NOVEMBER 2011Ascend News

Importance of the Leadership

Dear Colleagues,

In one of his most important speeches

to the nation, Prime Minister of Great

Britain Winston Churchill, spoke to

the House of Commons after the fall

of France in the spring of 1940.

The situation was serious; the Germans

possessed air, naval, and ground

superiority. Deeply committed to

the survival of western civilization, Churchill focused his

attention and actions on building up and training British forces,

providing them with the weaponry they needed, and strategically

planning collaboration with British allies, to prepare for what

would come. He was honest and compelling as he called on

Britain to prepare to fight Nazi Germany.

“…the Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of

Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends

the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends

our own British life... The whole fury and might of the

enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows

that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the

war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free

and the life of the world may move forward... But if

we fail, then the whole world, including the United

States, including all that we have known and cared for,

will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more

sinister... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties,

and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and

its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men

will still say, “This was their finest hour.”1

We know the British Empire

did not last a thousand years,

but Churchill led Britain to

victory over Hitler, and is

recognized as one of the

greatest leaders of the 20th

century. The leadership characteristics Churchill exhibited

are relevant even today. Described as a courageous and

principled leader who stuck to his convictions, it has been

said that “...he never let a minute go by that he wasn’t

enriching himself, and thereby others.”2

We recognize the importance of good leadership at Ascend

and therefore, we have identified the characteristics we value

in our leaders. Whether you are a citizen of a nation at war,

or you are engaged in building a successful organization,

everyone deserves a great leader – one who sets the direction,

builds great teams, is credible and engaged, and gets great

results. My responsibility as the leader of Ascend is to

establish leadership standards, and then provide opportunities

for development so each of you has a great leader—one

who sets an example of excellence, invests time in teaching

and mentoring, and is deeply committed to our people and

to our business.

You play an essential role in building great leadership

through your engagement, and through your commitment

to your team and to the principles of A2E.

Be safe. Do great things. Have fun.

Tim

1 Visit www.winstonchurchill.org to read the complete text 2 Daniel Myers, Churchill Centre & Museum

Safety

Customer

ProductivityReliability

People

Great Leaders—

• Set the direction.

• Build great teams.

• Are credible & engaged.

• Get great results.

Great Employees—

• Take the initiative.

• Are great team players.

• Are credible and engaged.

• Get great results.

As a kid, you can probably remember

your parents asking, “What do you want

to be when you grow up?” What was your

answer? Mine was usually, “I want to be

an astronaut,” even though it was not

in the cards!

When you think of safety, what do you

want Ascend, and more specifically, your

work group to ultimately be? I want

Ascend facilities to be the safest in the world to work, and I don’t

ever want anyone to get cut, burned, bruised, or hurt in even

the smallest way.

How can we learn to keep our colleagues and ourselves safer

every day? Fundamentally, it starts with you. For example,

Pensacola recently celebrated identifying and correcting 5000

hazards in a creative way—with an ice cream truck road trip

through the plant! Keep

identifying hazards that

are important to your safety

each day. Let me start by

sharing what we have

done, in a broad way, to

help us move down this

“learning” road.

A Personnel Safety Core

Team is now actively

developing comprehensive personnel safety improvement plans

for Ascend. The team is made up of safety professionals from

across the sites, and is led by Chuck Clarke with Tom Boggs

as the Sponsor. Your input to this group is always welcome.

A2E Engagement teams have been chartered to facilitate

employees in identifying how to make their area safer, rather

than giving “top down” direction. After all, who knows more

about safety needs than the people working in the area?

They have begun work at Pensacola (Area 1, Nylon Manufacturing)

and Decatur (Boilerhouse & HMD/ADN Refining), and Greenwood

will kick off similar teams in the coming weeks. Time and resources

have been allotted enabling these teams to make their workplace

safer. Start your own!

Leadership at all levels have learned how to improve their

expectations around safety. There is a focus on the use of

data, establishing clear roles, incorporating safety into all

daily operations, being “safety visible,” getting employees

engaged in safety, and reinforcing safe behaviors. This is

a journey, and will be ongoing in 2012.

Learning to be Safe–Get Involved!

New IT Support Center to Improve Service

Houston Office Turns Pink

Leadership Profile: Andrew Ralston, VP and General Counsel

Improving Our Total Rewards Structure

New Ways of Learning at Ascend

Site Focus: Foley, The Can Do Plant

Foley by the Numbers

Foley Facts

I'm a Hazard

Otis Coleman

Business Overview

Pensacola Celebrates Expansion

My Job Rocks!

The "E" in ESSH

APEX 2011

Congratulations!

IT Corner

Customer Service

Learning to be Safe—Get Involved! by Dale Borths

Table of Contents ESSH

SafetyESSH

Customer

ProductivityReliability

People

Inside cover–1

1

1

2

3

3

4

4

4

5

5

6

7

8

8

9

10

10

10

•

The Can Do Plant • The Can Do Plant • The Can D

o Pl

antFoley

Ascend will be exactly what we want

to be... the safest place in the world to work.

New IT Support Center to Improve Service by Matthew Toomes

On November 15th, the new IT Support Center went live.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, Ascend IT is committed

to improving your IT experience through faster, dedicated support.

The new center will ensure efficient use of IT support resources to

address your issue as fast as possible. As you stand in the line at

the grocery store and you see the line next to you moving faster

than your line, have you ever said to yourself, “Picked the wrong

line again?” Then have you noticed that at the bank you’re in

a different kind of queue? In the bank queue, you’re in a single

line, and the first available teller services you. The new Support

Center will operate in much the same way—your call will be

answered by the first available support staff. • Other benefits

of the new center include longer support hours, after hours

emergency support, and of course, a commitment to continued

improvement. • Be on the lookout for more information

regarding the new IT Support Center!

Dale Borths is the Vice President of Environmental, Safety, Security, and Health.

1

Houston Office Turns Pink

Houston employees turned the headquarters office pink on

September 30 in support of the Houston Susan G. Komen Race for

the Cure on October 1st. Employees were asked to wear pink on

Friday to support the race and the Team Ascend race participants.

Knowing that some folks might be a bit reluctant to wear pink,

the team asked for a voluntary contribution from those who did

not wear pink. When the day started, the team was nearing its

fund raising goal of $1000, with contributions from race participant

fund raising, on-line donations, and cash contributions in the office.

Then, at mid-morning the fund raising went to a new level when

Barry Penney declared he would match contributions dollar for

dollar until 4 pm. Barry’s challenge revved up the giving and

by the end of the day Houston employees supported the Komen

Houston Race for the Cure with $2,291.00 in contributions.

Team Ascend extends sincere thanks to the Houston employees

for their very generous support of the fight against breast cancer.

Team Ascend participants representing Chocolate Bayou

and Houston were – Cindy Barrett, Tom Barrett, Melissa Batig,

Kristine Bird, Jeff Bird, Marianne Cone, Jan Cook, Louis Cook,

Kelly Griego, Lisa Guzman, Laura Kelso, Melissa Kelso, Shannon

Kelso, Maria Martinez, Rhonda Navarro, Jenny Park, Allison

Roberman, Carol Whitlow.

Tell us about your fund raising activities. Send an email and

pictures to ascendnews@ascendmaterials.com.

Matthew Toomes is an IT Senior Manager in Houston.

An excellent team of Maintenance, ESSH, and Quality people

recommended and implemented a new A2E tool—now

commonly referred to as “Think Reliability.” This tool provides

a consistent way of finding the causes of an abnormal event,

like an injury. Using a common and systematic tool, we can

now more easily capture all of the learnings from an incident

and put the right corrective actions in place. Getting involved

on investigation teams is a great way to understand how we learn

from all incidents and apply the learnings to our processes.

The good news is that there are many ways to get involved and

I didn’t even mention the various A2E Safety Teams and traditional

Safety Committees that are ongoing!

• Think Safe!

• Look out for yourself and others!

• Get involved to make your work area safer!

At Ascend, we want to be the best in everything we do. It begins

with you. With 3000 people engaged in learning to be safer, and

involved in activities to improve safety for everyone, Ascend will be

exactly what we want to be...the safest place in the world to work.

How can I help you?

Chocolate Bayou race day participants

Houston showing off their pink spirit

2

Leadership Profile: Andrew Ralston, VP and General CounselAndrew Ralston had some difficulty locating a copy of his resume

to provide the writer of this profile. “It just goes to show how much

I love Ascend,” he enthused, “that I don’t even keep a resume

anymore.” Truly, he does seem to be a man who loves his job,

perhaps because of the winding path he took to get here.

Having moved to Houston with his family in 1978, Ralston is closer

to being a native Houstonian than most. He’s happy to have spent

his entire professional career in Houston, and prouder still to

proclaim allegiance to the University of Texas (under-graduate

degree) and Baylor University (law school). He’s broad-minded

enough, however, to have married

an A&M graduate and another

lawyer. Wife Dianne is Deputy

General Counsel for Schlumberger.

Andrew and Dianne Ralston have

two daughters, Reagan and Peyton,

ages 11 and 6. They divide their time,

year round, between dance recitals

and multiple athletic events—and

savor, particularly, this time of year

and the return of college football.

He provided no clue, however, to

how (or how gracefully) they settle

the inevitable cross-school rivalries.

Andrew began his legal career

with the noted Houston firm, Baker

Botts, LLP. In his years with the

firm, he got a broad introduction

to corporate law, handling mergers

and acquisitions, securities and real

estate transactions, joint ventures.

His next employer was Condea

Vista Company, a large German chemical manufacturing company,

where Andrew began to get a feel for the practice of law on

behalf of one client/company, and a chemical company at that.

The primary employer of note on Andrew’s resume, before

Ascend, was Enron Corporation. “I was there for the good, the bad,

and the ugly,” he says. It was surely some of the most fascinating—

and challenging —work he’s ever done. Work that, clearly, left him

with a skill set that is rare and highly prized. In the early years with

Enron, Andrews’s concentration was on the development and

acquisition of international energy assets and in providing services

to large-scale commercial users of electricity. Many of his customers

were chemical and manufacturing companies similar to Ascend.

Having survived both the layoffs and any taint from Enron’s

missteps, Andrew was in a sound position to assist Enron's

massive divestment of company assets, and settling claims.

In many ways, he loved the skill-sharpening that came as a result

of having to adapt and respond to each new development,

each new roadblock or crisis.

After Enron, Andrew moved around for a couple years, working

another stint as senior counsel for a chemical company and then

doing regulatory and energy work for two large law firms.

All that changed in 2009 when he was contacted about a position

with a new company. In joining Ascend, at the very outset of

the company’s formation, Andrew feels he and the company

came together at the perfect

time for both of them.

“It is so exciting,” Andrew tells us,

“being there with a company

that’s been given a totally blank

slate to invent itself and go in

any number of fresh, exciting

directions.” So often, he says,

you join a firm with a lot of

ingrained habits or traditions.

Or, a company comes out of

bankruptcy still carrying a lot

of “baggage” such as outmoded

policies or procedures.

In the case of Ascend, Andrew

feels that everyone throughout

the company really appreciates

the chance to learn from

previous experience without

being impeded by it.

His workday is incredibly varied

and, as he tells us, “I never know what to expect when I come

to work, but it’s always a surprise and it’s always interesting.”

He handles trade compliance issues, drawing on his vast

previous experience in international law, but also gets to handle

new challenges such as patent applications and assisting in

setting up a new internal auditing system.

What does Andrew like most about his work with Ascend?

Number one would probably be the energy and enthusiasm of

the company, at all levels of the work force. “We’ve come a long

way since 2009,” he says. “In a lot of ways, we got thrown into

a ‘sink or swim” situation and found we were actually pretty good

swimmers. After being sort of a forgotten or under-appreciated

division of a larger company, now we ARE the company.

And everyone seems to really appreciate the opportunity

we have to make something really great here.”

On September 7th, the Houston Business Journal hosted an event honoring

the best and brightest in the legal profession. Andrew was named 2011 Best Solo

General Counsel.

In the challenging and dynamic Ascend environment, employee

knowledge and capability represent a significant part of our

continued business success. The Learning team’s mission is to

ensure that all employees receive learning opportunities that

increase their skills and professional development.

New Learning Offerings & Advanced Curriculum

In addition to Operator boot camps, Safety, A2E, Lumina,

Engagement, and Front Line Leader workshops, we are partnering

with business leaders, and moving forward on new 2012 learning

offerings including; Project Management, Team building,

Leadership, Executive Education, Ethics and Compliance, Sales

and Strategic Account Management, Communication for Leaders,

and Finance offerings. Also, we have added a new robust A2E

On-boarding program for new hires that will enable them

to get up to speed immediately with A2E tool sets. We will be

delivering new Instructor Led Learning offerings including A2E

2012 and new Front Line Leadership workshops. We will bring

more professional and skills development workshops in the coming

months. We are building developmental learning that enhances

your job knowledge and skills. Focusing on your success and

creating a learning framework that not only helps you manage

what you do, but helps you manage what you want to be.

Ascend Learning Team:

Steve Coletti Sr. Manager, Global Learning

Matilda Reeder Manager of Learning, ISC

John Nelson Learning Lead, Greenwood

Curt Thompson Learning Lead, Chocolate Bayou

Chris Wilson Learning Lead, Pensacola

New Ways of Learning at Ascend by Steve Coletti

Improving Our Total Rewards Structure

At Ascend, we aim to pay competitively in each local market and

nationally. We also aim to promote equity across the company.

Ascend Total Rewards, which includes pay and benefits, offers

a competitive package to attract, motivate and retain our employees.

Earlier this year, we introduced a new salary grade and job title

structure to ensure market competitive pay, and create consistency

in our job titles around the Company.

Why did we change salary grades and job titles?

Since Ascend started, we have reorganized existing departments,

and we have established whole new departments and new jobs.

We had 1,300 job titles for 2,000 Ascend employees! What may

have made sense in the past, no longer made sense at Ascend.

The new structure helps up develop our people plans. For example,

having a common description for Senior Engineers or Operator III’s,

gives us the ability to develop career paths, create better training

programs, and have more meaningful performance discussions,

just to name a few.

What does this mean for me?

You have a new salary grade -- one of three new salary grades –

Hourly, Individual Contributor, and Leadership. You may even have

a new job title. In creating consistency across the Company we

moved from 1,300 job titles to just over 300.

Maybe most important to you, the new grade and job title structure

also allows us to get more accurate market pay data so we can

evaluate and ensure competitive pay for each employee. It also

helps your leader make contribution-based pay decisions where

you are rewarded for your contribution to the success of Ascend.

If you have questions about your new grade and title, please don’t

hesitate to discuss it with your leader or your site Human Resources

Business Partner.

How does Ascend get competitive pay data?

In our aim to provide competitive compensation in pay and

benefits, we regularly review local and national pay surveys from

a number of industries, including chemical, oil & gas, utilities and

manufacturing. We may find our

compensation to be higher than

other organizations in one area

and slightly lower in other areas,

but we continue to strive for

competitive compensation for all of

our employees. Our new grade and

job title structure helps us do just that.

Our promise to you, as a member of the Ascend team, you will be:

enabled to succeed • empowered to take action • engaged in

getting better • and excited to be part of a successful team.

Steve Coletti is the Senior Manager of Learning and Development.

Ellen Chin is the Senior Director of Talent and Rewards.

3

by Ellen Chin

• We recognize that you are our key asset.

• We know that our people represent not only our current performance, but also our future potential.

• We want to support your efforts to excel at Ascend.

WHY?

Site Focus: Foley, The Can Do Plant

Foley Facts

4

Known as “The Can Do Plant,” Ascend Performance Materials in Foley, Alabama is a group of people who have

reinvented themselves, and in doing so, they have changed the future of the Foley plant. Founded in 1961,

originally to process waste fiber, the plant changed ownership and product over the next 50 years, but the spirit

of the workforce endured. Faced with a severe decline in the demand for staple carpet fiber due to the housing

market downturn and a trend toward hard surface products such as hardwood and tile, carpet fiber processing

dropped from 500 million pounds per year to the current 30-40 million pounds and a critical reduction in force.

The people of “The Can Do Plant” were undeterred —they saw an opportunity to shift the focus to compounding.

Production shifted to expand the compounding operation and cross-train the entire workforce. According to plant

manager, Tom Boggs, “we broke down all the silos in the plant in order to ensure we had the ability to cover all

the jobs with our existing staff. This cross-training has been embraced by our employees and the engagement

in the process has improved all aspects of the plant—from safety to quality to our path toward entitlement.”

Resin produced in the Ascend Pensacola plant is trucked to Foley and blended with additives to produce

compounds customers use to make other products; for example, automotive suppliers use Ascend compounds

to make injection-molded parts. With an expansion in the existing compounding line, and a new extruder coming

online in December, the Foley plant expects to make 50 million pounds of compounded material in 2012, and

will be a significant contributor to the long-term growth of Ascend and its reputation as a reliable supplier.

• The Foley Plant began operations in 1961 and is celebrating its 50-year anniversary.• The plant was originally built as a waste fibers facility under the name of Hale Manufacturing.• Later names were Fovil Manufacturing, Solutia Inc. and today Ascend Performance Materials.• The facility sits on a little less than 40 acres in the heart of Foley, AL.• The plant produces both nylon staple and nylon compounded products for external customers.• The facility is known as the “can do” plant due to its adaptability and flexibility to run various products.• The Foley plant has been a VPP Star Site since 1999.• The people of the Foley plant are committed to the community: The United Way of Baldwin County Board of Directors, volunteer firemen, EMT’s, YMCA.

Foley by the numbers

50 years in production 50

million pounds of extrusion in

2012

84 empl

oyee

s +

cont

ract

ors

100%employees engaged in A2E

$1200saved per truck load by using recycled boxes

Decatur

•

The Can Do Plant • The Can Do Plant • The Can D

o Pl

antFoley

Pensacola

miles from Foley to Pensacola siteyears of service as a shuttle driver

5

The Hazard Recognition Team developed and implemented a program to support Ascend’s

and Foley’s hazard recognition and correction efforts for 2011. Team focused on a system

to get employees to report hazards where the individual was the hazard. Program is not

punitive, and is designed to get employees engaged in thinking about how their behavior

can be a hazard. The system is easy to use and all plant employees are using the program.

Program has been recognized as a Best Practice for Ascend. Foley has realized

an increase in hazard reporting from 2010 in a large part to this team’s success.

Team members: Jimmy Cooper, Paulette De La Garza, Don Dinish, Francine Dinish,

Derrick Foster, Jeff Gardner, David Garza, Cora Heard, Oreanthia Jackson, David Nagel,

Peter Parker, William Rundle, Craig Saget, Martin Stancliff, Tom Boggs.

I'm a Hazard

Pensacola

42Otis Coleman

Greenwood515 miles

Chocolate Bayou533 miles

Houston505 miles

N

S

EW

Decatur349 miles

Pensacola42 miles

Foley

Otis Coleman came to work on June 26, 1969. Every day he drives a truck between

Foley and Pensacola, an 84-mile round trip, hauling 40,000 pounds of product each trip.

Otis has been our loyal shuttle driver for 42 years and according to Tom Boggs,

“Otis can do just about anything in the Foley plant.”

87,360 miles 40 million pound of product

3,669,120 miles 2 billion pounds of product

Care

er

Ann

ual

A2E Team of the QuarterIn Foley’s compounding operation, only

recycled boxes are used for our finished

goods. We receive the raw materials from

Pensacola then reuse the boxes for our

product. We have expanded this team to

include shipping our excess boxes back

to Pensacola for reuse in their process.

This results in not only packaging savings,

but a savings of labor as well. Total value added

for the company is about $20k per month.

Recycled Packaging Reduces WasteFoley is recycling all super sacks, boxes, foil, and paper bags.

Business Overview

6

Plastics | Scott Rook

Key Successes

• Cable Ties: In 3rd qtr 2011, we finalized a contract with one of our

largest cable tie customers globally Hua Wei. They just recently

moved their plant from Shanghai China to Pattaya, Thailand.

Additionally we finalized contract extensions with Hellermann Tyton

and added a new contract with a cable tie molder in Brazil – Frontec.

• Compounders: In 3rd qtr 2011, we reached agreements to

increase our supply to several Korean compounders – Kolon,

Kopla, and Shinil by up to 25% so they could supply the growing

demand from Korean auto makers such as Hyundai/Kia and Daewoo

• Auto: we successfully reached a deal to supply Delphi China two

compounded products (one with glass & impact modifier; the other

only impact modifier). Both products are being produced in Foley,

AL. (We are exporting to China!) The annual volume will be greater

than 4 m lbs and Delphi will use the products in a variety of appli-

cations including fasteners and tanks. Additionally, we completed

contracts with Century Mold, GMCH, Kongsberg and MPC in North

America as well as with Novatech in Europe.

• Consumer & Industrial: We closed a new Rail Insulator application

in Thailand through Pandrol/Railtech; and reached a 3-month

supply agreement with Graco—Wonderland for baby stroller parts.

• EE: We signed a new contract with Lights of America and reached

agreement with TE Connectivity to expand sales by 3+ m lbs in 2012.

New Products in 3Q 2011

• Cable Ties: We have continued growth of our Phase I Next

Generation Cable Tie product(s) (21 SPC1 and 21 SPF1) and

began selling to KSS, KST and Hua Wei in Q2.

• Auto: Launched 2 new compounded products for Delphi

China - R413H (black and natural) and 49H (black and natural).

• Consumer & Industrial: Obtained approval from Technoform

Germany to supply R550…a 50% Glass Filled Resin compounded

product. (Thank you to Foley for figuring out tough processing!)

Business Outlook

We saw numerous customers reduce their inventory levels in Q3

in anticipation of a slowing global economy. In some segments

(such as appliance & computer production) production levels were

cut by 30-40% during Q3. On a brighter note, auto production

levels globally are forecasted to remain relatively strong…and we

hope that will true. We have concern over a possible double dip

recession; however, we are committed to working very closely with

our partners during the tough times. We’re talking daily with our

customers and at the same time we’re looking for new opportunities

to continue to expand the business. Polymers & Fibers | Dick Prinstein

Key Successes

We renewed and extended our sales agreement with Suntex,

a specialty textile fiber producer in Taiwan. We added 18 months

to the agreement and negotiated a 30% increase in volume for

textile polymer.

New Products in 3Q 2011

At TWD, a German textile fiber producer, we have conducted new

product improvement trials on our new textile polymer, 41SD1.

Preliminary results are encouraging, and the customer has

complimented our spirit of cooperativeness and technical support.

(Thanks to the European and US Technology team for that!) We

have launched an innovative new bcf carpet yarn. (‘Ombre’ made

at Greenwood.) It features variable denier and variable dyeability

to allow carpet mills to produce a striated look for commercial

carpet applications. We’ve teamed with J&J Carpet Mills to

introduce this new technology.

Business Outlook

In general, demand from our customers has been very variable

recently for a slew of reasons.

• Japanese auto production has restarted after the earthquake

and tsunami damage earlier this year which has strengthened

our polymer sales for airbag yarn.

• The Chinese government has been putting policies in place

to moderate inflation. An out come of that has been a slowdown

in the Chinese auto market, which slightly decreased our sales

for tire cord polymer in China.

• On the other hand, worldwide demand for our polymer for

industrial uses (airbag, tire cord, etc.) has been relatively strong.

• Textile customers have felt the effects of global economic

uncertainty as everyone in their supply chains has become

very sensitive to inventory levels.

We expect that Industrial demand will remain strong in the next

quarter. Carpet demand will stay relatively stable, since our customers

tend to service the commercial market, which has recovered more

than residential, which is so tied to housing. The fourth quarter is usually

the strongest quarter of the year in Textile. This year that upsurge

will only offset the softness from worldwide economic conditions.

On October 11th, the Pensacola Bay Area

Chamber of Commerce hosted a celebration

event and symbolic ribbon cutting ceremony

at Ascend to celebrate jobs creation and

capital investment, associated with the

Enterprise Florida grant. Tim Montgomery

kicked off the event with a warm Ascend

welcome and introduction of honored guests,

including Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward,

Matt Lowell from Enterprise Florida, Donnie

McMahon, Chamber Board Chairman, and

Wilson Robertson, County Commissioner. Barry Penney delivered the keynote message in which he paid tribute to the rich heritage of

experience at Ascend, as well as our dedication to the community. • Other guests included community business leaders and site leadership.

Our heritage of experience was illustrated in the attendance of one particular guest -- Jim Brumley, the original director of research and

development at the plant, and the namesake for Brumley Lake. • Each of the dignitaries gave brief remarks, all with a similar theme of

acknowledging Ascend's history in the community, and its contribution to the Pensacola Bay area. In speaking of Ascend, Mayor Hayward

said, "We have a global player right in our backyard....the city of Pensacola is committed to Ascend."

Pensacola Celebrates Expansion

ISC Scorecard | 3Q

Major Achievements3Q11 represented a return to full operations across the chain after the Decatur tornado outage. Of particular note is the significant breakthrough of ADN electrode package life. As a result of several technology and A2E projects, these packs are lasting 10 times their historic levels, leading to a significant increase in capability. Additionally, CP22/23 started up uneventfully increasing our Polymer Chip capacity to over 1 billion pounds per year

Major OpportunitiesWith our significant increase in ADN capability, HMD has now become our biggest challenge. The good news is we have a strong combination of Technology Project, and Operations initiatives underway to push our capabilities further in this area with specific efforts on catalyst performance being tested during the 4th Quarter. In Chocolate Bayou we need to understand and address our recent rash of AN trips to set us up for 2012 operations.

AOP ACT

Percentage of SIOP

100% 95.15%

Customer Promise OTD

97% 92%

Quality defects parts/million

N/A* 23,464

Meeting Customers Needs

* This was not previously measured/not available Ascend wide.

Chemicals | John Ferguson

Key Successes

We successfully negotiated new sales contracts with:

Solvay (HMD for PPA High Temperature Nylon). Significant

contract term extension for one of our key HMD customers.

ITWC (AA for Polyurethanes). Extended term, increased price.

ArrMaz (BHMT for Asphalt Chemicals). Gained new business.

External Events

Acrylonitrile demand and margins continued to weaken during

Q3 due to poor demand for the three major AN derivatives (Acrylic

Fiber, ABS, Acrylamide) resulting in a shortfall to AOP vs. plans.

The slowdown in the Chinese economy as the Chinese try to curb

inflation remains a contributing factor. Additionally poor consumer

confidence and lackluster consumer spending in NA and Europe

due to current global economic conditions continue to affect

demand. These factors are now also affecting market demand for

Adipic Acid, though our sales continue to be strong as we mitigate

reduced demand to North Amercia contract customers by selling

in the spot market globally.

One bright spot is that the EPA’s recently finalized Cross State Air

Pollution Rule should spur significant (and sustainable) increased

demand of AGS for use in SO2 scrubbing systems utilized in power

plants, thus increasing our profitability and taking load off our

Pensacola deep-well operations.

Business Outlook

For Q3, challenging economic conditions will continue to create

headwinds for sales of our Chemicals.

7

Being an extruder operator includes not only running the extruder,

but making pre-blends or batches and packing out the finished

product. Being on a shift that has a good supporting cast makes

his job, whether it be running the extruder or one of the other

jobs, fun and exciting.

Peter and his colleagues must work closely together. “We (Bill

and Mark, the other two extruder operators on the Shift) just click,”

he says. “We know what the other one’s going to do almost before

he does it. By functioning so well as a team no one individual

gets overwhelmed by the task or tasks at hand.”

Peter says his job is all about working safe, making a quality

product, maximizing our pounds per hour, and giving good

customer service to his internal customers, thereby ultimately

taking care of the external customer. He takes seriously his role

in making a profit, and expanding product lines to ensure job

security for him and his colleagues for years to come.

“Making a quality product while working safely, to make money —

that’s the bottom line”, he says. “For every minute of down time

there is a production loss on average of 60 lbs. which is equal

to a minimum of $75/minute.”

Peter grew up in Lillian, Alabama. Not only is Peter a certified EMT

since 2009, he also completed the 168-hour Alabama Industrial

Development Technology Course learning to build thrust reversers

for airplanes. In addition to keeping busy with two sons, ages 18

and 8, Peter enjoys power lifting and ice hockey in his spare time.

Peter started with Solutia in 2003 and officially joined the Ascend

team in March of 2010.

Peter primarily supports Vydyne operations but works with

other units as well, like logistics, lab, and maintenance, to supply

a good quality product to the customer.

The Vydyne operating area is comprised of three main functioning

tasks: extruder operator, pre-blend/ batch operator, and packout

operator. With each of these in a 50-foot radius, each one has to flow

well to make a quality product. “Each shift I may perform a different

function, but I must ensure good customer service to my fellow

workers, and they ensure good customer service in return.”

Peter says that by following this simple rule, they have managed

to improve their run rates from 3,400lbs./hr to around 3,900lbs./hr

on a consistent basis. “We take every increase seriously”, Peter says.

“If we can make just 25lbs. more per hour at the end of a 12 hour

shift that’s 300 lbs., and 600 lbs. for the day. That’s 18,000 lbs.

for a month and 216,000 lbs. for the year!”

“We celebrate the small increases”, he says. “As the new extruder comes on line, in the coming months, this will be an exciting time for not only me but for the whole Foley team.”

8

The "E" in ESSH by Don DuRivage

The acronym ESSH is as prominent as other company acronyms such as BUL or DRIVER. But what do the letters ESSH stand for? We’ll take one letter at a time—first letter first! The letter E is first for a reason. If you guessed E stands for environment you’re half right. It also means everyone. With environmental compliance more important than ever, everyone plays a vital role in keeping our plants compliant. Of course there are environmental professionals at each plant, but we should all be committed to sustainable practices that result in environmental compliance.

The Environmental Core Team is a great resource for ensuring compliance. Their work on environmental innovation includes studying ways to ensure Ascend is at the forefront of sustainable practices.

Team members are environmental professionals from the sites—Laura Aymet, Decatur, Sharron Crayton, Chocolate Bayou, Don DuRivage and Lori Napper, Greenwood, and DeAnne Sanders, Pensacola. In its second year, the team has already had success —

Responsible Care RC-14001 / RC-MSThe Chocolate Bayou or Decatur facilities have achieved re-certification of RC-14001, and Pensacola, Foley, and Greenwood are working toward RC-MS, and will be working toward certification throughout 2012.

VOC Minimization GuidanceAn engineering guidance document was created stating specific recommended actions to minimize Volatile Organic Carbon (VOC) emissions from pumps and piping for new projects.

ESSH

Peter Parker is an Extruder Operator in Foley.

My Job Rocks! by Peter Parker

Don DuRivage is an ESSH Senior Manager in Greenwood.

As an extruder operator, every batch and every product has its own

characteristics so everyday can be different. But that’s why Peter Parker’s job rocks!

9

APEX 2011 On September 19, 25 delegates from 7 Ascend locations stepped

foot onto the beautiful grounds surrounding the New River Gorge

in West Virginia to celebrate A2E achievements, share best practices

and help lay foundation for speedier and better ways to achieve

breakthroughs. Those attending, either by individual merit or voted

by their A2E team to represent the team project were:

These individuals represent the highest ideals of A2E leadership,

engagement and ownership. Over three days they spent time

in teambuilding and brainstorming sessions to help find ways

in which the impact of A2E can be improved across the entire

Ascend organization. Fred Poses, CEO, made an impression on

the group as they dove in and presented their projects with pride

and passion on the first morning. Fred challenged the group to

think of progress in terms of breakthroughs, and not be satisfied

with incremental improvements – go for the big opportunities

to get the big results.

But it wasn’t all work and no play! APEX Delegates, along with

other members of the Ascend team acting as hosts to the event,

learned that flying through the tree tops wasn’t just for monkeys!

Several delegates quickly got over any fear of heights when they

had a chance to experience zip lining for the first time! Day 2 found

others getting over water anxieties. Rafting guides took the teams

up to the top of the Lower New River to begin the adventure of

a life time, as they boarded 8-man rafts and began a white water

journey that left many hearts racing. Team building skills learned

in the earlier sessions were key here!

The APEX delegates left West Virginia motivated to think not just

about how good they may be today, but to think about how good

they could be!

PensacolaAnnabella AndersonJeffrey CarreonAnnie DodsonLakelyn McIntyreJack MussellGeorge ThompsonDaniel TorrezWalter Woodfin Jr.

EuropeSigrid Christensen

FoleyKendall GoochPeter Parker

GreenwoodDevlin AmyxBobby DavenportGary PriceGerald Upton

Chocolate BayouJoe De La Rosa, Jr.Jason MerchantScott MoffattTerry UnruhBrandon WattsPaul Pathasema

DecaturDarrell EddlemanJoe FortonRay Halbrooks, Jr.Kevin Linderman

Don’t settle for incremental gains!

Go for the breakthroughs!

Speed counts!

Constructive Dissatisfaction

10

Congratulations!40 Years

Don Laster

35 years

Gregory Simmons

Gregory Zabrecky

Cora Jean Heard

Jesse Roakes

Kent Nesvik

20 Years

Robert Turner Jr.

Julian Bolden

Darleen Haddock

David McCullough

David Newsome

James Preston

Timothy Segars

Sheryl Aiken

Kathleen Broome

Nancy Siegler

Pensacola

Chocolate Bayou

Chocolate Bayou

Foley

Greenwood

Pensacola

Chocolate Bayou

Decatur

Decatur

Decatur

Decatur

Decatur

Decatur

Greenwood

Greenwood

Greenwood

Customer Service

IT Corner

Ascend celebrated National Customer Service Week October 3-7 with banners,

balloons, dinners, and gifts—all in celebration of our valued Customer Service

teams in Atlanta, Houston, and Pensacola! Started by the International Customer

Service Association in 1988, National Customer Service week is a national event

as proclaimed by the U.S. Congress. Each year, thousands of businesses celebrate

Customer Service Week to recognize the importance of customer service, and to

honor employees responsible for the taking care of customers. Thanks to Ascend

Customer Service team members for your customer focus and your professionalism

in representing the company to our customers!

Lisa Entrekin is a Customer Service Advisor in Houston.

Pensacola Customer Service Team

Houston Customer Service Team

by Lisa Entrekin

by Donna Luebbers

A common request we receive for I.T. assistance

is when Outlook 2003 users stop receiving new

email. It is most often due to users going Offline

in Microsoft Online Services. The email mode is

located in the lower right hand corner of the screen

and will appear as either Online or Offline (assuming

status bar is enabled). If a user stops receiving new

mail (or their email does not get sent out) that is

the first place to check.  If it's in an Offline state,

use the drop-down arrow and uncheck the Work

Offline setting to put Outlook back in Online mode. 

Ascend News Editorial Advisory Board wants your thoughts!Have ideas to share? Want to become a member of the Editorial Advisory Board? We would love to hear from you! If you are interested in contributing to Ascend News pleasecontact us at ascendnews@ascendmaterials.com.