Robert C. Whitten has been promoted to Corporate Officer of Showa Denko KK, Tokyo, Japan, and will also serve as Officer in Charge of Global Marketing. He will continue to serve as President and CEO of Showa Denko Carbon, Inc. (SDKC) in Ridgeville, SC, USA.
Whitten joined SDKC in 1988 at the inception of the company.  During the business start-up, he was Assistant Manager of Marketing and Sales and was responsible for hiring and training a new sales force for North and South America. In 1994 he was promoted to Vice President, Sales and Marketing. He assumed his current role as President and CEO in 2005.
Active in a variety of professional and civic organizations, Whitten serves on the Associate Member Executive Committee of the Steel Manufacturers Association of America and is a past Chairman.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Trident United Way and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.
Before joining SDKC, Whitten worked for Airco Carbon, a Division of the BOC Group, which was the predecessor company of SDKC, and Vulcan, Inc. He was also a US Naval Officer for five years after university graduation.
Whitten was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville in 1973.