It is not every day that a Saudi Arabian Prince requests to visit a business in Northwest Arkansas, but that is just what happened recently when Prince Saud bin Khalid Al-Faisal piloted his own plane in to visit NanoMech.
Prince Saud is the Deputy Governor for Investment Affairs, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and President, National Competitiveness Center (NCC). He is responsible for enhancing the competitiveness of Saudi Arabia and is utilizing his Eisenhower Fellowship to investigate new approaches to sustainable economic growth, diversification, and exploring innovations to increase his country’s business potential.
Jim Phillips, Prince Saud K. Al-Faisal and Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe (Photo: Business Wire)
NanoMech is recognized as a leader in innovation and technology. Their breakthroughs in nano-materials and manufacturing include the first cubic boron nitride coating for machine tools and advanced nano-engineered lubricants. The company’s products have applications in very advanced machining and manufacturing, lubrication and energy, sustainable protective multi-functional coatings for textiles and other consumer products, strategic military applications and biomedical implant coatings. In the last year, NanoMech has been presented with the prestigious R&D 100 Award, the Edison Award and most recently, the Tibbetts Award, making it the only company in Arkansas’ history to sweep all three awards.
“This has certainly been an excellent year for NanoMech,” Chairman and CEO Jim Phillips said. “The company continues to gain momentum and it is the innovators who will help drive results, efficiencies and progress.” Phillips also noted, “Our groundbreaking products dramatically improve performance, durability and sustainability, while significantly decreasing costs to manufacture.”
Deborah Wince-Smith, CEO of the Council on Competitiveness (www.compete.org) and also a member of NanoMech’s Board of Directors, praises NanoMech for their innovative work. “In a world of transformation, nothing matters more to the competitiveness of companies and countries than innovation and manufacturing prowess. The ability to develop and deploy the most cutting-edge tools and products to bolster U.S. advanced manufacturing will deliver outsized benefits to the U.S. industrial base. NanoMech is at the leading edge of a resurgent U.S. manufacturing capability rich with innovation. Prince Saud is also a Director of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils which is keenly interested in innovation, especially nanotechnology.”
The Prince toured NanoMech’s factory, laboratories and world headquarters in Springdale and met with Mr. Phillips and Dr. Ajay Malshe, NanoMech’s CTO and Founder, to discuss opportunities involving NanoMech's revolutionary enhanced fossil fuel technology. A trip has been planned for Mr. Phillips and Dr. Malshe to visit key R&D facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Prince Saud also visited the Institute of Nanoscience and Engineering at the University of Arkansas. “The Institute of Nanoscience and Engineering is a major regional asset to The Region as nano engineering companies can utilize the vast array of scientific apparatuses and electron microscopes to help advance their technology and industry breakthrough products that increase America’s global manufacturing competitiveness,” Phillips said. NanoMech rents the Institute’s scanning electron microscope for surface morphology, cross-sectional analysis and elemental analysis. It uses the Institute’s transmission electron microscope for grain/crystal size analysis and elemental analysis, and its X-ray diffraction allows the firm to determine crystal structures/orientation for estimating crystalline.
As part of the visit to NanoMech, Prince Saud was provided a special tour of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art by Chairman and Founder Alice Walton. While on the museum tour, Prince Saud had the opportunity to also meet Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and members of the Crystal Bridges Board of Directors.
Prince Saud then visited with Governor Beebe and Phillips at the Capitol to talk about the economic impact companies like NanoMech have on the State’s economy and how the innovations that are developed as a direct result of the work they are doing position the State as a leader in groundbreaking technology and international commerce. Governor Beebe had an engaging discussion with Prince Saud on the history of Saudi Arabia, its government, culture and business models.
About Eisenhower Fellowships
Eisenhower Fellowships exists to inspire leaders around the world to challenge themselves, to think beyond their current scope, to engage others, including outside of their current networks, and to leverage their own talents to better the world around them. The central operational responsibility is to find people who can envisage, as Dwight Eisenhower did, a more prosperous, just and peaceful world, and have the passion to pursue specific activities with real impact to achieve those goals.
About NanoMech
NanoMech Inc. was founded in 2002 and creates advanced engineering materials through patent and patent-pending nano-engineered and nano-manufactured product development. NanoMech is a pioneer in applying breakthrough innovations to robust areas of national interest including machining and manufacturing, lubrication and energy, and strategic military applications. NanoMech is a member of President Obama’s Materials Genome Initiative, the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative (USMCI) and the U.S. Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative, both based in Washington, DC. For more information please visit www.NanoMech.com.