MATRIC to Highlight Success and Chart Future
Event Focus: Economic Impact, Startups, Talented Staff
Charleston, W.Va. – The Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center (MATRIC) is celebrating its eighth year of operation during a Business Briefing and Reception at The Clay Center, Thursday, Jan. 19. The event will feature a program from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., concluding with a reception until 8:00 p.m.
During the program, MATRIC will highlight some of the nonprofit’s accomplishments and future direction. Themed Generations of Discovery: Faces of Innovation, the event will provide opportunity to highlight the experience of MATRIC’s senior scientists and researchers, the promising direction of junior employees, and the manner in which they are creating innovation together.
In addition, CEO Keith Pauley will discuss how the company is making a difference in the local community and economy. Some of these highlights include:
- Since its inception, MATRIC has produced almost $44 million in revenue, 70 percent of which has been generated from private, out-of-state and international customers. The remaining 30 percent has been earned largely from competitive federal contracts. The majority of MATRIC’s revenues are put back into the local community in the form of salaries and benefits for its employees.
- MATRIC has also launched multiple startup companies during its history, several of which are experiencing success.
Some recent successes include:
- Liberty Hydro Inc., a MATRIC startup, is a platform water treatment technology company serving the coal and natural gas industries. Liberty will feature one of its technologies during the reception, a recently launched ROVr ™ Clean Water Retriever solution. The ROVr technology has been designed to significantly reduce water disposal volumes versus traditional technologies, using less energy and lowering costs.
- Aither Chemicals, which has developed a proprietary ethane “cracker” technology, recently acquired new partners in support of its effort to fund and build a large petrochemical plant that converts ethane to ethylene. Renewable Manufacturing Gateway (RMG) has agreed to work with Aither over the next five years to raise as much as $750 million in capital. The project is expected to create over 2,000 construction jobs, 200 permanent direct production jobs, and several thousand indirect jobs. Additionally, the INNOVA Commercialization Group of Fairmont, W.Va., recently invested $200,000 in Aither, which has also previously received investments from the West Virginia Jobs Investment Trust and TechConnectWV.
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