Dr. Thomas E. Brady, chairman and founder of Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI), assumed his new position as interim dean of the University of Toledo’s (UT) Judith Herb College of Education, effective August 1.
      
A former member of the board of trustees for the Medical University of Ohio and UT, Dr. Brady will hold the position until July 31, 2010 or until a national search process has been completed and a permanent dean selected.
     
“Tom Brady joins the Judith Herb College of Education at a critical time,” said Dr. Rosemary Haggett, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “Tom’s experience as a leader and entrepreneur will be critical to the college’s success as new instructional technologies and higher student expectations force colleges and universities across the nation to adapt as the world change around us.

Dr. Brady is well known in the plastics and packaging industries as a technology innovator and founder of seven PTI-related companies. The flagship company, PTI, first opened its doors in 1985. Today, the companies employ 200 people worldwide and operate from corporate locations in Holland and Bowling Green, Ohio, as well as Yverdon, Switzerland.
     
“I’m incredibly excited by this challenge and honored to have been asked to serve,” Dr. Brady said. “This is a college full of brilliant thinkers and powerful minds. I see my role as helping bring good ideas together, helping secure needed resources to ensure faculty and student success. My goal is to help ensure that the next generation of teachers is prepared to educate students in a technological environment which is very different from the one that exists today.”
     
Dr. Brady will retain the title of chairman with PTI, but will be fully focused on his educational responsibilities at UT. At the beginning of 2009, he announced that Craig S. Barrow, will be taking over the day-to-day responsibilities as PTI’s new president.
     
In the past, Dr. Brady has been active in the Society of Plastics Engineers, the International Plastics Processing Society, the American Chemical Society, and The Ohio Polymer Strategies Council. Additionally, he has served on the Industrial Advisory Boards for The Materials Science Department at the University of Michigan and for the Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences at UT.
      
Dr. Brady earned his Ph. D. in plastic materials engineering from the University of Michigan and his master’s and bachelor’s engineering science degrees from Dartmouth College.
     
Plastic Technologies Inc. is recognized worldwide as the preferred source for preform and package design, package development, rapid prototyping, pre-production prototyping, and material evaluation engineering for the plastic packaging industry. For more info, visit www.plastictechnologies.com and www.ptirecyclingsystems.com.