Dr. Charles V. Hinton Ph.D.
President Emeritus
Ethox Chemicals, LLC

Chuck Hinton, President Emeritus at Ethox Chemicals, LLC, in Greenville, SC, has amassed a distinguished 50-year career in the specialty chemical industry and has been an esteemed member of SOCMA for 3 decades. An asset to both the SOCMA community and the specialty sector, Chuck has established a legacy as an industry leader and champion.

Since joining SOCMA, Chuck has been a tremendous asset, having served on the SOCMA Board of Governors and Executive Committee, the Membership Committee and most importantly the renewed SOCMA Show Committee. Chuck was especially instrumental in re-establishing SOCMA’s presence in the trade show arena – a move that not only promotes industry growth but also provides thousands of business opportunities to companies across the specialty sector.

Chuck’s love of industry extends well beyond his SOCMA service. He has been a champion, sharing his expertise in support of companies facing obstacles to their businesses, and Chuck is not afraid to defend the industry against anyone. On behalf of Ethox Chemicals, Chuck fought and won a 5-year battle against Coca Cola over a patent dispute involving a gas barrier molecule that Ethox chemist James Tanner invented. On winning the case, Chuck said, “Someone has to teach Goliath a lesson.”

Chuck is also a humanitarian, giving back to his community. Ethox Chemicals gifted Greenville Technical College (GTC) with $12,000 to purchase equipment to be used in chemistry classes and labs. Chuck told the local newspaper that “Greenville Technical College plays an important role in the community by providing well-trained employees for those companies that wish to locate in or around Greenville.” And when local CEOs around the Greenville area decided to help build a Habitat for Humanity house, Chuck joined the effort.

These are just a few examples of the tremendous contributions he has made over the course of 50 years to his community and the industry he loves. Congratulations, Chuck, on this well-deserved honor.

More About Chuck

Chuck began his career in the chemical industry in 1973 at Celanese/FII as an R&D chemist. He joined Ethox in 1975, where he worked in technical sales. After 15 years, Chuck became Vice President, and in 2008 he took the reigns as President. Chuck semi-retired at the end of 2020 and now serves Ethox in the areas of special projects, business development and corporate strategy.

Brooke DiDomineco
Chief Technical Officer
Nation Ford Chemical Company

The SOCMA Women in Specialties Award was created to showcase the diversity and leadership of the ex-cellent women advancing the specialty and batch manufacturing industry.

As the recipient of this year’s award, Brooke DiDomenico, Chief Technical Officer, Nation Ford Chemical, is a shining example of how women can thrive in technical fields, such as chemical engineering. First hired as a Process Engineer, Brooke demonstrated she had a rare combination of technical knowledge and business acumen to rise into the company’s executive leadership.

Under her leadership, NFC achieved and continues to maintain its Ecovadis Platinum Status and has been recognized as SOCMA’s highest awarded company as a three-time Gold Performance Improvement Award Winner and recipient of SOCMA’s Educational Outreach and Sustainability Awards.

Brooke recently led a $4 million capital project for a new 50-million-pound per year production facility. Her blend of determination, close attention to detail along with her engineering and project manage-ment skills, ensured the project was completed on-time and on-budget. Building this facility not only delivers the highest quality of product and exceeds customer needs, it created fourteen new jobs for the local community.

When not at Nation Ford Chemical, Brooke dedicates her personal time mentoring girls and young wom-en interested in learning about careers in STEM and supports her daughters at cheer competitions and soccer tournaments.
Brooke received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University and EMBA from Queens Univer-sity of Charlotte.

Brooke A. Albin
Senior Manager of Laboratories
AVN Corporation

The Emerging Leader Award was created to increase the visibility of trailblazers in the specialty and fine chemical industry.

As the recipient of this year’s award, Brooke A. Albin, Senior Manager of Laboratories, AVN Corporation, is a chemical engineer with 16 years’ experience in research and development and leads the laboratory business unit, which generates 37% of AVN’s revenue.

Skilled in a wide range of laboratory scale operations with expertise in industrial crystallization techniques and process development, Brooke has recently received patents for continuous, carbohydrate to ethylene glycol processes and continuous processes for the selective conversion of aldohexose-yielding carbohydrate to ethylene glycol using low concentrations of retro-aldol catalyst.

In the last 3 years Brooke has developed processes for new products to create antimicrobial surfaces, purify materials to support the circular economy and create novel chemicals for the production of electronics. Much of the work is focused on early-stage process development that will lead to new products and improved processes in the years ahead, with additional value delivery from solving current product quality challenges that some customers are facing.
Brooke received a dual degree in Biology and Chemistry from Alderson-Broaddus College and her master’s in chemical engineering from West Virginia University.