The Board of Trustees of the Museum of Russian Icons has announced the death of founder Gordon B. Lankton.
After opening a branch of his plastics manufacturing company in Moscow in 1992, he came to appreciate Russian culture, particularly the icon, the emblematic sacred art form stemming from the Byzantine traditions of the Russian Orthodox Christian faith.
Gordon founded the Museum of Russian Icons in 2006. From his early days as a Boy Scout collecting pennies, Gordon was a studious and passionate collector. Whether it was icons, African sculpture, World War I and II posters, or die-cast model cars, Gordon tirelessly pursued not only the objects, but also information about their origins and the artists who created them.
2021 Rising Stars: Andrew Wooley
President, Houston Plastic Products Corp.
Andrew Wooley got his feet wet helping his father, Randy, a salesman and general manager for ACM in the 1980s and 1990s, at trade shows and attending business trips. My father is the reason I am in plastics, he said about his mentor. I was lucky to be educated and trained by the best in the business, my father. I was able to learn much from his co-workers and his friends in the business.
Wooley graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor s degree in economics. He was in the financial services industry at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch from 2008-12, before joining the management team at Houston Plastic Products Corp., where he is president of the Texas custom injection molder.
2021 Rising Stars: Colleen Lavelle
Technical Service and Development Engineer, M. Holland Co.
Colleen Lavelle graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics. Her first job in the plastics industry was a lab engineer internship at T&T Marketing, a distributor of polymer resins and compounds to the wire and cable market, where she worked on a product development project. I was initially drawn to the internship because of the hands-on research and development work I d get to partake in. I enjoyed working with plastics materials because they are very versatile and extremely functional across many industries, she said. I also enjoyed the challenge of creating a product that balanced properties in a new way to offer tangible benefits.
Kevin Herrington, 32
Research Scientist, Braskem
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevin Herrington said most of his team has been working from home since March. The challenge has been in finding new ways to work and communicate with one another, but it has also created more time to examine and…
2021 Rising Stars: Maggie Highberger
Account Manager, M. Holland Co.
Maggie Highberger said she became drawn to the plastics industry because of its continuously growing opportunities and technology.
Highberger was born in Kansas City and graduated from Pittsburg State University in Kansas with a bachelor s degree in plastics engineering technology. Her first plastics-related job was an internship at Kohler Co. in Sheridan, Ark., making toilet seats and components. The internship taught me not only how to work with my hands, changing molds, but also how to build relationships with everyone involved in the manufacturing process, Highberger said. My experience at Kohler taught me so much that it could fill a book, and every day I am grateful that experience was my first look at the plastics industry.