Von Lehman Stepping Down at PPG

    PITTSBURGH--Sept. 19, 2001--Thomas M. Von Lehman, vice president, specialty chemicals, will leave PPG Industries at the end of the month to pursue other career opportunities.
    No successor was named. The strategic business units that report to Von Lehman - optical products, fine chemicals and silicas - will report to Frank A. Archinaco, executive vice president for glass and chemicals.
    Von Lehman joined PPG in 1980 as a chemicals business venture manager, later becoming manager of chemicals research, manager of new biochemical products and then biochemicals general manager.
    In 1988 he moved to PPG's glass technology center at Harmarville, near Pittsburgh, as flat glass products research manager, and two years later was named manager of flat glass products and process development. He returned to PPG headquarters in 1993 as corporate planning director.
    He was named vice president of purchasing and distribution in 1994, and returned to the chemicals business in 1996 as vice president of specialty chemicals.
    A native of Fort Mitchell, Ky., Von Lehman, 51, received a chemistry degree from Thomas More College and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Cincinnati. He also studied at the University of Michigan at the postgraduate level.
    Pittsburgh-based PPG is a global supplier of coatings, glass, fiber glass and chemicals, with more than 120 manufacturing facilities in 23 countries. Sales in 2000 were US$8.6 billion.