John Televantos

John Televantos is a Senior Partner at Arsenal Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on the Specialty Industrial and Healthcare sectors. Before joining Arsenal in 2006, Dr. Televantos was President of Aqualon Company, owned by Hercules, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of Foamex International.

John began his career with Union Carbide in 1977 in silicones research. There he developed two key processes for the manufacture of Siloxane polymers that were successfully commercialized. These processes not only improved efficiency and reduced cost but also dramatically reduced waste. He moved through a variety of management positions there and later at ARCO Chemical, where he became vice president of strategy and development. At ARCO John co-invented the Impact technology (DMC) for the manufacture of polyether polyols and led a team that developed and commercialized this breakthrough technology eliminating the whole refining step along with waste and emissions, while at the same time opening the door to the creation of new higher-performance polyurethanes. The technology has since been licensed by most of the major global polyol manufacturers with significant waste reduction worldwide.

At Arsenal Capital, Dr. Televantos co-heads the Specialty Industrials practice. During his tenure, he has led or was part of almost 100 acquisitions in chemicals and materials, many in the polyurethane space. In addition to serving on the boards of several Arsenal-owned companies, he is lead director on the board of Balchem Corp. John holds BS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Imperial College London. He is a great advocate of technology and innovation as the best means of creating sustainable value in business and the economy at large.