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Announcing New Chief Technology Officer

ProChem, Inc. Launches Business Expansion Plan with New Chief Technical Officer

ProChem, Inc., a recognized industry leader in custom development and manufacturing of high purity rare earth materials and organometallic precursors for energy, electronic and biomedical applications is happy to welcome Dr. Viktor P. Balema, who is joining the company in the role of Chief Technology Officer on August 2, 2021. In this high-profile executive role, Dr. Balema will assist the company’s founder and CEO Reno Novak in expanding ProChem’s core proficiencies and growing its products portfolio to meet the rapidly increasing needs of their diverse high-tech customers in the post-COVID world.

Dr. Balema brings more than 25 years of R&D, marketing and managerial experience that spans applied research, corporate strategic planning, and new product development from his tenure at Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (MilliporeSigma), Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, and industrial research centers for the electronic industry in Europe. He is a world-wide recognized expert in the areas of energy storage and electronic materials as well as non-conventional solvent-free materials synthesis, known as Mechanochemistry. Balema’s groundbreaking research at Ames Laboratory has been published in Nature Communications, Journal of American Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, Nanoscale Advances and other renowned scientific journals as well as highlighted on the Websites of the Office of Science and Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy. While at Sigma-Aldrich, Dr. Balema played a key role in building up the Aldrich Hard Materials business segment and Aldrich Materials Science R&D and successfully directed them for a decade

“Dr. Balema is a valuable asset that ProChem has coveted for years,” said Mr. Novak.   “Viktor’s extensive technical background, industry experience and marketing skills are well suited to develop strategic alliances and expand our market presence. We believe his strong leadership will position ProChem to engage in innovative projects that will take our company to a new level of advancement.”

“I am very excited to be joining the ProChem team,” said Dr. Balema. “ProChem has proficiencies and infrastructure that allows it to effectively compete with much larger companies. The entrepreneurial spirit of the company puts me in a wonderful position for an inevitable success.”

Balema received BS and MS degrees in Chemistry from Lviv State University in Ukraine, a Ph.D. in Organo-Element Chemistry from the A. Nesmeyanov’s Institute of Organo-Element Compounds of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia, and did his post doctorate studies at the University of Karlsruhe (KIT), Germany. He is an author of over 70 scientific papers, reviews, and patents.