UL Innovadex Completes Senior Management Team, Prepares for Continued Expansion in Kansas City Area

NORTHBROOK, Ill. and OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Oct. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UL announced today that it had completed its initial senior management expansion at UL Innovadex with the hiring of VP Operations Wanda Comer and Director of Finance and Administration Doug Freeman. Since the Overland Park, Kansas-based firm was acquired by UL LLC on the last day of 2012, the leading search and information exchange platform for supplier chemicals, ingredients and raw material has increased its size by over 50 percent via continued organic growth and integration with UL IDES, the Wyoming-based UL division powering the world's largest repository of plastics product information. The combined unit comprises the anchor of UL's Information and Insights, which seeks to complement the company's portfolio of certification, testing, inspection, advisory and education services businesses with a leading-edge product information enterprise.

Comer was most recently Director eBusiness Development at CenturyLink after a 15-year career with Sprint spanning assignments across the telecom firm's IT, Operations and Internet management groups. A Kansas State graduate, Comer will be responsible for building out the division's global information processing and digital media operations, which will involve global information service fulfillment in at least eight languages.

Freeman comes to UL Innovadex from Celeritas, where he was Executive Director of Finance and Operations for the Overland Park Technology Services firm. He moved into the technology industry following six years in public accounting, where he commenced work after earning CPA and degree from Baylor. Freeman will head the division's efforts to utilize UL's global finance, HR and technology capabilities as a catalyst for industry leadership and sustained growth in this new business sector for UL.

"Wanda and Doug bring a wealth of relevant experience combined with an entrepreneurial orientation to our operations," said Jim Dodd, Managing Director of UL Innovadex.  "They provide the leadership depth necessary to execute our expansion of product information exchange services across more industries and regions."

UL Information and Insights has established the UL Innovadex operation as a hub for its ambitions in information technology.  "Innovadex built an operation framework designed to scale, and its leadership team in the Kansas City area has been instrumental in moving forward our aggressive strategic development plans," said Sara Greenstein, President of UL's Environment, Information & Insights.  "We're pleased with the new talent we've been able to attract to our team, and expect our continued progress to drive additional Kansas City area team expansion." 

Innovadex was originally founded by Bruce Ianni, 2008 Pipeline Innovator of the Year, who partnered with the Enterprise Center of Johnson County ("ECJC") in the early development of the company. Now operating out of the recently completed Phoenix Building in downtown Overland Park, it is looking at numerous options for deploying talent in support of its global expansion.  

About INNOVADEX/IDES
UL Innovadex and UL IDES are now combined to provide the most powerful specialized search engine services in the materials, chemical, foods and life science sectors, offering specialized information exchange services that connect product innovators and end-product manufacturers with technical documents, sales and support personnel at suppliers of industrial materials and products. The platforms enable over 500,000 members worldwide to develop healthier, safer products by quickly mining a combined technical database of more than a million product documents from over 2000 suppliers.

About UL
UL is a premier global independent safety science company that has championed progress for 120 years. Its more than 10,000 professionals are guided by the UL mission to promote safe working and living environments for all people. UL uses research and standards to continually advance and meet ever-evolving safety needs. We partner with businesses, manufacturers, trade associations and international regulatory authorities to bring solutions to a more complex global supply chain. For more information about our certification, testing, inspection, advisory and education services, visit http://www.UL.com.

CONTACT: Jim Dodd
UL Innovadex
T: (913) 908.6482
E: [email protected]

SOURCE UL LLC