The WACKER ACADEMY Team of Instructors
Theoretical expertise and practical experience are the cornerstones of the WACKER ACADEMY team. With backgrounds in sales or technology, our experts come to the table with extensive application knowledge. They are also trained instructors and moderators with a sixth sense for current trends and market developments.
Instructors for Sealing Compounds
Gloria Alzate
Gloria joined WACKER in 2018 as a sales manager for Construction Silicones in the North Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela). She holds a BS in Architecture and has studied Management. With more than 15 years in the construction market, Gloria previously worked for Sika and Henkel, where her responsibilities included not only technical sales, but also training architects, engineers, construction workers and other construction-related people on how to use construction chemicals in projects and at construction sites.
Gerardo Bautista
Gerardo is a chemical engineer from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering (with Bioengineering as a focus). He has more than 7 years’ chemical-industry experience of technical sales for industrial applications, personal care, the household sector and now construction. He joined WACKER in 2015 as sales manager for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Gerardo provides support to construction customers in the following markets: paints, coatings, maintenance and general construction. Also, he has participated as a speaker for associations such as Mexico’s ANAFAPYT (representing paint and printing ink manufacturers), where WACKER has a presence.
Frank Dai
Frank Dai joined WACKER in 2018 as a senior technical engineer, responsible for the technical application of HDK® pyrogenic silica products in Eastern China. He has been engaged in R&D relating to HDK product application in coatings, adhesives and composites.
Cheryl Fan
Cheryl Fan is a senior technical manager at the WACKER Shanghai technical center and is in charge of technical service and support for HDK® fumed silica for Asia Pacific. She has been involved in sealants and adhesives, as well as in coatings research and development activities and product applications. Cheryl Fan joined the Shanghai center in July 2013.
Dr. Hardy Herold
Dr. Hardy Herold studied Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen (Germany), and obtained a doctorate in the field of geophysics. After spending two years at KWU (Siemens subsidiary), he started at WACKER POLYMERS in October 1989, working in Technical Marketing, where he supported customers around the world. During this period, he spent substantial periods abroad, including as technical center head in both Moscow (Russia) and Allentown (USA). Since November 2021, Dr. Herold has been a trainer at WACKER ACADEMY Europe.
Chul-kyu Kang
Before joining WACKER in 2010, Chul-kyu worked at Henkel & Lucky Silicone since 2003. He is currently the Application Development & Technical Support manager for the Construction Sealants & Adhesives business team in Asia. He has 15 years of experience with construction silicone sealants & adhesives – including hybrid materials.
Dr. Marion Killat
Dr. Marion Killat studied and received her doctorate in chemistry at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. Following a post-doctoral stay in the USA, she started her career at WACKER in research and development at WACKER POLYMERS. Shortly after the founding of WACKER ACADEMY, she became a member of the trainer team with a focus on various products and applications of the POLYMERS division. In 2020, she took over the management of WACKER ACADEMY Europe.
Michael Killermann
Michael Killermann joined WACKER in 1992 in the analytical department. From 1996 to 2008, he worked as a lab technician in the Building & Coatings business team, where he was in charge of technical distributor support for industrial coatings. He was recruited to the WACKER ACADEMY training team as a practical instructor in May 2008.
Danis Liu
Danis Liu joined WACKER in 2014 as a technical manager at WACKER Shanghai technical center. He is in charge of technical service and support for Industrial coating, Plastic, Pulp and Industry Defoaming and Chemical Industrial products in China, as well as developing new silicone applications in these fields.
Guillermo Lopez
Guillermo is the sales manager for Mexico at the Performance Materials business unit. He has had two periods of employment at WACKER, initially from 1988 to 1992 and then from 2000. He has more than 36 years’ experience of the chemical industry, mainly with epoxy resins, polyurethanes, plastisol and release agents based on silicone fluids. At WACKER, Guillermo has been responsible for elastomers, pyrogenic silica, sealants, silanes and fluids, plastics, textiles, defoamers and industrial coating resins. Earlier, he worked for Hysol de Mexico, a company focused on epoxy resin compounds. He has a Chemical Engineering degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Takuya Tabata
Dr. Sergei Udra
Sergei Udra graduated from the Moscow State University, Chemistry Department. Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry. He joined WACKER’s Silicones for Construction in December 2016 as Technical Manager. He is responsible to provide lab trials, trainings, seminars and technical support for customers in Russia and CIS countries. Main topics are Hybrid materials for adhesives, sealants and coatings.
Juan Wang
Juan Wang is the product supervisor for Construction Polymers at WACKER’s Nanjing factory, where she is in charge of quality supervision of polymer powders. She is also the laboratory supervisor for Construction Polymers at WACKER’s Shanghai technical center, where she is in charge of lab management. She obtained a master’s degree in Material Science from Tongji University in 2006, her main field is high-performance cement-based materials. She has held her position at WACKER Construction Polymers in Shanghai since 2016.