R&D PLASTICS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Inside Sales Account Manager

Heidi was born and raised in the Hillsboro, Oregon area. She started her first manufacturing job as an assembler for Grant and Roth Plastics when she was 19 years old. Over the next 11 years she held positions as receptionist, assistant to payroll, accounts receivable and accounts payable before moving into a customer service position at Grant and Roth. Heidi continued her career in customer service in the manufacturing industry most recently as a Customer Support Specialist for global Portable Medical accounts. She returned to the plastics industry and R&D Plastics in 2017 and is excited to be working with friends and colleagues that she has worked with in the past at Grant and Roth Plastics.

Job Titles:

• Quality Control Manager

Job Titles:

• Buyer

Job Titles:

• President

Job Titles:

• Process Engineer
• Molding Manager

Job Titles:

• Supply Chain Manager
• Business Unit Coordinator

Orion has over 25 years of experience in supply chain solutions. His responsibilities include production planning, procurement, and inventory management.

Job Titles:

• Majority Owner, CEO

Rod Roth was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth. His father, Merrill Roth, spent his whole career in the plastics industry, and Rod followed suit. Merrill started Grant and Roth Plastics in 1946 with a home-built compression press and one customer. When Rod left the Air Force, he went to work for Grant and Roth Plastics and stayed until the company was sold to SPM. Rod's experience at Grant and Roth Plastics included everything from machine operator to General Manager. He has been active in the Society of Plastics Engineers, which awarded him the Lifetime Achievement award, and the Society of Plastics Industry, where he was President of the Northwest Chapter and frequent speaker at national conferences. In 1996 Rod and his two partners, Janet Evensen and Sal Gonzalez, started R&D Plastics LLC. The goal was to service small to medium sized customers who needed design assistance and could not go off-shore. The company has grown an average of 8% a year for the last 21 years. It currently has seventeen injection machines ranging in size from 40 tons to 720 tons. Rod supports the plastics engineering program at Western Washington University. He sponsors three scholarships, brings in interns every summer, guest lecturers in classes and conducts an industry tour of plastics companies in the Portland Area once a year for a bus-load of students.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• VP Business Development

After spending a year at the University of Washington, Ron transferred to Western Washington University and began studying plastics and going through the track for "Industrial Technology / Plastics" which was a very young program at the time. He was very active in the plastics program and in helping to coordinate the student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). He held various summer jobs around his home town of Bellingham during his time at the university and was really looking for an interesting opportunity in the plastics world, and for a drier warmer climate than offered by Bellingham. The perfect opportunity was his first professional job starting in 1978 working at Grant and Roth Plastics, Inc. in Hillsboro, Oregon. Ron continued to study plastics, but more specialized in the injection molding process, materials, part design and tooling. He worked at Grant & Roth for over ten years and then for Quality Plastics of Newberg for another ten years. Then getting away from injection molding for about 5 years and working for Infocus Corp as a Sr Supplier Quality Engineer, and then returning to injection molding for the past 14 years at R&D Plastics LLC. Ron remains active in the Columbia chapter of the SPE and has been on the board for several years, did a term as president, and recently received the Lifetime Achievement award from this group. Ron also serves on the advisory board for the WWU College of Science and Engineering.

Job Titles:

• CTO
• Owner, VP of Operations

Sal Gonzalez has over thirty-five years of experience in custom plastic injection molding. He has supervised the production floor and was the key molding technician at his previous company. He brings to the company a thorough knowledge of equipment and processing, as well as excellent relationships with people throughout the molding community. His engineering and technical knowledge allow him to work with customers' engineers to solve design, tooling, material and processing problems. He has taught classes in molding technology at Portland Community College.

Job Titles:

• Engineering Manager

Sarah Cornwell is an alumni from the Plastics Engineering Technology program at Western Washington University. She started working at R&D Plastics upon graduation in 2008 as a Project Manager until moving into the role of Engineering Manager in 2017. She has served on the board for the Columbia River Chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers as Treasurer, Councilor and President and is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers. Sarah is your contact for new project development and general questions about plastics and injection molding. In her free time Sarah enjoys hiking, traveling, cooking and spending time with her family.

Job Titles:

• Project Manager
• Assembly Manager

Sean Lynch is an alumnus from the Plastics Engineering program at Western Washington University. He started working at R&D Plastics upon graduation in 2018, as a Project Manager. Sean can walk you through new product development, as well as answer general plastics and injection molding questions. Sean enjoys being outdoors, discovering new places, and quiet evenings with his family.