September 4th, 2013 (Windsor, ON) – Karen Behune Plunkett, President & CEO of WEtech Alliance, is very pleased to announce that Dr. Karim Amellal has joined the WEtech team as Business Development Analyst, bringing a wealth of knowledge and skills to the organization.

Dr. Karim Amellal

“I am looking forward to joining an exciting team at WEtech and assisting them in providing technology and engineering expertise in terms of identifying industries out there with a given technology and facilitate technology transfer or implementation in other companies in need,” said Amellal. “My contribution would be to work with the WEtech team to continue to educate and stimulate the local Windsor Essex economy. Also, helping convert the workforce from conventional jobs to high tech jobs by creating opportunities in the area for young entrepreneurs and avoid the increasingly loss of intellectual new graduates and potential leaders to other big cities or countries. Most importantly, I will assist in developing WEtech as the command center for excellence to initiate collaboration and stimulate creativity through a potential innovation center to be used by local and outside industrial partners, universities and colleges.”
Karim’s areas of expertise include product/technology development and engineering of blow molded plastic fuel tanks, CAD/CAE, blow molding process simulation, meshing and surfacing, technology development for PZEV tanks, business development and marketing, and intellectual property management. New areas such as Purchasing, Accounting, Materials, and Finance have been part of his career path lately.
His 29-year combined professional career consists of both academic and industrial experience. Karim earned his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1991 from the University of Montreal (Ēcole Polytechnique de Montréal). As a newly graduated engineer in 1984, he started his career as a production manager of 16 blow molding machines. Karim joined the automotive industry in 1998 as a CAE Manager (Kautex Textron, Windsor), Engineering Leader for 3 years (TI Automotive, USA), then joined VITEC in Detroit, Michigan (USA) in 2002 as a Product Development and Engineering Manager for 3 years, Technology Development and Purchasing Manager for 3 years, Materials Department Manager for 3 years and Senior Materials Analyst for the last 3 months.
Throughout his experiences, Karim has become familiar with several different languages including Arabic, Spanish, German, Japanese, the Berber language and English with French as his first language.
He has 11 years of teaching and research experience in academia at the University level, plastics manufacturing and medical industries. He earned an international recognition through his technical contributions in barrier screw extrusion simulation and design, as well as in virtual prototyping and simulation technologies. He contributed to 72 publications that include 44 technical papers (13 patents, 7 scientific journals, 1 book chapter, 1 book review, and 22 conference proceedings), and 28 confidential reports and presentations including a marketing video.
“I am extremely pleased to expand our team by continuing to grow the talent in our organization to best accelerate innovation and technology in Windsor, Essex and Chatham. Karim has a very high level skills set and great knowledge base in both processing as well as broader based technologies. I am confident that this addition to our team will expand our ability to deliver a greater value proposition to SMEs. Additionally, his passion for mentoring is very evident and is a perfect compliment to our team. I look forward to a very exciting year.” says Karen Behune Plunkett.
Contact Information: Karim Amellal
Email: kamellal@wetech-alliance.com
Office: 519-997-2861
Cell: 519-903-1110
Twitter: @amellalk