Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer, announces it has appointed Keith DuPont as President, Performance Materials. The Coats Performance Materials business includes hi-tech end uses such as automotive, composites, fibre optics, flame retardant and engineered performance fabrics and knits.

Keith will be responsible for delivering the overall strategy for Performance Materials, including operational and commercial activities, meeting sales and organic growth targets as well as developing talent. He will report to Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive.

Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: ‘Appointing an industry specialist like Keith with extensive experience of companies in our Performance Materials sector will bring additional rich insight to this dynamic part of our business. Keith has the required skills, expertise and mindset to accelerate profitable sales growth in Performance Materials. I also look forward to his contributions to the Group Executive Team.’

Keith has over twenty-five years’ experience of manufacturing and commercial leadership across the metals, plastics and chemicals sectors. He joins from Handy & Harman, part of Steel Partners Holdings LP, where he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Handy & Harman Tubing Group. Based in Delaware, US, he was responsible for developing long term strategy, effectively leveraging Lean Manufacturing and delivered a significant improvement in Health and Safety.

Prior to that, Keith was Chief Procurement Officer at the chemical company Chemtura. He also held several strategic sales and marketing roles at SABIC, a global leader in speciality plastics, focused on identifying and developing new product innovations for the automotive, electronics and speciality materials markets. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Keith joins Coats on Monday 2 April and will also become a member of the Group Executive Team. He will be based in Charlotte, US.

Keith replaces Shantanu Banerjee who has become Group Head of Innovation. This is a newly created position to ensure Coats has a role dedicated to driving its focus on innovation. Shantanu will be responsible for its three Innovation Hubs which are being developed in Sevier, US; Bursa, Turkey; and Shenzhen, China. He also leads the Coats Global Innovation Forum, an internal group to foster and support innovation across the company.

ENDS