Votruba-Drzal, Peter

Peter leads global research and product development activities for PPG’s automotive OEM and industrial coatings business units.  Peter joined PPG in 2005, after a one-year post-doctoral position at Northwestern University and two years as a materials researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  During his career at PPG, he has served in multiple technical and technical management roles in the areas of pretreatment, electrocoat, adhesives, sealants, acoustic coatings, decorative coatings, functional coatings, silica materials, Teslin® products, and composites.

Peter is passionate about leveraging innovation to drive organic growth. Over his career, he has studied innovation challenges and has led programs that delivered solutions in mature, emerging, and white space markets serving the automotive, industrial, and aerospace/defense industries. He has created sustainable, profitable, organic growth through the implementation of unique collaboration models that leverage agile approaches that enable strong value creation/value capture and intellectual capital creation.

Peter holds a B.S. from Michigan State University, a M.S. from the University of Maryland, and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:  Peter is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Materials Research Society.