Charles Schein
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Charles Schein (September 25, 1928 - May 1, 2003) was educated as a polymer chemist at the University of Paris after he arrived in Paris in 1946 as a political refugee and (Jewish) survivor of the Holocaust from Romania, which was then being absorbed into the Soviet bloc of eastern European nations. After attending the University of Paris where he was a DuPont Scholar, and receiving a graduate degree in polymer chemistry he went to work for the French operations of the US company, Honeywell, in its adhesives formulating group. In the 1950s working from existing Honeywell technology he developed the modern form of polyvinylchloride (PVC)-based seam sealant used in the manufacturing of automobiles, and with the agreement of Honeywell, which licensed him some basic technologies that Honeywell was not then marketing in Europe, he founded a company in France, Caourep sarl, that grew by 1977 to be the largest producer of adhesives and sealants for the OEM automotive industry in the world. The Caourep Group followed the flag of European OEM automotive producers as they expanded in the first postwar wave of globalization in the 1960s and 70s. Caourep had its own plants or licensees in every country in which Renault, Peugeot, Fiat, VW, and Daimler-Benz operated directly or by licensing.
