Mercedes Landazuri works in operations management and customer relations at Apex Colors Inc. and is a newly appointed board member of the Color and Appearance Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers and SPE's Chicago Section and NextGen Advisory Board. When Mercedes Landazuri was studying Russian, German, French and Japanese at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., her original plan was to receive her Ph.D. and become a professor to teach Russian.