MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Paul Downey, president and CEO of rubber-recycling enterprise Pliteq Inc., was named Leader of the Year by the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada at TRAC's recent annual meeting.
At the same time, TRAC honored Nicola Colombo of Pirelli Tire North America, David Lamb of Goodyear Canada and Don McRae of Airboss Rubber Compounding with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their achievements and legacies to the Canadian tire and rubber industry.
TRAC held its annual meeting June 6 at the association's offices in Mississauga.
Individuals and businesses were honored for their dedication and commitment to excellence in the tire and rubber industry including end-of-life (ELT) tire management and sustainability.
In addition, Sina Varamini of CRM Co. L.L.C. received a Sustainability Award and Phil Corvinelli of Pliteq was given the Young Leader Award, which recognizes inspirational and dedicated young leaders who demonstrate industry leadership in management, innovation, technology and/or sustainability within their organization or community.
"The Canadian tire and rubber industries as well as (end-of-life) tire management businesses are filled with talent, experience and history, and our 2024 winners prove it," Carol Hochu, president and CEO of TRAC, said.
Leader of the Year
Downey, who founded Pliteq in 2006, has 35 years of engineering, manufacturing, research and development, and business experience, to lead one of the fastest-growing Canadian business that focuses on creating products using recycled tire rubber.
Pliteq is one of the largest recyclers globally and recycles the equivalent of 7 million passenger tires in Ontario annually.
Downey has a chemical engineering degree at Western University and has 48 patents and applications globally. His work includes global acoustics, vibration and flooring building materials market.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Colombo began at Pirelli S.p.A. in 1979 as an information-technology specialist. After joining the Pirelli global design team, he helped implement the company's first global logistics system for commercial units.
He work took him to several countries, including Switzerland, Austria, Italy and eventually the U.S., where he became a pioneer in establishing Pirelli's market presence.
Among his responsibilities were procurement and mergers and acquisitions, and he played a role in establishing the Pirelli plant in Rome, Ga.
TRAC called him "a trusted and respected professional, instrumental in shaping Pirelli's trajectory in Canada," as well as "one of the main pillars of Pirelli's successful story in North America."
Lamb served the Canadian tire industry in various roles for 50 years.
He joined Seiberling Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Goodyear Canada Inc., in the tire technical department in 1970. He eventually was responsible for Goodyear's government relations file in the 1990s, managing the Duty Remission Program, which eventually led to the construction of the Goodyear tire plant in Napanee, Ontario.
During this period, for 15 years he served on TRAC's Tire Statistical Committee, chairing the committee for 10 years, focusing on the tire industry's move to digital data and systems management.
After 30 years at Goodyear, he joined TRAC in 2001 as director of operations. During his five-year tenure he led all major TRAC initiatives, including the Be Tire Smart program, and creating and managing the Safety Group program.
He also helped to create Tire Stewardship Manitoba and served as a board member from 2008 until his resignation in 2019. He retired in 2020.
McRae spent more than 40 years in the tire and rubber industry, developing compounds, quality standards, and more. He began his career with Uniroyal Research Labs in Guelph, Ontario, for five years, then became technical manager at Precision Rubber for five years.
He moved to General Tire (Barrie) for three years, then to Uniroyal Conveyor Belting soon after that firm opened in Bracebridge (currently Fenner Dunlop belting), as chemist, corporate chemist and eventually technical manager. He managed all technical projects related to rubber and compounding for 14 years.
He continued his career with AirBoss Rubber Compounding as chemist, technical manager, then R&D manager for 15 years, where his group developed rubber compounds for tires, conveyors and other applications.
He helped develop more sustainable rubber compounds at AirBoss and designed the very first OTR tire compound that included 18% recycled content.
Finally, McRae became director of applications at Tyromer, a recycled/devulcanized rubber company.
Sustainability
According to TRAC, Varamini has been instrumental in championing rubber-modified asphalt (RMA) as a sustainable, carbon-focused and circular solution for end-of-life tires.
He serves on several industry groups, including the Soils and Materials Committee at the Transportation Association of Canada, where he collaborates with stakeholders to understand emerging technologies related to low-carbon transportation infrastructure and to promote best practices and guidelines for implementing environmental product declarations (EPD), low-carbon lifebycle analysis (LCA) and performance-based buy-clean policies.
TRAC said his initiatives have promoted the adoption of RMA as an environmentally friendly and performance-enhancing material. He also develops RMA products for various uses, from low to high-volume roadways and airfields.
Varamini is also leading the integration of rubber, steel and fluff into concrete mixtures and exploring other market segments, including tire-derived aggregate for engineering applications. His focus is on fostering a robust market for crumb rubber and other tire-derived materials, thereby ensuring the circularity of tires, and establishing a sustainable tire recycling model.
Young Leader
Corvinelli graduated in 2017 with a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto. He joined Pliteq's plant engineering team, and has been lauded for his "passion for learning and his problem-solving abilities," TRAC said.
He has held positions in production supervision, process engineering, maintenance engineering and management. He is currently director of operations in the materials and molding department at Pliteq.
