Aether Industries appoints Dr. James W. Ringer as Chief Technology Officer

Aether Industries Limited, one of India's leading specialty and fine chemical manufacturers, is excited to announce the appointment of Dr. James W. Ringer as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with effect from March 1, 2024. Dr. Ringer has already been working with Aether for the last 3 years as Business Development / Technology Leader (Americas). Previously, Dr. Ringer had a career spanning more than 30 years in R&D at the Dow Chemical Company (USA). He joined Dow in 1988, where he worked on the process development of new products for Dow AgroSciences from 1989 until 2001.

Subsequent roles at Dow included Dow AgroSciences New Products Development Leader (2002), Process Sciences Leader (2002), Senior Technical Leader for Process Sciences (2004), and Director of Process Chemistry & Development (2010). For 2011-2018, he was the Director of Engineering & Process Science for the Dow Core R&D organization, where his teams were responsible for the development and implementation of technology for numerous business areas spanning electronic, agricultural, pharmaceutical, polymers, specialty chemicals as well as hydrocarbon feedstocks.

During this tenure, his organization generated a 10x return on the R&D investment (> $ 100 MM per year). As part of the Dow - DuPont merger and spinoff, he became the Process Development and BioProcessing & BioEngineering Leader for Corteva AgriScience. Dr. Ringer is a co-inventor on 22 USA patents granted globally. He graduated from Purdue University (B.S. Chemistry, USA) and University of Wisconsin (Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, USA).

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Aman Desai (Senior VP and Director, Research, Manufacturing, and Operations) of Aether Industries said, “It is with great enthusiasm that we announce Dr. James stepping into the pivotal role of CTO, overseeing R&D and technological advancements within our company. Having worked closely with him for nearly 15 years, starting from my time under his mentorship at the Dow Chemical Company's Core R&D headquarters in the USA, I've witnessed first-hand his exceptional leadership and innovative thinking. As Aether moves into what promises to be the most exciting phase of our company’s short history, I am fully confident that Dr. James is the right leader for the CTO position.”

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. James Ringer, Chief Technology Officer, Aether Industries said, “I am both honored and excited to join Aether Industries in this enhanced role. We are one of the fastest growing companies in India with a tremendous pipeline of new products. At this time we are developing our fifth manufacturing site, which will be larger than all of the other sites combined. We have just recently doubled our research labs and are aggressively expanding with a plan to again double both the research laboratories and number of scientists by mid 2025. Most notably while we are continuing to expand at this phenomenal rate, we have also incorporated strategic and long term sustainability goals.”

Aether Industries is confident that Dr. Ringer's wealth of experience and expertise will significantly contribute to the company's continued growth and innovation as it remains dedicated to being a preferred provider of contract research and manufacturing services in the specialty and fine chemicals industry.