Dr. Donald E. Panoz Appointed Chairman of the Board at NanoLumens®

Moving strategically to prepare for the next critically important stage of its growth, NanoLumens® today announced the appointment of Dr. Donald E. Panoz to the position of Chairman of the Board, according to Rick Cope, President & CEO of the Norcross, Georgia-based manufacturer and marketer of the revolutionary NanoLumens flexible and fixed LED displays.

Starting in 1960 when he co-founded Mylan Laboratories, one of the world’s leading producers of generic drugs, Dr. Panoz has had an extraordinary 50-year career of major entrepreneurial successes in fields as far ranging as pharmaceuticals, resorts, motorsports and wine.  After establishing Mylan Laboratories, Dr. Panoz went on to found Elan Pharmaceuticals, the company that created the transdermal method of medication delivery — the technology that led directly to the development of the nicotine patch.  In 1985 Dr. Panoz took Elan Pharmaceuticals public and thereafter set Wall Street records with three consecutive years of 100 percent profit growth. 

Following his success in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Panoz turned his attention, and considerable talents, to developing a number of very successful world-class resorts including the five-star Chateau Elan Winery & Resort in Atlanta, Georgia; the St. Andrews Bay Golf Resort & Spa in St. Andrews, Scotland; and the Diablo Grand Winery & Resort, Patterson, California.

Not content with revolutionizing two major industries, Dr. Panoz next turned to motorsports, joining forces with his son Daniel to create Panoz Auto Development, developer of the critically acclaimed Panoz Esperante high-performance sports car—a winner at Sebring and American Le Mans in 2006.  Their success on the racetrack led to Panoz’s founding of the American Le Mans Series, now the leading sports car series in the world. 

“We are very pleased to welcome Don, an early investor and board member, as our new Chairman of The Board,” Cope said today, “His 50 years of success in taking start up companies in multiple industries to positions of global market success is one of the great track records in American business history.  We are honored to have Don take a leadership role at this critically important juncture in our history.  His experience, vision and acute business acumen will play a major role in helping us to achieve our long-term growth objectives.”

For his part, Dr. Panoz noted that, “Every once in a great while, a truly unique company with groundbreaking technology comes to market with the opportunity to forever change the rules of the game.  NanoLumens is that company in the field of 21st century digital signage solutions.  Their core technology, coupled with their innovative design and engineering teams, is rapidly redefining how people communicate with one another.  I am proud to be a part of this young American business success story.”

NanoLumens displays are extremely slim, ultra-lightweight, energy efficient, and feature a seamless, edge-to-edge picture quality (up to a brightness of 5,000 nits) that can be viewed from any angle or any distance without color shift or picture drop-off. The company’s patented display technology, which allows customers to select from 4mm up to 10mm pixel pitch (depending on the model), promises to transform the way marketers engage their customers in every type of trade show, retail, hospitality, stadium, arena, transportation and public event environment.

NanoLumens displays are designed and engineered with the environment in mind, and consume significantly less energy per square foot than conventional digital displays. Further emphasizing their commitment to eco-friendly technology, NanoLumens displays are composed of up to 50 percent reclaimed materials, and are completely recyclable.  What’s more, some NanoLumens displays can be serviced from the front, making maintenance easier than ever before possible.

Designed and assembled in the United States, NanoLumens displays are available in both flexible and fixed frames in five product lines: NanoFlex™, NanoFlex Wrap, and NanoFlex Ribbon flexible displays; NanoSlim™ fixed rectangular displays; and NanoShape™ fixed round, square, and triangular displays.

The Company’s technology has been recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as a 2011 future-proof tech trend and was cited by The Wall Street Journal in its 2010 Technology Innovations Awards.  NanoLumens’ technology also received the 2011 Breakthrough Technology of the Year Award at the American Technology Awards.  Digital Signage Magazine awarded the NanoLumens NanoFlex a 2011 DIGI Award for “Best New Display Device – Non-LCD or Plasma.”

About NanoLumens:

Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, NanoLumens, Inc. (www.nanolumens.com) is a privately held corporation engaged in the research, product development, marketing and sales of unique flexible and fixed displays that address a yawning technology gap in the $14 billion digital display industry.  Since its founding in 2006, NanoLumens has built a portfolio of more than 20 international families of issued and filed patents on its flexible display technology that effectively address the commercial market void between relatively small flat-panel displays and huge, limited application LED boards. NanoLumens technology is not constrained by standard sizes and shapes, or by the weight, noise and cost issues traditionally associated with commercial LED products.