To further strengthen its focus on growing customer needs for new products, turnkey systems solutions and engineering, technical and production expertise, Conair Group, Cranberry Twp, Pennsylvania, announced a series of recent appointments in its sales, product management, systems and extrusion businesses:
- Product Management. Anthony “A.J.” Zambanini was named director of product management. He will oversee the efforts of product managers who are developing individual auxiliary equipment lines – blenders, conveyors, dryers, extrusion, heat transfer, storage and size reduction – to ensure a comprehensive offering of market-leading equipment. In his nine years with Conair, Zambanini served recently as product manager of drying, preceded by work as regional sales manager and packaging sales manager. His previous industry experience includes engineering, product management and new product development at several organizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Penn State – Behrend College in Erie.
- Turnkey Systems. As director of Conair’s newly formed Systems Group, Nick Paradiso assumes responsibility for teams that closely work with global customers to engineer, develop and install turnkey systems, ranging from new production lines to complete production plants. He was promoted after three years to product manager for conveying and bulk storage equipment. Before joining Conair, he served as sales and marketing director for Piovan Group and as a division manager for material handling and auxiliaries at Wittman Battenfeld. Paradiso holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University and currently is a 2024 MBA candidate at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
- Unit Sales. Lane Brewster, a 12-year Conair employee, was appointed director of units group. Now, he leads a large team responsible for helping customers assess, size and select Conair auxiliary equipment suited to their application requirements. In his time with Conair, Brewster managed inside sales, supervised technical sales and served as an account manager on the inside sales team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
- Extrusion Sales. As Conair’s new general manager of extrusion sales, Chris Weinrich assumes leadership of Conair’s growing extrusion business, including the continued development and sales of Conair auxiliaries used to produce tube, pipe and profile extrusions. Previously, he served as director of packaging and medical and general manager of extrusion. Highly experienced, with more than 30 years in the plastics industry, Weinrich served in product management roles for Milacron and Xaloy, Inc. before joining Conair in 2011. Weinrich holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Xavier University’s Williams College of Business. In his new role, Weinrich succeeds Ernie Preiato, vice president for extrusion, who plans to retire after over 50 years of work in the extrusion industry as an employee of Conair and Gatto, a company acquired by Conair.
- National Sales. As National Sales Manager Tom Bishop will direct the activities of six Conair regional managers who support North America’s largest auxiliary equipment sales team, comprising 12 independent sales agencies and 45 sales representatives throughout the US and Canada. During his 12-year career in the plastics industry, Bishop also served Conair as a regional sales manager, systems engineer and inside sales representative. He also worked as a regional sales manager for Davis-Standard and as an account manager for Design Molded Plastics, an Ohio-based plastics processor. Bishop holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio Northern University.
“All of these appointments – A.J., Nick, Lane, Chris, and Tom – reflect the desire of Conair Group to strengthen customer focus, market awareness, and technical expertise in key areas of our business: developing and managing a comprehensive offering of auxiliary equipment, engineering and delivering high-performance turnkey systems and supporting processors who seek help in selecting and sizing market-leading auxiliary equipment and solutions for their businesses,” said Sam Rajkovich, vice president of sales and marketing for Conair.
For more information, visit www.conairgroup.com.
