Rob Albert recently closed a 42-year career at B. Braun of America, the medical device and pharmaceutical maker whose U.S. headquarters have been in Bethlehem since 1979.

He retired June 30, with Michael Parden having taken over the CEO title May 1.

Albert joined in 1984 as a manufacturing supervisor, served as senior vice president and chief marketing officer from 2012 and became CEO in April 2024.

His tenure included a $20 million expansion of B. Braun’s Lehigh Valley plant, announced in September 2025, that added 200 jobs and retained 1,704.

The company employs 8,500 across North America.

“B. Braun has been a community and a mission,” Albert said in a company statement.

David Bloom oversees Wacker Chemical Corp.’s polymer business across North and Central America, a role he assumed March 1, 2025, from the company’s Allentown base.

As vice president of the Polymers Division, he is responsible for the region’s vinyl acetate-based dispersions, dispersible polymer powders and solid resins, including binder production at the Calvert City plant — the only U.S. site among Wacker’s five such facilities worldwide.

Bloom brings more than 30 years in the industry, 17 of them at Wacker, where he was previously senior director of the consumer and industrial polymer business and marketing team for the region.

“We have a very experienced and talented team,” Bloom said in a company statement on his appointment.

Ron Bracalente runs the precision machining company his family founded in a Trumbauersville garage in 1950, now a third-generation maker of aerospace, defense and medical components.

As president and CEO, he oversees more than 130 stateside employees.

In 2023 Bracalente bought Quakertown’s Millennium Manufacturing, pushing into aerospace, EV and tactical markets; that operation folded fully into Bracalente Manufacturing Group on Jan. 1, 2026.

Capacity and sales had risen more than 50%; the deal was “part of our growth plan,” he said in Lehigh Valley Business.

In 2025 the company joined the U.S. Navy’s Talent Pipeline Program.

“For more than 75 years, Bracalente has supported American manufacturing and defense capabilities,” he said in a company statement.

Rick Bucher is president and CEO of the leading producer of mechanical pipe joining solutions Victaulic, a role he has held since 2021. He has been with the Easton, Northampton County company since 2009 when he joined as the vice president of product development. He formerly spent 15 years at W.L. Gore & Associates, a manufacturer of technologically advanced composite materials.

Bucher is a materials science engineer by training and personally holds at least 21 patents and patent applications, many of which are directly used in the construction and pipe-joining industry today. Under his leadership, Victaulic’s patent portfolio has multiplied with the issuance of more than 5,000 patents around the world. The company’s research and development arm has doubled in size.

Bucher said he learns from his colleagues every day. Outside of work, he and his wife serve as the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley’s 2026 Campaign Chairs.

Victaulic was named one of America’s Safest Companies by EHS Today in 2024 and a Top 10 BIM Services Company by Construction Tech Review in 2019 for its contributions to building information modeling.

Jim Bus is executive vice president of ATAS International in Allentown, where he has spent 50 years building on the family business his parents founded in 1963. Bus has worked in or influenced every area of the company’s operations, today overseeing seven facilities, leading new product and service development and directing capital expenditures. He created the firm’s capabilities committee — a weekly forum for identifying the unique product variations customers want — reflecting a collaborative leadership philosophy grounded in the belief that no job is too small.

Outside the office, Bus has coached soccer at a local high school for 19 seasons and this spring helped launch a TOP soccer program for athletes with special needs.

“What drives me to work is finding solutions and staying ahead of the competition,” he said.

Over the last three years, Robert Cuscino has worked directly with the U.S. government to identify supply chain risks stemming from American dependence on materials imported from Asia and develop strategic plans to address them.

As vice president of regional development for the Americas at Evonik Corporation in Allentown, he partners with business unit leaders to drive growth and profitability at a macro level — navigating geopolitics, tariffs, sustainability and digitalization.

Cuscino sees regionalization as the chemical industry’s defining shift. “‘Local for local’ has had a profound impact on the chemical industry,” he said, citing global overcapacity, high energy prices and depressed housing construction as forces compelling companies to rethink strategy and deploy AI and digitization to cut costs until global demand rebounds.

He brings nearly 30 years in the chemical industry to the role, including 12 years at Air Products and Chemicals and 13 at Wacker Chemical Corp.

David Gill runs the bulk material handling manufacturer his father founded in 1974.

As CEO of Flexicon Corporation, Gill oversees a privately held company that designs flexible screw conveyors, pneumatic systems and bulk bag equipment from a Bethlehem Township headquarters it doubled to more than 180,000 square feet in 2015.

The firm holds 36 patents across 13 countries and operates plants in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.

Flexicon marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, and a January 2026 release featured a dual-intake vacuum system for dust-free unloading of containers and bags.

“Fifty years ago, my father had the foresight to solve a simple conveying problem,” Gill said in a company statement.

Giroudon runs the Macungie plant where Mack Trucks assembles every Class 8 vehicle it builds for North America and export, a post he took in January 2026.

As vice president and general manager of Lehigh Valley Operations, he succeeded Gunnar Brunius, who moved to head digital manufacturing for parent Volvo Group.

Giroudon arrives as the plant begins production of Mack’s new Pioneer and Anthem trucks.

He joined Volvo Group in 2004 in electrical purchasing and most recently served as vice president of logistics for Volvo Group North America, leading 100 professionals across six sites and coordinating deliveries from about 1,000 suppliers to 10 facilities.

Nathan Goodnow runs day-to-day operations at Reading Truck, the Reading-based work truck body manufacturer and upfitter founded in 1955 and now a business unit of J.B. Poindexter & Co.

In 2025 the company completed its RM Series crane body line under his tenure, adding the RM-25 and RM-35 models built for Class 4 and 5 chassis.

“We aim to offer our customers a design that’s best in class, delivering superior lifting performance, safety, and durability,” Goodnow said in a company statement.

That March, Reading Truck designed and built a custom service body for the Reading Fire Department at no cost to the city.

The company carried its newest product, the RHD Service Body for Class 4-7 applications, to Work Truck Week in 2026.

Ed Gumina runs Precision Roll Grinders, an Upper Macungie Township company that grinds large rolls and cylindrical shafts to tolerances as fine as 20 millionths of an inch for manufacturers worldwide.

He joined the firm in 2016 as vice president of operations, was named president in 2018 and now serves as president and CEO.

His background spans over 25 years in mechanical engineering.

Founded in 1969, the company operates four U.S. plants, in Allentown, Carrollton, Lewisport and Texarkana. Precision Roll Grinders was named Manufacturer of the Year at the 2025 Lehigh Valley Manufacturing Forum, where, Lehigh Valley Business reported, Gumina called it “Lehigh Valley’s best kept secret.” “If it’s flat, chances are they used our grinders,” he said.

Dr. Susan S. Hakkarainen leads a privately held, family-owned manufacturer that her father, dimmer inventor Joel Spira, founded in 1961 and that now sells more than 17,000 lighting and shading control products in over 100 countries from its base in Coopersburg.

She began at Lutron as an engineer, moved through international assignments in Japan, China and Southeast Asia, built the consumer marketing function and ran the product design group before rising to chief marketing officer, where she directed the company’s digital transformation.

On July 10, 2025, she announced the promotion of President Edward J. Blair to vice-chairman of the board, a five-member outside board on which she and Blair also sit.

Kenneth Johnson is president of Gemini Bakery Equipment Company, the Philadelphia-based firm that operates one of its three Pennsylvania manufacturing and service facilities in Bangor, the former KB Systems plant Gemini acquired in 2008.

Founded in 1972 and family-owned under CEO Mark Rosenberg, Gemini is the largest supplier of specialty bakery systems in North America, with roughly 125 employees across its locations and consolidated annual sales between $50 million and $60 million.

The company designs, manufactures and integrates custom bread, roll, bagel and pizza systems, handling complete project lifecycles for installations valued up to $15 million.

Its Bangor operation supports U.S. manufacturing capacity and the parts and field-service network Gemini extends to commercial and industrial bakers.