif.) announced the hiring of Mike Dorf and Steve Zeller as sales engineers. A graduate of Cornell University (BS in chemical engineering), Dorf previously held a variety of sales, marketing and operations positions with Lewcott Corp. (Millbury, Mass.), Quadrax Advanced Materials (Portsmouth, R.I.), and Textron Specialty Materials (Providence, R.I.) and will service the Northeastern U.S. Zellar, also the owner of Southbrook Technologies (Alpharetta, Ga.), will be responsible for the southeastern U.S. He has held previous sales, engineering and manufacturing positions with Garrett Airesearch (Los Angeles, Calif.) and HITCO Carbon Composites (Gardena, Calif.). A graduate of Miami University of Ohio (BA in political science and foreign policy analysis), he holds FAA Pilot and Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics licenses.

Harper International (Lancaster, N.Y.) has appointed Charles W. Miller Jr. to the position of president. Miller joined Harper in 1995 and has performed in progressive management positions, most recently as VP of international business.  He is a graduate of Alfred University, holds numerous U.S. and international patents, and has served as the New England section chair of The American Ceramic Society and the program chair of the Materials & Equipment Div. of The American Ceramic Society.