Dr. Jerry Chung, Founder and President
Frontier Performance Polymers Corporation
3328 Belt Road, Dover, NJ 07801
973-989-8463
jerrychung@frontierpolymer.com

Frontier Performance Polymers Corporation (Frontier) is a fully integrated, technology-driven R&D, testing and manufacturing company focused on developing innovative polymer and advanced materials product solutions for defense, energy, environmental, and manufacturing markets. Frontier has developed or is developing several critical, "next generation" lightweight material technologies capable of lowering system cost and enhancing performance. Examples include: lightweight transparent body armor (achieving 50% improvement on resisting fragment impact to better protect our soldiers); low-cost multifunctional lightweight hybrid nanocomposite armor for defeating IEDs and antitank mines; innovative green pallets from recycled tires; and cost-effective polymer liners for oil and natural gas pipeline rehabilitation

Dr. Chung founded Frontier in 2001 and attended NJSBDC’s first Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs conference in December 2001. These two competitive, federal, R&D grants programs are the best sources of early stage risk capital for developing a new technology and are the closest thing to the entrepreneur’s Holy Grail of free money. During 2002 Jerry received proposal preparation assistance from NJSBDC’s Technology Commercialization Center. According to Dr. Chung, “as a result of NJSBDC’s training and consulting assistance, I learned how to prepare a winning proposal which has led to our current growth in defense contracting.”

In the spring of 2002, Dr. Chung attended a specialized section of NJEDA’s Entrepreneurial Training Institute (ETI) focused on business plans for science and technology-based businesses. Over the ensuing months, NJSBDC’s technology commercialization consultant Randy Harmon worked with him on several additional iterations of his plan. Randy’s assistance proved helpful to Jerry in preparing the required commercialization plan for his first SBIR Phase II proposal.

Frontier moved into the Picatinny Technology Innovation Center incubator in 2002, where the company continues to receive business development assistance from the incubator’s manager and consultants. Leveraging the help from the NJSBDC with that of the incubator helped Frontier win four SBIR Phase I awards and two Phase II awards, as well as several BAA and other contracts. They have also won an NJCST 2006 Incubator Seed Fund award for green pallets and two NJCST SBIR Bridge Grants, in 2006 and 2007.

Frontier has grown to six full-time employees in 5,000 feet of space. It is in the process of hiring two additional employees and is expecting to employ a total of 13 to 15 full-time engineers by the end of 2008. The company anticipates at least doubling its revenue in 2008 and then doubling it again in 2009.