Alan Olson Email and Phone Number

Head of scientific and engineering consulting firm specializing in product and process excellence, including safety, forensics, compliance, stewardship, advocacy and sustainability. Provided input for US TSCA Reform. Language included in the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, signed by President Obama on June 22, 2016). Will continue to work on the implementation of TSCA Reform. Provided input for Ohio House Bill 512, which makes the state of Ohio the leader in the US for reducing exposure from lead in drinking water. Language included in the bill signed by Governor Kasich on June 9, 2016. Will continue to work on implementation of this legislation. Currently providing assistance to trade associations, agencies, municipalities and companies regarding the USEPA Chemical Data Report, changes due to TSCA Reform, House Bill 512, food contact regulations, M&A activities and sustainability. Please visit our website at www.westlakescience.com to learn more and request further information.

Spearheaded the Corporate Product Stewardship program by developing and deploying the corporate policy, organization, standards and procedures for product legal compliance, responses to customer and government product regulatory inquiries, strategic guidance to business groups, and advocacy for current and new products. This set is aligned with the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care program and Product Safety Code. Managed six direct reports and a global network of 30 professionals. Established roles and responsibilities for corporate and line groups, including oversight for government filings (US TSCA, EU REACH, new product and inventory notifications for Turkey, China, and Korea), nanomaterials, toxicology testing and trade associations and consortia.  Developed and deployed the Corporate Environmental, Health & Safety and Product Stewardship acquisition due diligence process and follow up integration process.  Installed RC / ISO 14001 Environmental and Product Stewardship management systems at the corporate headquarters.

Managed product stewardship globally for Ferro Performance Chemicals (Pharmaceuticals, Polymer Additives, Fine Chemicals and Plastics.) This included: Material Safety Data Sheets and labels for all parts of Ferro worldwide; product registrations; health, safety and environmental testing, including toxicology studies; FDA clearances and customer support for all products of the Chemicals Group.  Installed the Responsible Care Management System to cover Environmental, Health, Safety and Security for the Chemicals Group. Developed and deployed chemical control procedures for hazardous and regulated chemicals. Managed TSCA and EU REACH, made registrations on time. Board member for several trade associations.

Led the global research and development team for the Polymer Additives business, including basic chemistry research, chemical engineering scale-up, manufacturing support and customer technical service for a variety of plastics additives and non-polymer applications. Managed a global group of 60 scientists and engineers. Developed three families of chemicals as alternatives to phthalate plasticizers, of which two families are commercial successes. Annual revenues were tens of millions of dollars each. Supervised toxicology testing and government filings to put several new chemicals on the market in the U.S. and in the EU.

Identified and recommended emerging markets, new products / businesses, and market entry strategies. Contributed to integrating two new acquisitions by cross-fertilizing technologies / products and developing new product processes. Moved three new product ideas from concept to commercialization.  Integrated a detailed market segmentation and customer ranking with the product line and manufacturing plant capabilities, resulting in a coherent business strategy. Reduced the number of resins by 78% and off-grade by 75%, while improving on-time service from 92 to 95%, productivity by 3% and profit by 10%.  Established uniform business policies and practices, resulting in fewer disputes with customers and higher margins. Established pricing and billing mechanisms and designed new SAP software for support. Reduced billing errors by 98%, and reduced DSO by 10%. Retained all customers. Participated with management team of OxyVinyls (Dallas, TX), a joint venture of Geon and OxyChem (Dallas, TX), to integrate the market segmentation, business policies and practices into this newly formed $1B chemicals and plastics company.

Led the re-design of six product lines, reducing number of products 72%, raw materials 50%, and improving productivity 25%. Established pricing mechanisms, developed and implemented uniform business policies and practices. Retained all customers. Managed six scientists and technicians. Improved operating income from $20M loss to $30M profit on $500M in sales. Developed the stage / gate process and supervised the software development for the system that managed all product development proposals, approvals and status reports. This included: 500 current projects. 600 commercially successful projects have been launched and tracked.