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By Donald N.S. Unger
 Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI), the company that
Tom D’Ambra ’78 co-founded in 1991 and of which he is currently
chairman, president and chief executive officer, is in the midst of a counter-cyclical
spending program: the economy may be down; AMRI is up. Other companies
are being sold; AMRI is buying, as it has been for a number of years now.
At the company’s inception, D’Ambra had to think
counter-cyclically in other ways—about time for example.
Like other startup companies, his had to scramble for space.
The alternative he came up with: nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
But the labs were unavailable for use during the day. So he and his people
cadged space in the labs from four or five in the evening until three in
the morning.
It bears pointing out here, as well, that the choice for
AMRI’s location has been a sound one, if not for reasons that might
have been immediately obvious at the time of the company’s founding.
The Albany-Schenectady-Troy area comes in third on the list of “Best
Cities for Education,” in the most recent edition of the Places
Rated Almanac, behind only Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and Greater Boston.
The list assesses the quality of the local mix of public and private elementary
and high schools up through the range of colleges and universities—which
is to say that it takes into account both the desirability of raising a
family in these areas and the ongoing availability of highly educated potential
employees.
D’Ambra might as easily have started his company in
Boston. He earned his Ph.D. just across the river in Cambridge, at M.I.T.
And—at that time and to some degree now as well—what AMRI was
doing might also be seen as counterintuitive, as well as counter-cyclical.
Chemistry was coming to be seen as the dowdier sister to genomics and molecular
biology. If one were going to form a startup company, why go for “old” science,
rather than new? Surely, it was becoming clear that the future lay in gene
therapies, genetic engineering and the like—That’s where the
big bucks were going to be, right? Perhaps.
But that future has stubbornly remained the future, and chemistry
has stubbornly refused to die. And AMRI, which provides contract chemistry
research and development services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries
along with small-scale manufacturing—though getting larger all the
time—has benefited from a variety of trends along the way—as
a rapidly consolidating drug industry has often found it more efficient
to outsource rather than to do a variety of things in-house.
Along with the outsourcing trend, another engine for growth
has been revenue from commercial products, prime among them the patents
that AMRI holds on the active ingredient in the phenomenally successful
antihistamine Allegra.
“In 2002,” according to D’Ambra, “AMRI
received approximately $51 million,” from these patents, and, “AMRI
has received over $165 million from Aventis since 1998.”
Currently, there is patent infringement action pending, which
may have an impact on this revenue stream.
“Should Aventis [Allegra’s manufacturer] prevail,
as I believe they will,” D’Ambra adds hopefully, “then Allegra
royalty payments will continue for at least another decade. Time will tell.”
On the broader front, however, D’Ambra’s optimism
about the company’s future is quite strong. On a 10-year time-line,
here’s what he sees:
“Growing our platform of contracts and collaborative
relationships, we’ve set a goal to grow from a company that had $150
million in contract revenue in 2002 from AMRI and Organichem [their most
recent acquisition] combined, to a company generating one billion dollars
annually in a 10-year time frame. At the same time, leveraging our R&D
know-how and resources, we also expect to generate more Allegra-type royalty
opportunities in our future. I believe we have an opportunity to become
a very large and very successful company. It doesn’t happen overnight,
but this is what we are aiming for.”
This is by no means from a standing start, of course. In
the year 2000, Business Week ranked AMRI fourth on its list of Hot
Growth Businesses. In October of last year Forbes listed it as the
16th best small company in the nation. And this is by no means a complete
list of lists.
The advantage of counter-cyclical spending, of course, of
having both the confidence and the capital to buy when others are selling—and
when prices are therefore lower—is that you are well positioned to
profit when the market rebounds.
D’Ambra concurs. “In the last four years, AMRI
has made a number of acquisitions, particularly of companies with technologies
and capabilities that can bring high value-added returns or have broadened
our range of technologies for drug discovery and development. Although
the economic environment is weak, AMRI’s growth and acquisitions strengthen
our leadership position and put us in a position of great opportunity for
the next up cycle, when it comes.”
Supporting the Educational Communities that Supported Him
In October
of 2001, D’Ambra and his wife, Connie, donated $1.3 million to the
College of the Holy Cross to create the Thomas E. D’Ambra Endowed
Professorship in Chemistry. In May of 2002, AMRI contributed $100,000 to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to set up the Albany Molecular Research-Arthur
G. Schultz Memorial Fund, for the support of undergraduate research in
synthetic organic chemistry. Their gift honors the former Rensselaer chemistry
professor who died in January 2000 and whose lab space had been crucial
to AMRI’s early survival. In November of last year they pledged $1
million in matching funds toward the construction of a new Life Sciences
Building on the campus of the University at Albany. All told, the D’Ambras
have donated or pledged approximately $9 million since 1999.
“Connie and I feel very fortunate for the success we’ve experienced,” D’Ambra
says. “It has always been our intent to give back to the institutions
that have helped both of us get to where we are today. We are grateful
to be in a position to be able to do this. Holy Cross has always been very
high on our list. I would not have had the opportunity to get to where
I am today without the educational foundation and emphasis on values that
Holy Cross provided. Our gift to Holy Cross is a small gesture to help
the College continue its mission for succeeding generations. Locally, RPI
and certain faculty there were very important in their support of Albany
Molecular Research in its early formative stages. To a lesser extent, we
got support during that time from the University at Albany. More recently,
AMRI has developed a great relationship with the University at Albany as
an anchor tenant at its east campus facilities.”
Holy Cross President, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., cites D’Ambra
as “a wonderful example of the kind of graduate Holy Cross seeks to
produce. We are especially pleased,” Fr. McFarland says, “that
he has returned to support his alma mater financially and to testify
to the value of his Holy Cross education. Tom D’Ambra has used an
extraordinary combination of scientific expertise, business acumen, dedication
and hard work to build a very successful business. Even more important,
in his work and now in his philanthropy, he has shown a deep commitment
to helping others.”
Family: The Other Side of the Equation
If balancing science with
business has come relatively easily, balancing business with
family becomes the next conundrum. While, from the outside, the “problem” of
raising children in an atmosphere of plenty doesn’t seem that difficult,
it raises its own set of questions and calls for its own
set of guideposts.
“Financial success brings as many challenges as it does rewards,” D’Ambra
says. “As a parent, you want to provide for your children based on
what you can afford; yet it is easy to see the difference this environment
creates over what we experienced growing up under different circumstances.
Here is where I come back to Holy Cross and the values reinforced in its
mission, which provide a solid foundation for raising children regardless
of your economic situation. I have learned that as much as one would like
to guide one’s child toward a particular path, it is not easy to do.
If your child grows up to be a good person, then that to me is successful
parenting.”
He also takes recourse to his own childhood experiences and to his parents—particularly
his father—both as a parenting role model and, in some ways, as a
business role model, as well.
“My father was a hero to me as well as a role model,” he says. “He
was a first generation Italian-American. He fought in World War II, went
to college afterward, and basically started with nothing. He started in
an entry level job and worked his way up to a senior finance staff level
position for the Olin Corporation. His work ethic, his values and his dedication
and commitment were things that I admired and have followed. He and my
mom gave up many things so that their children could experience opportunities
they never had. Even though my dad passed away in 1989, I still think of
him often.”
As D’Ambra continues to build AMRI, and as he and his wife continue
to contemplate ways to pay back the various institutions which supported
them and to be constructive members of their community, they are also involved
in the ongoing adventures of their 15-year-old daughter, Agatha, a competitive
horseback rider.
“Yes, our daughter Agatha has been riding for several years at a
serious and competitive level,” D’Ambra relates. “She recently
began competing on the national circuit, with the goal of competing at
the Grand Prix and championship levels. She has the talent to do very well.”
What’s his 10-year plan for his family?
“I hope they are achieving everything they are dreaming about today,” he
says. “But, if they are happy and healthy, what more can you ask for?”
Joshua Farrell ’94 First to Hold
D ’Ambra
Professorship Sidebar >
Donald Unger is a writer of fiction and nonfiction and a political
commentator for NPR affiliate radio WFCR. He lives in Worcester.
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