Executive Team

Tom Bolger is Chief Executive Officer of Chroma Color Corporation. Previously Tom was the President and CEO as well as part owner of Chroma Corporation; a privately owned color compounding company located in McHenry, IL since 1967. Tom has spent his entire professional career in the color industry having started right out of college for Chroma in 1983. After five years in sales with Chroma, Tom was recruited by Wilson Color where he spent more time in the field until he was named National Sales and Marketing manager in 1992, the same year Wilson was purchased by the M.A. Hanna Company. In 1995 M.A. Hanna consolidated all the color companies they had purchased and M. A. Hanna Color was born; at the same time Tom was titled Director of Business Development. In 2001 M.A. Hanna merged with Geon Corporation and formed PolyOne. Shortly thereafter, Tom was named VP and General Manager of the color business. In 2005 Tom returned to Chroma as the President and CEO. In 2016 Tom purchased Chroma from the founding family with a business partner. Tom has a BA in Economics from Western Illinois University.

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Matt Barr is Vice Chairman of Chroma Color Corporation. Matt was previously Chairman & CEO of Carolina Color, a successful, family-owned business founded in 1967. The company produced colorant for the plastics industry from facilities in Salisbury, NC and Delaware, OH. Carolina Color has enjoyed a well-earned reputation as a proven innovator having introduced several market-disrupting colorant delivery technologies that have reshaped the entire industry over the last decade. Matt Barr is also on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers ( NAM ), Chairman of the Novant Health Rowan Medical Center Foundation and a Trustee of the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College both of which are in Salisbury, NC. Prior to joining Carolina Color, Matt enjoyed a decade-long career at Time Inc. in a variety of sales and publishing management positions—his last being Publishing Director of Sports Illustrated Presents. Matt earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia University and has completed executive education courses in Finance at Kellogg School of Management and in Publishing at Stanford University.

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Howard DeMonte received his bachelor’s degree in engineering at the University of Connecticut and did his master’s work in management from NJIT.  In 1975, he received his Professional Engineering license in the state of New Jersey. Howard has spent the last 40 years of his career with companies that specialize in the manufacture and design of color and additive concentrates for the plastics industry.  In 1978, he joined Custom Chemicals Company then relocated to Pennsylvania with Penn Color in 1991.  In 1997, Howard moved to Breen Color Concentrates where he held the position of President. Howard led the Breen team through 2 acquisitions; the PVC color division of Teknor Apex in 2009 and Hudson Color in 2016. Currently he holds the position of President for the newly formed Chroma Color Corporation, comprised of Carolina Color, Chroma Colors, Hudson Color, Breen Color and Polymer Concentrates.

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Jeff Smink attended Florida State University and has been a leader in the plastics industry for over 35 years. He cut his teeth in the PVC and Wire and Cable markets, but it was his move into closure manufacturing in his late twenties that proved to be a tremendous career accelerant. Jeff joined Zapata, a Mexican firm, as they were just entering the plastics industry having dominated the metal packaging business in Latin America for years. With Zapata, Jeff was the tip of the spear in their plastics expansion opening plants all over Latin and South America. After Zapata Jeff was recruited by his colorant supplier, PMS Consolidated, where he took their worst performing facility (of 16) and turned it into their top performer. When PMS was purchased by M.A. Hanna Jeff stayed on as a senior executive with multi-plant responsibility and continued in that capacity with Poly One after it was formed with the merger of M.A. Hanna and Geon. Jeff left Poly One to join Carolina Color in 2003 as an Executive Vice President with a primary focus on operations and R&D. He was named President of Carolina Color in 2010. Most recently he was appointed to Chief Operating Officer of Chroma Color Corporation.

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Paul Legnetti is Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at Chroma Color Corporation.  Paul has over 40 years of chemistry and management experience serving customers in the printing ink, industrial coatings and plastics industries.

He began his career as an R&D Chemist with the General Printing Ink Division of Sun Chemical.  Paul spent 20 years at Ciba Specialty Chemicals in roles covering technical service, marketing, leadership of sales and technology teams and business management.  Paul joined Breen Color in 2001.  He is responsible for leading the company’s innovation, product development, technical support and quality operations.  Paul holds a B.S, in Industrial Chemistry from St. Leo University and an M.S. in Management of Technology from New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.

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Previously, Bishop served as Director, Global Business Development at Technimark LLC, an industry leading custom injection molding and contract manufacturing focused on global brand owners.  During his 13 year career at Technimark, he was instrumental in developing new go-to-market strategies and growth platforms for consumer packaging and consumer products that resulted in more than $200 million in new business for the company.  Prior to joining Technimark, Bishop enjoyed a successful sales and business development career in the plastic raw materials sector with an emphasis on color concentrates, pre-colored compounds and elastomeric materials. His career started as a manufacturer's representative and he ultimately founded and managed a specialty resin sales, compounding and distribution company that was sold in 2004. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Studies from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. 704-904-9047- Mobile  

Gerald (L.J.) Baillargeon joined Chroma Color Corporation with a record of strong and decisive executive leadership in organizations ranging from $50 million to $1 billion. Most recently, Baillargeon held the position of chief financial officer at Elite Comfort Solutions where he assisted in the facilitation of the platform acquisitions, driving significant growth and coordinating the successful exit. He also served as the chief financial officer at Solvaira Specialties and Diversified Global Graphics Group (DG3) where he performed similar duties of those at Elite. Earlier in his career, he held key financial positions at Automatic Data Processing and Ernst & Young. 609-397-6319- Office

Tom Jaeger is an accomplished business leader with over 15 years of experience in senior management positions.  Tom has extensive expertise leading corporate teams in the manufacturing and consumer packaged goods sectors, and has led a regional Supply Chain Management consulting practice supporting a wide range of Fortune 1000 clients.

Tom has been recognized for his ability to identify opportunities, build highly skilled teams, and deliver operational improvements.  Tom is well versed in Strategic Sourcing and Global Procurement, and has developed programs in the area of Supply Chain Sustainability.  Prior to joining Chroma Color Corporation, Tom held a variety of Supply Chain positions at several global companies including Newell Brands. Tom holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he majored in Finance.

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Cass Birchbauer was named the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for the Chroma Color Corporation in the Fall of 2019 following the sale of the Spartech LLC organization where she was most recently the CHRO.   Prior to the sale, Spartech LLC was an Arsenal Partner owned company as is Chroma Color. Cass worked as a retained consultant for General Electric leading team building workshops, process improvement projects and other GE proprietary training initiatives globally.   She joined MA Hanna which merged in 2000 to become PolyOne.  When PolyOne sold the Spartech business, she left with the new owners where she established the HR function to set up all separate payroll, benefits providers and systems as well as human resource vendors and policies within 6 months for close to 1,000 employees over 14 locations as the business exited the PolyOne support structure. During her tenure at PolyOne, Cass was the HR Lead for business units including PolyOne Distribution, Global Engineered Materials and Global Color & Additives.   She also led the HR Shared Services function with responsibility for Compensation, Benefits, Recruiting, Training & Development as well as other HR functions.   She also participated in HR due diligence and integration of many acquisitions including global integrations. Cass has her Ph.D. and Master’s degrees from Case Western Reserve University and her Bachelor and Associate’s degrees from the University of Akron.