Richard M. Clarke is currently the managing partner of CE Partners LLC and Chairman of both the Thermotech Company and Simona America Inc. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Nash-Elmo Industries headquartered in Trumbull, Connecticut. Mr. Clarke has accumulated over four decades of international career experience in the fields of chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and man-made fibers. Previously, Mr. Clarke was chairman of Akzo America Inc., the North American arm of Akzo NV, a diversified international chemical and healthcare corporation based in the Netherlands. Before joining Akzo America, Mr. Clarke held positions as president and chief executive officer of Wickes Industrial Group; chairman and senior executive vice president of Hoechst Celanese Corporation and “direktor” of its West German parent company, Hoechst AG; and various senior technical, operating, and marketing positions for Celanese Corporation, including president and chief executive officer of Celanese Canada Inc. Mr. Clarke was the Chairman of the Poly Hi Solidur Board, a totally owned subsidiary of the Menasha Corporation. He has been on several other nonprofit boards such as The National Urban League, The World Resource Institute, The Fairleigh Dickinson University Board of Trustees, and most recently The National Executive Service Corps, for which he served as Chairman. Mr. Clarke holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto and an MS in chemical engineering from Yale University.