NineSigma Announces Paul Stiros As New President and CEO

CLEVELAND, OH – September 16, 2004 – NineSigma, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based innovation sourcing firm, has named Paul Stiros as the company’s President and CEO, effective immediately. Stiros joins NineSigma from The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) where he spent his career in a number of senior management positions with the Fabric and Home Care division. P&G is one of NineSigma’s Fortune 500 clients. Stiros replaces Dr. Lawrence Mitchell who has elected to retire as President but will stay on with the company as a part-time Senior Program Manager.

Prior to joining NineSigma, Stiros was Director, New Business Development and Licensing for the Fabric & Home Care unit where he led the development of a series of innovative products including Swiffer®, Mr. Clean AutoDryTM, and ScentstoriesTM by FebrezeTM, which have contributed significantly to P&G’s growth. Stiros has had foreign assignments in Belgium and Switzerland where he led various R&D and business development initiatives including P&G’s entry into new markets such as Egypt, Turkey, Korea and China. Most recently, Stiros served as Director Corporate Function R&D, Corporate Innovation & Knowledge, where he worked with external service providers supporting P&G’s “Connect & Develop” strategy.

“Industry is clearly in the early stages of adopting open innovation and NineSigma appears to be entering a period of rapid growth,” said Richard Schwarz, Chairman of NineSigma. “Paul brings to our organization valuable experience in corporate innovation management, as well as tremendous credentials for his work in leading a Fortune 100 product development organization.” Schwarz continued, “His leadership, insight, and experience will resonate with many of our customers and potential clients as they seek to apply our company’s proven capabilities to their own innovation operations.”

“NineSigma holds tremendous potential for bringing about significant change in the way corporations develop products and manage innovation,” said Paul Stiros. “As a NineSigma customer managing this process for P&G, I saw first-hand how the faster, more efficient process of sourced innovation can drive results for even the most sophisticated organizations.”

NineSigma’s clients are Fortune 500 companies spanning a variety of industries including automotive, biomedical, chemical, consumer products, electronics, gases, optics, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications among others. Clients engage NineSigma on projects across the innovation value chain including upstream research, design and development, manufacturing and process capabilities, finished products, and new applications and markets for existing technologies.

NineSigma serves the global research and development industry by facilitating open innovation strategies for clients seeking to acquire technical innovations developed outside their organization. Through its proprietary Managed Exchange (M:X™) process that utilizes Ph.D.-level program managers, web-based tools, and a database of global solution providers, NineSigma matches technology seekers with unobvious or disruptive innovations faster, more effectively, and at a lower cost than conventional means. For more information, visit www.ninesigma.com.

NineSigma Contact ::

Bronwyn Monroe
(216) 295-4822
Marketing Manager