Nelipak Healthcare Packaging (Nelipak), a global provider of custom thermoformed packaging that provides superior protection for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, continues to make significant investments to exceed the expectations of its global customers. As part of its ongoing commitment to the market, in July 2016 the business closed on the acquisition of its sixth facility, a thermoforming company based in Juncos, Puerto Rico, that will allow Nelipak to take advantage of growth opportunities with pharmaceutical and medical OEMs in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the broader Caribbean regions. Its Costa Rican facility continues to experience growth in its business and Nelipak announced it will expand this site in 2017 as a result.
Additionally, in late August, Nelipak completed construction of a new class 8 clean room at its Phoenix, Arizona site for its new Sencorp Thermoform line to meet increased demand from customers in the Southwest. In Europe, the company has consolidated its two Venray sites in the Netherlands, bringing together the group’s European sales, design and manufacturing into one location at its Spurkt, Netherlands site.
As Nelipak continues to grow and evolve as a company, it recognizes the need to invest in talent to support this growth. Mike Kelly, CEO and president, announced a series of new additions to the leadership team effective immediately.
Rolando Salas, currently a general manager for Costa Rica, is being promoted to director of quality of the Americas. In this newly created role, Rolando will lead the quality function for the four sites in the Americas. Rolando brings a wealth of quality experience to this new role. Prior to joining Nelipak, Rolando held quality leadership positions at DeRoyal, Vention Medical and Abbott Vascular with more than 12 years of experience as the head of quality for these medical device manufacturers.
Jose Villafane has been appointed to the role as director of operations, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. In this newly created role, Jose will have operational responsibility for both of these regions. Jose comes to Nelipak from Essentra where he was an operations director responsible for multiple packaging manufacturing sites in Puerto Rico. Jose worked at Essentra for more than 25 years where he held positions of increasing responsibility in quality and operations during his career. In his new role, Jose will be based at Nelipak’s Juncos, Puerto Rico site, and he will report directly to CEO Mike Kelly.
Jeremy Vargas, currently production superintendent at Costa Rica, has been promoted to operations manager for Costa Rica, effective immediately. Jeremy joined Nelipak 6 years ago and has been instrumental in supporting its growth in Costa Rica during his tenure.
Rafael Aponte has been appointed to the position of controller for Puerto Rico and Costa Rica and will be responsible for the accounting and finance activities at both sites. Rafael joins Nelipak from Essentra where he supported Jose Villafane. Rafael was formerly controller of Lehigh Press and joined Essentra in 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Lehigh. He has been controller of Essentra’s Manati and Guaynabo sites. In his new role, Rafael will be based at Nelipak’s Juncos, Puerto Rico site reporting directly to Paul Hogan, Nelipak CFO, in addition to supporting Jose Vilafane.
Nelipak Healthcare Packaging
nelipak.com
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