By Danielle Sanzone
The Record
@DanielleSanzone
ALBANY — There have been some changes in leadership at Momentive Performance Materials.
Craig Morrison, chairman and CEO, is the interim president of Momentive’s Silicones and Quartz Division, according to John Scharf, a spokesman for the company based in Albany with a silicone facility in Waterford.
Morrison replaces Steven Delarge who stepped down as the executive vice president and division president not long after 2011 preliminary fourth quarter results were posted on Momentive’s Web site.
In the fourth quarter, Momentive Performance Materials, one of the largest employers in Saratoga County, expected to record sales of approximately $600 million, an operating loss of $32 million to $22 million. The company recorded sales of $670 million in 2010 during the same time period.
In a release Friday, Morrison, who expected a volatile economy to continue in the near future, said of the preliminary figures, “Our fourth quarter 2011 results reflected economic weakness in Europe and China, pricing pressures in certain end use markets, and inventory de-stocking as customers remained cautious in their order patterns considering the macro-economic volatility. We also experienced slower demand for our quartz products in the fourth quarter of 2011 due primarily to softer semiconductor markets.”
The Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Modak, will also be stepping down from his position, the company announced in an 8-k report Monday. His responsibilities will be assumed by other members of the executive team and, as with Morrison assuming his additional duties, this will be on an interim basis.
Momentive is negotiating separation agreements with Delarge, who worked from the Albany office, and Modak.
Dominick Patrignani, president of a Momentive union, said the workforce had received information Monday that were described as “senior leadership changes.”
“It appears the process of de-layering our business unit’s upper management team is in the works,” Patrignani said. “We were not surprised based on the merger of Hexion and Momentive. The local workforce here in Waterford will continue to produce world-class products and looks forward to new leadership.
Patrignani continued, “It was surprising to many of the union workforce that even with the Wage cuts, outsourcing and concessions imposed on the manufacturing workers here it never resolved the cost issues. Maybe they were looking in the wrong place all along.”
