Experience Counts

Randall J Fortin

President and

Founder VCS-2 LLC

Randall has 30 years of global experience in specialty chemicals, mining and mineral processing, polymers, Thermoplastics (TPE’s), and engineered materials.

His resume includes: Corporate Vice President of PolyOne Corporation, an industry leader in specialized polymer materials and solutions. He has also served as vice president and general manager of the global mining and mineral processing chemicals group for Cytec Industries (now Solvay), and spent 20 years with Nalco Chemical Company (now ECOLAB) as corporate vice president, responsible for strategy, marketing and sales in the industrial water treatment and heavy industries like Pulp and Paper, Mining, Oil and Gas.

He has a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has written several technical articles, has a US Patent. He has attended executive management courses on New Product Development (University of Chicago) and Global Senior Management (Tufts University). He is or has been a corporate board member, non-profit board member as well as a speaker, panel member at several professional conferences. 

Lauren Hickey

Senior Director

Lauren has over 20 years experience in the marketing field and has Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification.  She has experience in multiple industries that include: consumer products, healthcare, chemicals and plastics and has held senior level roles in B2B and B2C industries.   She helps companies develop and execute strategic plans that deliver revenue and profitability targets. 

She helps companies create and achieve their strategic objectives by working collaboratively and leading cross functional teams to ensure revenue and profitability targets are met.  Her experience includes: product development, taking a product from concept to commercialization, creating brand nomenclatures, creating strategies to access competitive threats while identifying new market opportunities and creating multiple cohesive touch points via traditional and digital marketing platforms.  

Ralph Wagner

Principal

Ralph’s professional experience spans Director level Marketing and Business Development positions in small privately held and NYSE-listed Fortune 100 global enterprises serving  markets as diverse as water treatment, automotive, inks and coatings and specialty chemicals.

His expertise in working cross-functionally to develop and implement fundamental processes for pricing, market segmentation targeting and positioning, new product development and Strategic Sales/Marketing Planning has been the cornerstone of his success across a diverse landscape of industries and technologies.

Ralph holds a BS in General Engineering and a MS in Environmental Engineering from University of Illinois CU and an MBA from State University of New York at Buffalo and is a US patent holder. 

Jay Pillai  PhD

Principal 

Dr. Jay Pillai has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.  Jay started his career at Nalco Chemical Company as a Research Engineer in 1987.  He held a variety of research and marketing positions.  In 2000, he joined an IT Networking start-up FatPipe Networks.  He was instrumental in growing the company from a 10 person operation to over 200 employees along with a concomitant increase in revenue and profitability.  He held various senior executive positions with the company in sales, marketing, strategic business, business and new market development, VAR channel development, and operations.  He pioneered the companies BCDR thrust and headed a new business division focusing on this area.  

He is the holder of 5 patents and has authored many publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences.