NineSigma Appoints Richard Schwarz as Chairman; Elects Mark Coticchia to the Board

CLEVELAND, OH - July 14, 2004 - NineSigma, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based innovation sourcing firm, announced today the appointment of Richard Schwarz as the company's Chairman, replacing Dr. Mehran Mehregany, who founded the company in 2000 and will continue to serve as a Director of the company.

Schwarz is a Partner and co-founder of Sycamore Partners LLC, an early stage venture capital firm  and joins NineSigma as non-executive Chairman. Prior to joining Sycamore Partners, Schwarz was President and CEO of Laurel Industries, a privately held chemical manufacturer acquired by the Chemical Division of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) in 1996, a company with more than $2.7 billion in sales in 2002. Schwarz recently chaired the Visiting Committee at Case Western Reserve University's School of Engineering and is a Director of Associated Estates Realty Corp. (NYSE:AEC).

"The appointment of Richard Schwarz to Chairman is an important step in NineSigma's growth plan," said Founder and Director, Mehran Mehregany. "NineSigma has seen steady growth over the past 18 months as open innovation is adopted by the marketplace and the NineSigma capability is proven successful at industry-leading companies across a wide range of innovation needs." Mehregany added, "Richard's background and commercialization expertise will help take NineSigma from entrepreneurial start-up to a larger, well-established corporate entity capable of sustained, rapid growth. I am confident that we will see an even broader adoption by industry of NineSigma's global innovation sourcing solutions in the months to come."

"NineSigma's model of building innovation networks for companies to drive top-line growth efficiently and cost-effectively is a critical capability in today's competitive marketplace," stated Schwarz. "I am thrilled by the enthusiasm the company has been greeted with at client organizations and the potential that clients see in NineSigma for a lasting model of innovation creation and sustainability." Schwarz added, "Internally the company is gearing up to meet the increased demand from the market. I look forward to being able to announce a new NineSigma President and CEO in the next 90 days."

NineSigma also announced today the election of Mark Coticchia, Vice President for Research and Technology Management at Case Western Reserve University, to the Board of Directors. In his current role, Coticchia has responsibility for coordinating Case's research agenda and technology commercialization priorities. Prior to joining Case, Coticchia was Senior Director of Redleaf Group, Inc., an early stage venture capital firm. Coticchia is also co-founder and former board member of Lycos Inc. "NineSigma provides an important mechanism for academic and industry solution providers to find new funding sources and find new applications and markets for their discoveries," said Coticchia. "Rapid and effective technology transfer between academia and industry is becoming more and more critical to the success of new product development. NineSigma's unique capability will prove increasingly important for accelerating the pace and payback of commercialization."

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