UniPixel, Inc. (NASDAQ: UNXL) has promoted Robert A. Rusenko from vice president of manufacturing to chief operating officer.
With more than 12 years of executive management experience in the performance material and chemical industries, Rusenko has a strong track record of improving manufacturing productivity, delivering overall operational excellence through Six Sigma, and transitioning products from the laboratory to commercial production.
"I have had the fortunate opportunity to work closely with Robert over the last several weeks, and believe his extensive experience with roll-to-roll manufacturing and deep understanding of our technology will provide the key operational leadership we need as we work closely with Kodak towards finalizing a highly reliable, high-volume manufacturing process for our touch sensor film," said UniPixel's president and CEO, Jeff Hawthorne.
Before joining UniPixel in April of 2013, Rusenko served as vice president and general manager of Alpharetta printed products at Scientific Games, a global leader in gaming solutions for lottery and gaming organizations. At Scientific Games, he was responsible for a high-throughput, roll-to-roll manufacturing facility, which is the largest in the world for printed lottery products and more than double the capacity of any other facility.
Prior to Scientific Games, Rusenko served as an operations business leader at DuPont Performance Materials, a $6 billion platform focused on engineering, packaging and industrial polymers. As the operations business leader of DuPont's$1.8 billion Nylon and PBT segment of the engineering polymers business, he was responsible for developing and leading its global supply chain strategy. Before DuPont, he served as vice president of operations at Saint Gobain-CertainTeed Corporation, a North American manufacturer of building materials, where he was responsible for five manufacturing sites, three distribution centers, 1,300 employees, and an operational budget of $420 million.
He also previously served as director of worldwide manufacturing at W. R. Grace, a global specialty chemicals and materials company, where he was responsible for manufacturing, logistics and Six Sigma. He also previously held several management positions of increasing responsibility at GE Plastics, a $7 billion division of GE, where he received the coveted Six Sigma Gold Award for driving operational improvements. Before GE, Rusenko held several management positions of increasing responsibility at AlliedSignal, a global corporation with operations in the automotive, aerospace and specialty chemicals markets. At AlliedSignal, he transitioned chemical and pharmaceutical products from laboratory to commercial production, and earned an award for outstanding achievement from Larry Bossidy, the highly regarded CEO.
Rusenko earned his B.S. in chemical engineering from Widener University. He has completed Masters level courses in chemical engineering and business administration from the University of Virginia/New Jersey Institute of Technology and Villanova University, respectively. He also holds a GE Master Black Belt certification.