Coats appoints new president for performance materials

Coats, a leading industrial thread manufacturer headquartered in the UK, has announced that the company has appointed Keith DuPont as the new 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.

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.

DuPont has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Keith will also become a member of the group executive team. He will be based in Charlotte, US.

Rajiv Sharma 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 mind-set to accelerate profitable sales growth in performance materials. I also look forward to his contributions to the group executive team.”