Interview with Mr Rory Holmes

On April 16, 1968, in New York, The Disposables Association was founded as a non-profit organization of company membership to collect and develop factual information, to provide a legally sanctioned and supervised forum for the industry in which common problems could be discussed and programs to solve them devised. The Association was the first to determine the need for a worldwide event acting as a meeting ground where all levels of the nonwovens industry - users, suppliers, manufacturers - could learn from each other. In July, 1972, the group effected a name change to International Nonwovens & Disposables Association, thus, more accurately reflecting the scope of its interests and the membership it serves. Today, INDA is well known for its conferences, expositions and training courses as well as monitoring government policies affecting the industry while managing issues affecting the industry's worldwide standards and image. Mr Rory Holmes is the President of INDA. Prior to joining INDA, he was Associate Director, Technology Transfer, at the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center of the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. Mr Holmes pursued a 25-year career with Johnson & Johnson, where he had a series of increasing responsibilities in Operations, Research and Sales & Marketing. He was honored with Hoffmann Award for Research & Development and the Johnson Medal for development and commercialization of the Johnson & Johnson line of Operating Room Gown & Drape fabrics. Mr Holmes is the inventor of record for 6 patents. In 1995, Mr Holmes joined the Sales & Marketing efforts for Chicopee (a division of the Polymer Group Inc), where he had direct responsibility for the Medical, Industrial and APEX businesses. Speaking to Face2Face team, Mr Holmes throws light on broad based definition of Technical Textiles; its applications, and also presents the overview about INDA and its activities in the welfare of non-wovens industry.