AKRON, OH — APV Engineered Coatings, a custom formulator and manufacturer of industrial coatings and advanced chemical products, has promoted John Russell to Vice President and Technical Director. In his new position, Russell will be responsible for managing staff chemists, quality control, and formulation and production troubleshooting.

“John has been instrumental to the success of APV Engineered Coatings’ research and new product development efforts,” said Thomas Venarge, President. “He is an accomplished coatings development chemist with 20 years of research in engineering and commercializing advanced chemistries.”

Russell has worked for APV for 16 years as a chemist. In this position, he was responsible for formulating coatings and adhesives and scaling up products for production. Since joining APV, he has focused on high-performance coatings for flexible films and advanced textiles. He has successfully engineered chemistries with new-to-market advances in anti-graffiti properties, hydrophobic and hydrophilic functionality, and superior outdoor weathering characteristics.

Prior to his role at APV, Russell developed silicon-based coating chemistries for non-stick metal bakeware. Throughout his career, he has produced a broad range of water- and solvent-based polymer formulations solving some of the industry’s most challenging performance criteria with scalable, practical and application-friendly solutions.