Vestaron Corporation Hires New President and CEO

KALAMAZOO, MI--(Marketwire - Sep 7, 2011) - Vestaron Corporation, a venture-backed agricultural biotechnology firm, is pleased to announce the hiring of Steven Hartmeier as its new President and CEO. Hartmeier brings 30 years of agricultural experience to Vestaron with large companies and small start-up companies.

"Steve's experience with taking start-up companies through the product commercialization process is just what Vestaron needs at this stage of its development," says John Sorenson, Vestaron's Chairman. "In particular, his experience with biorational pest control products will be critical as we launch our CleanTech pest control products. His track record in successfully taking small companies and turning them into large ones is exceptional."

Prior to joining Vestaron, Hartmeier was CEO and Director of NGB Markets, an agricultural technology company providing real time data to agricultural producers. Prior to NGB, Hartmeier was President of Suterra LLC, one of the largest and fastest growing biorational pest control providers in the world. Suterra was formed with the sale of the Consep business to Roll International. Key was the successful financing and sale of Consep out of Verdant Brands (Consep's parent) in 2001. Hartmeier served as Vice President, Commercial Products and a Corporate Officer, for Verdant Brands, Inc. and President of Consep. Hartmeier began his career in various Sales and Marketing positions with Monsanto Company. Hartmeier received his B.S. in Plant Science, Vegetable Crops emphasis, from the University of California, Davis.

"The future opportunity with Vestaron' s technology is phenomenal," added Hartmeier. "The novel mode of action combined with its Green Product profile makes this technology a potential game changer in modern agriculture."

Vestaron is developing a new generation of insecticides using natural peptides from spiders. Products under development have a unique mode of action, are highly effective against insects and related pests and are harmless to non-target species, including humans. Target markets include agriculture, animal health and specialty non-crop uses such as household insects. Vestaron CleanTech products will be ideally suited for the environmentally conscious twenty-first century. For more information visit www.vestaron.com.