About SoyaWax International Inc.

SoyaWax International Inc. is a small business with a big impact. Our founder, Mike Richards, revolutionized the multi-billion dollar candle industry with the invention of soybean-based candle wax.

In 2008 we transformed from Mike's sole proprietorship into an Iowa corporation to capitalize on our latest innovation that will again rock the candle and other wax-application industries. Along with our new technologies, SoyaWax International has expanded its management team to drive our innovations forward into existing and new markets.

SoyaWax International is located in the historic New Bohemia arts and entertainment district of downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The SoyaWax International Management

The SoyaWax International (SWI) management team members each bring a unique yet complementary combination of skills and experience to the challenge of taking our company forward in the 21st Century. Yet with these diverse skills and experience, our team shares the most fundamental core values of private sector entrepreneurism combined with a deep commitment to social action and local community and economic development through self-help and collaboration.

Michael Richards

Michael is a lifelong entrepreneur and innovator as well as an accomplished executive manager. His entrepreneurial ventures include acquisition and restoration of historic properties, artistic production of music and theatre, and community development through grassroots organizing in his current home in the New Bohemia district of Cedar Rapids.

While living in New York City Richards honed both his entrepreneurial and management skills through executive management positions in a variety of public and private organizations including the famous Tavern on the Green, The Boathouse Cafe, Cabaret/Off Broadway Theatre, Stoneyard Institute, and The School of Sacred Arts.

But it was Mike and his wife Lynette's experience in New York City that shifted the trajectory of their lives and, in 1991, gave birth to an entrepreneurial venture that achieved national press, business, and government attention including appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America. The venture that earned Richards this well-deserved attention was Candleworks, a labor-intensive handcrafted candle company that employed scores of homeless and "unemployable" folks in New York City.

The Candleworks social and economic experiment resulted in a viable business operation that – in addition to employing the homeless and hard-to-employ – grew and developed a strong market position in the national candle industry. Candleworks won custom manufacturing contracts for The Body Shop, Urban Outfitters, Linens and Things, Estee Lauder, Clairol and Biolage/Matrix. In addition to national television exposure, this entrepreneurial phenomenon was described in feature magazine articles in the New York Times, Success, and People magazines.

National media attention is impressive, but the true measure of Richards' accomplishment is evident by Candleworks being cited by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a National Best Practice in Community Economic Development. This award was presented by President Clinton at the National Conference of Mayors. One year later Candleworks was cited by Vice President Al Gore as the National Business of the Year for Welfare to Work.

Richards' marketing efforts during Candleworks led to his insights about the growing interest in natural products and the global need to move beyond oil and petroleum products. Since the vast majority of candles are made of petroleum-based paraffin, Mike saw the need and opportunity for an alternative natural wax.

While traditional bees' wax is natural, its production is not easily scalable, accounting for its comparative high price relative to petroleum-based paraffin. Michael then dedicated his considerable creative and entrepreneurial talents to developing the means to create commercial-grade candle wax from soybeans. And the rest, as they say and has been documented in The Oxford English Dictionary, is history.

Michael Richards opening address at the Chandler Guild's 1st Continental Congress in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, August 22, 2003.

Through our current limited-term licensing agreement with Cargill, SoyaWax International now sells 3 million pounds annually of first generation soywax. SoyaWax International is now poised to revolutionize the candle industry and the broader general wax-using industries through the production and marketing of advanced next-generation soywaxes that can be used not only for candlemaking but for a full range of applications where wax is used for its unique and flexible characteristics.

The Oxford English Dictionary has officially recognized the entrance of "soywax" into the English language and in doing so, credited Michael Richards with its coinage and first use through his efforts to commercialize the use of soywax in the multi-billion dollar candle industry.