Plastics & Polymers

Nick Vafiadis Vice President, Global Plastics & Polymers Team Lead Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Nick Vafiadis is the Vice President of the Plastics & Polymers business at Chemical Market Analytics.

Nick is a 30-year veteran of the chemical industry and manages Chemical Market Analytics’s global plastics practice. His daily responsibilities encompassed analysis, consulting, and reporting on the global polyolefins market, as well as managing the operations associated with producing and developing the report. Concurrently, he contributed to single-client projects and studies related to the polyolefins industry. In his earlier assignments, he was responsible for consulting duties associated with the Chlor-alkali and vinyl product chain. He contributed to the Monomers Market Report, the Chlor-Alkali Market Report, and the Global Plastics & Polymers Market Report.

Nick has been with IHS Markit base chemical business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics), and its predecessor CMAI since 2002. Before joining CMAI, he had spent twelve years with Vista Chemical Company (now Condea Vista Chemical Company), where he held assignments in marketing, product management, and sales management in both the vinyl and surfactant business areas. Mr. Vafiadis holds a Management BBA from The University of Texas at Austin, United States.

Anthony Palmer Vice President, Global Circular Plastic Sustainability Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Anthony J. Palmer is Vice President of Chemical Market Analytics (by OPIS, a Dow Jones Company).

Mr. Palmer is responsible for the Circular Plastics & Chemicals Sustainability business for the Base Chemicals & Plastics group. In this role, he coordinates the Research & Insight activities associated with carbon emissions and plastics reuse, reduction, and recycling. Special focus involves mechanical and chemical recycling technology & economics, plastic waste supply & logistics, company ESG initiatives and strategic responses to sustainability, and macro-industry implications.

Before his current position, Mr. Palmer managed the Chemical Consulting Group at IHS Markit where he directed engagements for clients with interests in the business, technical, and financial aspects of the energy, chemicals, and related process industries. His areas of interest included strategic business management, financial and acquisition analysis, technology assessment, capital project planning, manufacturing strategy, international project development, expert witness/litigation support, and material supply strategy.

Mr. Palmer’s consulting activities focused on helping companies plan and implement business and corporate development programs worldwide. He managed numerous assignments in Asia and Latin America relating to natural gas utilization and petrochemical complex planning. His experience also comprises business valuation, debt coverage, and due diligence assignments associated with financial transactions in the process industries, and has provided support in several commercial litigation matters involving process industry participants.

In addition to his current activities, Mr. Palmer is an Adjunct Professor of Management at Connecticut State University’s Ancell School of Business Administration where he teaches courses in Strategic Management using the case analysis approach.

Mr. Palmer was a Founding Director at CPI Consulting Associates, at which time the firm’s operations were merged into Chemical Market Associates (CMAI). In 2011, IHS Markit Inc. (NYSE: INFO) acquired CMAI and formed IHS Chemical, it’s third-largest industry vertical behind Energy and Transportation.

Previously, Mr. Palmer was a Principal at Chem Systems (Nexant) and started his career at Exxon Corporation. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College, and an MBA in Finance and International Business from Fordham University.

Robin Waters Executive Director, Global Circular Plastics Sustainability Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Robin Waters serves as Executive Director of Chemical Market Analytics focused on planning and analysis for the advisory services that cover polyethylene and polypropylene.

Mr. Waters brings more than three decades of industry experience to his role as Director of plastics planning and analysis. His responsibilities at Chemical Market Analytics cover polyethylene and polypropylene, including support for both market advisory services as well as single client projects and studies related to polyolefins. He served as project lead for “Plastics Pathway to Sustainability”, the multiclient study on plastics sustainability issued in November 2018 and is project lead for “Changing Course: Plastics, carbon and the transition to circularity” an expanded multi-client study on plastics sustainability to be issued in 2020. Mr. Waters joined Chemical Market Analytics in 2012 as Director of Polyolefins-North America. Previously, he was with LyondellBasell in commercial management roles in polyethylene and polypropylene for 15 years, including new business startups and third-party marketing agreements, regional sales management, strategic planning, and contract management. He began his career at DuPont, initially as a business analyst for supporting the global elastomers business followed by technical, sales, and business management assignments for a variety of films and resins in packaging markets. Mr. Waters holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Miami, both in the United States.

Brendan Dooley Executive Director, Global Engineering Plastics

Brendan Dooley is the Executive Director of the Engineering Plastics service at Chemical Market Analytics

He has 30 years of industry experience in mostly commercial roles including business leadership roles across Europe and North America for global-scale producers of polycarbonate, ABS, nylon, PBT, and other engineering polymers. Brendan is a chemical engineer with graduate studies in economics and finance; he joined IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) in 2015 and has provided content for publications to Chemical Engineering News, Plastics Engineering, Chemical Week, and contributes to private client consulting projects about engineering plastics markets.

Joel Morales Vice President, Global Plastics & Polymers | North America Polyethylene & Polypropylene Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Joel Morales is the Vice President at Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS, a Dow Jones company.

Joel joined the IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics), in March 2013, covering Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) in North America. He is currently the service leader of three market advisory subscription services: The Global Plastics and Polymers Report, the North American PE Report, and the North American PP report. He has brought a wealth of industry knowledge to IHS Markit through multiple stints along the plastics value chain.

He began his career with polyolefins manufacturer, Solvay Polymers, which later became Ineos, in technical services and product development before he moved into field sales. After five years at Solvay Polymers, Joel moved into resin distribution sales for both Muehlstein and then United Polychem as a Product Manager, where he managed and sold polyethylene and polypropylene resins into various customer segments. In his most recent role prior to joining IHS Markit, Joel was a purchasing manager for Silgan Plastics, a major blow-molding, and injection molding plastics converter. Joel graduated from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a minor in psychology.

Kaushik Mitra Executive Director, Europe Plastics & Polymers

Kaushik Mitra is the Executive Director of polyolefin, for Europe Middle East, and Africa at Chemical Market Analytics.

Mr. Mitra steers the Polyolefin Insight and Research practice for Chemical Market Analytics under Chemical Market Analytics and played a pivotal role in conceptualizing, developing, and executing the Chemical Market Analytics sustainability study. He has gained diverse career experience working at top global companies and leading business management, market development, market intelligence, and strategy. His interests are in pricing, strategy, and intelligence. He joined Chemical Market Analytics in 2016 with more than 22 years of experience in the petrochemicals business. Previously, with petrochemical giant SABIC, Mr. Mitra led the global strategy team for the polymers business, shaping long-term ambitions in terms of growth, business improvement, innovation, and pricing. He was instrumental in developing a framework for strategy execution, as well as deploying performance metrics. Mr. Mitra holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a marketing MBA.

JP Nah Director, Southeast Asia Polyolefins Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

JP Nah serves as Director for Research and Analysis in Southeast Asia Polyolefins business in our Singapore office.

JP  brings with him an extensive background in Polyolefins and over 20 years of experience in the plastic industry. His main contributions are the Global Plastics and Polymers Market Monthly Report (Asia market) and the Asia/Middle East/India Plastics and Polymers Weekly Report (Southeast Asia market). His focus covers Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) in Asia region as well as supporting various business advisory services in Asia.

Prior to joining Chemical Market Analytics, JP Nah was with Idemitsu Chemical Southeast Asia as the Deputy General Manager since 1993 where he was accountable for managing the business operations for Polyolefins and Polystryene in the Asia region. His responsibility was setting up and achieving the annual targets. He was also involved actively in establishing new product development and providing marketing information for the Idemitsu group of companies.

Utpal Sheth Executive Director, Asia Plastics & Polymer Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Utpal Sheth serves as the Executive Director for Research and Analysis at Chemical Market Analytics

Mr. Sheth led the regional Plastics Team in Singapore. He brings with him extensive industry experience and knowledge of 28 years in Asia and the Middle East. As a part of his current assignment, apart from leading the Weekly Regional Plastics Service, he contributes to various Market Advisory services as well as supports various consulting activities as an expert in the Polyolefins business.

He joined CMAI (now division of Chemical Market Analytics) as Director of Polyolefins / PVC for the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent at our Dubai office in October 2007. In July 2014, he has relocated to Singapore to lead the Plastics Service in Asia – Middle East. Prior to joining CMAI, Utpal had worked in the Sales and Marketing functions at Petrochemical Companies in India and the Middle East.

He is a Plastics Engineer and Master in Business Administration (Marketing). Apart from English, he can communicate in Hindi and Gujarati.

Daniel Siow Director, Southeast Asia Styrenic & ABS

Daniel Siow is the Director for Southeast Asia Styrenic & ABS at Chemical Market Analytics.

Daniel has more than 16 years of experience in the chemical industry, holding key responsibilities including regional sales, marketing, business development, and product management. Mr. Siow covers all major styrenic polymers namely, polystyrene, expandable polystyrene, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene with a focus on the Asian regions. Mr. Siow contributes to several advisory services, most notably the Global Plastics & Polymers Report, Global Engineering Resins Report, World Polystyrene Analysis, World Expandable Polystyrene Analysis, and the World Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Analysis. Mr. Siow began his career in the chemical industry with Idemitsu Chemicals, a trading company in Singapore where he was promoted to a Senior Manager role in 2005. Mr. Siow joined Chemical Market Associates, Inc. (CMAI) in 2010 as a consultant. Mr. Siow was involved in business development and strategic marketing of commodity and engineering plastics for the Idemitsu Group of Companies. Prior to joining Idemitsu, Mr. Siow has extensive experience in the field of market research, covering studies such as consumer research, industrial research, and B2B market research.

Yi Ling Tan Director, Southeast Asia Polyolefins

Yi Ling Tan is the Director for Southeast Asia Polyolefins at Chemical Market Analytics. 

Yi Ling Tan covers the Asian polyolefins market, specializing in mLLDPE. She is with the polyolefins group at Chemical Market Analytics, with more than 10 years working in the industry providing price forecasts and market insights for the Asian polyolefin markets. Currently, she is responsible for market research on polyolefins in Asia and leads the Asian mLLDPE and the Asian polyolefins operating schedule services. Over the course of her career, she has presented at numerous external conferences and conducted polyolefin workshops for clients. Ms. Tan first joined the company as a research associate at Chemical Market Associates, Inc, now part of Chemical Market Analytics, where she was responsible for market analysis and process re-engineering. She started her career as a risk analyst with one of the top local banks in Singapore.

She holds a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering (Hons) from the National University of Singapore.

Alan Wei Executive Director, China Polyolefins (Mandarin)

Alan Wei is the Executive Director for China Polyolefins at Chemical Market Analytics.

Alan joined IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics) in 2021 as China Polyolefins’ Research and Analysis Director.

He has more than 14 years of experience in the plastics industry, working in leading producers and distribution companies, and holding a variety of responsibilities including sales, marketing, and technical management.

Martin Wiesweg Executive Director, EMEA Plastics

Mr. Wiesweg is the Executive Director for EMEA Plastics at Chemical Market Analytics

Mr. Wiesweg contributed to various consultancy projects since joining the IHS Markit base chemicals business (now known as Chemical Market Analytics). Several projects consisted of a thorough and extensive market analysis of European polymer markets for potential suppliers. Also, Martin contributed to projects assessing competitive positions of polymers for associations of polymers.

In 1989 Martin joined Huels AG as Product Developing Manager for flame retardant polystyrene and became Technical Service Manager in 1992. In 1998 Martin joined BP Chemicals as a result of the acquisition of Huels styrenics activities by BP. Within BP Chemicals he has had many different responsibilities in the commercial departments, e.g. as European Sales Manager for Polystyrene, Distribution & Export Manager, and Marketing Manager for polystyrene and EPS.

In 2005 Martin moved into the polymer JV Ineos Nova and became the commercial director for polystyrene specialties, responsible for the purchase, sales, technical service, and product development.

Hongyan Xu Associate Director, Asia Engineering Plastics Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS

Dr. Hongyan Xu serves as Associate Director of Asia Engineering Plastics, based in Shanghai.

She is responsible for providing market analysis and expert insight into costs, prices, capacities, technology, trade, supply demand and long-term trend to our clients. Her focus covers Polycarbonate (PC), Nylon 6, Nylon 6,6, Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT), and Polyacetal (POM) in Asia.

Prior to joining Chemical Market Analytics in 2021, Dr. Xu had more than 10-year experiences of technology and management in special chemicals and high-performance materials. Dr. Xu received her PhD degree from Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences and she also earned an MBA from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.