Novomer Names Industry Veteran Peter Shepard as Vice President of Business Development

Shepard Brings More than 25 Years of Specialty Chemical and Polymer Industry Experience to Novomer

Boston, Mass. – October 20, 2008 – Novomer Inc., a materials company pioneering a family of high-performance, biodegradable plastics, polymers and other chemicals from renewable substances, today announced the appointment of Peter Shepard as vice president of business development. Shepard brings more than 25 years of specialty chemical and polymer industry experience and a strong track record of forging industrial partnerships. Most recently serving as president and CEO of Nylon Corporation of America (NYCOA), Shepard was responsible for repositioning NYCOA and building internal capability as a specialty polymerizer of nylon 6 copolymers and nanocomposites. Today the company also announced the appointment of Jim Mahoney as CEO and a relocation of the corporate headquarters from Ithaca, N.Y. to Boston, Mass.

“Peter’s chemical industry expertise and business acumen make him an invaluable asset to Novomer,” said Novomer CEO Jim Mahoney. “As the company enters its next phase of growth, Peter’s unparalleled ability to establish and build key industrial partnerships, will be critical to scaling the market opportunity for Novomer’s innovation.”

“It is a great pleasure to be joining the Novomer team,” said Shepard. “Novomer’s ability to produce higher performing, cleaner and more environmentally sensitive chemicals and polymers, truly has the potential to change the way materials are manufactured and consumed. I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity and look forward to helping transform the vision into reality through a strong partner portfolio.”

During his tenure at NYCOA, Shepard re-organized the company and created significant growth in the specialty segment of the business through commercial development partnerships and new product development. Prior to that, he spent 16 years with Cabot Corporation in a variety of technical and business roles, his career culminating as founder and general manager of Cabot Corporation's Inkjet Pigment Business. Earlier in his career, he was a process and production engineer at Stauffer Chemical Company. Shepard has a MBA from Babson College and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

About Novomer

Novomer is a revolutionary new materials company pioneering a family of low-cost, high-performance, green plastics, polymers and other chemicals. Founded in 2004 by technology commercialization firm KensaGroup, Dr. Geoffrey Coates and Dr. Scott Allen, the company is based on pioneering catalysts developed at Cornell University. Novomer’s groundbreaking technology allows carbon dioxide and other renewable materials to be cost-effectively transformed into polymers, plastics and other chemicals for a wide variety of industrial markets. The company is partnered with equity investors DSM Venturing, Flagship Ventures, and Physic Ventures, and has received support from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

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