Former L’Oréal President Jim Morrison Appointed as CEO To Lead Availa Bio Upon Merger of Pressure BioSciences, Cannaworx and SkinScience Labs
South Easton, MA, May 7, 2020 – Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: PBIO) (“PBI” or the “Company”), today announced that personal care industry leader Jim Morrison has been appointed to serve as the new CEO of the rebranded public company, Availa Bio, upon completion of the merger with Cannaworx, SkinScience Labs and Pressure BioSciences. As part of the proposed transactions, the Company intends to change the corporation’s name to Availa Bio. Morrison has had a legendary career including numerous leadership positions in the personal care industry, most notably as President of L’Oréal. While at L’Oréal, Morrison oversaw growth that averaged more than 20% year-over-year. He engineered the acquisitions of Redken and Matrix and led the company during a period of unprecedented growth during his tenure.
Morrison is considered one of the top brand strategists in the personal care space. Most recently, Morrison has been CEO of StarShop, the first celebrity-driven, mobile shopping App. He launched StarShop as a partnership with the telecommunications giant SPRINT and guided the company to a successful exit earlier this year. Morrison has had a long history of working with celebrities in the beauty space and at StarShop, most notably Britney Spears, Kimora Lee Simmons, Flo Rida, Katharine McPhee, Christie Brinkley, Rob Lowe and Kylie Jenner.
Business Week Magazine previously wrote: “Over the last two decades, Mr. Morrison has had a profound impact on the American Beauty Industry. In the industry’s history no other executive has had the level of financial responsibility or breadth of organizational experience as Jim. His devotion to, and success within the American beauty industry is unmatched.”
Dr. Bobby Ghalili President of Cannaworx commented, “Jim is one of the preeminent beauty and personal care brand builders in the world today. Following his accomplishments as CEO in making Graham Webb one of the most successful startups of the 90’s, Jim led L’Oréal for almost a decade, delivering significant growth organically and through acquisitions. He also served as President and Chairman of the American Beauty Association from 1998 to 2004. Hands down, Jim is virtually unmatched in the experience and credibility we sought to lead our revolutionary products and growth vision for Availa Bio.”
As the incoming CEO designate for Availa Bio, Jim Morrison shared his excitement about the combined companies’ opportunities: “I have driven powerful growth across all traditional channels and moved companies into leadership positions in the beauty industry. I now have the opportunity to literally change the product development landscape of several major industries with the use of the UST Technology in the proliferation of new products that are expected to have greater bioavailability and efficacy than anything in the world today. I see Availa Bio as a transformational company. The chance to work with Drs. Bobby Ghalili and Adrienne Denese creates a dynamic synergy. My background in skin care, the incredible SkinScience brand, and my track record in launching new products into the market presents a very rare opportunity. Availa Bio will allow me to bring over 30 years of experience and my professional network to focus on revolutionary value creation for this powerful new entity.”
Dr. Adrienne Denese, President of SkinScience Labs, Inc., stated, “Jim Morrison has been astonishingly successful in building skin care brands for major celebrities. Having achieved over $500 million in sales over a seventeen-year period, I am very proud of the track record and very loyal customer following that I have built under the Dr. Denese SkinScience brand. I could not be more excited at the prospect of teaming up with Jim to take these products and our new UST technology to much greater heights and many new customers, through both existing QVC and additional new channels.”
Commenting on the appointment, PBI’s current President & CEO Richard T. Schumacher stated, “Availa Bio will use PBI’s breakthrough Ultra Shear Technology™ (“UST™”) to process oil-based nutrients and therapies into more effective, water-soluble solutions. We believe this will revolutionize Availa’s extensive line of existing and new personal care and consumption products, extending from human into veterinary and agricultural applications. We are honored to have Jim’s expertise, experience, and leadership as we enter into this new phase of expected explosive growth for these products, both through current sales channels like QVC, as well as through many new paths of retail distribution and online shopping.”
The Letter of Intent between Cannaworx and SkinScience Labs, and the Letter of Intent between PBI and Cannaworx, Inc. are subject to certain closing conditions, including completion of all due diligence and acquisition financing.
About Pressure BioSciences, Inc.
Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (OTCQB: PBIO) is a leader in the development and sale of innovative, broadly enabling, pressure-based solutions for the worldwide life sciences and other industries. Our products are based on the unique properties of both constant (i.e., static) and alternating (i.e., pressure cycling technology, or PCT) hydrostatic pressure. PCT is a patented enabling technology platform that uses alternating cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels to safely and reproducibly control bio-molecular interactions (e.g., cell lysis, biomolecule extraction). Our primary focus is in the development of PCT-based products for biomarker and target discovery, drug design and development, biotherapeutics characterization and quality control, soil & plant biology, forensics, and counter-bioterror applications. Additionally, major new market opportunities have emerged in the use of our pressure-based technologies in the following areas: (1) the use of our recently acquired, patented technology from BaroFold, Inc. (the “BaroFold” technology) to allow entry into the bio-pharma contract services sector, and (2) the use of our recently-patented, scalable, high-efficiency, pressure-based Ultra Shear Technology (“UST”) platform to (i) create stable nanoemulsions of otherwise immiscible fluids (e.g., oils and water) and to (ii) prepare higher quality, homogenized, extended shelf-life or room temperature stable low-acid liquid foods that cannot be effectively preserved using existing non-thermal technologies.
Forward Looking Statements
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