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10 Questions

with Ladislav Mareš
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October 24th, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Mareš says Elmarco will launch a collaboration with MIT next month.
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THE MAREŠ FILE

Job title: Owner and chief executive officer, Elmarco
Nationality: Czech
Previous position: Chairman, Plastimex Plus
Education: MBA, Nottingham University

Last week, the high-tech firm Elmarco, based in Liberec, north Bohemia, hosted a conference in Prague casting a spotlight on its breakthrough Nanospider technology, which allows the large-scale manufacturing of fabrics composed of ultrafine nanofibers. Ladislav Mareš, Elmarco’s owner and CEO, talks to The Prague Post ahead of his trip next month to the United States, where he will accept an award from a NASA-sponsored nanotechnology magazine, one of only a few European firms honored.

➊ What are the origins of your Nanospider technology?
We started with the technology three years ago in collaboration with Liberec’s Technical University. At that time it existed only on a small-lab scale and was only able to create water-soluble polymers. In 2005, we modified the technology for solvent-soluble polymers, and this year we started modifying the technology for melt spinning, which can produce synthetic materials without any solvents. That’s on a lab scale now.
It’s been an uncertain path: It’s a new product, and launching a new product on the market is not easy — especially nanofibers. But now we plan to grow our nano business by 300 percent each year.
➋ What was the company’s business prior to nanospinning?
Our primary business was the production of chemical distribution systems for the surface preparation of microchips to the Austrian company SEZ, which supplies international chip manufacturers like Intel and AMD. This is a business we still do today. And the experience we have from this job has been very useful in producing the machines we use for nanotechnology.
➌ What are the reasons for this past week’s conference?
We have two main reasons. First, nanofiber technology is a brand new field and the possible applications are in the thousands, and we also wanted to accelerate the launch of nanofiber products on the market. Second, we wanted to bring together experts from universities and big, innovative companies — people who will influence the future development of nanofiber projects. Over these two days they could exchange information, explain the potential of nanofiber products and inspire each other to make these materials public.
➍ Many potential applications have been bandied about for nanofibers. Which excites you most?
There are lots of interesting applications, for example there’s tissue engineering, and we have many universities and research centers interested in this. Eventually, this could help in the production of skin, lungs, bones and nerves.
We also see large potential in filtration — air filtration, water filtration, preparation of drinking water and more. The technology could also be used for the production of a new generation of batteries, super capacitors and photovoltaic cells.
➎ Last year you opened an office in Japan. Why?
There are two places that are leading the development of nanofibers — the United States and Japan. Since we want to be a global company, we decided to locate a branch in Japan. We’re going to open a branch in the United States, probably next year.
I think it’s easy to work with American companies. Our cooperation is quite good. And next month we’re launching several collaborative projects with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Meanwhile, we continue to cooperate closely with the Technical University of Liberec on several projects. With other universities, we work more on specific product development.
➏ Last month you announced a deal with the Austrian firm Oerlikon Neumag. What will this focus on?
It’s a strategic cooperation agreement that’s focused on the industrial production of our sound-absorbing material, AcousticWeb. We developed this nanofiber with excellent acoustic properties, and Oerlikon will help us produce manufacturing units for this technology.
Also doing well is a joint-venture we launched last year, called Nanopeutics, with the Irish firm Alltracel. It focuses on the wound-care market and has developed several new healing materials for major companies.
➐ Do you think most of your future projects will mirror either the Oerlikon or Alltracel deal?
With Oerlikon, we weren’t looking for a joint-venture partner because we had already developed the material — we only needed someone to supply production line equipment. In the future, we’re going to make strategic partnerships for the development of new products. We’re cooperating with many universities and large companies on research, and then we’ll announce partnerships with key players on the market. We’ll see if these are joint ventures or another kind of agreement.
➑ You recently announced that Elmarco would receive its first investment of foreign venture capital. What prompted this move?
Our investors — Banexi Ventures, TAT Capital Partners and Alpha Associates — are based in Switzerland and France. I decided to look for venture capital because of the huge development costs for our new projects. But more than that, these companies will provide experience on how to manage an international business, how to establish branches, where to situate a service center and more.
➒ How helpful have the Czech Republic and European Union been in supporting your development?
We’ve applied for some EU development projects, so we’ll see what happens. We’ve also been asked to be a partner for a lot of projects and programs in the country.
The situation for research and development [R&D] is better than it was one or two years ago, but there are some issues that should be solved. One is that when we invest a lot of R&D money with universities, we can’t flag that money as R&D spending in our accounting. But in general, the situation is better.
➓ Where are your new employees coming from?
We’re an attractive company for young people. We have an interesting project and we collaborate with universities and multinational companies. We’re also drawing people from abroad. Next month we have an engineer starting from Italy and we’re talking with engineers from other countries in Europe.
Want your manager to answer our 10 Questions? Send a message to Paul Voosen at pvoosen@praguepost.com


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