By Kate Tilley
CORRESPONDENT
Published: December 20, 2013 9:02 am ET
Updated: December 20, 2013 9:03 am ET
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Australia’s Melbourne-based Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (PACIA) has a new CEO.
Samantha Read joins PACIA on Jan. 13. She has been CEO of the Melbourne-based Biofuels Association of Australia for the past year.
Read replaces Margaret Donnan, who has been with PACIA for 11 years, the last six as CEO.
PACIA Chairman Sam Bastounas said Read is a qualified engineer and has held senior executive and board roles in the Australian steel, automotive and biofuels industries. She is a former board member of the auto industry’s peak body, the Canberra-based Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
Bastounas said Read is “a passionate advocate for maintaining an Australian manufacturing industry, which provides skilled employment, technology and innovation, vital to a diversified economy.”
PACIA members include plastics compounders, fabricators and recyclers, and chemical manufacturers, importers and distributors. | 
