We are excited to welcome William “Bill” Seawell to the Induron team as our new Technical Service Manager! This addition allows Ben Rowland, our former Technical Service Manager, to focus his efforts elsewhere within our growing company. Bringing extensive expertise and experience in technical service in the industrial coatings field, Bill will be a valuable addition to the Induron team. Learn more about him in his Q&A:
Q: Tell us about your background and experience in the paint/coatings industry.
A: I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in chemistry in 2012. During my time therem I worked on novel coatings resin systems–mostly in the defense and military space with an emphasis on marine and anti-foulant coatings. As far as my history in the industry proper goes, I have worked for another industrial coatings company as a research chemist, failure analyst and technical service engineer. I have interacted extensively with almost every market in the industry, but my specialty has always been immersion grade coatings and linings. I am going on my eighth year in the industry as it stands today!
Q: What are your responsibilities in your new role?
A: My role can be best summed up as “problem solver.”My primary role is to work with our customers, sales force, chemists and outside engineers to develop solutions for unsolved problems and convey solutions for solved problems to people that do not yet know. I also moonlight as a failure analyst, specification writer and educator of coatings and corrosion chemistry.
Q: Are you seeing any new trends in the coatings industry? If so, please describe.
A: Macroeconomic market and regulatory forces are putting pressure on the industry now more than ever. Today’s owners are demanding an environmentally responsible product that is robust, long lasting, cheap to apply and readily available. What I’ve described here is, and always has been essentially the perfect product, but with recent changes in industry standards, increases in labor costs, economic inflation and a more corrosion-educated owner base, these needs are coming to the forefront at an accelerated pace. In the near future, I see an even greater increase in market share for 100% solids and waterborne products. Surface tolerance in exterior and maintenance coatings will become even more paramount as labor costs increase. “Constructability” will be the buzzword of choice, as it already is, in the next decade.
Q: Why Induron?
A: Induron is a small organization and that really allows it to be able to turn on a dime. Nowhere else is a customer able to communicate directly with a manufacturer’s sales rep, technical staff, science staff and upper management all in the same day. It’s a great family company that really punches above its weight class in customer support, sales numbers and product offerings. It’s exciting to be a part of and the potential for growth feels limitless!
Q: What’s the most challenging part of your job?
A: In my role, I deal with people who speak different “languages.” By that, I do not mean English, French and Mandarin Chinese. I mean that contractors, specifying engineers, inspectors and owners all attack problems in completely different ways and have slightly different interests–sometimes even conflicting to an extent. The interest we all have in common is getting the coating job done quickly, thoroughly and well. The solution is often straightforward, but it can be challenging to communicate these solutions to the various interested parties. When it works out (not if), it is always a very rewarding experience.
Q: Tell us about a project you’ve worked on that you’re especially proud of.
A: Having worked in the industry for almost eight years now, I’m very proud to say that I have been a net contributor of coatings knowledge and wisdom to the customers, sales reps, friends and acquaintances I have interacted with. I love to expose people to new ideas that can help them in their future engineering decision making, and I think I’ve been quite successful in doing that up to this point.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Consider the source of the advice you’re being given.
Q: If you could have dinner with any person living or dead, who would it be and why?
A: This is either a very strange answer or a very common answer, but it is my honest answer either way. I have to say my wife and child. There are a lot of genius, important and influential people in the world — several of which I’ve had the privilege of meeting. But at the end of the day, I travel a lot, and there is no place I’d rather be than at home with my family enjoying their company. Life is short.
Q: What person has had the biggest influence on your life and why?
A: I am the sum of the people I grew up around. Many of which are still very close to me today. To ascribe the biggest influence to any one person would invariably rob someone else of the credit they are due or save someone the embarrassment of having influenced me.
Q: Tell us a little about your family, pets and/or hobbies.
A: My wife and I have a two-year-old son and way too many pets. Couple that with my role at Induron, and I stay busy. I am educated as a chemist, and I do enjoy continuing to learn more about that on a regular basis. However, I am ultimately a young man from south Mississippi, and as a result, I’m into all the things you’d imagine that go along with that. I’m an avid fisherman, target shooter and a terrible hunter. I like being outdoors and near water. I’ve been doing these things since before I could talk and will never stop!