Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the February 7,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane: Genomics Firm
Stephen Anderson and Gaetano T. Montelione merged their
genomics business, Structure Function Genomics LLC, with San
Diego-based
GeneFormatics in mid January. A virtual company based on Springdale
Road in Princeton, Structure Function Genomics has software that uses
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to automatically
determine
the structure of proteins.
Function genomics is figuring out what is useful about genomic
sequences,
says Anderson. "Proteins are the actual product of the gene that
does the work and that drugs would be directed against. Proteins are
where the rubber meets the road for new pharmaceutical products. We
thought determining structure of the proteins would be useful for
pharmaceutical companies. We looked for partners and backers and had
some success but never got off the ground before GeneFormatics decided
they wanted to merge."
Montelione, an alumnus of Cornell, teaches and does research at
Rutgers.
Anderson, the son of a federal malpractice attorney, majored in
molecular
biology at Harvard, Class of 1972, and also has his doctoral degree
from Harvard, He was a scientist and manager at Genentech until he
came to Rutgers in 1988.
The Princeton company is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of
GeneFormatics,
which has research and commercial license arrangements with
Montelione’s
lab at Rutgers. Stephenson and Montelione signed over the non-cash
portion of the royalties to Rutgers, but they get stock in the merged
companies. "We get equal stock with the other executives at
GeneFormatics
and are being paid as consultants," says Anderson. "The
attraction
is that the sum is greater than the parts." Geneformatics had
raised $15 million and Anderson’s company had $10 million (from an
undisclosed source) and "this all went into the pot."
"GeneFormatics is now poised to take the lead in protein structure
and function determination for drug discovery," says John Chiplin,
president and CEO.
Springdale
Road, Princeton 08540. 609-497-9093; fax, 609-497-9391. Home page:
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New Business: WOW!
It is difficult to hear about Joe Parnett’s business
without saying its name. WOW Entertainment, a six-month old company
with offices on State Road, provides attractions to the IMAX theater
in Las Vegas, Ripleys in Atlantic City, and, mostly, to corporate
events and social affairs.
Hoarse after supervising a party the previous night, Parnett describes
one of the attractions he has purchased or licensed in travels around
the world. "It takes a picture and puts it on a boxing glove,"
he says. Friendly combatants, be they children attending a bar mitzvah
or sales reps at a team-building retreat, don gloves bearing each
other’s pictures and slug away.
If the mood is more love than war, the attraction might be a machine
that combines the facial features of lovers to project what their
offspring might look like. In another attraction, individuals enter
a phone booth and record a short message that is then transferred
onto a key chain.
Parnett, a 1991 graduate of Tulane University, worked at his family’s
business, Community Liquors on Witherspoon Street, until it was sold
in 1994. He then went to American Alpha in Monmouth Junction, a firm
in the entertainment attractions business.
"I started WOW Entertainment part time in 1997," Parnett says.
"I went full time last August." Already profitable, Parnett
has three fulltime employees, but goes up to 10 to 12 people on the
weekends.
Parnett says most of his business is in Manhattan, Long Island, and
Westchester. His business stationery just arrived and he is prepared
to start marketing in central New Jersey now. So far, most of his
bookings have come through relationships with event planners,
orchestra
leaders, and others in the business.
Striving to build an inventory of unique attractions, Parnett
frequently
travels to Europe and to Asia to scout out amusements others are
unlikely
to have.
Parnett lives in Montgomery with his wife, Nina, a native of the
former
Yugoslavia who holds a PhD. in chemical engineering, and their son,
Shon Aleksandar, 2. They are expecting another child in March.
Princeton
08540. Joe Parnett, owner. 609-279-1679; fax, 609-279-0391.
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Start-Ups
Princeton 08540. John Diehl. 609-252-9666; fax, 609-252-9633.
John Diehl opened a financial planning practice focusing on income
tax preparation and retirement planning. A graduate of Niagara
University,
Class of 1968, he worked for Coopers & Lybrand and spent 20 years
doing real estate banking in Miami, Florida. After moving to Princeton
for personal reasons he made a career change — working for another
financial planning firm before opening his own practice in December.
"Most of my clients are long-term investors," he says. His
advice: "Pay very close attention to your 401k, especially if
it is concentrated in your company’s stock."
608, Plainsboro 08536. Sriram Pasupuleti, owner. 609-750-9157; fax,
609-897-9593. Home page: www.friendlyconsultants.com.
Sriram Pasupuleti has worked as a programming consultant for such
firms as Paragon Consultants and Cambridge Research. The son of a
bank employee, he has a bachelor’s degree from Osmania University
in Hyderabad, India, Class of 1996, and he came to this country in
1998. He also has a brand-new firm, Vibgyor Solutions.
Friendly Consultants, which he founded with a friend, has six
programmers
working at customer sites in such languages as Java, Visual Basic,
and Unix. "We are filing for visas and are expecting to grow,"
he says.
Princeton 08542. Laura Gan, manager. 609-924-8225; fax, 609-924-8229.
Laura Gan, 38, made a career change to open the wireless phone sales
and service store with the help of a Manhattan-based silent partner;
she had been managing a Chinese restaurant and "wanted something
different."
A native of Canton, South China, she came to this country with her
family when she was a teenager. She studied at the Fashion Institute
of Technology, is married, and has two school-age children. Among
her brands are Voice Stream, MCI, Sprint PCS, Cingular (Cellular One),
and Nextel.
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New in Town
202, Princeton 08540. Hank Schoeffel, president. 609-951-9700; fax,
609-951-9125. Home page: www.cqassociates.com.
Career Quest Associates, an 18-person career consulting and executive
marketing firm, moved into 2,300 square feet on Alexander Road last
fall. Greg Gichan, vice president and co-founder, is a graduate of
Fordham University (Class of 1985).
According to Gichan, the firm is "the opposite of a
recruiter."
It works as an agent for individuals seeking new jobs, managing their
marketing efforts. Career Quest serves individuals in every industry,
Gichan says, ticking off law, accounting, finance, and information
technology. Lately, he says, the firm has been seeing a number of
executives "who were in very high positions in E-commerce."
1171, Plainsboro 08536. Robert Taylor, eastern sales manager.
609-716-1100;
fax, 609-716-6800.
The branch office of the firm based in Ceritos, California, takes
orders for flavors and fragrances. It opened here last year.
Road, Princeton 08540. Anne D. Kravitz, director of operations.
609-452-0990;
fax, 609-452-8965.
Business Insurance Services International, endorsed by International
School Services, moved into offices at 15 Roszel Road last year.
Founded
by Howard Kravitz, who holds a business and accounting degree from
the University of Indiana (Class of 1966) and an MBA from the
University
of Maryland, the company sells employee benefits and business
insurance
to schools around the world that educate both American expatriates
and local students.
Kravitz’ wife, Anne, a 1970 graduate of William Paterson University,
is director of operations. She says the company, with clients
"wherever
there are American schools," including Europe, South America,
the Far East, and Africa, is now moving into a new business area —
offering employee benefits to local companies with overseas-based
employees.
Square, Pennington 08534. Fred Bastedo, owner. 609-730-1850; fax,
609-730-0577.
Fred Bastedo moved Living Improvement, his water treatment company,
into space in Pennington Square last year. The business, which
performs
water testing and sells and services water treatment units for homes
and businesses, is a second career for Bastedo, a retired vocational
education teacher. A graduate of Trenton State (Class of 1976),
Bastedo
taught automotive repair at the Mercer County vocational schools for
25 years. He founded Living Improvement in 1993.
Street, Princeton 08540. 609-430-9404; fax, 425-928-9290.
Robert Barlow opened this office last fall. His firm brokers services,
including insurance and banking services, for homeowners and condo
associations.
Building B, Cranbury 08512. Siva Annaparedy, president. 609-409-4255;
fax, 609-409-4256. Home page: www.procti.com.
Pro Commerce Technologies Inc., a software consulting and development
company, moved into 2,500 square feet on Route 130 in Cranbury last
fall. Siva Annaparedy, founder and president, says the company, which
also has an office in India, employs five or more part-time employees
depending on the project. While most of Pro Commerce’s business now
comes from consulting, according to Annaparedy, who holds a PhD in
computer science from the India Institute of Science in Bangalore,
the company also has software products.
Its first product, a business-to-business tool, enables employees
to communicate with one another via the Internet regardless of their
physical locations. This software is undergoing testing. A second
product, software that authorizes different degrees of website access
to different categories of users, is under development.
Robbinsville
08691. Tom O’Hara, sales manager. 609-890-4646; fax, 609-890-4674.
Tom O’Hara opened a sales office last fall for a Whippany-based
manufacturer
of packaging materials. The company is 60 years old.
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Expansions
08520-0011.
Van Delfino, owner. 609-371-1554; fax, 609-371-7133. Home page:
Anton Zevenbergen sold his bicycle seat-making business to a retailer,
Van Delfino, who took over last month. The seat company moved from
Windsor Corporate Park to Delfino’s location, the Bicycle Rack, on
Route 33 in Hightstown.
Zevenbergen still owns the patent to the special saddle seat, but
he sold the name, name, website, inventory, customer list for an
undisclosed
price. The special anatomically correct seats that he invented are
particularly important for those with prostate sensitivity, because
they don’t crush the arteries in the groin. The seats are being made
in the Netherlands, as before, and Delfino is selling them wholesale
and retail. Retail cost is $100.
DelFino opened his own shop in 1983. He has a full line of bikes
including
Univega, Diamondback, Giant, Mongoose, and Bianchi.
16, Pennington 08534. Matthew J. Doherty, investment representative.
609-333-1363; fax, 877-222-6361. Home page:
Matthew Doherty nearly doubled his space with a move from 680 square
feet at Pennington Point to a office at Pennytown previously held
by another Edward D. Jones representative. It is a branch of the St.
Louis based brokerage with 5,500 offices in 50 states.
Doherty, whose late father was a manager for the Port Authority,
graduated
in 1996 from the College of New Jersey and worked as a public
accountant
for J.H. Cohn on Lenox Drive. "When my father passed away,"
he says, "I had a friend who helped our family with all the
unexpected
details and I liked what he was able to do for us. Now I can help
others with their business and personal financial goals."
200, Princeton 08540. Richard A. Maloy Jr., president CEO.
609-987-0221;
fax, 609-987-0490. Home page: www.insurehitech.com.
Early in January Rick Maloy moved his web-based insurance business
from 2,500 square feet at 228 Alexander Road to 26,000 feet at the
building formerly occupied by Bovis Construction in Forrestal Village.
His fully functional web platform connects the broker with the
customer
and the insurance company.
Though many portals geared to small business will take online
applications,
Maloy insists on having one of his agents interview each applicant
and to fill out the application. "We are dealing with very
sophisticated
companies with sophisticated technology risks," he says (U.S.
1, August 16, 2000).
Building
1, Suite J, Lawrenceville 08648. W. Thomas Garland MD, principal.
609-895-1492; fax, 609-895-0274.
The pharmaceutical product/consumer product testing and evaluation
company has become a Radiant Research clinical testing site. W. Thomas
Garland is a native of Berkeley Heights who earned a bachelor’s in
chemistry in 1974 and a medical degree in 1978, both from Tulane
University.
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Management Moves
08540. Boris Fridman, president. 609-734-0300; fax, 609-734-0346.
Home page: www.broadbeam.com.
Sri Sridharan, former COO of ServiceNet, has replaced R. Barry Borden
as the president and chief operating officer for Broadbeam
Corporation,
the wireless application infrastructure provider formerly known as
Nettech. He will manage Broadbeam’s aggressive growth and rapid global
expansion and will report to Boris Fridman, chairman and CEO of
Broadbeam.
Borden will be a consultant to Broadbeam.
In 1985 Sridharan had co-founded and managed an IT Services firm,
Global Technology Limited. At IBM, starting in 1995, he developed
and executed the business plan for IBM’s Network Based Applications
on a subscription basis, and he also had responsibility for market
for IBM Network Services. As COO of ServiceNet, owned by Accenture
(previously Andersen Consulting), Sridharan’s responsibilities
included
managing 180 professionals worldwide and overseeing eight global ASP
sites.
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Deaths
priest, he was on the faculty at Princeton University until 1995.
He had been manager of the plastics division of General Motors in
Ewing.
at the New Jersey Bankers Association on Harrison Street.
chimney
repair company in Pennington.
from Lockheed Martin on Princeton Hightstown Road.
NASA-certified
wirer at EMR Photoelectric.
supervisor for Techne Inc. on Alexander Road.
accountant
with Deloitte & Touche and taught at Rider University.
supervisor at the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company on
Sullivan
Way in West Trenton.
year she worked for the Lakeview Childcare Center.
carpenter
at Princeton University.
retired
senior research engineer and physicist at Princeton University.
buyer with Educational Testing Service.
a manager with Federal Express on Sloan Avenue.
Trap Rock.
of urban planning at Princeton University.
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