February 19, 2009

(MIDLAND, MICH.) - After 15 years at the helm, Michigan Molecular Institute President and CEO Robert Nowak will retire, he announced today.

Nowak’s retirement takes effect June 1. Dr. Ronald Yocum, chairman of the MMI Board of Directors, said Nowak’s successor will be named shortly. Yocum, who was on hand today when Nowak informed the MMI staff of his decision, said Nowak’s excellent tenure at MMI makes him a hard act to follow.

“MMI was on the verge of closing its doors, and Bob Nowak stepped in and brought a wholesale transformation, a new way of running a non-profit research organization, and it saved the institute,” Yocum said. “The result is an organization that employs 50 people and lays claim to some of the brightest polymer chemists in the field. Bob expects the best from people and from himself, and the bar is high for anyone who follows in his considerable footsteps.”

For his part, Nowak, 78, said it’s simply time.

“I’ve been thinking about retiring for many years, but never got around to it,” Nowak said. “When Ted Doan first convinced me to come over and help MMI go in a new direction, I said I would give him five years and no more. Well, it’s been fifteen great years, but I think it’s time to give somebody else a chance to see what they can do in terms of moving MMI forward.”

Asked what he’ll miss most, Nowak didn’t hesitate.

“The excitement of new technology and working with good people, especially the young people,” he said. “That interaction is what I’m really going to miss. There’s something new all the time; it never ends. Being a scientist is very different than a lot of other professions; I’ve been doing science for more than fifty years and I’ve never tired of it. I’m really going to miss that.”

Nowak came to MMI in 1994 following a distinguished 37-year career at The Dow Chemical Company in which he, at various junctures, served as Director of Central Research & Development (1983-’93) and Chief Scientist (‘90-’93). The holder of more than 40 domestic and foreign patents, Nowak’s experience made him a force in the lab and the business world, something MMI founder Herbert D. “Ted” Doan was seeking when he brought Nowak aboard. Members of MMI’s senior staff said that while they’ll be sorry to see Nowak go, his legacy is cemented.

“He reformatted the overall concept of the institute,” said Dr. Petar Dvornic, Manager of MMI’s Dendritic Polymers Group. “Bob was the one who defined MMI as a research institute with business-driven satellite organizations - Dendritech, Oxazogen, Impact Analytical and MITCON. But he also changed the mindset about what MMI should be, moving from a funded organization toward a self-sustaining organization. He almost single-handedly built MMI’s endowment fund while directing the research sector to go out and get startup funding for new projects, whether it was government grants, federal appropriations or unique collaborations.”

Recently-retired Dr. Dale Meier, who was literally the first scientist hired when MMI opened its doors in 1971, has seen every CEO MMI ever had, and he said none had a better grasp of the scientist/businessman duality that MMI needed to thrive than Nowak.

“Dr. Nowak is a unique individual in that he combines being a real scientist with a first-class business sense,” Meier said. “He was the savior of the institute when he arrived. At a time when the institute was facing closure as a result of a failed sense of direction, the policies that he instituted - both programs and individuals - were responsible for the institute becoming the success that it is today. That attests to his business acumen.”

“At the same time,” Meier added, “his scientific acumen is evidenced through things like his election to the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the great number of patents that appear with his name coming out of the institute.”

Nowak said he’s never understood how retirees fill their days, but it’s time to learn.

“You can only golf so much. You can only ski so much. You’ve got to find something useful to do - give to others, help in the community, give back your talents in some way,” he said. “I do know I will exercise a great deal more; I will play the piano a great deal more; and I will read a lot more. I have a ton of books that I keep buying, and I’ve always said, ‘Someday, I’ll read that book.’ And that someday is here.”

Nowak also served as President and CEO of Oxazogen, Inc. and CEO of Dendritech, Inc., two businesses launched under MMI’s auspices during his tenure.

Michigan Molecular Institute, founded in 1971, is a non-profit organization dedicated to polymer research and education. In addition to that research, MMI has served as the incubator for the several successful business divisions, including Dendritech, the world leader in commercial dendrimer production; Impact Analytical, an up-and-coming analytical testing lab; Oxazogen, a supplier of advanced specialty films, coating materials and polymers; and MITCON, which serves the information technology needs of more than 35 local non-profit organizations.