United States Metal Powders appoints Eric Degenfelder president
February 21, 2024
United States Metal Powders, Inc (USMP), Palmerton, Pennsylvania, USA, has announced the appointment of Eric Degenfelder as its president, effective February 20, 2024.
USMP, founded in 1918, is a global leader in the production of aluminium powder with two aluminium powder production facilities: AMPAL, Inc, also in Palmerton, and Poudres Hermillon, SARL (PH), in Hermillon, France. AMPAL moved its production facility from Flemington, New Jersey, to its current location in 1982 and has been operating in Palmerton for the last forty-two years, growing to be the largest US producer of aluminium powder. The company’s products are sold globally and used in a wide variety of end markets including aerospace & defence, automotive, industrial, consumer, building & construction and energy.
“We are very excited to have Eric join our team and welcome him to USMP,” said Louise Ramsey Thomas, board member and retiring president. “Eric brings a wealth of leadership experience in the specialty materials arena, and a strong track record of enhancing growth through innovation, customer centricity and production excellence. We have great confidence in the USMP leadership team now in place and our ability to continue to deliver in a differentiated way for our customers. Over the last year, this team has also been enhanced with the additions of Danny Perez as General Manager of AMPAL, and Jean-René Cavaille as General Manager of PH.”
Degenfelder shared, “I am excited to join USMP and lead us into the next phase of growth. I have been highly impressed by the rest of the leadership team at AMPAL and PH, and was attracted to USMP’s strong market position, customer centric philosophy and the orientation toward continued investment and growth enabled by its fortress balance sheet and low financial risk profile. Rest assured we will continue our strong heritage of customer focus and quality in the years ahead.”
Degenfelder has leadership and cross-functional experience in specialty materials. He was CEO of U-C Coatings, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, for the past four years, and prior to that held a series of functional and geographic roles of increasing responsibility spanning product management, sales, marketing and strategy for Axalta Coating Systems, DuPont, Air Products and Millennium Chemicals. He received his BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
Download PM Review magazine
