Our Team Biographies

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Ron Floyd

Mr. Ron Floyd is Equitech’s Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of the Company.

Ron worked for the American Tobacco Corporation, serving as Administrate Assistant to the Managing Director R&D before entering the health care industry in 1968 with General Medical Corporation serving in various positions of sales and management.

In 1976, he successfully co-founded Med-Care Center Inc., and sold it in 1983. In 1986, Mr. Floyd founded Floyd & Associates and in 1993 founded Best Tech Inc., representing high tech equipment manufacturers in the health care industry.

Ron has been with Equitech Int’l since its inception serving at various times as both President/CEO and Chairman of the Board.

Ron received his B.S. and M.S. Chemistry degrees from the University of Richmond (1962 & 1966).

Jaime A. Gómez, Ph.D.

Dr. Jaime Gómez is President & CEO of Equitech since March 1, 2019.

Dr. Gómez 25-years industry experience resides in the plastics, specialty chemicals, and materials handling industries where he has conducted basic and applied R&D, evaluation and acquisitions of technologies and companies, international business development, and corporate strategic planning.

Dr. Gómez is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AiChE) and the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). He was elected President of SPE for the 2020-2021 period.

Dr. Gómez was appointed to SPE’s Executive Board in 2013 and elected Vice President of Marketing & Communications for the period 2014-2017 and Vice President of Events for the period 2017 to 2019. Dr. Gómez served as Secretary of the Society for the period 2014-2015 and as Treasurer for the period 2015-2016. Dr. Gómez was elected in 2019 to serve as the President of the Society for the period 2020-2021.

Dr. Gómez was the winner of the 2014 President’s Cup (highest Society’s honor) and is an Honored Member of the Society. Furthermore, Dr. Gómez was recognized in 2017 with the Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Society. In addition, Dr. Gómez was a member of the Board of Directors of SPE’s Extrusion Division from 2011 to 2017

Dr. Gómez has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia, an MS in Organic Chemistry from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, and a PhD in Polymer Science from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut.

In addition to his technical training, Dr. Gómez received an MBA from New York University (Stern School of Business) with concentration in International Business, Finance & Marketing.

Joe C. Golba, Ph.D.

Dr. Joseph Golba is Vice President of Innovation and Implementation at Equitech.

Dr. Joe Golba has 40 years experience in the Plastics Industry where he has made contributions in the areas of twin-screw extruder application engineering, process monitoring, and polymer materials engineering. He has led efforts in materials and process development for medical devices, high performance specialty polymers and state of the art feeder technology

His professional career started at the General Electric’s Corporate Research & Development Center where he focused on materials driven twin screw compounding and reactive extrusion process research and development. Joe then transitioned to GE Plastics where he leveraged this expertise to lead extrusion compounding technology efforts. After 15 years at GE he moved on to positions of increasing responsibility at Becton Dickinson, K-Tron and PolyOne.

Joe has been awarded fifteen patents representing the novelty and value of much of this work.

In addition, he has also been an industrial representative for R&D consortia with the University of Maryland, Clarkson University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and has worked with academics from other universities.

Joe is a long-term member of the SPE. He currently serves on the Extrusion Division Board of Directors where he has held positions of Technical Program Chair (2011 -2012) and Chairman of the Board (2012-2013). Joe served as Technical Program Chair for ANTEC 2014 and ANTEC 2015 and is currently a member of the ANTEC Advisory Board and co-chaired the new Technical Marketing track at ANTEC 2018.

He is also a recipient of the Extrusion Division’s Heinz Hermann Award (2017) in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of twin-screw extrusion technology and the Extrusion Division’s Heinz List Award (2018) for contributions to reactive extrusion and devolatilization.

Joe received a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering and an M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Engineering Materials from the University of Michigan.

Anh Nguyen

Mrs. Anh Nguyen is Equitech’s Finance and Administrative Manager.

Focus on planning and budgeting, Mrs. Nguyen has been instrumental in assisting the company to determine and prioritize their financial objectives, including advanced budgeting, financial modeling, investor relations and other key planning efforts necessary in preparation for the company’s aggressive growth initiatives. Mrs. Nguyen is also fluent in English and Vietnamese.

Anh received her B.A. from Washington State University and M.B.A. from Western Michigan University.

Jonathan Babaie

Dr. Jonathan Babaie received his BSc in electrical engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

He immediately went into the doctorate program and earned his Ph.D. in Optical Science and Engineering at UNCC. While working on his Ph.D., he interned at Intel’s metrology lab in Chandler, AZ developing the finer points of measurement techniques, including the system he developed in profilometry metrology.

While attending university, Jon co-founded a company in Charlotte, NC. The emphasis of the company was to develop products for the commercial/industrial marketplace. This included system components for IoT applications regarding embedded control systems, remote sensing devices, and custom-built devices for atypical applications.

He also interned at an electronic manufacturing firm where he quickly developed a keen understanding of the design process and how it relates directly to the manufacturing process. During this time, he developed automated test systems and participated in several Quality Control process developments for new product introductions. His broad-spectrum engineering toolbox includes embedded systems programming, electrical design and implementation, and system control technology development.

Jonathan currently serves as the Lead Optical Engineer in the internal development of optical metrology products. He also supports several ongoing product R&D projects for his company.

David Tingley

Mr. Tingley is Equitech’s Vice President of Public Relations.

David will assist the company with the development of its long term strategy, sales and marketing program. David brings to Equitech many years of experience in business development, sales, and marketing for manufacturing companies.

For the past 19 years, he has served as President of First Financial Solution, a bouquet funding group.

Mr. Tingley holds a B.S. in Telecommunications Management from Bryan University.

Kathryn Dill

Mrs. Kathryn Dill brings 40+ years of professional experience stemming from the textile industry.

She rose through the ranks from the floor to the management then executive positions. She started with Springs Industry in the late ’70s and ended up with the multibillion-dollar aggregate Hoechst-Celanese at their Charlotte Research & Development Park. Her primary roles included production planning, raw material sourcing, customer service for import/export customers globally.

After leaving the textile industry she joined a Charlotte technology company where she served as the liaison between the engineering development unit and operations and manufacturing. Her area of focus was sourcing, acquisitions, and logistics. She also performed the initial cost analysis of newly developed products prior to manufacture.

Today, Kathryn continues to serve as the Director of Acquisitions and Logistics for CompSOL USA.

David Little

Mr. David Little worked with Shell Oil Company for nearly two decades as a project engineer and business manager.

As a project engineer, he designed and implemented control and information systems for Shell’s refineries and chemical plants across the US, and also was the lead project engineer for the commissioning and startup of the company’s first MTBE plant in the states. Later as a business manager, David was responsible for the product portfolio and logistical operations of the gasoline business for Shell’s two Louisiana refineries.

When he joined M&M Technology as part-owner, David oversaw the company’s information technology infrastructure and materials management in addition to duties as a manufacturing engineer.
David received his B.S degree from North Carolina State University and his M.S. from the University of Texas at Austin, both in Chemical Engineering.

Bob Furlan

Mr. Bob Furlan is Equitech’s Sales Manager.

Mr. Furlan has been with the company since 2006. Bob is responsible for all sales quotations and manages the Sales Representatives.

Bob’s practical application experience helps in the wide variety of applications with which Equitech is involved.

Prior to Equitech, Bob has worked at Barber Colman in systems sales and marketing focused on the plastics industry. He also has worked at Dynisco in regional sales with their polymer test and pressure transducer products. Bob also worked for General Cable’s Genca division where he sold complete extrusion lines primarily for the medical tubing industry.

Bob has a BS in Plastic Technology from Illinois State University.

Christian Salazar

Mr. Christian Salazar applies his skill set as a software engineer to the ongoing business he founded with his partner over a decade ago.

He has worked on several products in diverse industries including commercial/industrial systems as well as optical control software interfaces for advanced metrology systems.

He has been involved in the software industry for more than 12 years. He has various degrees of experience with systems, advanced user interfaces, and remote sensing and data collection applications.

He is a former United States Army veteran who earned his BSc in computer engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He subsequently earned his Master’s degree from East Carolina University in Software Engineering with a focus on software architecture and design.