Helping engineering students through the challenge of converting their entrepreneurial
ideas into business reality is the goal of the new Don Pether Incubation Centre that
officially opens Monday.

Pether, former CEO and president of Dofasco Inc., and recent chair of McMaster's Board
of Governors, made a gift of $1 million to the University's Faculty of Engineering in
2010. The gift supported the creation of the centre and of the Don Pether Chair in
Engineering and Management, extending the steel industry leader's long history of
support for McMaster.

“We have students who develop ingenious, award-winning inventions every year that
generate a great deal of interest from industry and consumers,” said McMaster President
Patrick Deane. “Don's gift is telling them that their inventions are valued, that they are
supported, and that resources are available to help them commercialize their creations.”

“Converting solid ideas into viable new enterprises is one of the greatest challenges in
all of business,” said Pether. “Canada's future prosperity relies on successful inventors
and entrepreneurs receiving the support they need to close the gap between invention
and marketplace.”

The new incubation centre is to open with a reception Monday afternoon. The facility is
strategically situated on the third floor of the Atrium building at McMaster Innovation
Park.

There, selected students and recent graduates of the Engineering Entrepreneurship and
Innovation master's degree program will receive startup support for their technology
businesses, using the centre to continue the process of commercializing new products
and services.

The centre will provide office facilities and access to the guidance, experience and
knowledge of the University's Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship and
Innovation and the McMaster Industry Liaison Office and proximity to other
commercialization specialists at the innovation park.

Four sets of emerging technology entrepreneurs and their teams will each have one year
in the Incubation Centre to move the development of their businesses forward.

Among the first set of entrepreneurial projects to take up residence in the centre is
Natural Protection Solutions Inc., which has developed technology for producing
melanin pigment for sunglasses using plant sources, at a fraction of the cost of
producing the same product from animal or synthetic sources.