The Metropolitan New York Coatings Association (MNYCA) honored three industry veterans with its annual Pioneer Awards. The Pioneer Award recognizes colleagues who have worked 25, 40 and 50 years for the advancement of the productive coatings industry. This year’s honorees each were recognized for 50 years of service in the coatings industry.
 
Bill Neuberg, chairman and technical director of Shamrock Technologies, graduated Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1954. He entered Navy Flight training and flew as a Navy pilot unit 1958, when he took a job as a chemist at Baroid. From there he entered his father’s business where sold a mildew preventative to retailers.  Upon taking control of this father’s business, he has expanded the company to include six manufacturing facilities totaling more than half a million square feet on three continents. At 89 years old, he continues to work on new technologies at Shamrock.
 
Michael Oliveri, director, Coatings at Shamrock Technologies graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from St. Marys of the Plains in Dodge City, Kansas. He started his career as a chemist working in the QC  and Development lab at the Vorac Company. He became a bench chemist at Patterson-Sargent and then assumed the role of lab manager at Technical Coatings.
 
Oliveri began his career at Shamrock Technologies in 1983. His accomplishments include developing a new generation of wax and slip additives for the coatings industry, traveling the world servicing multi-national accounts and training and teaching the next generation of coatings chemists and leaders. After 35 years with the company he will be retiring this year.

Rick Mazzariello of Enrichem Specialties, a Northeast regional sales agency for the coatings industry, has been involved in the coatings industry in various positions of technical, sales, marketing and business management since 1968. He has been employed by various chemical manufacturers. He founded Enrichem Specialties in 2001.
 
Mazzariello is a member and past president of the MNYCA. He chaired the New England Society for Coatings Technology Technical Committee from 1997-2006 and led the Society’s Coatings Tech Expo in 1999. In 2013, he was the first Chairman of the Biennial Eastern Coatings Show.
 
Mazzariello has a B.A. in chemistry from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College.