nemours and company . for other uses see dupont disambiguation . e. i. du pont de nemours and company type public traded as nyse dd dow jones industrial average component s & p 500 component industry conglomerate founded 1802 ; 214 years ago 1802 founder leuth re ir n e du pont headquarters wilmington delaware united states area served 90 countries 1 key people edward d. breen chair & ceo products products list corian dacron fe 13 hypalon kalrez kapton kevlar mylar neoprene nomex nylon orlon rayon sorona teflon tyvek vespel viton zodiaq zytel revenue us 25.268 billion 2015 2 operating income us 2.350 billion 2015 2 net income us 1.953 billion 2015 2 total assets us 41.166 billion 2015 2 total equity us 9.993 billion 2015 2 number of employees 52 000 2015 2 subsidiaries subsidiaries list dupont chemical & energy operations dupont pioneer danisco solae dupont danisco website www.dupont.com e. i. du pont de nemours and company commonly referred to as dupont is an american conglomerate that was founded in july 1802 as a gunpowder mill by french leuth re ir n e du pont . in the 20th century dupont developed many polymers such as vespel neoprene nylon corian teflon mylar kevlar zemdrain m5 fiber nomex tyvek sorona corfam and lycra . dupont developed freon chlorofluorocarbons for the refrigerant industry and later more environmentally friendly refrigerants . it also developed synthetic pigments and paints including chromaflair . in 2014 dupont was the world s fourth largest chemical company based on market capitalization 3 and eighth based on revenue . 4 its stock price is a component of the dow jones industrial average . contents 1 history 1.1 establishment 1802 1.2 expansion 1902 to 1912 1.3 automotive investments 1914 1.4 major breakthroughs 1920s 1930s 1.5 second world war 1941 to 1945 1.6 space age developments 1950 to 1970 1.7 conoco holdings 1981 to 1999 2 activities 2000 present 2.1 chemours 2.2 merger with dow 3 locations 4 corporate governance 4.1 office of the chief executive 4.2 current board of directors 5 environmental record 6 recognition 7 controversies 7.1 genetically modified foods 7.2 chlorofluorocarbons 7.3 perfluorooctanoic acid pfoa ; c8 7.4 imprelis 7.5 price fixing 8 nascar sponsorship 9 see also 10 references 11 external links history edit original dupont powder wagon working powder mills on brandywine creek about 1905 establishment 1802 edit dupont was founded in 1802 by leuth re ir n e du pont using capital raised in france and gunpowder machinery imported from france . the company was started at the eleutherian mills on the brandywine creek near wilmington delaware two years after he and his family left france to escape the french revolution and religious persecutions against huguenot protestants . it began as a manufacturer of gunpowder as du pont noticed that the industry in north america was lagging behind europe . the company grew quickly and by the mid 19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the united states military supplying half the powder used by the union army during the american civil war . the eleutherian mills site is now a museum and a national historic landmark . expansion 1902 to 1912 edit dupont continued to expand moving into the production of dynamite and smokeless powder . in 1902 dupont s president eugene du pont died and the surviving partners sold the company to three great grandsons of the original founder . charles lee reese was appointed as director and the company began centralizing their research departments . 5 the company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies and in 1912 these actions gave rise to government scrutiny under the sherman antitrust act . the courts declared that the company s dominance of the explosives business constituted a monopoly and ordered divestment . the court ruling resulted in the creation of the hercules powder company later hercules inc. and now part of ashland inc. and the atlas powder company purchased by imperial chemical industries ici and now part of akzonobel . 6 at the time of divestment dupont retained the single base nitrocellulose powders while hercules held the double base powders combining nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine . dupont subsequently developed the improved military rifle imr line of smokeless powders . 7 in 1910 dupont published a brochure entitled farming with dynamite . the pamphlet was instructional outlining the benefits to using their dynamite products on stumps and various other obstacles that would be easier to remove with dynamite as opposed to other more conventional inefficient means . 8 dupont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the united states where they began the work on cellulose chemistry lacquers and other non explosive products . dupont central research was established at the dupont experimental station across the brandywine creek from the original powder mills . automotive investments 1914 edit in 1914 pierre s. du pont invested in the fledgling automobile industry buying stock in general motors gm . the following year he was invited to sit on gm s board of directors and would eventually be appointed the company s chairman . the dupont company would assist the struggling automobile company further with a 25 million purchase of gm stock . in 1920 pierre s. du pont was elected president of general motors . under du pont s guidance gm became the number one automobile company in the world . however in 1957 because of dupont s influence within gm further action under the clayton antitrust act forced dupont to divest its shares of general motors . major breakthroughs 1920s 1930s edit a marker outside dupont s belle plant in dupont city west virginia where ammonia was first synthesized for commercial use . dupont s orlon plant in camden south carolina c. 1930 1945 in the 1920s dupont continued its emphasis on materials science hiring wallace carothers to work on polymers in 1928 . carothers invented neoprene a synthetic rubber ; 9 the first polyester superpolymer ; and in 1935 nylon . the invention of teflon followed a few years later . dupont introduced phenothiazine as an insecticide in 1935 . 10 second world war 1941 to 1945 edit dupont ranked 15th among united states corporations in the value of wartime production contracts . 11 as the inventor and manufacturer of nylon dupont helped produce the raw materials for parachutes powder bags 12 and tires . 13 dupont also played a major role in the manhattan project in 1943 designing building and operating the hanford plutonium producing plant in hanford washington . in 1950 dupont also agreed to build the savannah river plant in south carolina as part of the effort to create a hydrogen bomb . citation needed space age developments 1950 to 1970 edit after the war dupont continued its emphasis on new materials developing mylar dacron orlon and lycra in the 1950s and tyvek nomex qiana corfam and corian in the 1960s . dupont materials were critical to the success of the apollo project of the united states space program . citation needed dupont has been the key company behind the development of modern body armor . in the second world war dupont s ballistic nylon was used by britain s royal air force to make flak jackets . with the development of kevlar in the 1960s dupont began tests to see if it could resist a lead bullet . this research would ultimately lead to the bullet resistant vests that are the mainstay of police and military units in the industrialized world . citation needed conoco holdings 1981 to 1999 edit in 1981 dupont acquired conoco inc. a major american oil and gas producing company that gave it a secure source of petroleum feedstocks needed for the manufacturing of many of its fiber and plastics products . the acquisition which made dupont one of the top ten u.s. based petroleum and natural gas producers and refiners came about after a bidding war with the giant distillery seagram company ltd. which would become dupont s largest single shareholder with four seats on the board of directors . on april 6 1995 after being approached by seagram chief executive officer edgar bronfman jr. dupont announced a deal in which the company would buy back all the shares owned by seagram . 14 in 1999 dupont sold all of its shares of conoco which merged with phillips petroleum company and acquired the pioneer hi bred agricultural seed company . activities 2000 present edit pre tax u.s. profit by year in us 1 000 000 15 2010 949 2009 171 2008 992 2007 1 652 2006 1 947 2005 2 795 2004 714 2003 428 2002 1 227 2001 6 131 dupont describes itself as a global science company that employs more than 60 000 people worldwide and has a diverse array of product offerings . 1 the company ranks 86th in the fortune 500 on the strength of nearly 36 billion in revenues 4.848 billion in profits in 2013 . 16 in april 2014 forbes ranked dupont 171st on its global 2000 the listing of the world s top public companies . 17 dupont businesses are organized into the following five categories known as marketing platforms electronic and communication technologies performance materials coatings and color technologies safety and protection and agriculture and nutrition . the agriculture division dupont pioneer makes and sells hybrid seed and genetically modified seed some of which goes on to become genetically modified food . genes engineered into their products include libertylink which provides resistance to bayer s ignite herbicide liberty herbicides ; the herculex i insect protection gene which provides protection against various insects ; the herculex rw insect protection trait which provides protection against other insects ; the yieldgard corn borer gene which provides resistance to another set of insects ; and the roundup ready corn 2 trait that provides crop resistance against glyphosate herbicides . 18 in 2010 dupont pioneer received approval to start marketing plenish soybeans which contains the highest oleic acid content of any commercial soybean product at more than 75 percent . plenish provides a product with no trans fat 20 percent less saturated fat than regular soybean oil and more stabile oil with greater flexibility in food and industrial applications . 19 plenish is genetically engineered to block the formation of enzymes that continue the cascade downstream from oleic acid that produces saturated fats resulting in an accumulation of the desirable monounsaturated acid . 20 in 2004 the company sold its textiles business which included some of its best known brands such as lycra spandex dacron polyester orlon acrylic antron nylon and thermolite to koch industries . in 2011 dupont was the largest producer of titanium dioxide in the world primarily provided as a white pigment used in the paper industry . 21 dupont has 150 research and development facilities located in china brazil india germany and switzerland with an average investment of 2 billion annually in a diverse range of technologies for many markets including agriculture genetic traits biofuels automotive construction electronics chemicals and industrial materials . dupont employs more than 10 000 scientists and engineers around the world . 1 on january 9 2011 dupont announced that it had reached an agreement to buy danish company danisco for us 6.3 billion . 22 on may 16 2011 dupont announced that its tender offer for danisco had been successful and that it would proceed to redeem the remaining shares and delist the company . 23 on may 1 2012 dupont announced that it had acquired from bunge full ownership of the solae joint venture a soy based ingredients company . dupont previously owned 72 percent of the joint venture while bunge owned the remaining 28 percent . 24 in february 2013 dupont performance coatings was sold to the carlyle group and rebranded as axalta coating systems . 25 chemours edit in october 2013 dupont announced that it was planning to spin off its performance chemicals business into a