Specialty Polymers Company ATRP Solutions Picks Up Steam With New Leadership, Products and Funding

Randy Eager Named Chief Executive Officer

PITTSBURGH, July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Randy Eager has been named CEO at ATRP Solutions, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-out which develops polymeric materials for personal care products, paints, adhesives, coatings and life sciences applications.  Randy is the former Founder and CEO of the Carnegie Mellon spin-out, DesignAdvance Systems, built a successful business unit within the polymers division of BASF, and most recently was Executive in Residence at Innovation Works, one of the nation's most active investors in seed-stage technology companies. In addition to building out the leadership team, ATRP is preparing its next breakthrough products for commercial launch and has had the initial close on a round of funding.

Building sales and product development momentum has led to investment from industry insiders, seasoned angels and follow-on funding from Innovation Works. "Over the last two years, ATRP Solutions has experienced rapid revenue growth for its existing products and an expanding product pipeline. We are excited to attract a CEO with a rich track record of building large polymer product businesses," said Patrick McCarthy, President of ATRP Solutions.  "With his considerable experience as a CEO and with his management role at BASF, Randy has the right mix of skills and experience to lead ATRP Solutions through the next phase of its development."

"We are happy to see Randy step into a leadership role with one of our high potential portfolio companies," says Rich Lunak, President & CEO of Innovation Works.  "Randy's prior experience as the CEO of a start-up, knowledge of the polymer industry and experience in raising early-stage finance will be a real plus for the company.  ATRP Solutions is building a high-quality team around their breakthrough chemistry solutions.  We are even more bullish than ever about ATRP's prospects to become a fast-growing, regional technology company."

Early customers are testing a new thickening agent by ATRP engineered to address weaknesses in thickening ingredients currently in use in the personal care and cosmetic industry.  The new product, Advantomer™, thickens things like lotions and shampoos with a very small amount of material and has the unique ability to absorb and deliver small molecules – such as fragrances and drugs – over time.  "We are able to utilize the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process to produce engineered polymers with superior qualities over existing polymers," said Mr. McCarthy.  "These qualities are highly sought-after.  We're seeing an increase in product sales from customers across North America, Asia and Europe and anticipate continued growth through 2011."

About ATRP Solutions, Inc. - ATRP Solutions, Inc. (www.atrpsolutions.com) is an innovative specialty polymers company that spun out of Carnegie Mellon University to commercialize atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) technology.  It is a revolutionary process for manufacturing polymers engineered for specific properties. This technology resulted from 15 years of research at CMU and was funded by more than $10 million in government grants. ATRP is a platform technology that is being used to address persistent problems across the broad $20 billion specialty polymer industry.  The company has chosen personal care and cosmetics market as the market of entry because polymers are the critical value adding component of most of the products in this very dynamic industry.  ATRP is an Innovation Works portfolio company.

About Innovation Works - Innovation Works is the Ben Franklin Technology Partner (BFTP) of Southwestern PA.  As one of the nation's most active investors in seed-stage technology companies, Innovation Works provides regional startups in all technology sectors with the risk capital and business mentoring they need to grow and succeed.  Over the last ten years, Innovation Works has invested over $45 million in roughly 125 companies.  These companies have gone on to raise more than $800 million in follow-on capital.

SOURCE ATRP Solutions, Inc.