WARSAW, POLAND and ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - June 03, 2015) - Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: PESI) today announced the expansion of the senior management team and Supervisory Board (Board of Directors) of Perma-Fix Medical S.A., the medical subsidiary of Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (the "Company"). Perma-Fix Medical S.A. appointed Steve Belcher as Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") and John Climaco, Esq. as Executive Vice President. Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, who previously served as Chairman and CEO will continue as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Perma-Fix Medical also announced the appointments of Dr. Gary Kugler, a nuclear industry veteran, and Ewa Szlachetka, a Partner at the law firm of Wierzbowski Evesheds, to Perma-Fix Medical's S.A.'s Supervisory Board.
Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, CEO of Perma-Fix Environmental Services, and Chairman of Perma-Fix Medical S.A., commented, "We are extremely pleased to announce the appointments of such experienced and proven industry executives to the senior management team and Board of Directors of Perma-Fix Medical S.A. These appointments come at a key inflection point in the development of our medical technology. Given our progress, it was important to bring in additional resources to the senior management team with the necessary industry knowledge that will allow us to maximize our potential. As advisors to Perma-Fix Medical S.A., both Steve Belcher and John Climaco have been instrumental in helping advance our process through key technical milestones, and assisting us in securing valuable strategic partnerships. Moreover, each of these individuals brings experience from both a distributor and customer perspective. Looking ahead, we are moving forward aggressively with our plans to scale up the technology to higher curie levels and establish additional strategic partnerships in advance of our applications for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") and European CE marketing clearance. We remain confident that our cost effective, uranium-free process for producing Technetium-99m ("Tc-99m") provides an unmatched value proposition, while addressing proliferation risk and waste issues, as well as ensuring a more reliable supply chain for this crucial medical isotope used in the majority of nuclear medical imaging procedures around the world."
Mr. Belcher has served on Perma-Fix Medical S.A's advisory board since June 2014 and brings over 19 years of experience in the nuclear pharmaceutical sector to his new role as CEO. He has a proven track record with startups, mergers, acquisitions, operations and sales. Mr. Belcher is a founder, principal, and former Vice President of Triad Isotopes, which was formed in 2007 and has grown to 60 pharmacies and $270 million in sales. Mr. Belcher has contributed to the success of Triad as its architect and in numerous roles ranging from Vice President of Sales and Marketing to Vice President of Strategic Accounts. In this last role, Mr. Belcher helped secure over $300 million in growth opportunities over the last 2 years alone. Previously, Mr. Belcher served as an officer and principle architect of multiple successful new ventures. One of his companies was credited with establishing the first unit dose radiopharmaceutical sales in Puerto Rico. While growing the company, he managed a merger with a strategic partner and then worked with the partners to execute an exit strategy with Bristol Meyers Squibb. Mr. Belcher served as Chairman of the Board for the Association for Independent Nuclear Pharmacies and has extensive recognition throughout the nuclear medicine community. He serves on the boards of, or as an advisor to, multiple companies in the medical sector as well as having the privilege of serving on the board for Make a Wish Alabama.
Mr. Climaco was appointed to the Board of Directors of Perma-Fix Environmental Services in October 2013. He had served as President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as a member of the board of directors of Axial Biotech, Inc., a venture-backed molecular diagnostics company specializing in spine disorders, which he cofounded in 2003. Under Mr. Climaco's leadership, Axial Biotech successfully developed and commercialized ScoliScore, a clinically validated, polygenic test that provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the likelihood of spinal curve progression for children who have been diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. In the process of taking Axial from inception through product development to international commercialization, Mr. Climaco raised over $30 million in financing for the company. Mr. Climaco engineered and managed major strategic partnerships with international healthcare companies including Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and Smith & Nephew. Among other accolades, The Chicago Tribune called ScoliScore "a crystal ball for the spine" and Orthopaedics This Week magazine recognized ScoliScore as the Best New Diagnostics Technology for Spine Care in 2009. Mr. Climaco currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Digirad Corporation, a position he has held since 2012. Digirad manufactures cameras for nuclear imaging applications and provides for in-office nuclear cardiology imaging. Mr. Climaco formerly served as a director of both InfuSystem Holdings, Inc., a leading supplier of infusion services to oncologists, and PDI, Inc., a leading outsourced sales force provider to the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Climaco graduated cum laude from Middlebury College and holds a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.
Dr. Gary Kugler has served as a director since September 2013 for Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. He also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nuclear Waste Management Organization ("NWMO") from 2006 to June 2014, where he led its oversight of NWMO through the work of four committees including an Audit-Finance-Risk Committee. NWMO was established under the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act (2002) to investigate and implement approaches for managing Canada's used nuclear fuel. Dr. Kugler also served on the Board of Directors of Ontario Power Generation, Inc. ("OPG") from 2004 to March 2014 where he served as a member on four different committees, including the Audit, Finance, and Risk Committee from 2004 to 2008. OPG is one of Canada's largest electricity generation companies. Dr. Kugler has had an extensive career in the nuclear industry, both nationally and internationally. He retired from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited ("AECL") as Senior Vice President, Nuclear Products & Services, in 2004, where he was responsible for all of AECL's commercial operations, including nuclear power plant sales and services world-wide. During his 34 years with AECL, he held various technical, project management, business development, and executive positions. Prior to joining AECL, Dr. Kugler served as a pilot in the Canadian air force. He holds a PH.D. in nuclear physics from McMaster University and is a graduate of the Directors Education Program of the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Ewa Szlachetka is a partner at Wierzbowski Eversheds where she heads the M&A team. She is an attorney with many years of professional experience gained in renowned law firms. She specializes in corporate law and M&A transactions, including acquisitions of public companies, and in restructuring of capital groups. She also handles transactions by private equity and venture capital funds. She is a 1998 graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She also studied English and European law at the British Law Centre in Warsaw, operating in conjunction with the University of Cambridge. She also completed postgraduate studies in international commercial law at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, where she received an LL.M. with distinction in 1999. She is the author of numerous publications and a speaker at conferences and workshops on corporate law and capital markets, including acquisitions of public companies and methods of defense against hostile takeovers. In 2014 Ewa Szlachetka was recognized as one of the leading lawyers specializing in financial and corporate law in the IFLR1000 ranking issued by International Financial Law Review monthly.
About Perma-Fix Environmental Services
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. is a nuclear services company and leading provider of nuclear and mixed waste management services. The Company's nuclear waste services include management and treatment of radioactive and mixed waste for hospitals, research labs and institutions, federal agencies, including the DOE, the Department of Defense ("DOD"), and the commercial nuclear industry. The Company's nuclear services group provides project management, waste management, environmental restoration, decontamination and decommissioning, new build construction, and radiological protection, safety and industrial hygiene capability to our clients. The Company operates four nuclear waste treatment facilities and provides nuclear services at DOE, DOD, and commercial facilities, nationwide.
About Perma-Fix Medical
Perma-Fix Medical S.A. is a subsidiary of Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., a NASDAQ listed company. It was formed to develop, obtain FDA and other regulatory approval and commercialize a new process to produce Tc-99m, the most widely used medical isotope in the world. The new process is expected to solve worldwide shortages of Tc-99m as it is less expensive, does not require the use of government-subsidized, weapons-grade materials and can be easily deployed around the world using standard research and commercial reactors, thereby eliminating the need for special purpose reactors. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.medical-isotope.com.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which are based largely on the Company's expectations and are subject to various business risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements generally are identifiable by use of the words such as "believe", "expects", "intends", "anticipate", "plans to", "estimates", "projects", and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: we are moving forward aggressively with our plans to scale up the technology to higher curie levels and establish additional strategic partnerships in advance of our applications for FDA and CE marketing clearance; and we remain confident that our cost effective, uranium-free process for producing Technetium-99m provides an unmatched value proposition, while addressing proliferation risk and waste issues, as well as ensuring a more reliable supply chain for this crucial medical isotope used in the majority of nuclear medical imaging procedures around the world. These forward-looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While the Company believes the expectations reflected in this news release are reasonable, it can give no assurance such expectations will prove to be correct. There are a variety of factors which could cause future outcomes to differ materially from those described in this release, including, without limitation, future economic conditions; industry conditions; U.S. and state governmental laws and regulations adopted from time to time; and the additional factors referred to under "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" of our 2014 Form 10-K and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. The Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that bear upon forward-looking statements.
Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.perma-fix.com.