Mike Huff currently serves as President and CEO of Ascensus. Prior to joining the team, Mike was the COO of Citadel Plastics from 2008-2010 and CEO from 2010-2015, which included a successful Wind Point sale to HGGC/Charlesbank in 2012. During Mike's tenure with Citadel, the company completed eight strategic acquisitions, two of which added over $200MM revenue and significant new technologies to the Citadel portfolio. Huff also served as an Operating Partner with Arsenal Capital from 2015-16 and a Senior Consultant with Charlesbank from 2016-17.

Prior to Citadel, Mike spent 5 years at Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company. He led the Global Reinforcements business and the Insulation Group Operations. Huff also spent 21 years with GE Plastics, serving in such roles including GM of Polyester Products, GM of High Performance Products and several operational roles. Overall, Huff has spent over 35 years in the materials space bringing thoughtful innovation and strategic management to every situation.

In addition he’s served on several boards including Citadel, Accella Performance Materials, Elite Comfort Solutions, Haysite Reinforced Plastics and VPC. Huff has been a key driver in over 20 completed acquisitions and gained a passion for the materials business with the completion of a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Craig Wien serves as Vice President and CFO of Ascensus Specialties. He joined the team in November 2016. He has over 25 years of chemical industry experience in both chemical manufacturing and distribution.

Craig was the CFO of Basic Chemical Solutions (“BCS”) in Redwood City, CA from 2003 to 2011. BCS sales tripled in his 8 years there until it was sold to Univar at a 10X trailing twelve month multiple. He then joined Univar at its headquarters in Redmond, WA as the VP of Finance for Global Supply Chain.

Craig also spent some time at Honeywell when Larry Bossidy came over from GE in 1991. He worked in the Fluorine division, which was navigating through a market transition from CFCs to more environmentally friendly alternatives. He was trained as a Total Quality Facilitator and gained experience in a variety of different functional assignments including new product commercialization, business development and marketing. Craig received a B.S. in Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Mario Sandoval serves as COO for Ascensus Specialties. He joined the predecessor VPC in November of 2017. Mario has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing and supply chain operations and has worked in the plastics, fiberglass, pulp/paper and chemical sectors. Prior to AS, Mario founded M&R Management LLC, a consulting company focused on improving supply chain efficiencies in acquisitions for process industry-based companies.

Mario has also worked in numerous capacities, primarily focused on global operations and supply chains for A. Schulman, Citadel Plastics, Hollingsworth and Vose, Johns Manville and General Electric. Sandoval received two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in Chemical Engineering and another in Computer Science from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Tony currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Ascensus Specialties. He has over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Tony has held several executive-level roles at Merck & Co., Schering Plough, and Pharmacia Corp. He was president of Merck & Co.’s primary care business, responsible for a global P&L of approximately $10 billion in revenue. Tony also led the Schering Plough and Merck & Co. Japan operations for 11 years. These businesses grew from $600 million to over $2 billion in revenue during his tenure. He built an industry-leading commercial team that successfully improved the company’s position with key customers. Earlier in his career, Tony held various international roles in Latin America, driving business performance across a broad array of therapeutic areas at Pharmacia Corp.

Tony’s broad global and life science experience makes him an important complement to the team. He graduated from St. John’s University College of Pharmacy with a B.S. in Pharmacy.

Ephraim Honig joined Ascensus Specialties in 2021 and currently serves as Chief Science and Innovation Officer.

Prior to joining the team, he served as CEO of Strem Chemicals, a manufacturer of high purity chemicals used in R&D as well as commercial products in the Life Sciences and Microelectronics industries. He led the company to a successful transition to Ascensus / WindPoint. At Strem, he served in other roles including Chief Operating Officer, Vice President, and Director of Marketing.

From 1994 – 1997 he was a Marketing Manager in the BioProcess Division of Millipore Corporation (now part of Merck KgaA), a manufacturer of separations solutions to the process industries.

From 1992-1994 he was an Associate Consultant at APM Management Consulting (now CSC), a health care management consulting company.

From 1987 – 1990 he was a Senior Staff Scientist at Textron Specialty Materials (now Specialty Materials, Inc.), a Division of Textron Corporation, a developer of new materials for the aerospace industry.

From 1985-1987 he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in solid-state chemistry at Brown University.

Dr. Honig holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Brown University, and a B.Sc. (First Class Hons.) from the University of Warwick, England. He is on the Board of Governors of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) and Chairman of the Chemical and Specialties Management Council (CSMC).

Leah Boyle currently serves as the Director of Human Resources of Ascensus Specialties. Leah joined the team when Ascensus acquired Callery, LLC in late 2019 where she was serving as the HR Business Partner. Before her role at Ascensus, Leah was the HR Business Partner of WESCO Distribution from 2015-2017 and the Human Resources Director of PLS Logistics Services from 2008 to 2015.

In her HR career, Leah has been part of leading business transformations, business development, talent and leadership growth initiatives, and employee engagement programs. Leah has over 15 years of experience in the human resources field in both hands-on work as well as various leadership positions.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Marketing from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and her Master’s in Human Resources from Robert Morris University. Leah is an active member of the local and national Human Resources organizations (PHRA/SHRM).

Gene Shields currently serves as Chief Information Officer for Ascensus Specialties. Gene has over 30 years of progressive process engineering and IT leadership experience that started in the coal industry of western Pennsylvania. As a process engineer and plant manager, Gene became an expert in fine coal upgrading–particularly in the areas column flotation, heptane agglomeration and fine coal dewatering.

In the late 1990’s, Gene refocused his career on leveraging ERP capabilities and information technology to intelligently manage and improve supply chain business processes. With his global perspective, Gene has led large-scale business improvement projects in over 20 counties and 18 industries. Not only is Gene an expert in the areas of ERP selection and deployment, he is deeply experienced at standardizing and simplifying business processes to meet the needs of business users and their customers.

He is also experienced implementing full IT capabilities for divestitures. Most recently, Gene was CIO for a hospital linen / uniform services company in western Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of Global Supply Chain systems for a $6 Billion building materials supplier. Gene holds a BS in Mining Engineering / Mineral Process Engineering from Pennsylvania State University as well as an MBA from Colorado State University. He is a Professional Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt.

Chris Anderson serves as the Director of Global Marketing & Research and Development for Ascensus Specialties LLC. He joined the company in August 2017. Chris was Director of Product Management and Innovation Lead for O-I, the world’s largest glass container company enabling food and beverage brands to deliver experiences consumers desire. Prior to O-I, Chris spent 12 years at Eastman Chemical Company in numerous commercial, innovation, marketing, research and operational leadership roles. Chris received a M.S. in Polymers and Coatings Science from North Dakota State University and an MBA from University of Tennessee. Chris is also a graduate of the Wharton School of Business’ Professional Development Program.

Randy currently serves as Director of Operations in Elma, Washington. Prior to joining Ascensus Specialties, he served as Vice President of Operations for Quanex Building Products Window and Door Profile division. He has over 35 years of experience in the Chemicals, Plastics, and Pulp and Paper industries. He also has experience in multiple site leadership with Citadel Plastics, Hollingsworth and Vose, and General Electric Plastics.

Randy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Union College. In addition, he is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean Bronze certified.

Ben serves as the Director of Operations at the Evans City, Pennsylvania site. He has over 20 years of experience in the chemical industry in various production facilities with small and large capacities.

Ben was part of the Callery, LLC team that was acquired by Ascensus in late 2019. Prior to joining the Ascensus team, he spent 10 years at Vertellus Specialties where he held several operations management roles including the role of Site Director. Throughout his career, he has also held positions in project and process engineering.

Ben holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toledo and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

Guy Windey received an MA in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Ghent in Belgium. He subsequently obtained a Master-after-Master degree Multilingual Business Communication (Junior MBA) from the same university – during his time there he took one semester to study at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt (Germany).

After an assignment of three years at a local Belgian chemical distribution company, he started to work for the Sodium Borohydride business at Morton International as Technical Sales Representative UK/IRL. After having received additional territories, Guy became Technical Service Manager Europe in 1999. In this position, he promoted the use of Sodium Borohydride in Life Science applications in India and Europe through about 100 technical seminars. In 2003, Guy became increasingly involved in the development of new business in the Specialties area around the world as a Technical Marketing Specialist. He was promoted to Marketing Manager WW in 2009.

Guy has been guiding the Sodium Borohydride business throughout the acquisitions by Rohm & Haas and Dow, and streamlined the business in its conversion from Paper to Life Science & Specialties applications in the millennium years. In 2014, Guy was part of the team divesting Dow’s Sodium Borohydride, which led to the acquisition by Vertellus Specialties, Inc.

In 2017, Guy was promoted to Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In this role, he has been leading the commercial team towards the growth that the business has enjoyed for the past 12 months.