Ben Borns Email & Phone Number

Stow, Ohio, Us

West Creek is a Northeast Ohio focused land conservancy with a $800k operating budget and $10-14M in active conservation projects.Chair of Board Governance Committee and core member of Strategic Initiatives Committee.• Improved diversity and professionalism of the board by working with local partners and board to focus recruiting practices on identified needs, resulting in 7 new board members added since 2020.• Co-author of 2021 5-year strategic plan.• Developed and implemented risk-reward assessment tool to enable staff to evaluate and communicate complex multi- million dollar real estate transactions and conservation projects.• Created board effectiveness assessment process.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

My team of 21 group leaders, scientists, chemists, and technicians leads product segment platform development for interior architectural coatings across business units and new product development for Sherwin-Williams brand interior paints, the company's largest category by sales and volume. Despite supply chain challenges and other COVID headwinds, significant product launches were delivered by empowering technical staff to work crossfunctionally with key internal and external partners. I grew my team's technical leadership abilities by implementing a strengths-based development program and setting high expectations for technical leadership.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

In January 2018, I was asked to lead the integration of several woodcare brands and labs in Cleveland. I hired and on-boarded a new team and we created culture of continuous learning and technical leadership, all while maintaining our existing business and growing new business through new product development. Everything we've achieved in this group comes from having a great team. I kept focus on our talent strategy; enabled and expected individual leadership; provided strength-based professional development; and implemented standard processes. This focus drove innovation, new products, and continuous improvement resulting in double digit growth in new product sales and being awarded Lowe's Innovation Partner of the year.PeopleManage R&D for all pro and consumer wood care brands; 8 direct reports.Consolidated two regional labs - build out new lab; hired diverse team of 8 chemists and technicians to fully staff team in 14 weeks. Developed culture of continuous learning and technical leadership with weekly training program, new safety program for hand and power tools, and strengths-based professional development program. ProgramsManaged team responsible for leveraging technology across platforms to improve performance of a key brand and deliver 7-figure cost savings.Managed teams responsible for launching 8 new product lines in 2020 with a major retail partner.Managed team responsible for executing a significant launch of a new brand in 3 months with a strategic customer in 2018; qualified 8 new manufacturing locations; and implemented quality improvements parallel to launch. By 2019 it grew to be the 3rd largest stain brand in the US.Developed and launched new exclusive trend color for key customer in 3 months.Product and technology roadmap built with Marketing partners from competitive study based on voice of the customer, new un-addressed market segments from A&U study, and anticipated regulatory changes.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Led new product development and commercialization for SW Roofing Solutions and mentorship for other CBG businesses.Launched new roof coating product with improved customer experience, performance and increased profit margin in 11 months by partnering with Marketing and Sales to get rapid customer feedback. Managed supply chain issue impacting all water-based roof coatings formulas: Led and implement reformulation strategy; lead complex recertification process with FM, UL, NSF, Miami-Dade, and CRRC.Implemented and led peer-to-peer project communication meetings to facilitate knowledge sharing across R&D groups representing over 40 brands in 4 locations.RCMA Treasurer, Board of Directors and Sustainability Co-Chair; ASTM D08 D6083 taskforce; 6-month special assignment working on legislative and regulatory issues with Director of Legislative affairs focused on SCAQMD Rule 1168 and CMP3 with Canadian Paints and Coatings Association and Canadian Consumer Specialty Products Association.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

In December 2014, I transitioned from long-term technology development to leading new product development and commercialization for Sherwin-Williams Roofing Solutions, including the UNIFLEX® Fluid Applied Roofing Systems and Kool Seal Reflective Roof Coatings brands.Supervise one direct report; hiring team for CBU Lab; formal mentor of 2 individuals - one converted into new hire for Division.R&D Project Leader for largest product launch since acquisition of the brands, resulting in 200% of 2016 pro forma sales in seven months and 200% of pro forma in 2017.Delivered over 25% of R&D’s 2016 overall cost savings goal with two projects.Developed technology transfer process between innovation labs and commercialization labs.RCMA Board of Directors and Sustainability Co-Chair; led industry-wide project to develop the Product Category Rules (PCR) for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for Roof Coatings.As RCMA Sustainability Taskforce Co-Chair, in 2016, I lead a project to develop Product Category Rules (PCR) for Roof Coatings. These Rules will enable the Roof Coatings industry to create Environment Product Declarations that may qualify for LEED points. Working with NSF as our program operator, we leveraged the Architectural Coatings PCR and built a PCR Committee of Sustainability and Roof Coating experts, which allowed RCMA to move quickly through this project. The PCR Committee officially kicked off in late 2015 and the Rule was published in December of 2016. In 2017 we begin the work of developing industry average Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).

Cleveland, Oh, Us

My role involved leading cross-functional teams to develop and commercialize biobased and sustainable materials for paints and coatings. Led the development and scale-up a new biobased polymer and architectural coating with an external partner.Keynote panelist, speaker, or advisor at three biobased chemicals conferences; presented a poster to US Senate Agriculture Committee; USDA-ASTM Technical Advisory Committee and SW Program Manager for the BioPreferred ProgramIdentified and mentored SW Biomimicry Fellowship at the University of Akron. This work led to SW patents on biomimetic pathways to synthetic structural colors.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Identified a new biobased polymer technology for the paint industry; identified development partners based on exploratory lab work and technology readiness.Developed a new type of paint formulation and product delivery method with an external partner and transferred the technology to one of SW's global labs.Influenced USDA BioPreferred rulemaking process to enable the inclusion of SW products by submitting a letter during the comment period, which proposed changes to the rule. Hosted Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Ohio Sen Sherrod Brown press conference at SW with CEO, Chris Connor, to highlight SW BioPreferred products. Member of USDA-ASTM Technical Advisory Committee. Invited speaker at 4 biobased conferences.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Led a large multi-year project to explore the use of natural materials in coatings formulations. Modeled the kinetics of discoloration of these materials and formulation strategies to overcome the discoloration.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Responsible for supporting technology development for Light Industrial market.Designed experiments to optimize the polymer morphology and location of a key monomer within the polymer morphology; this contribution was later included in a patent application.

Cleveland, Oh, Us

Responsible for supporting and leading supply chain security and cost savings projects.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemistry

Master Of Science - Ms, Environmental Engineering