SSPC Board of Governors Election Results and Updates

SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings is pleased to announce the results of the 2018 Board of Governors election. At stake in the election was an opening in the Facility Owner demographic.

The winning candidate was Robert Cloutier, Manager, Coatings & Corrosion Group, General Dynamics - Bath Iron Works and a member of SSPC since 2001.

Mr. Cloutier has been with GD-BIW for 38 years where he has been involved with all aspects of surface preparation, marine coating application, specifications, process development, training and inspection. Included among this experience are projects involving everything from typical abrasive blasting or waterjetting operations to the application of thermal sprayed aluminum, ultra-high solids epoxies, tank linings, underwater hull coating systems and non-skid products. His career has taken him across the United States overseeing installations and inspections of shipboard coatings, decking, non-skid and sound damping tiles as well as corrosion control audits on U.S. Navy ships.

Currently, Mr. Cloutier deals with specification review and ensuring contract compliance.

He is also the Vice Chairman of the National Shipbuilding Research Program Surface Preparation and Coatings Panel (NSRP SP&C Panel).

In other Board activity, Joyce A. Wright from HII Newport News Shipbuilding was elected to the Vice President position at the Board of Governors meeting on May 30, 2018 and Juan Caballero, of Naval & Industrial Solutions S.A. was appointed as an ex-officio member of the Board.

Ms. Wright has been an SSPC member since 1999 and has been on the Board since 2015. She will officially join the executive committee on July 1, 2018 and become the first female President of SSPC in July 2020.

Other Board changes taking effect July 1 include Garry Manous of Atsalis Bros. Painting assuming the position of President, Joe Walker of Elcometer becoming President-Elect, Ms. Wright becoming Vice President, and Brian Skerry of The Sherwin-Williams Company becoming Immediate Past President.
Terms for new and re-elected Board members begin on July 1, 2018. Please see below for an explanation of SSPC Board of Governors member terms as written in SSPC-by-Laws:

"The normal term of office for Board of Governor members shall be four (4) years. The term of office will begin on July 1 and members will be elected/re-elected on this basis. Any Governor shall not be elected to more than two (2) consecutive four (4) year terms, or eight (8) consecutive years unless they are elected by the Board as an officer and must be extended to fulfill their role through Immediate Past President (see Art. VI. Sec. 9). Governors shall continue in office for their entire term unless they resign, are removed, or are otherwise unable to fulfill an unexpired term of a member of the Board for whom they were appointed by the President and approved by the Board (Art. IV. Sec. 10)."

SSPC would like to congratulate Mr. Cloutier and Ms. Wright on their success, and welcome Mr. Caballero to the Board. We also wish to thank Mr. Skerry for providing his guidance and leadership during the past year and Paul Vinik for advising us over the past four years during his term as a Facility Owner representative to the Board.

There will be five more open positions in 2019 in the following categories: Coating Material Suppliers (1), Coating Contractor (1), and Other Service Providers (2). Nominations for 2019 will be here before you know it so be sure to stop by SSPC.org for updates. Please visit http://www.sspc.org/abt-management for the full demographics of the Board of Governors.