James (Jim) McManus
Director

James (Jim) McManus joined The ChemQuest Group, Inc. in 2010 from Henkel-ICI for North America where he held various Director Positions including Contract Manufacturing which involved 17 active tollers and 12 technologies for approximately 44 million dollars of production under contract.  Jim was responsible for locating tollers, qualifying, negotiating contracts, maintaining operations, quality and supply.  He instituted annual safety inspections and recommendations to protect workers making the products and to ensure the manufacturer was meeting the requirements of the law.

His 45 years professional experience in the adhesive industry included outsourced technologies in Reactive Hot Melts, regular hot melts including PSAs, Co extrusions, Solution Acrylics, Emulsion polymerizations, casein adhesives, water based adhesives, solvent based adhesives, starch wet end derivatives, and dextrin manufacture.  Testing of new equipment and processes required for Pilot Plant scale ups were also handled.

Jim helped build a Solution Acrylic plant in North Carolina in 2007 which was under budget and ahead of schedule.

Jim holds a BS, ChE from Manhattan College and an MBA from Pepperdine University as well as Six Sigma Green Belt.  Jim also has experience in various industrial training including SMED, Root Cause Analysis, 5 S, Lean, ISO, Safe Start, Finance and Accounting, OSHA training, Quality Assurance, SPC and Plant Management.