Sean O’Connor Named President and CEO of Nucelis

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Board of Directors of Nucelis Corporation announced that it has named Dr. Sean P. O’Connor as president and CEO, effective immediately. In his new role, Dr. O’Connor will tap his significant experience in the specialty chemical industry and will also serve as a member of the board of directors.

“I look forward to working with the board and the outstanding employees already in place in Nucelis to build this enterprise into a biotechnology powerhouse.”

Dr. O’Connor has served in a number of senior business management roles at Chemtura Corporation, most recently as President of Chemtura’s Petroleum Additives business unit based in Connecticut. He previously managed Chemtura’s Polymer Additives portfolio, which generated revenues of over $1B from manufacturing and marketing additives used in PVC, polyolefins and in engineering plastics. Prior to this, he worked in a number of different roles at British Petroleum in the United Kingdom. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Bristol.

“On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Sean to Nucelis so he can build the company to reach its significant potential,” said Rory Riggs, chairman. “Dr. O’Connor has a great blend of commercial and technology experience including a long history of successfully commercializing new products.”

“Nucelis has developed a highly differentiated technology, and I am very excited to be given the opportunity to realize value from this for the shareholders and our customers,” Dr. O’Connor said. “I look forward to working with the board and the outstanding employees already in place in Nucelis to build this enterprise into a biotechnology powerhouse.”

Nucelis Corporation is a pioneering specialty chemicals company with a unique, patented technology for modifying cell structure and function. The technology has broad and potentially significant commercial value in numerous industries that are now turning to sustainable and renewable products and chemistry. These include the cosmetics industry, products for the food and fragrance industries, and specialty edible oils with particular health benefits. The company has recently initiated product development programs in yeast and certain crop plants to address some of these opportunities. In some cases, Nucelis applications hold the promise to offer an alternative source to products currently sourced from endangered species.

Nucelis uses its unique patented technology, Rapid Trait Development System (“RTDS™”), which relies on the cell’s own repair mechanism to implement changes, rather than inserting foreign materials into a cell’s DNA sequence. RTDS has been certified as non-transgenic by the US Department of Agriculture. The categorization of the technology as distinct from transgenic, or Genetically Modified (“GM”), methods gives Nucelis a protected competitive position in major agricultural-producer locations, such as Europe, where GM is not well accepted. It also allows for much shorter and less costly development/certification processes in those geographies where Nucelis products would be competing with transgenic products such as in the United States.

For more information, please visit www.nucelis.com.