The Rubber Initiative® is a one day executive workshop for senior rubber industry professionals stepping into broader commercial roles. Built around frameworks tested in real rubber businesses under pressure.
Bringing a team? Book a private in-house delivery.
Delivered with the industry's global bodies
The industry runs strong technical training. Compounding, testing, materials science, process. The depth available is world class.
TRI sits alongside. We work on what the technical programmes don't yet cover: the leadership shift, innovation pipelines that commercialise, AI used to augment judgement, and the next-generation business sustainability question.
Same audience. Different subject matter.
EU and US regulation decoded for business leaders. Sustainability as an edge your competitors haven't earned yet. Pressure-test your three horizon positioning with peers and leave with the next move clear.
Dr Matthew Thornton
Lead across generations. Use AI as an extension of your own judgement. Shift from doer to enabler without losing authority.
Michael Clayton
Build innovation pipelines that commercialise. Allocate R&D resource by stage and risk.
Dr Matthew Thornton
Convert strategy into weekly execution. Build accountability without bureaucracy. Leave with an execution scorecard tuned to your operation.
Michael Clayton
The step from running the technical side to running the business is rarely mapped. Most people take it on instinct, then find out where the gaps are once they are already in the seat.
This is a five-minute read on where you stand. Fifteen statements across the five areas the step tends to test. Answer them honestly and you get a private picture of where you are strong and where to put your attention first.
Assess your readiness and generate a free strategic report.
Live webinar
30 July 2026 · 11am–12pm ET
Two short talks with ACS Rubber Division. Matthew Thornton on running an R&D pipeline that commercialises product instead of burning cash. Michael Clayton on the leadership and succession gap. Free for members.
North American delivery
30 September 2026 · The Global Polymer Summit
Delivered in partnership with ACS Rubber Division. Registration is open on the ACS site.
Bringing a team, or want the workshop delivered in house? We deliver privately as well.
Book a private deliveryarrow_forwardThe day is pitched at senior technical people stepping into broader commercial responsibility, and the general managers who have already made the jump.
Both cover-featured in TechnoBiz's Rubber Review.
Co-founder · Executive Chair, IRCO
Twenty-five years in manufacturing leadership, twenty of them in rubber, from compound developer to the executive chair. Michael works with leaders making the step into broader business roles.
Read Michael's Rubber Review interviewmenu_book
Co-founder · Secretary-General, IRCO
Two decades in advanced materials, from nanomaterials and graphene to biodegradability standards. Matthew helps good science find its way to market.
Read Matthew's Rubber Review interviewmenu_bookThe presentations at Vienna Rubber Week were a refreshing departure from the standard technical conferences. The core focus was on business leadership and why technical professionals must step into broader business roles … When they finished, the first question I asked was when they would bring the full workshop to Europe.
This is exactly the conversation our industry needs as one generation of experts passes its experience to the next. I was pleased to exchange views with Michael in Vienna on this important topic.
A working day with people who know the industry, built around discussion not delivery. You work on your own business through the day and leave with tools and a plan you can put to work straight away.