NORTHBOROUGH, MA, Feb. 10, 2006 -- Aspen Aerogels Inc. today announced that James S. Sawyer, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Praxair Inc. has joined its board of directors. "Jim's addition to our board of directors is a significant one as he brings a great deal of financial and management expertise to the issues we face with our burgeoning growth," said Don Young, Aspen Aerogels' CEO.
Sawyer has been chief financial officer of Praxair since 2000 and was vice president and treasurer from 1994 until 2000. Prior to that he held various positions with Union Carbide, Citibank and Bechtel. He holds a master's degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and bachelors of science in earth and environmental science from Wesleyan University. He is a member of the Conference Board's Senior Financial Officer's Council and the Financial Executives Institute, and has been a recipient of Institutional Investors CFO of the year award.
Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America with 2005 sales of $7.6 billion. It has been ranked in the forefront of public governance by Institutional Shareholders Services, Governance Metrics and is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Aspen Aerogels (www.aerogel.com), supplies nanotechnology-enabled aerogels with insulating properties that outperform traditional materials by 2 to 8 times. Unlike other aerogel material providers, Aspen provides the thermal and acoustic performance of aerogels in a ready-to-use blanket impregnated with the silica nanostructures. This blanket format makes it easy for Aspen customers to conserve energy and save money in oil and gas recovery, LNG shipping and storage, apparel, military, aerospace and energy industries. In addition, Aspen is actively developing applications in the building/construction, automotive and fuel cell markets.
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