Senior Management Team

Our Team

The Senior Management Team brings over 80 years of experience in the chemical industry to the leadership of Gaylord Chemical Company.

Frank Roederer

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Roederer joins Gaylord Chemical from A. Schulman, where he served as Sr Vice President and General Manager of the Engineering Composites Division. Mr. Roederer also served as Vice President of Masterbatch Solutions and Business Unit Director of Specialty Powders at A. Shulman, where he was responsible for strategy development and execution in the EMEA.Previously, served as General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Planning at SABIC in Saudi Arabia, where he led the refinement and implementation of the company’s corporate strategy by establishing a performance management culture. In an earlier role, he was Director of Supply Chain Europe at W.R. Grace, where he executed supply chain cost reduction and sourcing optimization programs across the EMEA region. Mr. Roederer holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Hochschule Offenburg and an MBA from Schiller International University.

Jennifer Priola

VP Finance & Accounting

Jennifer joins Gaylord Chemical with more than 20 years of finance leadership experience across various global industries in both publicly and privately owned businesses. The last fifteen years of her career has been in oil and gas, carbon and specialty chemicals industries with Cameron International Corp., Rain Carbon Inc. and Cornerstone Chemicals. Jennifer received her undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Louisiana.

Artie S. McKim, Ph.D. MBA

Vice President, Technology

Artie has been with Gaylord since 1999. He is a member of the company’s Senior Management Team and works closely with the commercial team to identify new growth areas. These include new product development activities as well as emerging applications for Gaylord’s existing products. Artie also manages the Quality and Technical Service teams. Artie earned his Ph.D. in synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of North Texas in 1999, and an MBA from Louisiana State University in 2006.

Guillaume Schmitt

Vice President, Europe & Asia

Guillaume’s role is enhancing Gaylord’s market strategy in Europe and Asia. He previously worked for 25 years with Arkema in business and technical development, most recently as Global Business Manager for DMSO and other specialty chemicals. Guillaume has 15 years DMSO expertise in R&D and business. Guillaume holds a Chemical Engineering Diploma – ENSIC and a Postgraduated Degree (DEA) in Chemical Engineering – ENSIC.

John Davidson

VP Manufacturing & Supply Chain

John joins Gaylord Chemical with over 25 years of cross-functional industry experience spanning operations management, supply chain sales and operations planning, quality management, and continuous improvement. He has held various roles of increasing responsibility in operations, quality and supply chain for customer centric organizations serving pharmaceutical and consumer health care companies. John has most recently held the positions of Director of the Americas Region Supply Chain & Technical Services for Capsugel, Site Head for Lonza located in South Carolina and Senior Director of Global Operations for Lonza. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Six Sigma Black Belt certification.

Debbie Barnewold, PHR SHRM-CP

Human Resources Leader

Debbie has been a member of the Gaylord team since 2019 where she brings senior level expertise from her years in the broadcasting and banking fields encompassing human resources, training and compliance. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southeastern Louisiana University. Debbie holds both a PHR (Professional Human Resources Certification) and a SHRM-CP certification.

Technical, Sales, and Marketing

The cross-functional Technical, Sales, and Marketing Team Brings specialized expertise in the areas of inorganic, organic chemicals and life sciences.

Nigel Langley, Ph.D. MBA

Global Technical Director, Life Sciences

Nigel Langley, Global Technical Director, Life Sciences, Gaylord Chemical Company LLC, provides technical support to the pharmaceutical industry and helps solve drug formulation challenges. Prior to joining Gaylord Chemical Nigel has held various senior technical and marketing positions with BASF and Croda International PLC. Nigel has also worked in Japan and England with Croda. He gained his Chemistry (Hons) degree and PhD (liquid crystals) from the University of Hull (UK) and an MBA from Leeds University (UK). He also took a 2- year Postdoctoral research position at Leeds University (UK) in natural product synthesis. He has over 100 scientific publications and has co- edited 2 books. Nigel is an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). In 2018 he was awarded the Industry Research Achievement Award in Excipient Technology by the IPEC Foundation. He has been a member of the Executive Committee at IPEC- Americas since 2010 and is currently Chair. Nigel is on the Medicine Maker’s Power List for 2020, 2021 & 2022.

Rishi Pimentel

Global Director of Market Development

Rishi Pimentel’s background is in materials engineering and drug development with over 24 years’ experience in pharmaceutical product development, marketing & sales, and drug delivery systems. Rishi brings a broad experience in managing development of novel drug product programs from formulation development, through pre-clinical and CMC, all the way to market launch with various excipients. As the Director of Global Market Development for Gaylord, his current focus is on commercial best practices, strategy, and business development globally, as well as expanding commercial synergies and bringing Gaylord’s life science platform to new markets.

Brandon Shaw

Global Director of Marketing

Brandon has 15+ years of engineering, marketing, product and account management experience in the Oil & Gas, and Chemical industries. Prior to joining Gaylord Chemical, Brandon worked for Dow Chemical in various engineering, sales, technical service and marketing roles. Brandon started his career at a global EPC firm as a process engineer designing various oil & gas processing units for customers around the globe. Mr. Shaw has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Engineering degree from Texas A&M University, both in Chemical Engineering.

Phil Gieger, MBA

Technical Services Manager, Industrial Products

Philip brings over 25 years of experience and career knowledge in the coatings industry where he spent time formulating solvent and waterborne products and paint line startups for automobile OEMs across the globe with PPG Industries. He comes to Gaylord Chemical from Eastman Chemical Company where he focused on safer and more sustainable solvent solutions for various applications including paint strippers and coatings. Philip holds an MBA from the University of Dayton and a B.S. in Chemistry from Ohio University.

Chris Masters, MBA

Sr. Director of Sales

Chris has spent the past 15 years of his career in the chemical industry in a variety of roles including manufacturing, account management, contracts, and pricing management. Given this diverse experience, Chris brings a unique perspective to the company with a proven track record of operational excellence. Chris has a Bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University and an MBA from King University.

Angel Diaz

Director of Sales

Angel has 20 years’ experience from Kyocera International, Inc, a manufacturer and distributor of electronic and microelectronic devices to various high technology industries, where he last served as Senior Area Sales Executive in the TPH Components division. Angel holds a BA in International Business from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Lane Dukart

Director of Sales

Lane joined us from Entegris, Inc, where he was Business Manager for the semiconductor market. Prior to Entegris, he served at Eastman Chemical Co. as a Product Manager responsible for products in the Polymer & Resin Intermediates Business Unit, and as Account Manager in the semiconductor, coatings and inks market in the US. Lane holds a BA in Statistics from the University of Tennessee.

Sandra Reid

Director of Sales

Sandra joins Gaylord Chemical with over 25 years of experience in the chemical industry. She began her career in R&D, branched into technical service and transitioned into supply chain management. Engagement with customers and market facing roles is where she excelled and has spent the last 18 years of her career. She has served in a variety of sales positions from managing entire market portfolios to single multi-national global accounts across a diverse set of products and markets. Sandra holds a B.S. in chemistry from Lenoir Rhyne University.

Mick Sadoudi

Director of Sales

Mick began his career in Sales and Marketing at Dow Chemical. During his time at Dow, he developed and managed business serving a wide range of end markets with a focus in oil, gas, and mining applications. Mick holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin.

Cody Wilson

Director of Sales

Cody joins Gaylord from Nalco Water, where he led the engineering consultant’s team supporting the Oil/Gas, chemicals, metal and paper industries. He started his career at Eastman Chemical Co where he last served as Global Pricing Product Manager and Optimization Transformation. Cody holds a BS in Chemistry from East Tennessee State University and an Executive MBA, Strategic Leadership from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.