Specialty and custom chemical manufacturing group MFG Chemical (Dalton, Georgia, USA) announced the promotion of Barry Lassiter to vice president of operations. In this role, Lassiter will be responsible for the company’s three plants near Dalton and a recently acquired plant in Pasadena, Texas, USA.
Lassiter joined the company in 2014 following nearly 40 years with DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware, USA) and INVISTA (Wichita, Kansas, USA) to serve as director of the group’s environmental, health, safety, and security (EHS&S) business. Under his leadership, MFG says it has developed a safety culture throughout the company in which every employee participates and has individual responsibility.
As a result, the company says it has achieved an excellent safety record at its plants; has invested in employee safety and reduction of risk through significant commitment to training and equipment; continuously records and reports on key safety measures; manages a safety communications program to keep the community informed; and has won several prestigious chemical industry awards for safety.
In a related move, Joe Welch joined the group earlier in 2018. Welch has 22 years of experience in leading environmental, health, and safety excellence initiatives in both public and private sectors. Welch has worked closely with Lassiter in the EHS&S department, and he is now taking the lead as the department’s director. Welch is a Certified Environmental Professional (CEP).
“Barry Lassiter has done an outstanding job of making the safety ethic an integral part of our DNA,” says Keith Arnold, CEO and a Board of Governors member for the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) (Washington, DC, USA).
“Thanks to his strong manufacturing, maintenance, and safety background, Barry is an excellent choice for vice president of operations,” Arnold adds. “Barry will ensure that the safety culture he has done so much to develop will continue to predominate as the core value in everything we do. And as director of EHS&S, Joe Welch will continue and build upon the safety culture [the company] has set in place.”
The chemical manufacturer serves a variety of global markets, including agriculture, asphalt, graphic arts, lubricants, mining, oilfield, paints and coatings, personal care, pulp and paper, and water treatment.
Source: MFG Chemical, www.mfgchemical.com.