René B. Neron has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing excellence, process improvement, and international site leadership. He has led operations and served as general manager for manufacturing sites around the world. Neron has a proven track record of achieving dramatic improvements in safety, productivity, quality and cost reductions through initiatives like Six Sigma, Lean, and Centers of Excellence. He is skilled in problem solving, EHS excellence, and global agility.

1. René B. Neron
3520 Virginia Avenue 1614 Westover Drive 1-540-599-2545
Narrows, VA 24124 Blacksburg, VA 24060 rbneron@gmail.com
General Manager – Operations Leader -- Manufacturing Excellence Black Belt
International site leader offering over 20 years of manufacturing expertise in: Manufacturing Excellence, Productivity and
Process Improvements, Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing Leadership, and Problem Resolution.
Consistently delivering results that exceed expectations.
Professional Strengths
Manufacturing Excellence
EHS Excellence
Productivity Improvement
International Site Leadership
Product Portfolio Management
Conduct of Operationst
Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing
Problem Solving
Global Agility
Professional Experience
CELANESE CORPORATION, Narrows, VA 2011 - Present
Operations Leader
Responsible for the polymer manufacturing operations of Celanese’s largest cellulose acetate manufacturing facility,
including cellulose compounds, acid manufacturing, acid recovery, ketene, and wastewater treatment operations.
Recognized for obtaining dramatic improvements in operator engagement to improve safety performance, including the
use of leading indicators for operator engagement in safety systems, development of area safety plans, and deployment
of safety scorecards for operators.
Deployed the use of area dashboards to summarize productivity, quality, and safety engagement activities by shift, day,
month, and department.
Revitalized the area’s Conduct of Operations to significantly improve Process and Personnel Safety. This included
operator training on shift hand-offs, lock-out / tag-out, permitting, pre-task planning, root cause analysis (RCA), and
holding personnel accountable for safety incidents.
KUNMING CELLULOSE FIBERS CORPORATION, Kunming, China 2009 - 2011
General Manager
Acting Site Manager for the KCFC cellulose acetate tow facility, a joint venture owned and operated by Celanese
Corporation and Yunnan National Tobacco. Site employs 350 personnel with sales in excess of $180MM.
Achieved best-ever levels of sales, production, profit, quality, cost control, energy consumption, and safety performance.
Initiated, developed, and championed a Six Sigma program, with forecasted savings of $340M and $560M incremental
savings in 2011.
Deployed the Centers of Excellence concept to develop and implement key areas of focus in best practices and cost
reduction, specifically in Energy and Quality.
Deployed the use of global standards and metrics for EHS incident reporting, tracking, and investigation. Achieved an
OIR and LTIR of 0.00, with more than 1.5MM safe work hours (no serious or lost time injuries).
Implemented SAP (ERP) on-time, deploying in less than 6 months, and below budget.
CELANESE CORPORATION, Narrows, VA 2007 - 2009
Manufacturing Excellence Black Belt
Provided Six Sigma support and led high impact, sustainable process improvements across the Consumer and Industrial
Specialties (CIS) business (nine manufacturing sites) while retaining responsibilities in Acetate New Business
Development.
Conceptualized, organized, and led the Six Sigma process for the Emulsions and PVOH businesses, Americas (five sites) to drive
Six Sigma performance improvements, with one-year cost savings of $3.42MM.
Completed a revenue generating project for Celanese Acetate in less than three months, with gross sales in excess of $24MM and
additional profit of more than $6MM annualized. This was the highest value Six Sigma project across Celanese Acetate in 2008.
Resolved a long-standing product loss issue in less than four months, resulting in $500M annualized cost savings and $900M in
one-time savings. Project nominated for a Celanese Values Award (2007).

2. René B. Neron
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Manufacturing Excellence Black Belt 2007 - 2009
Led seven high-impact Six Sigma and Lean projects within one year, completing five the same year, across the Global Acetate
and NA Emulsions businesses; two of these projects were nominated for Celanese Values Awards (2008).
Directly coached 23 belts across CIS, resulting in certification of three GB’s and two BB’s in 2008 (YTD), achieving 98%
certification of all belts trained > 18 months by year end.
Certified as a Black Belt within four months of training (versus Celanese goal of 18 months).
Organized, developed, and represented finalist team (1 of 16 among more than 500 applicants) at Celanese Headquarters for
“CA University” in the “Employee, Opportunity, and Development” category, annual Celanese Values Awards.
CELANESE ACETATE, Narrows, VA / Charlotte, NC / Rock Hill, SC 2004 - 2007
Customer Product Support Manager
Led the research and customer support functions of Filament, Filter Products, and New Business Development. Managed
27 employees across three locations.
Assisted with the design, relocation, and restructuring of the R&D group and laboratory facilities from Charlotte, NC
to Narrows, VA.
Customer Product Support Manager 2004 - 2007
Assumed ownership of all intellectual property matters for Celanese Acetate, including review of conception records,
drafting of patent applications, reviewing existing patents for potential infringement issues, and drafting and
negotiating license agreements with suppliers, customers, and competitors.
Led the effort to conceptualize, research, and develop a next-generation process and product enhancement for filter
products, with three patents filed in 2005, with technology deployed in 2006.
Commercialized a new process and market for cellulose acetate tow, resulting in annualized sales of $4MM.
Increased conception records year to date by ten-fold relative to previous ten year average, through development,
training, and demonstrating value of protecting IP at four production sites.
Negotiated a loan agreement with a major supplier for use of a new-generation rod maker at two research sites, at a
cost avoidance exceeding $2MM.
Championed thirteen Six Sigma projects.
CELANESE AG, CELANESE ACETATE, Rock Hill, SC / Charlotte, NC 2000 – 2004
Technical Manager
Led the Technical Services, Research and Development, and Customer Technical Services Labs for the global acetate
filament business of Celanese Acetate.
Drove product quality improvements and product innovation, allowing Celanese to grow worldwide market share from
27% to 37%.
Led effort to develop and qualify Celanese Acetate filament products in Asia (China, Japan, and South Korea),
allowing Celanese to abandon a proposed joint venture, resulting in the closure of a competitor.
Conceptualized, developed, introduced, and marketed CelStar™, regaining Celanese’s market-leading position in air-
jet filling performance and sales.
Through outstanding technical service and sales support, received a “Progressive” or “Distinguished” Supplier Award
from Celanese’s largest filament customer every year.
Created a global technical organization with excellent communication and cooperation among all regions.
Integrated eight separate, regional paper-based customer complaint and product development request systems into a
single, globally shared Lotus Notes database.
Improved response time on customer complaints by more than 75%.
Consolidated the number of active acetate filament products by more than 25% with no loss of sales.
Standardized product description, invoicing, labeling, packaging, and product testing systems globally among five
manufacturing sites.
Served as Team Leader for Celanese Acetate at the Intercompany Technical Exchange.
HOECHST CELANESE, Rock Hill. SC 1990 - 2000
Previous roles of increasing responsibility include: Section Leader, Technical Services, Senior Technical Service
Representative, Research and Development Engineer, and Process Engineer.

3. René B. Neron
3520 Virginia Avenue 1614 Westover Drive 1-540-599-2545
Narrows, VA 24124 Blacksburg, VA 24060 rbneron@gmail.com
Education
Masters of Business Administration, with honors, Pfeiffer University, Charlotte, NC 1997
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 1990
Certifications / Awards
Celanese Values Award Nominee (two)
Certified Six Sigma Black Belt
Celanese
Celanese
2008
2008
Celanese Values Award Finalist
Celanese Special Award from President
Lean Leader
Six Sigma Leadership Green Belt Coach
Six Sigma Green Belt Trainer
Certified Six Sigma Green Belt
Celanese
Celanese Acetate
Celanese
Accenture / Celanese
Celanese
SBTI / Celanese
2007
2004
2003
2003
2003