Detroit Colour Council Officers

Position: President

Color Experience: Over 20 years involvement in all aspects of automotive color control and processing. Primary areas of expertise are in vehicle color harmony, and color / grain / gloss of injection molded parts.

Bio: Currently employed for the past 6 years as Sr. Manager of Human Engineering at Nissan Technical Center North America. Responsible for achievement of customer-based perceived quality and human factors targets for vehicles engineered, produced, and sold in the Americas. Previous employment includes Director of Global Craftsmanship and Benchmarking at Collins & Aikman; Manager of Craftsmanship and Harmony for GM and Chrysler Business Units at Johnson Controls Inc.; Sr. Program Manager at JB Rath Co.

Speaking / Presenting Activities: Plenary Lecture, 2010 SPE-CAD RETEC Conference "Perceived Quality and Color Design: A Japanese Automotive OEM Perspective" ; Speaker 2008 SPE-CAD RETEC "Troubleshooting Appearance Defects in Automotive Plastic Injection Molding"; panelist and speaker at DCC events throughout the years.

Position: Vice-President

Color Experience: Over 12 years working with color formulation of coatings and quality control in the automotive industry. Currently employed by Thierry Corporation in Royal Oak. Manages all customer accounts for the paint division and plasma treatment technology. Responsible for operations and quality control for the production of OEM exterior and interior paint color standards. Also responsible for quality control of interior masters of all commodities.

Previous employment in the industry was in the R&D lab at Kay Automotive Graphics, where she was responsible for color matching and formulation.

Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University.

Position: Secretary

Color Experience: Over 10 years involvement with paint and plastics including: Automotive OEM and Refinish coatings, Aerospace coatings, and Residential Siding coatings. Primary area of focus and expertise is the usage and development of cutting edge technology for color formulation, retrieval, and harmonization.

Bio: Paul has been employed with PPG Industries since 2007 and is currently the Refinish Manager of Global Color Science and Innovation. He was previously employed with Saint-Gobain as a Project Manager and BASF as a Color Scientist.
Throughout his career he has been investigating and applying new technology and scientific advances. For the past 10 years he has focused those interests and skills in color science for paints and coatings. He is the current chairman of the Detroit Colour Council Website committee.

Education: Paul received a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1999
He earned a Master's in Chemistry from Oakland University in 2005.

Position: Treasurer

Color Experience: 20 years in the Automotive Coatings World and 4 years in the General Industrial Coatings market.

Bio: Currently employed with BASF as the General Motors Color Program Manager, responsible for new BASF Color Developments and secondary matches with GM Design and Engineering groups from inception through launch.

Position: Past President

Bio: 

Position: Board Member

Color Experience: Color engineer for General Motors in the Global Paint & Polymers Center.

Responsible for exterior body color development . Includes assembly plant color processing, durability and color standards. Previous color engineering assignments in GM's Interior Engineering organization and GM Design. Past President of the Detroit Colour Council. Current Chairman of Detroit Colour Council Education Committee. Worked with Bill Longley to create the Detroit Colour Council Metallics Course. Bachelor Degree from Wayne State University.

Position: Board Member

Color Experience: Over 50 years in the automotive business.
ME from GMI (Now Kettering).
JD from Detroit College of Law (Now MSU).
40 years with GM. Considerable experience with trim products.
Last 15 plus years in Sales( JS Chamberlain & Assoc., Inc ) which included painted automotive plastic products
Memberships at this time - ESD, MI.State Bar, AARP

Position: Board Member

Color Experience: For the last 22 years I have been working with EMD Chemicals a producer of Special Effect Pigments (Pearl effect). Supplying the Automotive Coatings Industry. I have worked with Design groups who create Automotive colors as well as Technical groups within Automotive Coating manufacturing companies we serve who make the Coatings feasible. I have been a member of the Detroit Colour Council since the start of this time frame. And have been the Membership Chairperson now for the last 6 years.

Position: Board Member

Color Experience: Rick Knight runs the Color Management Services team of the Global Color Technology Platform for PPG’s Automotive OEM business unit.  He has been working in color for over 20 years, with a concentration on color measurement and science for the past 15.  His responsibilities take him all over the world, conducting training workshops and setting up color management systems for not only the OEM group, but also other business units.  Rick has conducted the Color Measurement portion of the Detroit Colour Council’s Matching and Control of Metallic and Pearl Colors seminar for the past 5 years.  He holds a B.A. in Microeconomics and a Masters Degree in International Business.

Position: Board Member

Bio: Steven D. Madge is a British entrepreneur and founder of MGX Madge Group & Associates LLC. He is a qualified engineer in Mechanical Engineering and a renowned specialist advisor in the development and market positioning of future vehicle interiors.

He has worked with and consulted to some of the most exclusive vehicle manufacturers in the world, including Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Bentley Motors, Daimler, Chrysler, Ford, Mitsubishi, Land Rover, Proton, and Volvo.

In 2006 he moved from Krefeld Germany to live and work in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Fluent in German and English, Steven has been communicating technology, design and innovation between Europe and North America for years.

Steven has been involved and instrumental in hundreds of complex interior development programs. He has gained insight into the global demands and expectations of the automotive industry. He understands differing human behavior, the requirements of the vehicle OEM’s, the expectations of the consumer, and the difficulties placed on the suppliers.

Vehicle development starts with a vision, followed by years of research, computer simulations, product development, virtual market research, virtual testing, road testing, durability trials, consumer clinics, certification and POS point of sale.

Stevens Company Madge Group uses advanced 3D visualization, technology, innovation breakthrough and a Fresh-Eyes™ approach, to create the highest levels of PQ perceived quality and “world-class” solutions for its clients.

Position: Board Member

Color Experience:  Almost 30 years experience in paint formulation, application, testing, optimization, pigment and raw material testing and qualitfication, visual color matching, computer assisted color matching, color tolerance development and use, and instrument qualification and use.

Bio: Kendall is the Color Science - Technical Advisor for BASF Automotive OEM Coatings in North America.  He is the North American owner and expert user of BASF's ColorCARE® color analysis software that is used in many automotive assembly plants worldwide.  He is currently the coordinator and one of the instructors for the Color Technology Industrial Short Course at Eastern Michigan University.  He has given presentation at the ISCC (Inter Society Color Council) on color tolerances and at the DCC and SAE on automotive color harmony. 

Education:  Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry from the University of Michigan