Pilot Plant Staff

200 combined years of papermaking and printing experience. Western's Pilot Plant customers enjoy the knowledge and experience of our fulltime adult staff.

• Printing

Papermaking/Recycling and Coating
		Joel Kendrick, Paper and Coating Plant Director P: (269) 276.3533 | C: (269) 998.7656 Joel has worked in the paper industry for 24 years. He started out at Allied Paper working on the paper machines and worked up to back tender. He has been with Western for 11 years, with experience as laboratory manager, running paper machine trials, and now the pilot coater for the last five years.
		Shawn Mortimore, Systems P: (269) 276.3532 | Shawn has worked in the paper industry for 10 years He is a graduate of the paper engineering program at Western and worked at Plainwell Paper.
		Jeff Layne P: (269) 276.3534 | Jeff has worked 25 years in the paper industry. He has worked at Crown Vantage and Rock-Tenn in Battle Creek. At the mills he was a back tender, third hand, winder operator, coating preparation formulator and lab tester. Jeff, “Like it when we figure out how to run something successfully that the clients have not been able to figure out how to do anywhere else.”
		Kim Ketchum P: (269) 276.3534 | Kim has worked in the paper industry for 22 years at the same paper mill with names that changed from Brown Company, James River Corporation, Crown Vantage, and now is Graphic Packaging. Kim worked from the bottom of the line in the machine operation progression to back tender working on six different paper machines in his career.
		Don Hall P: (269) 276.3534 | Don has worked in the paper industry for 23 years. He spent several years as a coater tender on an inline coater and eventually moved up to the position of machine tender. After the mill closed, Don began working as a quality control technician for a local manufacturer of printing ink and coatings running all the tests on finished products in the plant and keeping the test equipment calibrated.
		Jim Stoken P: (269) 276.3534 | Jim has worked in the paper industry for 12 years. At the mill he spent eight years as coater tender running an on-machine coater, and four years as in-process paper tester. Jim received training in quality including statistical process control, ISO 9000 and machine specific coater training. He also received a two-year college degree from ITT Technical Institute in applied science/computer electronics. Jim is also is an apprentice plumber working in new residential, remodel residential plumbing, and commercial buildings.