User:VC Historian

Matrad Corporation
Matrad Corporation (New York) was a subsidiary of privately held family conglomerate. Matrad's activities included bulk shipping, construction aggregates, and research and development Matrad maintained offices London, New York, Athens.

History
Matrad Corporation was a privately owned US entity created to exploit the US building block market. Matrad pioneered the use of pumic stone as a substitute for cinder in the cinder block market. During the late 1950's, on the US east coast, power generation moved from coal to liquids and resulted in a shortage of coal derived cinders. Matrad sold pumic stone as a substitute for cinder to processing facilities in the New York area. Matrad's pumic stone was imported from the Mediterranean islands of Lipari in Italy, Santorini and Yali island in Greece.

Thermo Electron Corporation
Matrad funded the doctoral thesis of Mr. George N. Hatsopoulos at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955-1956. The research and development explored by this thesis lead to the creation of Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation in 1956 by Mr Peter M. Nomikos and Dr. George N. Hatsopoulos. At founding and through the early stages of the companies development Mr. Nomikos retained the title of Chairman and CEO of Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation. Since inception Nomikos provided all capital required by the company, until 1960, when Venrock co-invested with Nomikos. Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation went on to become Thermo Electron Corporation (NYSE: TMO) a major provider of analytical instruments and services for a variety of domains.

In 2011, Thermo Fisher Scientific, its successor, had revenues of over $11 billion, and employed 37,000 people.

Ownership
Matrad Corporation was founded in 1945 and operated until the mid-1960's and represented one of the diversified business interests of the family of Mr. Peter M. Nomikos and Markos P. Nomikos.