John Panichella, Ashland

Ashland Specialty Ingredients, a supplier of natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic polymers for the personal care, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage industries, recently announced the opening of its new technical centre in Shanghai.

The new facility is located in Caohejing Industrial Park in Shanghai. With the opening of this new technical centre, Ashland Specialty Ingredients now operates 22 R&D and technical centres around the world. The Shanghai technical centre brings together application and development centres for China region. More than 25 chemists and technical service professionals are working in the centre. In personal care sector, Ashland offers an extensive range of biofunctional ingredients and functional polymers for hair, skin and oral care products.

"The new Shanghai technical centre represents our continued investment in China and strengthens our focus on delivering tailor-made solutions to our customers throughout the region," said John Panichella, Ashland senior vice president and group operating officer, and president of Ashland Specialty Ingredients.