Avery Dennison Appoints O’Keefe its VP of R&D in its EMEA Region

Mentor, Ohio-based graphics films manufacturer Avery Dennison announces the appointment of Sam O’Keefe as its vice president of research and development for its Label and Graphic Materials group in Europe, effective immediately.

She will be based at Oegstgeest, the Netherlands, and report to Pascale Wautelet, vice president of global R&D. O’Keefe will become part of the European leadership team of that business group and have what the company calls a “dotted reporting line” to Jeroen Diderich, vice president and general manager of LGM-EU.

O’Keefe brings more than 25 years of industrial experience and materials science with major international companies. Most recently she was technical director at Sensient Technologies in the company’s industrial colors division.

Prior to Sensient, she held technical and leadership roles with several companies including Unilever, InterfaceFlor, Ashland and Saint-Gobain.

“In this role,” says Wautelet, “Sam will provide vision and direction to the R&D organization in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and lead new-product development, material re-engineering and adhesive development for Avery Dennison’s LGM business across Europe.”