Contact: Paula Weis
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPI ANNOUNCES SENIOR STAFF RESTRUCTURING

WASHINGTON, DC (August 3, 2004) - The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) today announced a staff reorganization designed to "further strengthen the association and provide a solid platform for its next level of achievement," according to SPI President Donald K. Duncan.

Among enhancements to the staffing structure, Duncan said, were the following senior staff promotions:

Catherine Randazzo has been promoted to chief operating officer and executive vice president. (She was named to the executive vice president position in October 2003). In this new position, she will have oversight of all SPI operating and administrative functions, including finance and information technology, as well as responsibility for the association's 15 business units, four regional offices, membership development/retention and strategic planning.

In her most recent assignment as executive vice president and chief member services officer, she was responsible for oversight of SPI's public policy efforts, business units, regional offices, membership, global business initiatives (including participation in the recent trade mission to China), statistics and economics, SPI's award -winning workforce training and certification products and affinity programs.

Previously, Randazzo served 14 years as the executive director of the New York City-based SPI Composites Institute. In this capacity, she managed the largest composites industry conference and show in North America, which included an extensive technical conference, industry exhibits and prestigious best products and best technical papers competitions. During this period, the Institute secured five government/industry/academic R&D projects totaling more than $6 million to develop commercially viable composite pilings, piers, dowel bars, bridges and concrete repair technology. She also managed a complex regulatory program to respond to concerns on the health effects of exposure to a key chemical used in the manufacture of composite products. This included fund-raising for industry epidemiological and economic impact studies. In addition, Randazzo managed the industry's semi-annual and annual production statistics and growth forecasts, disseminating the statistics at semi-annual press conferences. She also served as the industry spokesperson, including a trade mission to Japan, and managed the conceptualization of the business-to-business bi-monthly magazine CDA - Composites Design and Applications, to promote composites to the civil engineering community. Randazzo served as publisher of CDA before divesting the magazine to another publisher.

Additionally, she served at the first executive director of SPI's Styrene Information and Research Center (SIRC), where she was the initial key staff that supported this industry alliance to meet the challenges associated with the health effects of a key chemical in a multi-billion dollar industry. During the initial year, she helped the alliance establish its mission, structure and bylaws and helped recruit its leadership, as well as raise funds to support the multi-billion dollar budget. In this capacity, she managed consultants from the fields of science, government and communications.

Earlier in her career with SPI, Randazzo served as the staff director for the Furniture Division, where she worked on the development of an all-synthetic show room at the Dallas Furniture Mart. She also served as the staff director of the Committee on Transportation and the Microwave Oven Cookware Division.

Randazzo joined SPI in 1979. She has a B.A. in Anthropology from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, from which she graduated cum laude, and an M.B.A. in Finance from Pace University in New York City.

Bonnie Merrill Limbach has been named senior vice president for public affairs and communications. In her new position, she will have staff oversight of SPI's public policy initiatives, as well as communications and outreach. She previously was the association's chief communications officer.

Limbach began her professional career as an editor for the St. Petersburg Times, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Florida daily. She went on to become editor-in-chief of a trade publishing firm before joining the staff of U.S. Representative (now Senator) Larry Craig (R-ID) as his communications director and press secretary, focusing on issues that included natural resources, consumer product safety and international trade.

Limbach left Capitol Hill in 1988 to join SPI - for the first time - as its director of external communications, specializing in issues management. She left the association three years later to accept an appointment as director of public affairs for the Oversight Board for the federal government's cleanup of the savings-and-loan crisis. The cabinet-level Board, chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, was charged with setting policy and procuring from Congress the funds necessary to protect depositors' savings and close down nearly 750 troubled thrift institutions. She remained with the Board until its mission was completed in 1996. Prior to rejoining SPI as vice president of public affairs in 1999, Limbach served as a public relations and editorial consultant.

A summa cum laude graduate of the University of South Florida, Limbach has a B.A. in Mass Communications. She lives in Alexandria, VA, with her husband, Dennis, a lobbyist and former legislative director for U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL).

Lynne Harris has been promoted to vice president of science and technology for the association. Harris, who has been with SPI since 1991, has a B.S. and M.E. in Chemical Engineering from New York University. His postgraduate work includes coursework in environmental engineering, biological sciences and business programs.

Most recently serving as SPI's science, technology and regulatory affairs officer, Harris provides technical support to SPI business units and other member groups; he also is executive director of the SPI Organic Peroxide Producers Safety Division and Epoxy Resin Systems Task Group and provides staff oversight to other groups such as the Occupational Health and Environmental Issues Committee.

Before joining SPI, Harris was vice president and regional director for an environmental and occupational health consulting firm responsible for business development and project management of environmental, health, safety and occupational medicine services for clients. Previously, he had been a senior policy analyst with the Synthetic Fuels Corporation and manager of environmental, health and safety programs for Fluor/Daniel Corporation.

While with the federal government, Harris was senior technical advisor and later environment and energy sciences advisor for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; acting program administrator for the U.S. Naval Command in the area of applied research for energy and environment programs, and a senior engineer for the U.S. Navy David Taylor Research and Development Center and the U.S. Picatinny Arsenal.

Duncan also announced that Paula Weis has been promoted from manager to director of communications and marketing for the association. Weis, who joined SPI last year, has a B.A. from the West Virginia University School of Journalism, where she specialized in Public Relations, and she has held communications positions with publications and in private industry.

"These staff changes," Duncan said, "put a highly talented group of people in position to maintain and improve our service to members and enhance our representation of the U.S. plastics industry."

Founded in 1937, The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc., is the trade association representing one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States. SPI's members represent the entire plastics industry supply chain, including processors, machinery and equipment manufacturers and raw materials suppliers. The U.S. plastics industry employs 1.4 million workers and provides nearly $310 billion in annual shipments. For more information, visit SPI on the Web at www.plasticsindustry.org.

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