Thomas E. Brady Ph.D. is an engineer who helped develop the PET stretch blow molded bottle industry. Brady is the founder and principle owner of Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI), recognized as a premiere technology development resource for the PET industry and works for many of the highest profile suppliers and end users in this industry. PTI employs over 100 full-time individuals in offices located in Holland, Ohio and two smaller locations in Europe.

Brady received BS and MS degrees in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College and earned his Ph.D. in Plastics Engineering from the University of Michigan. Brady began his career with Owens-Illinois (O-I) in the early 1970’s when plastic carbonated soft drink bottles were a dream. Numerous companies including Continental Can and Amoco as well as resin companies like Goodyear, ICI and DuPont were racing to make suitable polyesters resins and the first commercial bottles. Brady was a principle researcher behind the efforts at O-I and his early successful work resulted in his assignment as Technical Director for the commercial venture known as the Plastic Beverage Division.

Brady never lost his enthusiasm for PET and after a highly successful career, which culminated in being named Vice President and Director of Owens-Illinois. In 1985 he resigned his position to to start his own company Plastics Technologies, Inc (PTI) which provides technical development services as a business to the growing polyester industry.

Brady earned the respect of officials outside the plastics industry as well. In 1999,hHe was appointed to Ohio Governor Robert Taft’s Technology Action Board charged with developing a Strategic Technology Plan for the State of Ohio, and also chaired the organization of the Regional Technology Alliance (RTA), an alliance of Northwest Ohio businesses, public/private partnerships and educational institutions in Northwest Ohio with the mission of “Diversifying our economy into the technology sector.”

Brady is active in the Society of Plastics Engineers, the International Plastics Processing Society, and the American Chemical Society, and serves on the Industrial Advisory Boards for the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, and Toledo Technology Academy.

He has served on various local business boards, including the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, the Toledo Are Small Business Association, the Toledo Museum of Art Business Council, and the Toledo Symphony. PTI is a United Way Pacesetter company and actively supports The Symphony, the Toledo Zoological Society, The Metro Parks, COSI, and the Toledo Museum. Brady has served on the search committee for the President of the University of Toledo as well as the search committee for the College of Engineering Dean. From 2009 to 2011 Brady served as the Interim Dean for the Judith Herb College of Education at The University of Toledo (UT) where he directed the re-visioning of the college mission and strategy and helped manage the recent merger of the College of Education with the College of Health Science and Human Service to create a new Judith Herb College of Education, Health Science and Human Service.

Brady was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989 by Ernst and Young and Inc. Magazine; as Small Business Man of the Year in 1995 by the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce; and as Manager of the Year in 1995 by the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the American Management Association. He was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2012.