Aaron Puhala Email & Phone Number

Kent, Oh, Us

Cleveland, Ohio, Us

Create excitement. Champion excellence. Grow profit. - Lead Innovation, Research and Development (R&D) under private equity ownership - Engage customers' technical organizations as product champion and customer advocate- Identify and secure strategic growth opportunities by understanding customer needs and trajectories, exploring market adjacencies, and incubating novel discoveries. - Investigate and leverage structure property relationships of sustainable materials to deliver new products in support of customer aspirations - Secure Strategic Partnerships that leverage technical and market synergies to drive business growth

Vineyard Innovations is committed to changing the world of wine as you know it! Our new hybrid wine grape varieties combine exciting aroma and flavor combinations with the disease resistance and hardiness required for truly sustainable growing practices. We work closely with passionate winegrowers looking to make a lasting impact on the wine industry in their region. We look forward to shocking the wine world with our creations!

Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Us

Volunteer member of the Research Subcommittee for the Ohio Grape Industries Committee (OGIC). The OGIC is within the Ohio Department of Agriculture and was established to create viable, income-producing grape enterprises in the state of Ohio by providing marketing and promotion efforts to generate and expand new markets for grapes and grape products and research to improve the quality of grapes and profitability of grape growing as an agribusiness.

- Direct new product initiatives through leadership of technical resources.- Identify and secure strategic growth opportunities by understanding customer needs and trajectories, exploring market adjacencies, and incubating novel discoveries.- Engage customers to identify need states, introduce new products, and collaborate with customer technologists

Akron, Oh, Us

Provided strategic leadership to a global cross-functional team tasked with creating new technologies focused on strategic improvements in tire wear and fuel economy. Established technology forecasts, defined multi-year project plans and budgets and set aggressive objectives. Created collaboration channels between Technology and Marketing organizations to ensure alignment with product roadmaps and customer needs. Explored external alliances targeted at sea change growth opportunities.

Akron, Oh, Us

Energized a global team of scientists to create strategic, market focused product innovations resulting in significant gains in product performance. Defined objectives, assigned resources, and provided coaching, training and mentoring to a team of sixteen resulting in strong team dynamics and recognized team performance. Created collaboration between R&D and Marketing resulting in clearly defined product concepts and strong advertising language for both replacement market and OEM applications. Explored, secured and leverage external alliances resulting in sea change growth opportunities.Key Contributions:• Empower team members to assume leadership roles resulting in significant new initiatives in the areas of performance prediction and new materials.• Developed relationships with external partners resulting in game-changing technology programs.• Responsibility for a development budget of ~$10 million.• Global collaboration with R&D teams in Luxembourg and Japan.• Championed the development of the BioIsoprene concept with friend and colleague Frank Feher securing executive sponsorship. Instrumental in concept due diligence and selection of Genencor as partner of choice.

Akron, Oh, Us

Championed collaboration between R&D, Marketing, Design and Manufacturing organizations resulting in highly profitable market oriented new product introductions by leading three scientists engaged in cross-functional new product development teams.Key Contributions:• Led materials development efforts for all new replacement tire market icon technologies from ideation through market launch. - Eagle ResponsEdge launched February, 2006. - FORTERA TripleTred launched September, 2005. - Wrangler and FORTERA SilentArmor launched February, 2005

Akron, Oh, Us

Championed collaborative innovation and creativity resulting in advances in the technological sophistication of new material development efforts and identification of new market opportunities. Organized and led cross-functional teams to develop next generation technologies and products.Key Contributions:• Led the materials development effort for the Assurance TripleTred launched in February, 2004, quite possibly the most successful new product launch in the history of the company.• Served on the leadership board for the Goodyear Institute of Technology.• Managed global quality assurance specifications for $1 billion polymer supply portfolio and served as primary point of technical contact for all polymer suppliers.• Developed and industrialized new run-flat tire rubber formulations winning numerous automotive OEM approvals.

Provided leadership in the areas of creativity, technical expertise and quality control. Fostered innovation and teamwork targeting improvements in process methodologies, product consistency and customer satisfaction.Key Contributions:• Implemented rubber processing methods reducing unproductive machine-up time by 20-30%. • Technical liaison for new plant start-up in Madison, WI and during implementation of SAP system at two plants.• Responsibility for technical customer interaction with experience with intermeshing and tangential mixing lines in both black and color applications.

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Organizational Change

Bachelor'S Degree, Chemical Engineering, Polymers