Company Officers and Executive Management
Company Officers and Executive Management
Salvatore J. Monte
President
Salvatore J. Monte is the President of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. and is a co-owner of the company, which has been in business for over sixty years.
As President, Sal heads up the research and development, marketing, and sales divisions of the company. Under Sal’s leadership and chemical knowledge of plastics, thermosets and elastomers, the company has continued to grow and emerge strong in this tough economic global economy.
Sal received his B.C.E. from Manhattan College in 1961 and M.S. in Polymeric Materials from NYU Poly in 1969. Sal holds twenty-nine U.S. Patents filed worldwide and has a patent pending with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Two patents on “Enhanced Energetic Composites” and “Solid Rocket Propellant” were held under Secrecy Orders by DOD for over a decade. Three Hundred and Seventy ACS CAS abstracted patents, technical papers; journal articles and book chapters on applications of organometallics and reactive diluents in thermosets and thermoplastics are attributed to Sal. In addition, he has authored a 340-page Ken-React® Reference Manual on Titanates, Zirconates and Aluminates -- 78,000 copies printed; authored several book chapters (Most recent – Chapter 5 – Functional Fillers – Wiley-VCH, 2005 – edited 2010); testified on several occasions before the U.S. Congress on Intellectual Property and Trade issues; and lectured on coupling agents around the world including: Europe, Greece, Turkey, South America, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Sal’s titanate technology is being used to render conventional plastics anaerobic landfill biodegradable.
Sal is a licensed Professional Engineer in NJ; Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE); SPE Honored Service Member; SPE: Former Member of the Finance Committee and Technical Advisory Board, Past-Chairman of ANTEC Operations 2007; Past-Chairman of the FOAMS 2000 and 2002 Technical Conferences and Co-Chair of FOAMS 2009, Councilor & Past Chairman-Thermoplastic Materials & Foams Division of SPE (1997 –2000); Past President – SPE Palisades-New Jersey Section-2009; Proxy Councilor for Israel, Italy and Belgium; Past Chairman of the New York Rubber Group – ACS Rubber Division; twice winner of the C. Homer Flynn Award for Technical Excellence – Federated Society of Coatings Technology; member AIChE; member SAMPE; Voting Member to the ASC (Adhesives and Sealants Council), SPI (Society of Plastics Industries), CPIA (Canadian Plastics Industries Association) and ACMA (American Composites Manufacturers Association); Life Member of the National Defense Industrial Council; Paul Harris Fellow; Trustee for the Walter Head Foundation of District 7490 of Rotary International; and listed in Who's Who in Finance and Industry and Who's Who in the World.
Erika G. Monte
Vice President
Erika G. Monte is the Vice President of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. and is co-owner of the company. She is the daughter and niece of the Company Founders: Eric A. Spiegelhalder, Oscar A. and Josefa L. Spiegelhalder.
Erika has been a Board Director and Corporate Secretary since 1965 and Vice President and Treasurer since 1993. Erika has been involved in day-to-day operations since 1973. She has an Associate Degree from Linden Hall Junior College and continued studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY).
She is a member of the American Chemical Society-Rubber Division; the Mid-Atlantic Rubber and Plastics Group; the Society of Plastics Engineers; the Societé de Chemie Industrialle–American Section; the Small Business Association; and former Treasurer of the New York Rubber Group.
Erika is a member and Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Bayonne and listed in Who’s Who in American Women.
Charles Lucania
Vice President of Operations
Charles A. Lucania is the Vice President of Operations of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc.
As Vice President of Operations, Charlie is responsible for the overall daily operations of the company’s: Production, Facility, Regulatory and Environmental compliance, Human Resources, Quality Control, International Sales, Finance, and Accounting functions.
Mr. Lucania received his B.A. in Chemistry from Rutgers University in 1972 and his M.B.A. in General Management from Rutgers University in 1978. He started his career with Kenrich after high school graduation in 1967, working summers as a part-time Lab Assistant. He joined Kenrich full-time as a Production Engineer in 1972 and has held various production, plant and executive management positions.
Eric M. Monte
Vice President – Technology
Eric M. Monte is the Vice President – Technology of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. As Vice President - Technology, Eric heads up both the chemical and the information technology divisions of the company.
Eric joined Kenrich full-time in 2000, after employment at global giants IBM and Anheuser-Busch. However, his employment history started at Kenrich when he worked summer jobs as a high school student in the mid-to-late 1980’s.
Eric is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, with a B.E. in Polymer Engineering as of 1993, a B.A. in History as of 1994, and a M.S. in Technology Management as of 1995.
He is a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), where he has previously served on the Board of the Polymer Modifiers and Additives Division (PMAD). He is also a member of the Rubber Division of American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Section of the Société de Chimie Industrielle. In his spare time, Eric has organized and led several local non-profit athletic and fraternal organizations and is also the alumni advisor to his alma mater’s local chapter of his national social fraternity.
Michelle M. Monte
Vice President, General Counsel
Michelle M. Monte is the Vice President, General Counsel of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. and became a member of the Kenrich team in March of 2010. As Vice-President, General Counsel, Michelle works closely with executive management, oversees all legal aspects of the company, and handles the company’s several outside legal firms in the areas of patent, trademark, and copyright, employment, environmental, corporate, and real estate.
Ms. Monte began her career practicing insurance defense, personal injury, real estate, corporate, matrimonial, and landlord tenant law and thereafter accepted a position representing commercial and consumer banking clients, as well as small trusts and estates, real estate, and corporate clients. The firm later merged, with Michelle continuing her practice for five years in the real estate, banking, and consumer debt area before accepting a position in a Princeton firm to become the supervising attorney in charge of a growing consumer banking practice. As part of her obligations, Michelle worked closely with the firm’s IT personnel on emerging computer file management systems to handle the ever growing electronic and timeline related demands of the department’s banking clients and government agencies. Her duties also included training associate and support staff and marketing, both on-site and electronically, with the department’s banking clients. Michelle also managed the department’s thousand file case load and outside vendors, while individually handling several hundred of her own cases.
Michelle is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Mercer County Bar Association, and the Association of Corporate Counsel. She was a member of the Princeton Corridor Rotary Club and served on the Mercer County Bar Foundation Committee in 2006 for its annual member dinner dance. She has been a lecturer of New Jersey’s Institute of Continuing Legal Education and co-writer of the seminar texts: The ABC’s of Foreclosure and Foreclosure for Paralegals. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Rider University, Lawrenceville Campus, a member of the English Department and Law and Justice Program and is an adjunct Assistant Professor at Mercer County Community College, in the Arts and Communications Division, having taught public speaking and human communications. Ms. Monte has also been a part-time lecturer at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Livingston Campus, for the Writing Program, in the area of business.
Ms. Monte holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with Minors in English and Finance from Ursinus College and a Juris Doctor from St. John’s University School of Law.
She is admitted to the New Jersey State Bar and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Hartmut H. Schlaubitz
Sales Manager
Hartmut H. Schlaubitz, Sales Manager for Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. started in 1987 as a salesman for the Mid-west region of the United States
Hartmut spent much of his early career in Germany and Venezuela, speaks fluent German and Spanish, and is now based in St. Louis, MO. He served as an apprentice in international trade at F. Laeisz, Hamburg and also attended Handelsschule and Hoehere Handelsschule. Hartmut has previously worked for BASF and Monsanto in various polymer disciplines before coming to Kenrich. He travels the world marketing Kenrich's organometallic product line and managing its 52-international sales representatives and agencies.
Nehemias Moran
Plant Manager
Nehemias Moran, Plant Manager of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc. immigrated to America from Guatemala in 1970 and joined with his father, who was then working at Kenrich. While employed at Kenrich, he attended: (1975-1978) Essex Community College – Business Administration; (1980-1981) Mechanical Drafting, North American School of Drafting; (1986-1987) Jersey City State College – English and Business; (1994) Rutgers University – Industrial Waste Water Treatment Systems I and subsequently passed the NJ State exam and was awarded a N-2 license in August 1995. Previously, in 1980, he obtained a Black Seal License to operate High Pressure Boilers for Kenrich’s Reaction/Distillation operations.
In 1995, Nehemias was promoted to Plant Manager, and oversees the plant operations for organometallic and aromatic resin oligomer synthesis and distillation; plasticizer production and distillation; powder, paste and polymeric dispersions and masterbatches of the company’s products at its principal location in Bayonne, NJ.