Team OF LEADERS
Our team consists of highly skilled rubber professionals with many years of experience in the rubber industry and other parts of the chemical industry. We have strong capabilities within manufacturing, purchasing, and logistics and we have been part of setting up several world-class sourcing and manufacturing organizations in the chemical industry. We have sourced and produced a wide variety of synthetic rubber and rubber chemical materials and we have extensive experience with sourcing from Asia and Europe.
GREGORY N. NELSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Mr. Nelson has over 40 years of experience in the chemical and rubber industry. He is currently the CEO of EW Polymer Group, a global rubber company supplying rubber products and sustainable rubber solutions to the rubber market. He was the co-founder and CEO of East West Copolymer, one of two leading merchant synthetic rubber manufacturers in the US, for 3 years. Mr. Nelson was also CEO, President and Director of Lion Copolymer, a leading global chemical producer of EPDM and SBR rubber, for 5 years. Prior to joining Lion Copolymer, Mr. Nelson spent 4 years at Nalco, a global leader in water technology. He served as President of Nalco EMEA and Group President of Nalco’s Equipment and Services Business. Before joining Nalco, Mr. Nelson was Global Vice President for Purchasing and Supply Chain for Sun Chemical; and before joining Sun Chemical, he was Global Vice President for Purchasing for Dow Chemical. Mr. Nelson began his career at Exxon Chemical where he held various management and leadership positions of increasing responsibility for nearly 20 years before leaving to join Union Carbide, which was later acquired by Dow Chemical.
Mr. Nelson has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. Mr. Nelson also served as President for the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP) for the 2015-2016 term.
HELENA L. NELSON, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Ms. Nelson has 25 years of experience within operations, purchasing and competence development; and she has extensive experience in development of new ventures and models, for large corporations and in start-up settings.
She is co-founder of EW Polymer Group, a global trading company; North South Investments, an investment firm; and Enjoin Partners, a niche consultancy company. She was Consultant and Global Knowledge Manager & Expert with McKinsey & Company, based in both the US and European offices. She served as Business Development Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Sweden, and she was CEO and co-founder of Yourniverse, a Swedish start-up company focused on competence development.
Ms. Nelson has a Master in Economics and International Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, and Columbia Business School in New York.
Brad K. Smothers, SALES DIRECTOR
Mr. Smothers has has 10 year experience in Sales and Marketing. He also has a strong background in Supply Chain, Operations, and Maintenance Management. Mr. Smothers was a Sales Manager for Ingevity Corporation’s from 2017-2019. Prior to joining Ingevity, Brad spent 19 years in the rubber industry. Mr. Smothers was a key member of the East West Copolymer Team where he served as Director of Marketing for four years while also leading the Customer Service and Logistics groups. He was Inside Sales Manager at Lion Copolymer from 2009-2013, managing pricing, maintenance, and forecasting for EPDM, SBR, and Distribution sales. Mr. Smothers spent the first 11 years of his career in manufacturing where he held a number of management and leadership roles. He began his career at DSM Copolymer in 1998 after graduating from Wofford College with a BA in Business Economics.
