Apr 22-23, 2026
Shanghai, China | Hybrid Event
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.
Paul Ita runs Notch Consulting, a Massachusetts-based research company dedicated to the market research needs of the global specialty chemicals industry. Mr. Ita focuses on raw materials for the global tire and rubber industries, with a particular focus on carbon black, silica, and rubber chemicals. Through Notch, he publishes the Carbon Black World Data Book and the Carbon Black Quarterly Newsletter.
Jian Feng is the global marketing manager for sustainable solutions of
Reinforcement Materials business segment at Cabot Corporation. He has over 18 years of experience in the rubber and carbon black industry. He joined Cabot in 2012 and started his marketing role in 2015 after 3 years role in technical service manager, where he has held different marketing role in the business, including regional marketing manager, global marketing manager for industrial rubber products, and most recently was appointed as global marketing manager for sustainable solution. In this new role, he leads the strategy development for Cabot Sustainable solutions and leads various sustainability projects and commercialize Cabot EVOLVE sustainable solutions
Mr. Tim Bart is principal of Carbon Management International, a consulting firm established in 1999. Mr. Bart co-publishes the monthly CBO Monitor with Mr. Vince Guercio reporting on carbon black feedstock and the carbon black industry. Prior to 2017, Carbon Management was involved in global coal tar and coal tar distillation, consulting and sourcing distillation products for related downstream industries. Mr. Bart serves as president of the International Tar Association, an industry association comprised of coal tar distillation and related companies. Mr. Bart received degrees in Environmental Science, Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Communications and Masters of International Relations from Rutgers University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Seton Hall University.
Martin von Wolfersdorff, trading as "Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin”, is an expert advisor and business partner of Smithers specialising in sustainable carbon blacks. Martin works with Smithers on carbon black consulting projects, writes Smithers reports and is the founder and business partner of the recovered Carbon Black Conference. Martin's corporate assignments were in carbon black, plastic packaging, plastic masterbatch and titanium dioxide. Martin has a Dipl. Ing. (Univ.) degree in chemical engineering from the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.
Rob Dennis-Pelcher is a Principal Scientist at Goodyear in the Global Material Sustainability group within Global Material Science. Rob has a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University at Buffalo and has about 9 years of experience in reinforcing filler development, including carbon black, silica, recovered carbon from end-of-life tires, and various nanomaterials. He has successfully helped to develop supplier capabilities and the end use of new filler grades at Goodyear. Over the last 5 years, Rob’s work has increasingly focused on the development of reinforcing filler materials to meet Goodyear’s sustainability ambitions, focusing on decarbonization and circularity. Rob started at Goodyear in 2016 as a Staff Scientist before being promoted to Senior Scientist in 2019 and Principal Scientist in 2021. Prior to joining Goodyear, Rob spent a year and a half as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemistry and Material Science at Texas A&M University. Rob received his PhD in Chemistry from the University at Buffalo in 2015 for work on the synthesis, characterization, and application of carbon nanotubes, graphene, and various other nanostructured materials.
