PPG CEO Bunch receives ICIS Kavaler Award

NEW YORK (ICIS)–PPG Industries chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch has received the ICIS Kavaler Award, sponsored by The Chemists’ Club, in recognition of outstanding and newsworthy achievements in the global chemicals industry,

The award – voted on by the senior executives in the ICIS Top 40 Power Players listing – was presented by ICIS and The Chemists’ Club at a black-tie dinner ceremony on 30 October at the Lotos Club in New York.

“On behalf of PPG, I am very honored and grateful to receive this award, and especially pleased that it comes from my peers in the chemical industry,” said Bunch at the event.

US-based PPG has grown from an $8bn-turnover coatings, specialty materials, chemicals and glass company in 2002, to a $15bn firm last year. By disposing off non-core assets and making acquisitions, the company now generates 90% of its pro forma sales from coatings.

“Mr Bunch has made a series of moves – most recently the acquisition of AkzoNobel’s North American architectural coatings business – that has ultimately transformed PPG from a diversified industrial conglomerate in the late-1990s, to one of the world’s leading coatings companies today,” said Joseph Chang, global editor of ICIS Chemical Business.

“Today where you see activist investors taking big stakes in companies to force change, it’s especially great to see the pro-active approach taken by Mr Bunch and PPG to focus on its strengths, divest non-core assets, and deliver results to shareholders,” he added.

The distinguishing feature of this award is that the winner is selected by his/her peers – the senior executives selected in the ICIS Top 40 Power Players listing, a global ranking of the people making the greatest impact on the chemical industry.

The award is a revival of the Kavaler Award, which was presented by Chemical Market Reporter to leading chemical CEOs from 1990 to 1999, including Jon Huntsman Sr, founder, chairman and CEO of Huntsman, and Frank Popoff, chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical.

Arthur Kavaler, who served for 46 years as reporter, editor and eventually publisher and editor-in-chief of Chemical Market Reporter – one of the three publications incorporated into ICIS Chemical Business – passed away at the age of 91 on 18 January 2012.