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.

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.