Management
Chief Executive Officer, Director
Throughout his career, Jim Mahoney has established a track record of driving new innovations in chemistry into high growth markets. He brings over 20 years of senior executive experience at various biotechnology, healthcare and specialty chemicals companies to Novomer. In addition to having been the CEO of Surface Logix Inc. and Prolinx Inc., he previously held senior executive positions at Dade Behring Inc, Baxter International, and FMC Corporation. Mr. Mahoney has an MBA degree from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg School of Management, an MMA degree in international economics from the University of Southern California and a BS degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Executive Vice President, Polymers
Mr. Shepard brings more than 25 years of specialty chemical and polymer industry experience and a strong track record of forging industrial partnerships. Most recently Mr. Shepard served as president and CEO of Nylon Corporation of America (NYCOA), a specialty polymerizer of nylon 6 copolymers and nanocomposites. Prior to NYCOA, Mr. Shepard spent 16 years with Cabot Corporation in a variety of technical and business roles, including as founder and general manager of Cabot Corporation's Inkjet Pigment Business and as a process and production engineer at Stauffer Chemical Company. Mr. Shepard has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a MBA from Babson College.
Vice President, Research and Development
Ron Valente leads process research and development for Novomer at Ithaca, N.Y. Dr. Valente brings with him more than 20 years of research, development and manufacturing experience. Most recently, he served as Division Manager for Rochester Film Base Manufacturing, the manufacturing operations for all of Eastman Kodak acetate and polyester film base support. In his tenure as Division Manager, he was responsible for the production of over one billion dollars of finished material and helped lead major transitions in manufacturing operations. Prior to his Manufacturing Leadership position, he was Division Director of the Worldwide Process R&D efforts for specialty chemicals at Kodak. There he emphasized rigorous operational methods to produce innovative, robust and commercially successful chemical processes. Dr. Valente has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Rochester.
Co-founder, Vice President of Catalyst Development
In 2004 Dr. Allen earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry working with Dr. Coates at Cornell. His Ph.D. work focused on the design of catalysts for the controlled ring-opening polymerization of heterocycles. He co-founded Novomer in 2004 and leads the company's research and polymer commercialization efforts.