Speakers

Robert M. Patterson is chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer of Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

Mr. Patterson joined Avient in 2008 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, where he was responsible for global treasury, planning, M&A, accounting and internal audit functions, as well as investor relations. He also directly oversaw Avient’s growth initiatives in Asia. In 2012, he was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and in 2014, he was named Chief Executive Officer.

Before joining Avient, Mr. Patterson served as vice president and treasurer of Novelis, vice president, controller and chief accounting officer for Novelis, and held a series of financial positions of increasing responsibility with SPX Corporation. Mr. Patterson began his professional career at Arthur Andersen LLP.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Greif, Inc.(NYSE: GEF, GEF.B), a global leader in industrial packaging products and services.

Mr. Patterson earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and master’s degree in accounting from the University of Michigan. He is an Honorary Paton Fellow recipient from the Ross School of Business and serves on the Paton Accounting Advisory Board.

Jamie A. Beggs is senior vice president and chief financial officer of Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

Ms. Beggs joined Avient in August 2020 and has responsibility for the finance, investor relations, information technology and corporate communications organizations. Ms. Beggs has more than 20 years of experience in finance and business leadership roles in both public and private organizations with an emphasis on specialty materials and diverse end markets.

She previously served as chief financial officer of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., a diversified holding company whose businesses served many industries including energy, real estate and private investments. Prior to Hunt, she worked for Celanese Corporation, where she served in a variety of finance and business positions, including vice president and corporate treasurer, and earlier as chief financial officer of the materials solutions business.

Ms. Beggs began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers after earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Subsequently, she joined the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board before joining Celanese. She holds a CPA certificate from the state of Texas.

Cathy K. Dodd is senior vice president, president, Avient Distribution for Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services. Ms. Dodd is responsible for driving growth and profitability in the distribution business, while providing strategic stewardship over the broadest and most strategic portfolio of offerings and exceptional service levels in the industry.

Ms. Dodd has more than 25 years of strategic marketing experience in global chemical and manufacturing companies. Ms. Dodd most recently served as the Chief Commercial Officer for Avient Corporation, overseeing key aspects of the largest acquisition in the company’s history as well as leading the rebranding and name change—from PolyOne to Avient. Prior to this role, she served Avient as vice president, Marketing, for several years after joining the company from Eastman Chemical Company. Here she served in strategic marketing roles, including director of downstream engagement and design, as well as director of global chemicals marketing. In addition, she worked at Honeywell International as brand manager for FRAM and Autolite, as well as global market manager for healthcare specialty films. Ms. Dodd began her career at Ashland Oil, serving in various marketing, supply chain and analyst roles.

Ms. Dodd earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in marketing and management from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

Michael A. Garratt is senior vice president, president, Color, Additives & Inks for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

Mr. Garratt joined Avient in 2013 from Marmon Utility, a Berkshire Hathaway company, where he served as president. Prior to joining Marmon, Mr. Garratt served as chief operating officer of the private equity-owned Excel Polymers, where he led a successful business turnaround, resulting in improvements in revenue and profitability.

Mr. Garratt’s chemical career began with The Dow Chemical Company, where he served in commercial and marketing roles in Canada and the United States. For 10 years he worked for DuPont Dow Elastomers, a global joint venture, where he held market development and product management positions, culminating in a regional commercial leadership role for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while based in Geneva, Switzerland and Bad Homburg, Germany.

Mr. Garratt holds a bachelor’s degree in applied chemistry from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and an MBA from University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Woon Keat Moh (“Moh”) is senior vice president, president, Color, Additives & Inks, Americas and Asia regions for Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

With more than 20 years of experience in the specialty polymer sector, Mr. Moh previously worked at Bayerand Clariant, where he served in various commercial leadership roles. He joined Avient in 2010 and has since delivered success in multiple positions throughout the company thereafter. This has included Sales Director for Avient’s Color and Additives segment in Asia and General Manager of Engineered Materials Asia. Mr. Moh also served as Vice President of Asia, where he strengthened a One Avient approach internally and externally with customers, regional leaders and associations, as Avient has invested for growth in Asia. He was appointed to his current position in 2020.

Mr. Moh holds a bachelor’s of science in Engineering from the University of New Brunswick. He is based in Avient’s world headquarters located outside Cleveland, Ohio.

Chris Pederson is president, Specialty Engineered Materials, for Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services. He is responsible for determining strategy and driving growth for this global business.

Mr. Pederson began his career at Boeing where he served in various composite product development and engineering roles for high-profile military aircraft programs over a 10-year period. He later joined Cytec, where he led composite product development for the Americas and Asia Pacific regions, served as vice president of R&D, and ultimately was promoted to vice president of Cytec’s global Aerospace Engineered Materials business, which included P&L responsibility. Just prior to joining Avient in 2018, he was vice president of Strategy at Hexcel Corporation, responsible for the company’s M&A strategy and execution.

Mr. Pederson holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Washington, a master’s of science in chemical engineering from University of Delaware, and an MBA from University of Southern California.

Dr. Vinod Purayath is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

With nearly 20 years of experience in R&D and scientific leadership, Dr. Purayath joined Avient in 2021to lead the development of emerging, next-generation and sustainable technologies globally for the company.

A business leader with a technical, entrepreneurial mindset, Dr. Purayath has achieved global success in materials development, with a particular emphasis on semiconductor and digital memory applications. At SanDisk Corporation, he held technical and engineering leadership positions over an eight-year period, building and leading a global team of engineers, whose success underpinned the growth of the company. Dr. Purayath later joined Applied Materials, as the technology leader for its new Selective Removal Products business, and most recently served as Vice President, Process Technology for SunRise Memory.

Dr. Purayath’s academic degrees include a PhD in Quantum Engineering and Science Systems, University of Tokyo; a Master’s of Business Administration, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); a Master’s Degree in Materials Science in Engineering, PSG College of Technology; and a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics, Bharathiar University. A continual and passionate innovator, Dr. Purayath has been named as an inventor in more than 150 patents.

Giuseppe “Joe” Di Salvo is vice president, Treasurer and Investor Relations, Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

Mr. Di Salvo is responsible for all aspects of the company’s capital structure, cash management, insurance and capital markets transactions, as well as Financial Planning and Analysis. In addition, he serves as the primary point of contact for Avient’s shareholders.

He joined Avient in 2011 as assistant controller and later served as director, finance for the company’s Global Color, Additives & Inks business segment. He was then promoted to vice president, Corporate Controller. Prior to joining Avient, he worked at Deloitte for 10 years, where he focused on leading audit teams and advising clients on SEC and technical accounting matters.

Mr. Di Salvo has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and is a certified public accountant.

Norbert Merklein serves as vice president and general manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region of Color, Additive and Inks at Avient Corporation, a premier provider of specialized and sustainable material solutions and services.

Mr. Merklein joined Avient in July of 2020 through the acquisition of the Clariant Masterbatch business. He has more than 35 years of experience in global leadership roles in the chemicals industry. Mr. Merklein previously served in management positions at Clariant International, Ltd., including Head of Group Procurement; Vice President, Business Line Plastics and Special Applications and Head of Region Europe for the Pigments and Additives Division.

Mr. Merklein studied and graduated in Business Administration from IHK Frankfurt institution in Germany.

Walter Ripple is Vice President, Sustainability at Avient Corporation, the world’s premier provider of specialty polymer materials, services, and solutions. 

Mr. Ripple first took on his current role in January 2019 to drive a comprehensive Avient sustainability strategy. He leads initiatives that help customers and the company achieve critical sustainability and performance goals. In addition, he interacts with key industry stakeholders – including customers, industry associations, suppliers, associates, and other influencers – to help Avient achieve world-class sustainability levels aligned with the dynamic changes in the industry, emerging technology, and the shared responsibility of caring for our planet. 

An industry veteran with 29 years of experience, he has been with Avient since 1998, most recently as vice president and general manager for the engineered materials division. Walter has earned multiple sales and leadership awards throughout his career, and has forged strong, collaborative relationships throughout the supply chain.   

Walter earned a Bachelor’s of Chemistry at Texas A&M University and an Executive MBA at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Matthew P. Reinhardt is General Manager of the Fiber-Line business within the Avient Specialty
Engineered Materials platform. He is responsible for leading the global Fiber-Line team,
developing and executing an aggressive growth strategy to continue Fiber-Line's strong growth
trajectory.

Mr. Reinhardt began his career as an engineer at DuPont. Over the course of 19 years at
DuPont, he worked in non-wovens, performance coatings, and high performance fiber divisions
with roles in operations, R&D, sales, strategy, product management, and marketing. Just prior
to joining Fiber-Line, he was Global Marketing Manager of DuPont's Energy Solutions business,
having led a cross functional business team as an expat in Shanghai China.

In 2017, Mr. Reinhardt joined Fiber-Line as Vice President of Marketing and following the
acquisition of Fiber-Line by Avient, he was promoted to General Manager in 2020.

Mr. Reinhardt earned his bachelor's of science degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson
University.