Meet The Experts

Jose Chirino

Jose Chirino, Chair of the ACC Plastics Division Auto Team, specializes in high performance materials for LANXESS Corporation. With over 15 years of polymer experience, he is Technical Director for the Americas and is located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Melissa Cardenas

Melissa Cardenas is a Global Lead OEM Market Development Manager with LyondellBasell Industries. She has over 25 years of experience in the automotive plastics industry, with a focus on polyolefin materials. She resides in the Metropolitan Detroit area.

Sandra McClelland

Sandra McClelland, Auto Team Chair Emeritus, is a Transportation Business Development Manager specializing in high performance materials for Solvay Specialty Polymers. With over 25 years of experience, she is also an Honored Service Member and recipient of the Society of Plastics Engineers President’s Cup. She is located in the Detroit area.

Matthew Marks

Matthew Marks (Auto Team Chair Emeritus) is SABIC’s Automotive Technical Development leader for the Americas region. In this role, he leads a team of specialists in North and South America in collaborations with industry to develop solutions involving a range of automotive applications. His experience, which spans 20 years, includes working with stakeholders in the automotive and mass transportation markets to support the regulatory community, foster cooperation and promote progress. Matthew lives in the Metropolitan Detroit area.

Monica Sandhu

Monica Sandhu is the Senior Manager, Industrial Marketing – Automotive for Covestro. She has been focused on global use of chemistry and modern materials for the last fourteen years.  She resides in the Greater Pittsburgh area.

George Racine

George Racine is a Senior Advisor in the Sustainability Group of ExxonMobil Chemical. With 39 years of experience in the chemicals and polymers industry, George is responsible for integrating sustainability into the business strategies of ExxonMobil Chemical and downstream markets including sustainable mobility. George is an Emeritus past chair of the Automotive Market Team at the American Chemistry Council, Plastics Division. He also serves on the Global Automotive Declarable Substances List (GADSL) North American Team plus the Global GADSL Steering Group. George has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and lives in the Houston, Texas area.

Jim Otis

Jim Otis from Trinseo LLC is the NA Automotive Commercial Director. He has 30 years of Automotive plastics experience. Prior to the formation of Trinseo he worked for Dow Automotive where he performed a number of regional and global commercial roles which included OEM and tier accounts. Jim resides in the Detroit area.

Gina Oliver

Gina Oliver is a Senior Director for ACC’s Automotive Team and has over 16 years of experience in strategic business planning. Gina has a background in planning, regulatory and product support within the global automotive sector. She is located in the Detroit area.