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78 The PCB Magazine • October 2015 chemistry. That would obviously affect our in- vesting over there, but they've scaled back from that and from some of the mandates on formu- lation disclosure. I'd say the net effect has really been small recently. The local supply is known, and we continue to stay in the newest innova- tion space. We don't see that the local guys are innovating any better or trying to move into our space that successfully. Our thoughts about innovating for China are still in relation to our traditional competition with a lot of the West- ern suppliers, really. Matties: Interesting. What acquisitions have you made recently? Cullen: Alent and OM Group's electronic chem- icals and photomask businesses are two acqui- sitions we have signed, and we expect to close those in the next few months. Until we do, we're operating completely as we have been in the past. Again, it's a very exciting time for MacDermid. Platform is a good parent compa- ny for us, and they understand that investment in specialty chemicals is a great business, and the customers really win in this. Our custom- ers partner with companies that value innova- tion and service, and that's been our mantra for many years now. If we innovate in the front end by listening to what our customers need, make those products, and then service them really well once they're developed, the customer does great. We're looking at companies in our space that do that well, too. Kenney: We talked earlier about the electron- ics business as a whole. Platform has made a really big step forward with these possible ac- quisitions. Most of the businesses will go into MacDermid's vertical, so they'll be part of us. Globally, it will change our scale but it will never change our strategy. So Don talked about making sure we're customer-focused and inno- vation first—what we call 'high touch,' which is customer service—and that won't change. Whether it's the Asian business that gets much bigger or the Europe or North American busi- nesses, the strategy is going to be the same. Matties: Is the strategy to brand them all under MacDermid, or to leave them as their existing brands? Kenney: If and when the acquisitions are com- plete, we would likely maintain a lot of the brand names, as they both have very well- known product groups. There's not going to be any effort on our part to dissolve well estab- lished brands, or do anything that would be detrimental to the customer base. I can tell you, in every meeting that we've been in, maintain- ing that customer perspective is the number one goal for us. We may have internal synergies that become available to us, and we'll take ad- vantage of those, as long as they don't impact the customer in a negative way. Matties: For the customer, it should be neutral or positive, with the goal being positive. Kenney: The goal is, if we execute well, that we should be able to take those three companies and come out of this with a much stronger in- novation group and certainly a much stronger CyCLE TIME REDUCTION FOR DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL CUSTOMERS FeATure inTervieW Don cullen, global marketing director, macDermid.