o say that our industry and the overall business climate was been interesting this year is an understatement. While we are all under pressure to produce results in a tough year, we in this room are also the people in our industry who understand that it is still important to work on the strategic things that will protect and advance our industry for the years to come.

So, let’s talk about strategy and look back at the last two years of IAPD. In early 2023, we surveyed leaders across our member companies asking them how IAPD could help their companies and what IAPD should focus on.

The three areas that we heard the most, by far, were:

• Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining Talent (Workforce Development)
• Government Relations
• Sustainability

With that feedback the task force and Board then revised the IAPD Three Pillar Strategy:

• Grow and Advocate for the Performance Plastics Industry
• Improve the Knowledge, Performance and Capability of IAPD Members
• Make the Distribution Channel the Path of Choice

We introduced these updated three pillars two years ago, and those focus areas have guided everything we’ve done since. Today, I want to share how your committees and task forces have brought them to life.

The first strategic focus area, Workforce Development, continues to be one of the most urgent challenges our industry faces, primarily in how we attract candidates to our industry and also how we retain and develop them.

IAPD has been committed to workforce initiatives for years. A previous task force in 2020 created the Recruitment and Industry Imaging Video Series and also the Best Practices Checklist for Hiring Skilled Trades.

Building on that foundation, the Workforce Development Task Force was relaunched last fall under the leadership of Danica Chin of PLASKOLITE and Board Liaison Chris Corona of CartierWilson LLC. They have been working with a diverse group of volunteers representing executive leadership, human resources, marketing, sales and operations.

The primary focus of this group has been on how to use the tools we have already created to attract more candidates to our industry. They are working closely with the Marketing Committee on an external workforce marketing campaign. The centerpiece of this campaign is the new Performance Plastics Careers Landing Page. This is a place to draw candidates to land that will act as a storytelling and education hub designed to raise awareness about career opportunities in our industry.

Visitors will find a number of resources about our Performance Plastics industry, including job descriptions, stories and career videos and toolkits. There will also be a searchable Membership Directory, linking candidates directly to member companies career pages and LinkedIn pages. We are also working on creating a candidate resume submission section.

The external marketing campaign will drive traffic to this careers page through digital marketing, social media and outreach. Over time, it will live on a new domain, performanceplastics.org, giving us a public-facing platform for workforce development.

To the volunteers who have shaped this work — thank you. You are ensuring that the next generation sees our industry as a place for an interesting and exciting career.

Our next focus area, Government Relations and Advocacy, has always been central to IAPD’s mission, and this year our voice in Washington, D.C. has never been stronger.

In the first half of 2025, IAPD held 36 meetings with policymakers in Washington, DC., and our members hosted six site visits, where legislators and their staff came to see firsthand the impact of performance plastics in their home states and districts.

Thank you to the Government Relations (GR) Committee, to our advocacy partner, OGR, and to all who have participated in D.C. visits and site visits. Special thanks to committee chair Leah Konrady, Konrady Plastics, Inc. and vice chair Sher’ron Underwood, Polymershapes, for your passion and leadership.

On the legislative front, our GR Committee has focused on four major issues: recycling legislation, extended producer responsibility, microplastics legislation and recycled content mandates. Our efforts are powered by the IAPD Plastics PAC, which gives us the resources to support champions of our industry in Congress.

Our third focus area, Sustainability, is one of the defining issues of our time — for our companies, our customers and our communities.

The Environmental Committee has created content and resources to help members navigate shifting environmental expectations.

Three years ago, we convened a Recycling Task Force that produced two lasting resources: Distributor Recycling Best Practices and the Recyclers’ Database, both available in the Member Resource Hub.

This year, the work has evolved into the Sustainability Task Force, which is driving a more strategic agenda. This group is focusing on three areas: creating awareness of the recycling tools that already exist, developing a Source Guide for recycled and recyclable materials and telling the sustainability stories of our members.

The storytelling campaign is the most involved undertaking of this task force and will roll over into next year. It will progress in two phases. Phase one, happening now, will be application stories that use real-world examples to show how performance plastics enable a more sustainable world. Phase two, coming next year, will be focused on sharing industry best practices.

To capture all this great information, we are creating a new Sustainability Landing Page on the IAPD website, which will serve as a public hub of case studies, tools and data. Over time, this content will also migrate to our new outward-facing site, performanceplastics.org.

Another initiative I would like to highlight is the IAPD Charitable Scholarship Program.

This program has been a cornerstone of IAPD for decades, providing scholarships to IAPD member company employees and their children, as well as students majoring in various degree programs.

Last year at the convention you may remember hearing from me that the IAPD Scholarship Program was being discontinued in its current state. It was decided to go forward with a scaled-down program for 2025 and then look to the future.

The Board of Trustees met with the Scholarship Committee and listened to ideas. A few of us also had individual conversations with leaders from our member companies and heard very consistent feedback. Pat Foose, President of GEHR Plastics, Inc., has offered to chair the committee and he has been working closely with us on rolling out our new Scholarship Program starting in 2026.

Looking ahead, the Foundation has simplified the program so it can continue strong into the future. Financial need has been added back into the scholarship criteria. We have found a confidential method to integrate it into the process, ensuring the scholarships reach those who need them most. And eligibility has been narrowed to include employees of IAPD member companies and employees’ children, along with students in sales-focused programs. We are also looking at adding a skilled trades portion starting in 2027.

On behalf of the IAPD Charitable Foundation Board of Trustees, thank you for your support. I encourage you to stay involved, and give generously, as we continue to offer this important program.

Along with the initiatives above, the Executive Committee and Board of Directors identified Membership Value as one of the most important things they could focus on.

The Member Resource Hub in the IAPD website was curated as a place that only our members have access to and where you can now find the many tools and resources offered. Susan Avery also worked closely with Sam Richter, who we will hear from shortly, on our valuable new tool called IAPD GPT, which also lives in the Member Resource Hub. I encourage you to check it out, if you haven’t already.

Tomorrow I will be handing off the baton to Vice President Jim Richards from PLASKOLITE, who will become your next IAPD President at the close of the convention. Jim will be speaking more tomorrow morning about the work being done on Membership Value and plans for 2026.

As my time of being your IAPD President comes to a close and I think about all we have accomplished together, I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the following people:

• My wife Melanie – for your love and support through all the extra time spent with IAPD
• Gerry Helbig, President of Curbell Plastics – for your encouragement through all my years volunteering with IAPD
• The Senior Management Team at Curbell Plastics – for being an awesome team and making it possible for me to do this
• The IAPD Executive Committee and the Board of Directors – for your leadership, vision, collaboration and friendships
• Everyone on the IAPD committees, task forces and councils – for your passion and engagement for the industry
• The IAPD staff team – for all the excellent work that you do, and for making us look good
• Susan Avery, IAPD CEO – for your leadership and guidance, for the association and for me
• The members of IAPD – for your trust in me as President

Serving as your president has been one of the greatest honors of my career and I am very grateful to have had this opportunity. Together, we have strengthened IAPD’s foundation, sharpened our focus and set a clear path for the future. The work is not finished, but because of you, IAPD is stronger than ever and ready for what’s next.

Thank you.