The WACKER ACADEMY Team of Instructors
Theoretical expertise and practical experience are the cornerstones of the WACKER ACADEMY team. With backgrounds in sales or technology, our experts come to the table with extensive application knowledge. They are also trained instructors and moderators with a sixth sense for current trends and market developments.
Instructors for Pharmaceuticals
Gerardo Bautista
Gerardo is a chemical engineer from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering (with Bioengineering as a focus). He has more than 7 years’ chemical-industry experience of technical sales for industrial applications, personal care, the household sector and now construction. He joined WACKER in 2015 as sales manager for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Gerardo provides support to construction customers in the following markets: paints, coatings, maintenance and general construction. Also, he has participated as a speaker for associations such as Mexico’s ANAFAPYT (representing paint and printing ink manufacturers), where WACKER has a presence.
Dr. Christof Brehm
Dr. Christof Brehm studied chemistry and made his doctoral thesis in organic chemistry at the university Saarbrücken. He started his career in various positions of Research and Development at the Max-Planck-Institute Kohlenforschung (Mühlheim/Ruhr), ALTANA Pharma AG as well as at BASF SE. In 2008, he began to work at WACKER Chemie AG in the group of Innovation Silicones. Since the year 2017, he leads as Technical Manager the application laboratory for developments in the field of Household Care and is in this respect the technical contact for all customers of the EMEA region.
Sandra Kaufmann
Sandra Kaufmann completed her chemical training at WACKER in 1999 and after that worked in the central R&D division in Munich. In 2007, she moved to the Burghausen site and worked in various areas of application technology at WACKER SILICONES. Since 2023, she has been responsible for household care applications, impregnations and pharma/food products in the technical laboratory.
She is currently doing further training to become a WACKER lab technician certified by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK).
Jürgen Kugler
Jürgen Kugler began his chemical training at Hoechst AG in Gendorf in 1988 and then worked in production support for plant protection agents. In 1998, he joined the Household Care department at WACKER SILICONES where he works in the technical lab and is responsible for fabric care applications, antifoam and impregnating agents. In 2000, he completed advanced training as a lab technician certified by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK).
Guillermo Lopez
Guillermo is the sales manager for Mexico at the Performance Materials business unit. He has had two periods of employment at WACKER, initially from 1988 to 1992 and then from 2000. He has more than 36 years’ experience of the chemical industry, mainly with epoxy resins, polyurethanes, plastisol and release agents based on silicone fluids. At WACKER, Guillermo has been responsible for elastomers, pyrogenic silica, sealants, silanes and fluids, plastics, textiles, defoamers and industrial coating resins. Earlier, he worked for Hysol de Mexico, a company focused on epoxy resin compounds. He has a Chemical Engineering degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.