New ChromaDex CEO Invests $1M

IRVINE, Calif.—Jeffrey Himmel joined ChromaDex Corp. as the company's new CEO, taking over for former CEO Frank Jaksch, who will immediately assume the position of chief scientific officer and remain on the company's board of directors. In connection with his employment, Himmel agreed to invest $1 million into ChromaDex.

"I am thrilled to see Jeff Himmel join ChromaDex as CEO," said investor Phillip Frost, who beneficially owns approximately 19 percent of ChromaDex. "I have complete confidence that he is the right person to build ChromaDex into a world-class health care company. Moreover, his decision to invest $1 million into the company clearly demonstrates his enthusiasm for the prospects of the company."

Himmel commented, "After an exhaustive review of the intellectual property (IP), product pipeline and current positioning of ChromaDex, I believe the critical pieces are in place to build the company into a very significant enterprise. I am particularly excited about the immediate prospects for both its BluScience line of dietary supplements and its branded patent-pending pterostilbene, pTeroPure®."

Himmel, 58, is the former chairman of The Himmel Group. Over the past 50 years, spanning two generations, The Himmel Group has built branded consumer products in a range of consumer packaged goods areas including personal health care and nutritional foods. Most recently the Himmel Goup managed OVALTINE®, under license from Novartis Nutrition, until the brand was sold to Nestle in 2007, and GOLD BOND MEDICATED POWDER, a line of medicated skin care products, which Himmel built from a small New England brand with sales of $1 million into the market leader in the United States, when it was then sold to Chattem Inc.

From 1987 to 1990, Himmel was a managing director of Rothschild Inc., where he worked with the famed investor, Wilbur Ross, as a financial advisor to unsecured creditors and security holders, restructuring troubled companies. From 1983 to 1986, he was vice chairman and executive vice president of Jeffrey Martin Inc., an over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical company founded by his father, Martin Himmel.

Himmel is a former member of the board of directors of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Executive Board (1999 to 2010), and is a member of the board of directors of The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the industry trade organization for the OTC pharmaceutical and dietary supplements industries, a member of its Finance Committee and chairman of its Audit Committee (1991 to present).

He received a bachelor's of science in economics from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania (1975), a master's of science in Taxation from Bentley College (1978), and is a former member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.