Ron Knowlton

VP Business Development

After spending a year at the University of Washington, Ron transferred to Western Washington University and began studying plastics and going through the track for “Industrial Technology / Plastics” which was a very young program at the time. He was very active in the plastics program and in helping to coordinate the student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).

He held various summer jobs around his home town of Bellingham during his time at the university and was really looking for an interesting opportunity in the plastics world, and for a drier warmer climate than offered by Bellingham. The perfect opportunity was his first professional job starting in 1978 working at Grant and Roth Plastics, Inc. in Hillsboro, Oregon. Ron continued to study plastics, but more specialized in the injection molding process, materials, part design and tooling. He worked at Grant & Roth for over ten years and then for Quality Plastics of Newberg for another ten years. Then getting away from injection molding for about 5 years and working for Infocus Corp as a Sr Supplier Quality Engineer, and then returning to injection molding for the past 14 years at R&D Plastics LLC. Ron remains active in the Columbia chapter of the SPE and has been on the board for several years, did a term as president, and recently received the Lifetime Achievement award from this group. Ron also serves on the advisory board for the WWU College of Science and Engineering.