Sticking to Success: A.I. Technology
Marketing Muscle: Braun Expands
Virtual Classes Grow: STG & PLS
Corrections or additions?
Life in the Fast Lane
These articles were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on
November 25, 1998. All rights reserved.
Top Of Page
Sticking to Success: A.I. Technology
If you use an epoxy to help assemble a space shuttle
or a computer or a sensitive electronic component, you want that epoxy
to keep its flexibility no matter what. A.I. Technology (AIT) can
boast about its epoxies; they are flexible, they work better than
solder, and they operate within a wide range of temperatures.
Success with nearly 300 such products has helped AIT double its
business
in two years. Founded in 1981 by Kevin Chung, this high tech
manufacturing
firm bought the old McLean Engineering building on
Princeton-Hightstown
Road and moved in with nearly 100 employees last month. AIT
manufactures
adhesives, epoxies, and thermal materials for the computer,
communications,
and power supply industries; it also provides services to these
industries.
All products are made to order and delivered within two weeks. Their
shelf life ranges from several months to a year, and some must be
stored at below zero temperatures. Pricing ranges from pennies per
square inch of sheet material to several hundred dollars for some
of the epoxies that are used in very specific esoteric applications,
says Joe Tallone, manager of marketing and sales. AIT, which had been
based on Princess Road, markets its products in Asia and South America
as well as in the United States. All manufacturing, sales, and
shipping
are done in Princeton Junction.
One segment of AIT’s product line consists of films,
pastes and gels that guard against heat — the great enemy of
computers
and other electronic products. "These materials are specifically
designed to help conduct heat from a processor into a heat sink,"
says Tallone. "Our thermal materials help conduct heat from a
sensitive electronic component or chip into a heat sink, which can
then disperse the heat through its `fins.’" This thermal material
is used in a range of sizes, from small chips and components to
products
as large as power supply units.
AIT also manufactures adhesives and epoxy materials that are available
in electrically conductive and nonconductive form, and also in
thermally
conductive form. The prize epoxies are so flexible they can survive
without fracturing when used to bond electronic components that expand
at different temperatures. They are provided in both pastes (in
syringes
for automatic dispensing) and other formats (including sheet material
of 11-inch width up to any length). "These materials are used
in everything from the computers and power suppliers for the space
program to medical equipment such as pacemakers," says Tallone.
Companies desiring to move away from solder in the manufacturing
process
will be helped by the AIT product line. Solder is time consuming to
apply and contains lead, a hazardous material. "There is a
definite
risk of solder fracturing when components are turned off and on,"
says Tallone. "With AIT’s flexible epoxy, there is no fracturing
between the connection." The product, called Solder-Sub, has been
tested by major companies and is presently being introduced worldwide
by computer, multi-chip, ball grid assembly (BGA), and other component
manufacturers.
Clients can outsource some of their manufacturing operations to AIT.
One service, for heat sink manufacturers, involves placing thermal
materials on heat sinks or heat spreaders and shipping them to
computer
makers and small power suppliers. "We have to heat the heat sink
and place it accurately at a high rate of speed," says Tallone.
Another service involves using lid-sealing material to bond two halves
of, for instance, a smart card or a telephone handset. Some of these
AIT pastes protect against electro-magnetic leakage.
A proprietary service involving epoxy deposits as a replacement for
solder has the potential to be extremely valuable, says Tallone.
"Other
companies are doing this using our materials."
Chung, 47, obtained his PhD in physics from Rutgers University and
previously worked for RCA as well as other major companies. He holds
about 10 to 15 patents in the field and is a speaker of record on
polymer flip chip, thermal materials and other adhesive topics.
Chung’s
wife, Cynthia Chu, is also a principal in the firm. They have two
teenage children.
Tallone, 50, went to Rider and has an MBA from Seton Hall. He
previously
worked for W. R. Grace as manager of planning, for B&D as corporate
planning director, and for the federal government as director of trade
for the mid-Atlantic region. Tallone is married with one teenage
child.
At 60,000 square feet, AIT’s new facility is almost eight times the
size of its old location on Princess Road. The 16-acre property,
complete
with a lake, had been owned by McLean Engineering, a manufacturer
of fans and blowers, which moved to Robbinsville. Fennelly Associates
had marketed the property for $2.45 million. Bond financing from the
New Jersey Economic Development Authority helped guarantee AIT’s bank
loan. "Caren Franzini and team were instrumental in helping to
obtain financing at a more favorable purchasing opportunity,"
says Tallone.
A good measure of the company’s business has been won from its
competitors
during the past two years. "We plan on continuing with this same
rate of growth in 1999," says Tallone.
— Jeff Lippincott
08540. Kevin Chung, president. 609-896-3838; fax, 609-896-3315.
E-mail:
aitech@tigger.jvnc.net. Home page: http://www.aitechnology.com.
Top Of Page
Stock News:
Chrysalis Bought
A Canadian firm, Phoenix International Life Sciences,
has bought Chrysalis International Corp., and will acquire all its
outstanding shares and debt. Fifty people working on College Road
in Chrysalis Transgenic Services will stay at that location, but 10
people in a headquarters office in Raritan will be moved, either to
Canada or to College Road. Phoenix will issue shares worth $8.29
million
and assume $10.5 million in debt.
Traded on Nasdaq as CRLS, the company develops therapeutic products
and biological testing services on transgenic animals. But its largest
project was canceled in midstream, and it lost 25 cents per share
in the third quarter, three times the loss for that quarter last year.
The nine-month loss of $6.7 million was four times the loss for the
same period last year.
The College Road lab, says CFO John G. Cooper, "is very
well-positioned
for future growth." Chrysalis evolved from DNX, the firm made
famous by its work with pigs that produce human-like blood, as did
its neighbor at 303 College Road, Nextran. Nextran holds the rights
to the pig research, while Chrysalis works with genetically engineered
lab mice.
East, Princeton Forrestal Center, Princeton 08540. Mark E. Swanson,
vice president transgenic sciences. 609-520-0300; fax, 609-520-9864.
Top Of Page
Stock News: Covance Buys
Chris Kuebler, chairman and CEO. 609-452-8550; fax, 609-452-9375.
Home page: http://www.covance.com.
Covance Inc. has bought GDXI Inc., a leading provider of centralized
electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis for clinical trials. ECG analysis
is one of the most important and frequently utilized diagnostic tools
in clinical trials, with more than 50 percent of all clinical trials
including it as part of the study protocol. The purchase price was
not disclosed.
"This acquisition reflects our strategy of shaping solutions for
our customers by providing them with rapid access to high quality
data that accelerates the drug development process," says Chris
Kuebler, chairman and CEO of the Carnegie Center-based firm.
GDXI has processed more than 5 million ECG’s since it was founded
in 1972. The company is currently supporting clinical trials involving
more than 31,000 patients at over 2,300 sites worldwide. GDXI
distributes
a proprietary hand-held ECG device to clinical trial sites that can
be used anywhere in the world. The device collects the data, performs
a real-time quality check, then transmits the information by telephone
to GDXI’s central operations center in Reno, Nevada, which is staffed
24 hours a day, seven days a week. On-site cardiologists review the
information and provide a patient report to the study sponsor within
24 hours.
"Our systems and processes help eliminate errors and get the data
into the hands of investigators quickly," says J.B. Bultman, GDXI
president. "This reduces the cost and time involved in conducting
clinical trials."
Top Of Page
Marketing Muscle: Braun Expands
Market researcher Paul Braun has doubled his company’s
space at Research Park, adding 3,200 square feet for a total of 6,200
feet. He has also doubled his staff from what it was six months ago,
going to 10 full-time employees and 170 permanent part-timers.
"Our sales are up significantly this year," says Braun. Only
a small part of it, he says, was due to the election polls.
"Elections
counted for 20 percent, because we were doing work for national news
magazines, but I have work booked to April of ’99."
The Research Park location, because it is on a bus line, has helped
Braun recruit part-time interviewers; about one-fifth use the bus.
For such clients as national news agencies, television networks, and
local and national research firms, the firm does business-to-business
research during the day, and consumer research on weekends and
evenings.
Braun has been working in the research field since 1979. He quit a
New York job five years ago because he was working 19 hours a day,
seven days a week. He and his wife were starting to raise a family,
so he took a job with a Princeton-based market research firm, was
fired after 15 months, and founded his own firm to be a direct vendor
and a contract company for telephone market research. At that time,
three years ago, the name was Leitner/Braun.
Now Braun subcontracts to 40 research firms ranging from Mathematica
on Morgan Lane to Global Strategy Research in Manhattan. Other clients
include Princeton Survey Research, American Opinion Research, Research
Strategies, and Mapes & Ross. Clients not related to the research
industry include Peterson’s, Prudential, and Wisconsin-based Mosaic
Funds, a firm which helps parents anticipate college costs.
Like every young company Braun Research has had growing pains. "I
sleep so little, as it is, all someone has to do is breathe the wrong
way," he confesses. Earlier this year he had some unnerving
warnings
from his accountant, Jim Rose of Rose Dultz Associates. "He made
me listen to the possibility that in six months — with a three
paycheck month in October — I might be out of business." Rose
offered the help of a factor, a lender who advances cash in return
for buying receivables. Braun decided against it and, as it turned
out, he believes he made the right choice.
Timing, he says, is one of his strengths. "I knew when I needed
to buy my partner out. Now I know I have to make investments in
people.
When we get money, we give it to them. The people I have hired are
mostly my friends and people I have known for many years," says
Braun. "It is an ensemble cast. They all have ambitious visions
on what their careers are going to be like."
"It comes down to what a company exists for," says Braun.
"It’s the `vision thing’ if you will. I try to be a different
kind of boss. I let people try to be comfortable with their own
philosophy.
I wouldn’t mind being rich but I’m not. My goals are to send my kids
to college and to retire."
A Brooklyn native who majored in political science at Brooklyn
College,
he lives in Princeton with his wife, Carol Miller Braun (who works
in the emergency road service phone department for Triple A), and
they have two preschool children, Amanda and Stephen. His father,
Murray Braun, was a coat cutter in the garment industry. Says Paul:
"He busts his buttons when he sees his name on the door."
08540. Paul A. Braun, president. 609-279-1600; fax, 609-279-1318.
E-mail: braunres@aol.com.
Top Of Page
Virtual Classes Grow: STG & PLS
Web-based training is growing as fast or faster than
the Web itself. These virtual learning programs provide documentation
of the learning process and spur productivity, so they can be a
cost-effective
solution for the in-field training of decentralized sales forces.
They are also useful for helping trade groups document professional
accreditation courses, as well as for colleges and universities
offering
virtual instruction. The courses can be speedily published and easily
revised, provide measurable results, and are customizable to any skill
level.
The United States market for virtual learning programs was $197
million
last year, says International Data Corporation, but is expected to
grow to more than $6 billion by 2002. An IDC analyst described it
as "one of the most dramatic growth industries in existence today,
showing clear signs for long-term viability."
In line with this growth, two virtual learning companies in Princeton
are expanding. STG International LLC added three people in the last
year and has changed its name, to more accurately reflect its
business,
to VLearn International. Princeton Learning Systems is growing its
staff from 13 to 18 and has physically expanded, from Forrestal
Village
to State Road.
08540. Thomas D’Innocenzi, president & CEO. 609-514-5000; fax,
609-452-7009.
Home page: http://www.vlearn.com.
"Our product is a virtual learning product," says Jim Scott,
the chief financial officer of the 11-year-old VLearn International.
It had started out as Systems Task Group, became STG Technology, and
then acquired Darien Technology before changing its name. The firm
has added three employees in the past year.
Among VLearn’s contracts are one for doing English language training
over the Internet through a Taiwan-based program called Merica Chain
Group, Asia’s largest English training and test preparation company.
VLearn also has a contract with the ministry of education in Singapore
to develop curriculum for Internet training in the classroom.
On another front, it is one of the few companies to provide a tool
over the Internet to get the employees involved in solving the Year
2K problem to make them part of the solution. Called PC Aid 2000 it
helps workers at multinational companies assess their PCs to identify
hardware and software that needs to be upgraded. It also provides
real-time reporting and control of the PC problem (U.S. 1, March 12,
1997, and August 19, 1998).
212, Princeton 08540. William J. Healy PhD, president. 609-924-2882;
fax, 609-520-1702. E-mail jnazario@fsu.org. Home page:
Princeton Learning Systems develops financial and securities industry
compliance and education systems under the aegis of Financial Services
University (FSU), a Web site configured to perform all the functions
of a virtual campus (U.S. 1, September 4, 1996; March 12, 1997; and
May 27, 1998). At the 1996 founding, William J. Healy and Steven Haase
aimed for $45 million annual sales and a before tax profit of $15.6
million by 1999.
Thomas Crawford has come from J.H. Cohn to be senior operating
officer,
and Juan Villegas, formerly webmaster for Merrill Lynch’s in-house
Learning Network, is director of learning technologies. Just
announced:
William J. Lombardo as executive vice president of sales and
marketing.
New contracts have added 30,000 employees to the FSU user base.
"Studies have shown that because new training technology is
customarily
self-paced, multimedia, interactive, and mastery-based, it is capable
of increasing retention by 40 percent," says Healy. "Since
it can be accessible after hours, time-off-the-job as well as actual
learning time can be reduced by as much as 60 percent and delivery
costs up to 70 percent."
Top Of Page
Taken Over? Don’t Despair
08530. Stephen J. Souza, president. 609-397-5335; fax, 609-397-5333.
E-mail: phydro@worldnet.att.net.
Princeton Hydro LLC turns out to be a remarkable exception to the
rule that — when companies are acquired, re-engineered or
downsized
— employees are left out in the cold. In July, 1996, Post Buckley
Schuh & Jernigan (PBS&J), based in Miami, bought out the Quakerbridge
Road office of Coastal Environmental Services. In July of this year
PBS&J decided it was not a "good fit" and closed down the
shop. Another tragic story? Far from it.
The nucleus of the Quakerbridge Road office — Stephen Souza, Mark
Gallagher, and Geoffrey Goll — negotiated with PBS&J and bought
the company from them. They continued operations under a new name,
Princeton Hydro. PBS&J agreed to transfer all existing backlog, plus
the office furniture and sampling equipment, to the new company, which
continued to conduct business at Quakerbridge Road. On September 1
PBS&J officially ceased its operations and Princeton Hydro opened
its offices in Lambertville.
Princeton Hydro now does business as a water and wetland resources
management consulting company. The staff includes an engineer, wetland
scientists, aquatic biologists, and environmental scientists. Stephen
Souza, president of Princeton Hydro, got his Ph.D in ecology/fishery
biology, from the University of Connecticut. He did his graduate
studies
in Environmental Science at Rutgers University after majoring in
marine
biology from the University of Massachusetts, Class of ’74. Souza
is responsible for the direction and coordination of all lake, pond,
and reservoir projects.
Mark Gallagher, senior vice president, is responsible for the
supervision
of a broad variety of environmental assessment activities, primarily
involving wetlands and wildlife habitat elements. He has a bachelor’s
in biology from Moravian College, Class of ’77, and a master’s degree
in botany and plant physiology from Rutgers. Geoffrey M. Goll, program
director, environmental engineering, specializes in the development
of engineering designs and permits for the preparation of applications
for state and federal agencies. He got his bachelor’s in civil
engineering
from Rutgers University, Class of 1990.
Princeton Hydro provides consulting, design, and implementation
services
in the areas of lake and wetland resources restoration and management
to both private and public sector clients. Clients include Princeton
Township, Merrill Lynch, OENJ Corporation, Merck, and lake
associations
throughout the tri-state region.
Cranbury 08512. Dean Ritts, environmental engineer. 609-716-0809;
E-mail: dritts@mindspring.com.
The Clean Air Act is alive and well in New Jersey, says Dean Ritts,
and he is here to help you cope with it. "From what I have worked
with New Jersey regulators, they have been very diligent about
following
what they were supposed to be doing," says Ritts. He opened the
New Jersey branch of this Virginia-based environmental engineering
firm that does industrial waste water treatment and air quality
engineering.
The president of Millennium Science & Engineering, Andy Loven, had
been president of Engineering Science, which has since evolved into
Parsons Infrastructure and Technology, the firm that has the contract
to do the motor vehicle inspections in New Jersey. This office serves
such clients as American Cyanamid and Merck. "We keep companies
from going afoul of the Clean Air Act," says Ritts, "by
inventorying
emissions and designing air pollution strategies."
A biology and history major at Duke University, Class of ’84, Ritts
has a master’s in civil engineering from San Jose state. He worked
for Acurex Corporation, doing air quality engineering, and engineering
science in air quality and waste water treatment engineering. He has
been with Millennium for 18 months; his wife, Rosalyn Ritts, is a
director at Sarnoff. They met at Duke, where she earned her biomedical
engineering degree. They have two children, ages nine and five.
Asked for an example, Ritts tells of a company in Georgia that was
worried over its compliance with the EPA’s risk management program.
"We showed them that if they reduced their inventory of propane
they would not have to comply with the program. For a few hundred
dollars of our time we saved them thousands of dollars of
paperwork,"
says Ritts.
"There is a fine line between giving the engineering solution
versus doing what the really customer needs to solve a problem,"
Ritts says. "For instance, you can buy a Cadillac or a Volkswagen,
but the Volkswagen may be the best choice for a particular
client."
Top Of Page
Expansions
Cranbury Plaza, Cranbury 08512. Thomas Palmisano. Home page:
After the recent down-sizing at Dow Jones, Thomas Palmisano left with
some of his cohorts in the tech support group to join this 20-year-old
computer firm. Palmisano is establishing a call center to diagnose
unbranded products, on warranty, for hardware and software problems.
It is connected with Alpha’s service center in Edison. The service
center has no telephone number available to the general public but
the company may be reached in California at 714-957-8500.
Top Of Page
Management Moves
Cranbury
08512-7500. David Eckert, president, North American chemicals.
609-860-4000;
fax, 609-860-0074.
Gilles Grenier has moved from France to be general manager of Rhodia
Silicones North America. Silicones are used for release coatings for
pull-off protective backings on self-adhesive labels and envelopes,
and also for fluids and sealants for industrial markets. The division
also makes and markets room temperature vulcanizing agents for the
electronics, aerospace, and automotive industries. Rhodia is a
subsidiary
of Rhone-Poulenc S.A. The campus at Prospect Plains Road houses the
division headquarters for surfactants, fine organics, food
ingredients,
water soluble polymers, latex and specialty polymers, and phosphorus
products.
Top Of Page
Crosstown Moves
Street,
Research Park, Princeton 08540. Thomas D. Dario, president.
609-252-1501;
fax, 609-252-1503.
The seven-person landscape maintenance office moved from 1,700 feet
at Princeton Meadows Office Center to similar-sized space in Research
Park and has a new phone and fax. It is the wholly owned subsidiary
of Medford-based Canterbury Corporate Services.
Top Of Page
Leaving Town
Road, East Windsor 08520. 609-394-4753; fax, 609-394-4758.
As a result of its merger with CoreStates, First Union National Bank
closed this office on November 6 and has sold it for $800,000 to an
investor in Pennsylvania. The 2,500-foot building has 12.4 acres.
Glenn Blumenthal represented First Union National Bank, and the
listing
brokers were Sab Russo and Terry Lencheski of CB Richard Ellis Central
New Jersey, based in Iselin. The bank retained a branch at 29
Princeton-Hightstown
Road.
New Brunswick 08903. Alison Thornton, director. 732-214-8272; fax,
In the fall, as planned, the Witherspoon Street office closed and
consolidated with one in New Brunswick. It employs college students
to raise awareness and campaign for causes such as the Sierra Club
or issues sponsored by the Public Interest Research Groups or PIRGs.
Langhorne
19047-1949. John S. Punyko, president. 215-757-5644; fax,
215-757-7923.
E-mail: jpunyko@ix.netcom.com.
John Punyko has moved his sales training firm from 600 Alexander Road
to Langhorne.
Top Of Page
Death
professor of physics at Princeton University.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
Facebook Comments