KENT, England — Hot on the heels of launching a fourth sector within its industrial group, Blagden Specialty Chemicals Ltd. has made a new appointment to its management team, helping to further drive the company’s growth.

Ross Straughan has joined Blagden as Commercial General Manager. Straughan brings with him global commercial experience alongside in-depth knowledge of the specialty chemical industry. His career in public and private equity-owned multinationals has primarily involved chemical additives.

Within Blagden, Straughan is overseeing the industrial side of the business, focusing on the areas of coatings, plastics additives, functional industrial applications and the newly launched graphics arts sector. His responsibilities extend across customer service and supply chain activities, and he will be exploring new opportunities for supply partnerships.

“Blagden is a polished, professional operation and the teams have in-depth knowledge of their markets and products,” he said. “The focus on the home market gives a depth and reach that many other distributors simply can’t match. It’s a very strong base on which to build. I am also interested in the trends, opportunities and building new end markets over the longer term.”

Straughan started his career in technical sales with a chemicals distributor now OMYA. After joining Ciba Specialty Chemicals (now BASF), his career included placements in Singapore and Switzerland before returning to the UK with a role in global commercial technical marketing. He left Ciba to join a small turnaround team in a polymer additives business and then DKSH as Business Director, Europe, for Specialty Chemicals. Most recently, Straughan has been working for Element Six, part of De Beers, which is the world's leading supplier of synthetic diamonds.