OrthoLite Adds Talent to Global Foam Innovation Team

At the heart of OrthoLite’s ongoing quest for excellence in insole manufacturing is the company’s Global Foam Innovation Team. Hanson Zhang, OrthoLite’s Chief Chemist, founded and leads the Global Foam Innovation Team with Wen Bin Hong, OrthoLite’s Chemical Director. Today, two new pinnacle hires join that team to continue to raise the bar OrthoLite set in the category it founded 27 years ago.

Leading the charge on the expansion of OrthoLite’s Global Foam Innovation team is Shaw Kiat (SK) Phua, who will serve in the newly-created role of Global Operations Chemical Director. In addition, OrthoLite welcomes Ha Pham, a seasoned polyurethane (PU) specialist, to the Global Foam Innovation team.

Phua joins OrthoLite from leadership roles at Huntsman, BASF and ECCO. He brings unmatched expertise in global foaming operations and innovation as well as excellence in manufacturing to the role. Phua will ensure chemical innovation, consistency and transparency globally and will also be involved in setting the strategic direction for OrthoLite PU material development with a focus on sustainable innovations in footwear. Phua is based in Singapore and will regularly travel to all of OrthoLite’s manufacturing facilities.

Pham joins OrthoLite from Brooks Running, where he served as Global Chemical Engineering Manager, and prior to that, ECCO, as global PU advisor. Additionally, Pham has held leadership roles at BASF Vietnam as Technical Development Manager for PU footwear systems.

“We’ve built our reputation on continuing to improve our exceptional foam materials and products since our founding,” explains Glenn Barrett, founder and CEO of OrthoLite. “We push the envelope with our proprietary chemistry, our patented foaming processes, our six manufacturing locations and the incredible people who work at our facilities around the world.”

“We are proud to welcome SK and Ha to our world-class team to drive innovation in our global foaming operations,” said Richard Bevan, Vice President of Global Operations at OrthoLite. “SK and Ha bring to OrthoLite decades of experience in performance foam innovation as well as best-in-class manufacturing leadership.”