Dave Lovetro

Business Development Manager
Akzo Nobel

Dave is a 1977 graduate from SUNY at Buffalo earning his B.S. (’75) and M.S. (’77) in Chemical Engineering. His Graduate studies were conducted under Dr. Sol Weller, with an MS-ChE thesis focused on catalysis and coal-derived liquid fuel alternatives.  Dave spent his first 8 years employed with Occidental Chemical Corporation, Grand Island, NY, within their Central Engineering function before joining KemaNord (later Eka Chemicals, now AkzoNobel Pulp and Performance Chemicals) in 1985.  At OXY, Dave’s primary design and plant start-up responsibilities were in the areas of chlor-alkali, phosphoric acid, and other specialty organic chemicals manufacturing.

Since joining AkzoNobel in ‘85, Dave has held various positions in Marietta, GA including Senior Process Engineer, and Program Manager within the former Pulp Mill Systems group, as well as Manager Application Engineering for Specialty Oxidants.  Over the past 25 years, Dave has worked on several successful commercial program areas including: early development of SVP-Pure^® and Purate^® for chlorine dioxide production; 35% PEROX-AID^®, an FDA approved veterinary drug for aquaculture use; and Peroxy-Blend^®, a new specialty oxidant developed as a new cleaning and care product in collaboration with Akzo Nobel’s Surface Chemistry business.  For the past 10 years, Dave has held the position of Business Development Manager within AkzoNobel’s Business Development function working on value-added Specialty Oxidant applications and uses for hydrogen peroxide and sodium chlorate products.  He is currently active in a collaboration to commercialize the use of sodium chlorate as a pre-harvest intervention to control human pathogens in meat-producing animals to enhance food safety.

Dave accepted responsibility for AkzoNobel’s North American innovation coordination efforts, having conducted three “Bright Concept” Innovation Camps since program inception in 2004, and was an invited innovation presenter at Innovation Convergence held in Minneapolis, MN in the Fall of 2005.  He is currently a member of AkzoNobel’s global decision team for their Eureka idea management system and their global technology scouting initiative. Dave was honored as the 2012 Inventor of the Year at the AkzoNobel PPC Global Innovation Day, awarded a “Golden Egg” for the patented Peroxy-Blend^® product in 2007. He has also received recognition for his contributions on several AkzoNobel patents throughout his career at AkzoNobel. Dave maintains a variety of professional affiliations important to the Specialty Oxidants business area including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, International Association of Food Protection, and TAPPI.