Robert C. Ayotte, president and chief executive officer of Louisville, Ky.-based Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc., will retire December 31, 2000, following a career that spans 38 years in engineered materials industries. He began his career with Corning Glass Works in Corning, N.Y., and rapidly advanced through plant manufacturing, engineering and general management positions there and abroad. He came to Louisville in 1982 as president and general manager of Corhart Refractories Co., which was then a Corning subsidiary. In 1985, he led a management team in acquiring Corhart in a leveraged buyout and became its president and chief executive officer. In 1987, he successfully sold Corhart to Campagnie de Saint- Gobain and became president of the acquiring company, Saint-Gobain Industrial Ceramics, Inc., which was recently renamed Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc. Under Ayotte's leadership, the company has grown more than 35 times in revenue and is the worldwide leader in industrial ceramics and high performance plastics.