Ashli Speed | Manager of Production, Americas, Smithers
Josh Guilliams | VP Consultancy, Smithers MSE
Smithers is pleased to present the Traction Summit 2023 agenda, taking place in May 2023 in San Antonio, TX!
As an added conference benefit, Smithers is planning a tour of a local proving ground on the morning of Thursday, May 25.
Register your interest in attending the Proving Ground Tour.
Josh Guilliams, Vice President of Consultancy, leads Smithers’ technical consulting team based in Akron, Ohio. Josh manages client relationships and works with other Smithers experts on complex projects. He also conducts in-depth investigations of a wide variety of rubber materials and final products on behalf of clients.
Before joining the team at Smithers, Guilliams spent several years in leadership at Polymer Valley Chemicals, Inc., as Technical Director and Vice President of Technical Operations. Prior to his time at Polymer Valley Chemicals, he held technical and commercial roles at Hankook Tire, EASTMAN Chemical Corporation, LANXESS Corporation, and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations.
Bio coming soon!
Bio coming soon!
Bio coming soon!
Matt joined Smithers in 2017 as the Technical Director of the Smithers Tire & Wheel Test Lab in Ravenna, Ohio. He is primarily focused on Smithers’ current force and moment testing operations, staff management, and technical decision-making. He also manages a partnership between Smithers and six global tire manufacturers that introduced a new MTS Flat Trac CT+ system and facility expansion in 2018.
Matt has over 17 years of experience in the tire industry, including management experience on the manufacturing side of the business. He has been responsible for numerous testing machines, including MTS Flat Tracs, spring rate, laser measurement, acoustic, uniformity, and high- and low-speed durability.
Matt has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, is certified in FARO Measurement Systems, and has had training in Lean and pneumatic systems design. He spent the first part of his career designing automated tire building systems before moving into his multiple roles in tire testing.
Dr. Beverly Wright has spent over 30 years leading and delivering data science and analytics through corporate, consulting, and academic experiences. She has served as executive, leader, educator, and advisor of data science and analytics teams to help provide solutions for solving complex business problems.
As Head of Data Science Solutions at Burtch Works, Beverly provides guidance to a variety of businesses and to frame and solve critical issues using modeling and advanced analytics. She also serves as Director of Data Science for University of Georgia, Executive Education, where she builds, staffs, delivers, and evaluates programs targeted for executives.
Beverly gives back to her community through operating a nonprofit called TAG Data Science & Analytics – FOR GOOD Initiative, leveraging volunteers, data, tools, and other resources to tackle community challenges. She also serves as Board Chair for TAG Data Science & Analytics, Board Member for Georgia Institute of Technology’s Master of Science in Analytics program, and Neighborhood Nexus, President of the Analytics Society at INFORMS, and podcast host for TAG Data Talk.
Bio coming soon!
Tom has over 25 years of experience in the business and technology development of specialty materials at IBM, W. L. Gore & Associates, and Lehigh Technologies.
Tom joined Lehigh as a late stage start-up, helping grow revenue over 3x, and participated in a successful exit via acquisition by Michelin in 2017.
At Lehigh, his teams developed and commercialized multiple award-winning new products (all sustainable materials) to the very same group of companies targeted by SILPARA.
In addition to a background of innovation, as evidenced by his new business development experience and 11 US patents, he is very experienced in both customer engagement and board/investor level relations.
At SILPARA he is responsible for the definition of the technology and providing expert analysis for the customer and investor community.
Howard Colvin has worked in the rubber industry for over 35 years as a chemist and a polymer scientist. He started his career in the Hydroquinone and Derivatives section in the Goodyear Chemical division, then moved on to the rubber chemicals group. He was in charge of the polymer group at the Goodyear Chemical Division for 13 years where he worked on new materials using emulsion and solution polymer technology. At Cooper Tire he led Cooper’s guayule rubber research program and led the research team who obtained a $6.9 million grant to study all phases of cultivation, harvesting, rubber isolation and tire building. Cooper built the world’s first all guayule tire in 2017.
He was Professor of Chemistry at Florida College for four years, and after returning to the tire industry, worked for the school as an adjunct professor of Biochemistry. He holds over 50 US patents and numerous foreign patents. He won the lifetime achievement Melvin Mooney award from the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society in 2020. He is now a consultant to the rubber industry and suppliers to that industry.
Bio coming soon!