On the move Dr Chris Woolard has returned to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, where he has been appointed head of research. Much of the work is to be funded by REDISA, the tyre recycling group. Chris, who was originally a lecturer in the polymer chemistry department at NMMU, has over the past few years been involved in research at the Sasol Advanced Fuels Laboratory at UCT. He has been appointed an associate professor at NMMU. Ashin Tasdhary and Tony Dean have been appointed to RARE Group’s board of directors. Ashin has been appointed as executive director to Rare Holdings Ltd and Tony as managing director of the Rare Plastics division. Before joining Rare as national sales manager in 2012, Tasdhary worked at DPI Plastics and Venture Plastics. He also served as MD of APS GP, a division of Amitech SA. Dean has more than 30 years’ experience in the plastic pipe and fittings industry. He held the positions of MD at Petzetakis Africa and CEO at Flo-Tek before joining Rare last year. He is a founding member of SAPPMA (South African Plastic Pipe Manufacturing Association). Tracy Sinclair has been appointed marketing manager at SAPY, based in Hammarsdale near Durban. Tracy has a BCom (Unisa) and has spent the past 12 years in the plastic card manufacturing business (credit, debit, loyalty etc); she moved from Harare to Durban two years ago and joined SAPY in October last year. She is now responsible for the marketing for SAPY’s three divisions – yarn manufacture, masterbatch division and Corehfil™ specialty fibres. With its yarns expertise, SAPY has succeeded in developing high-dispersion colour masterbatches that now account for a high portion of the company’s turnover. The new market focus at SAPY caps a major redevelopment programme over the past few years, led by MD Majid Zarrebini, which has seen the company move to new premises and upgrade its entire production facilities. Work on the new high-tech visitor centre at the Hammarsdale plant is currently ongoing. This is where the new focus on branding ‘welcome2colours’ will be showcased.
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Chris Richards has been appointed Gauteng area manager for SAPY. Chris attended school in Dubai, until he returned to South Africa to matriculate from Kearsney. From there, he worked for over six years in the concrete industry, gaining valuable experience in management and sales. Following SAPY’s continuous expansion to a factory space of approximately 70,000m², Chris was
$ < from Bloemfontein northwards. Based in Parkhurst with warehousing in Selby, Chris is ideally positioned to coordinate the growth in the area. Jorge Silva of Productive Services has relocated to Gauteng. Formerly based in Durban, Jorge has been involved in the plastics industry since 1976 and, since 1996, in education and training â&#x20AC;&#x201C; specializing in the occupational development of adults. Many of Productive Servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; clients were in Gauteng, hence his move to the Highveld. www.productiveservices.co.za John Byett has retired from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) where he spent close on 30 years lecturing and training students in polymer science and packaging technology in ND Plastics Technology course and the National Higher Diploma in Plastics Design Technology. John says it was a true privilege for him to instruct young minds at the very beginning of their plastics careers and felt he was at a time in his life where he can â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;give backâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. He has been working part-time for some 10 years, for the International Trade Centre (ITC), a UN organisation. This exciting involvement has entailed participating in training seminars to business, all packaging and printing related, in various countries around Africa. In late 2013, for example, he hosted a group of 10 trainers from Tanzania who needed a kick start in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;packagingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. John and the trainers spent a week touring Western Cape factories and now the group is, in turn, instructing Tanzanian farmers and entrepreneurs on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;packagingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; matters. John also continues to teach the Cape Town offering of the Institute of Packagingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one year diploma in Packaging > < offered in 1984. Now working as a consultant and enjoying the freedom that comes with the new career, John says he is now committed to further industrial training projects in the packaging and plastics and printing sectors, using what he knows best â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the devising of short courses and teaching of these technical topics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and giving back to an industry he has grown passionate about. Contact John at johnbyett1@gmail.com
Farewell to Darren Pillai WE regret to inform that Darren (Mahendra) Pillai of Mama Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Waste Recyclers died after a tragic incident on 18 January. One of the best known characters in the waste management and recycling sector in Gauteng, Darrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company operated a number of buyback centres and was involved in the collection of paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, cans and tetrapak. He was 46.