IS news of t he weekk ACS voting breakdown Votes 3
PRESIDENT-ELECT Ed Wasserman Judith C. Giordan
16,697 15,782
REGION 1 DIRECTOR Michael E. Strem James G. Bennett Jr.
2,222 1,997 b
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE _ Joan E. Shields Henry F. Whalen Jr. Margaret A. Cavanaugh Ted J. Logan
228 197 149 132
a In election, a total of 32,659 valid ballots were cast, but 161 did not indicate a vote for president-elect. In addition, 665 ballots were declared invalid, b Elected by vote of councilors.
Chemical Society and Chemical Reviews. He was chair of the Committee on Corporation Associates from 1983 to 1984 and vice chair of the Committee on Chemistry & Public Affairs from 1990 to 1991. In his official candidate's statement, Wasserman said that as president he would work to establish new communications programs. He would also seek a new ACS award to acknowledge postgraduate mentors in academe or industry who help
foster the combination of personal and technical development that "is so important in making chemists effective." He said he would involve retirees as an untapped resource for the society and carefully review the evolution of ACS and its staff at the approach of the 21st century. One regional director and two directorsat-large were also elected for three-year terms on the ACS Board. In Region I, which consists of seven states in New England plus Puerto Rico, Michael E. Strem won with 2,222 votes; his opponent, incumbent James G. Bennett Jr., received 1,997 votes. Strem, president of Strem Chemicals Inc., Newburyport, Mass., currently serves on the Committee on Committees, the Society Committee on Budget & Finance, and the Advisory Board for Industry Relations. For directors-at-large—elected by voting members of the ACS Council—incumbents Joan E. Shields and Henry F. Whalen Jr. were reelected with 228 and 197 votes, respectively, from a field of four candidates. The other two candidates, Margaret A. Cavanaugh and Ted J. Logan, received 149 and 132 votes, respectively. Shields is currently chair of the ACS Board of Directors and a professor of chemistry at Long Island University. Whalen is corporate vice president at PQ Corp., Valley Forge, Pa. William Schulz
Allied Colloids tries to f< id off Hercules Hercules is again on the prowl for a large acquisition, this time with a hostile offer of $1.8 billion to buy the U.K.based Allied Colloids Group, a producer of acrylic-based, water-soluble polymers with estimated worldwide annual sales of $900 million. Allied Colloids' board promptly rejected the Hercules bid as "unwelcome and unsolicited." Hercules failed in a 1996 attempt to acquire W.R. Grace (C&EN, March 11, 1996, page 8), but kept looking. Hercules Chairman and Chief Executive Officer R. Keith Elliott says he has now found a match in Allied Colloids: "Allied provides a strategic fit for our paper technology and Aqualon businesses and enhances our resins business. It will also provide Hercules with a significant new business in water management." Hercules has been paring back for most of this decade, selling off noncore businesses to the extent that its 1996 annual sales were a little more than $2 billion, compared with $3.2 billion in 1990. But it has a lot of cash to invest. If suc6
DECEMBER 1, 1997 C&EN
cessful, the Allied Colloids acquisition would bring Hercules' sales within reach of 1990 levels. It won't be easy. Hercules' bid "fundamentally undervalues the prospects of our business, and we therefore intend to contest it vigorously," says Allied Colloids' CEO, David Farrar. But Hercules Chief Financial Officer George MacKenzie says Hercules' offer is a good one in light of the fact that Allied Colloids' share price has underperformed the U.K. market by around 38% over the past three years. A Hercules spokeswoman says the company intends to vigorously pursue its offer. Hercules is not the only company with an interest in Allied Colloids. In mid-November, Allied Colloids received an unsolicited offer from an unidentified party. Allied Colloids broke off talks. But rumors that suitors including U.K.-based Laporte might be interested fueled speculation in Allied Colloids' stock. Hercules' offer of 155 pence ($2.62) per share on Nov. 24 increased investor speculation in Allied Colloids' shares. Shares were trading at about 167 pence
($2.82) on Nov. 25. Says David Ingles, U.K. chemicals analyst at stockbrokers HSBC James Capel, London, "The market is saying it expects either an improved acquisition offer from Hercules or an offer from another company. Time will tell." Patricia Layman and Marc Reisch
Spread of weapons of mass destruction tallied Releasing the Pentagon's annual report on the global spread of weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said, "The threat is here, now, today, and it will only increase in the future." The report, "Proliferation: Threat & Response," fleshes out Cohen's remarks. It notes that more than 25 countries have or may be developing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. An even larger number of nations are able to make these weapons, possibly on very short notice, it says. Citing Iraq as an example, he said, "The United Nations believes that Saddam [Hussein] may have produced as much as 200 tons of [the nerve gas] VX," an amount that could theoretically "kill every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth." But in fact, the UN special commission monitoring Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions has only said that Iraq had acquired enough precursor chemicals to be able to make that amount of VX. It has no evidence that Iraq has done so. While acknowledging that the threat from former Soviet bloc nations has decreased, the report warns that the decrease has been offset by the "transnational" spread of these weapons. Terrorist groups and organized crime syndicates now have the ability to acquire such weapons and, Cohen emphasized, the threat from these groups is not hypothetical. The activities of the Aum Shinrikyo— the Japanese cult that attacked the Tokyo subway with the nerve gas sarin—detailed in the report support Cohen's contention. He outlined the three-pronged approach the U.S. is taking to combat the proliferation threat, the primary thrust of which is prevention. The other two are protecting U.S. armed forces and citizens against nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and defending the U.S. against an attack from these arms. The Pentagon's counterproliferation program gives the National Guard enhanced responsibilities "to fight the threat at home," Cohen noted. Lois Ember
