Here are this month's industry newsmakers.

The Dow Corning board of directors, Midland, Mich., elected Dr. Stephanie A. Burns, president and chief executive officer, to the position of chairman. Burns will replace Gary E. Anderson, who announced his retirement after serving as board chairman since 2001. Both changes became effective January 1, 2006. Burns will continue to serve as Dow Corning CEO, a post she assumed after Anderson's retirement from active service with the company in July 2004.

Ultra Additives, LLC, Bloomfield, N.J., part of the Münzing Group, has appointed Terri Dober to the position of West Coast regional sales manager. Ms. Dober will be responsible for sales in the industrial fluid, paint, coatings, adhesives and wood-preservative product industries in California, Washington, Arizona and Oregon.

Ultra Additives has also named Andres Ginez to the position of Latin American sales manager. Ginez will be responsible for the sales of the company's specialty additives to the worldwide industrial fluid market and is accountable for paint, coatings, ink, adhesives and building products.

The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Mich., has named Jim Fitterling business vice president for Polyethylene. Fitterling will report to Mike Gambrell, executive vice president, Dow Basic Plastics and Chemicals Portfolio.

Reporting to Fitterling are Chris Gann, business vice president for High Density Polyethylene/Low Density Polyethylene, and Roger Schwartz, business vice president for Solution Polyethylene. In addition, the four regional commercial directors for Basic Plastics will report to Fitterling: Pedro Suarez, Marcus Wildi, Isidro Quiroga and Peter Sykes.

Glyn Jagger has taken on the post of operations director at Holliday Pigments, Hull, U.K., managing operations while also taking a seat on the board. He brings experience in the chemical industry from Holliday Pigments' parent company, Yule Catto, Synthomer and most recently James Robinson, where he was technical director.

Ferro Corporation, Cleveland, announced that, consistent with Ferro's established succession plan, James F. Kirsch, 48, has been appointed chief executive officer of the company. Kirsch's appointment follows the unexpected death of Hector R. Ortino, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. (See obituary in Industry News.) Kirsch has been serving as Ferro's president and chief operating officer.

Ron Klimas has joined DS Containers, Batavia, Ill., as director of sales. He has a background in sales and sales management with U.S. Can, Continental Can and Ropak Plastics.

BASF has appointed Dr. Uwe Liebelt as the head of the company's Inorganics business group in North America, based in Evans City, Pa. He replaces Dr. Uli Bueschges who has returned to BASF's headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, to take over responsibility for the company's global Inorganic Specialties business.

In his new assignment, Liebelt is responsible for BASF's Inorganics value chain and organization in North America that includes a highly sophisticated research and development (R&D) and production hub in Evans City.

Dexter Chemical, L.L.C., Bronx, N.Y., has named Dr. Adnan Siddiqui as technical director with responsibility for the development of new products and the support of existing technologies. Dexter Chemical makes specialty products for the paint and coatings, emulsion polymerization, textile, and other industries.

Prior to joining Dexter, Siddiqui worked with Valspar in California as senior project chemist in the design and synthesis of waterborne resins. Prior to Valspar, he was employed at Stepan, where he was responsible for developing surfactants for emulsion polymerization.

Dr. Ren Xu, Malvern Instruments' Applications and Technical Support Manager in the Asian Region, has been appointed concurrent professor at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. This is one of China's leading universities and has a renowned particle-technology center.