"Sustainability is at the forefront of our operations."

We recently sat down with Christelle Staller, our newly appointed vice president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India, to discuss her journey at Ascend, her vision for the region, and what customers can expect as we continue to evolve and grow in these markets.

• • I have been with Ascend since 2014, during which I have served in a variety of roles. For the past five of those years, I was the EMEAI commercial director for engineering plastics (EP) sales. I have been in the chemical industry for over 25 years, and my experience ranges from technology development, strategy development and global sales. I have recently accepted the position of vice president for Ascend’s EMEAI business

• • We have several key goals that we must remain focused on, not only in our region but across Ascend as a whole. Streamlining operations and maintaining our commitment to delivering high-quality products to our customers are always top priorities. I believe it's crucial for us to stay dedicated to continuous improvement in these areas. Additionally, sustainability is at the forefront of our priorities. This includes the safety and well-being of our people and the environments we work in, as well as driving innovation to develop sustainable solutions that help our customers reduce their products' carbon footprints.

• • As a result of the continuous market challenges in Europe, we have had to make some difficult decisions in the region. One of those was closing our compounding facility in Tilburg, Netherlands. However, while difficult, this decision was made as we feel that it will enable us to better support our customers in the long term. We moved our production assets to our plant in Mozzate, Italy where we have since doubled our compounding production capacity. We have also made various investments and upgrades at Mozzate to our processes and operations. Our main goal through this change was to ensure there was a minimal impact to our customers. Our changes over the past several months will allow us to improve our reliability, quality and innovation capabilities.

• • We have a few things that we are excited to share with our customers during Fakuma. The first of which is a new combination of two of our materials. The combined performance of Starflam with our ReDefyne recycled compounds allows us to offer our customers the reliable materials they are used to with a significantly lower product carbon footprint. Additionally, we are excited to exhibit our combi-batch solutions from our EssetiPlast business that combines color and other performance-enhancing additives like laser markability. Finally, we want to highlight our commitment to sustainability. We are in the process of working with several customers to test ISCC Plus-certified bio-circular nylon and we are excited to discuss this project with our customers at Fakuma.