Chemical & Engineering News takes another featured look (login required) at entrepreneurial St Louis chemist Shri Thanedar and the company he founded here, Chemir Analytical Services. At the time of their last look in 2006, Chemir was growing at a healthy pace. But acquisitions just before the 2008 recession and venture capital drought spelled trouble for the financial position of the company. Chemir was now owned by Bank of America. Rather than dismantle it, though, BoA decided to sell it, a credit to the value Thanedar and his employees had created. It is now owned by Evans Analytical Group, and is again in excellent health. Chemir’s workforce is up 9% and sales up 30% from pre-sale levels, and EAG has targeted Chemir to grow 50% per year through 2016. The whole story is an eye-opener about a part of the chemistry enterprise most of us never think about: chemical entrepreneurship.
Full disclosure: Chemir has been a long-standing advertiser in the Chemical Bond.
“Computers and the physics of complex biological systems”
