Delphi's Barbara A. Sanders to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from SPE® Automotive Division


TROY, (DETROIT) MICH. - Barbara A. Sanders, director of Advanced Development & Engineering Processes at Delphi Thermal Systems, has been named the 2006 recipient of the SPE® Automotive Division's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor recognizes the technical achievements of automotive industry executives whose work - in research, design, or engineering - has led to significant integration of polymeric materials on passenger vehicles. Ms. Sanders will receive the award at this year's 36th-annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on November 13.

There have only been 5 previous recipients of the SPE Lifetime Achievement Award. Upon her acceptance, Ms. Sanders will join J.T. Battenberg, III (past-chairman and CEO of Delphi), Bernard Robertson (executive vice-president of DaimlerChrysler), Robert Schaad (chairman of Husky Molding Inc.), Tom Moore (retired vice-president of DaimlerChrysler), and Shigeki Suzuki (general manager - Materials Division, Toyota Motor Corporation).

Barbara A. Sanders was selected as this year's recipient because of her extensive background with polymeric materials - particularly composites - throughout her career at Delphi and General Motors Corporation (GM). Sanders began her professional career designing materials-characterization methodologies for fiber-reinforced plastics. The design guide on automotive composites that she developed - Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Test Specifications - has been an industry reference for evaluating these materials ever since. Later, she organized and managed the Materials Testing Laboratory at the GM Technical Center.

As Sanders rose in management, her group implemented the first reinforced reaction-injection molded (RRIM) bumper fascias at GM. Her team received SPE Automotive Innovation Award for use of these materials on the Oldsmobile® Omega® fenders. She also directed productivity and quality improvements for sheet-molding compound (SMC) composites at GM, helping facilitate their use on many GM programs. Additionally, Sanders managed a number of projects to incorporate polymer composites such as SMC, RRIM, and structural reaction-injection molding (SRIM) on vehicles like the Corvette®, Fiero®, and the APV® plastics-intensive minivan. She also held management positions in many GM departments that had impact on the use of polymeric materials, such as Materials Characterization, Plastics Processing, and Computer-Integrated Systems. And as director of Advanced Manufacturing on GM's Advanced Engineering Staff, Sanders had responsibility for composites, coatings, welding, and assembly systems.

With a passion for innovation and instincts for good technology, Sander's teams have cumulatively received over 50 U.S. patents in the areas of plastics materials and process technologies and garnered numerous industry awards. For instance, her team helped trial the auto industry's first lightweight gas-assist injection-molded components, receiving a Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) Award for Excellence for a composite window guidance channel in 1990, and an SPE Automotive Innovation Award for the NUMMI[1] assist-grip handle in 1991. Her team also received a number of awards for the highly integrated Super Plug® gas-assist injection-molded door hardware module. These include the SPI Automotive Product Design Award (1995), the PRW Europe Award of Excellence in Transportation (1996), the SPE International Plastics Industrial Product Design Award (1996), the IBEC Design Award (1996), and the Modern Plastics International Process Award (1997). Her team also helped develop the "catcher's mitt" head-rest restraint system to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) requirements for protection against head injuries in a rear-end collision. And her team pioneered the power sliding door featuring a number of plastic components, earning another SPE Automotive Innovation Award. Further, Sanders directed programs in environmentally conscious manufacturing using thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO)-based materials for vehicle interiors, receiving the Recycler of the Year Award from the SPE Recycling Division for in-plant recycling of TPO skins in 1999. In 2000, her team also won an SPE Automotive Innovation Award for the first soft-skin TPO skin material and process technology used on the Pontiac® Bonneville® passenger car.

Sanders' commitment to advancing polymeric materials extends beyond her assignments at GM and Delphi. She was instrumental in organizing and leading an industrial research consortium on composite materials at the University of Delaware and sat on the advisory board for the program for more than a decade. She represented GM on the boards of the Michigan Materials & Processing Institute, which helps develop plastics-based businesses in Michigan, as well as the Automotive Composites Consortium, a pre-competitive partnership between GM, Ford Motor Company, and DaimlerChrysler for composites research.

Barbara A. Sanders has worked for Delphi since 1992, when GM spun off its components divisions to form Delphi. During her 20-year career at GM, Sanders held a variety of roles. She began her career there in 1972 as an experimental physicist.

Sanders holds a professional management degree in Executive Development from Harvard University, a master's of science degree in Physics from Rutgers University, and a bachelor's of science degree in physics from Southern University. She has also attended the Indiana Executive Program. Sanders has received numerous national academic, organizational, and media awards and citations, including an honorary doctorate degree from Southern University, the U.S. Black Engineer Award: Outstanding Engineer - Professional Achievement, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the National Association for Equal Opportunity. She was selected by Dollars & Sense magazine as an honoree at the Tribute to African-American Business and Professional Men & Women, as well as being selected by Professional Engineer's magazine's Top 20 Minority Engineers of the 1980s. Additionally, she has been cited in the Who's Who of American Women, the Who's Who Women in the Midwest, the Outstanding Young Women of America, and the Who's Who Among Black Americans lists.

A published author with numerous technical papers to her credit, Sanders has also been an editor for an ASTM special technical presentation, and sits on the editorial advisory board at the Journal of Reinforced Plastics & Composites. Additionally, she is an invited speaker at numerous civic, academic, and institutional events. In her spare time, Sanders volunteers for a number of civic and professional organizations. She is married, has one child, and enjoys reading, computers, and photography.
Prior to the start of the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, Ms. Sanders will be introduced to the media at a short press conference, then honored at a VIP cocktail reception reserved for program sponsors and senior-level automotive executives. The VIP cocktail reception, this year sponsored by Ticona Engineering Polymers, has been called "One of the absolute best networking opportunities in town" by supplier executives attending the event.

The multi-national Delphi Corporation (www.delphi.com) is a world leader in mobile electronics and transportation components and systems technology. Delphi conducts business operations through various subsidiaries and has headquarters in Troy, Mich., U.S.A.; Paris, Tokyo, and São Paulo, Brazil. Delphi's two business sectors - Dynamics, Propulsion, Thermal & Interior Sector and Electrical, Electronics, & Safety Sector - provide comprehensive product solutions to complex customer needs. The company has approximately 185,000 employees and operates 164 wholly owned manufacturing sites, 41 joint ventures, 53 customer centers and sales offices, and 33 technical centers in 38 countries.[2] In 1992, Delphi was part of General Motors and was known as the Automotive Components Group (ACG). It conducted an initial public offering of its common stock and spun off from GM in 1999.

SPE's Automotive Innovation Awards Gala is the largest competition of its kind in the world and the oldest recognition event in the automotive and plastics industries. Dozens of teams made up of OEMs, tier suppliers, and polymer producers submit nominations describing their part, system, or complete vehicle module and why it merits the claim as Year's Most Innovative Use of Plastics. This annual event typically draws over 800 OEM engineers, automotive and plastics industry executives, and media. As is customary, funds raised from this event will be used to support SPE educational efforts and technical seminars, which will help to secure the role of plastics in the advancement of the automobile.

The mission of SPE International is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. SPE's Automotive Division is active in educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic based-composite developments in the global transportation industry. Topic areas include applications, materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design, and development.

For more information about the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, visit the SPE Automotive Division's website at www.speautomotive.com, or contact the group at +1.248.244.8993, or write SPE Automotive Division, 1800 Crooks Road, Suite A, Troy, MI 48084, USA.

For more information on the Society of Plastics Engineers International or other SPE events, visit the SPE website at www.4spe.org, or call +1.203.775.0471.

Brian Grosser, '06 SPE Innovation Awards Chair
DieTech North America
Phone: +1.248.941.9368
eMail: bgrosser@dietechna.com

Peggy Malnati
Malnati & Associates (www.malnatiandassociates.com)
SPE Automotive Division Communications Chair
Office: +1.248.592.0765
Mobile: +1.248.521.5643
eMail: p.malnati@sbcglobal.net

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