Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
Guided by the Experts
Electroless Nickel is a unique category of surface finishing with very specific perimeters and processes for success. We engaged people widely recognized as the leading experts in electroless nickel to advise the event and ensure its quality of learning.
Learn more about our EN Experts below. If you have a question you'd like to ask our experts, use the button below to be taken to our Question Portal.
2023 ENC Technical Director
Brad Durkin
Consultant & Technical Director, 2023 EN Conference
40 years experience
Bachelor of Science- Chemistry, anchored with 40 years of Surface Finishing Industry experience, 5 years applicator side, 34 years supplier side including Coventya, MacDermid, and Allied Kelite. Scope of experience includes technology, technical service, marketing, global product management, research/development, and business executive management. Knowledgeable of chemical manufacturing processes for surface finishing technology.
Over my career, I have active participation in many industry associations including NACE, SAE, ASTM & NASF, and authored numerous publications including patents, industry presentations, Internal/external training modules, technology webinars, established marketing materials supporting industry including NASF Surface Technology Environmental Resource Center, Plating & Surface Finishing, Metal Finishing & Products Finishing, including many other international publications, China, India, Mexico & SE Asia.
• National Association Surface Finishers: NASF Fellow, CEF, Member Technology Advisory Committee SUR/FIN Technical Conference 9 years, including the past 6 as Chairman of TAC.
• For 25 years, active member ASTM committees ASTM B08, Metallic and Inorganic Coatings, ASTM F07, Aerospace and Aircraft & ASTM G01, Corrosion of Metals.
• Memberships: Society of Automotive Engineering International (SAE), National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), ASM International & has been a member of the Electroless Nickel (EN) Steering Committee since 1993, additionally serving as Technical Director for the 2007 and 2010 EN Conference Symposiums.
2023 ENC Advisory Committee
Brad is the Product Manager for the Wear Resistant Coatings group and has been with Atotech USA, LLC for almost 20 years. His specialty has been Electroless Nickel and Functional Chrome, but he has also been involved with other applications in his career as well, such as Paint Pretreatment, Zinc Plating, and Decorative Plating. Brad has been in the plating and surface finishing industry for around 23 years overall.
Brad graduated in 1999 from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Chemistry. His hobbies and interests outside of work include reading, building scale models, and spending time with his wife and two kids.
Ambrose Schaffer
Macdermid Enthone
Mike Aleksinas
Metal Chem
Michael J. Aleksinas is the owner and president of Metal Chem, located in Greenville, South Carolina. He holds a B.S. Degree in Chemistry from Becknell University, Lewisberg, Pennsylvania, and a M.S. degree in Environmental Science from the University of New Haven, Connecticut.
For the past 45 years, Michael has been actively involved in virtually every aspect of the electroless nickel industry including research and development, sales and marketing, and the manufacture of electroless nickel chemistry. During this time, he has authored many papers on the subject of EN which include: “Factors Affecting Quality Electroless Nickel plating of Thin Memory Disks,” “Plating Thick EN Deposits without pitting.” “How Duplex EN Coatings can be Advantageous,” “Plating on Magnesium with EN, Fact or Fiction?” and “Waste Treatment of Electroless Nickel”.
Michael is a member of the American Chemical Society and the NASF.
John Sullivan is National Sales Manager at Plating International, a one-stop shop for chrome plating chemicals and equipment in North America where they manufacture both liquid and dry materials, as well as high-speed blends.
He was hired in 2014 as a sales engineer for a multi-state territory, starting with three customers in Texas, and by the end of 2017 that list has grown to over 60 customers in 14 states. His father was James Sullivan, who managed numerous finishing operations in his career and was on the board of the NASF before his passing in 2018.
John Sullivan
ONE PLATE
Scott Francis is the Editor-In-Chief of Products Finishing and served previously as a writing editor for CompositesWorld. He has also edited for Writer's Digest, HOW, Popular Woodworking and has authored books on a range of topics. Scott has a bachelor’s degree in writing and editing and a minor in biology from Western Carolina University.
Michael Feldstein is the President and Director of Innovation of Surface Technology, Inc. Michael manages this high-technology, world-leading company specializing in advanced coatings and metal finishing treatments that operates in a state-of-the-art solar-powered, zero-discharge facility in Ewing, NJ. STI is the creator of One-Plate single-component electroless nickel, Composite Diamond Coating, NiSlip EN-PTFE composites, and other breakthrough electroless nickel technologies. He routinely shares his expertise on electroless nickel innovations through presentations at conferences worldwide, industry publications, and numerous patents. Michael has a MA from Tulane University in economics and a BA in international economics from George Washington University.
