Neil Ward’s path to Monolith began in an unlikely place: the world of dental education, where precision and materials science meet human expertise.
“I was running a dental education company for a while,” Neil explains with characteristic modesty. “We did hands-on virtual dental surgical education, creating jaw bone models and sending participants implant kits.”
This wasn’t just any educational program. Neil’s company had pioneered something remarkable—polyurethane bone models with two different densities that accurately matched the properties of human bone, complete with realistic soft tissue simulation. It was the kind of innovation that required deep understanding of materials, manufacturing processes, and practical application.
“I had done a lot of research and work with polyurethane specifically for that product, but also for previous products I had developed,” Neil says. His background as a professor before entering dental surgical education had given him the perfect foundation for this specialized work.
As Neil’s path began to intersect with Monolith’s, it was Jason Myers who recognized the potential connection. Jason and Neil had met in their hometown and were working on another project together, spending time at Neil’s house a couple of times a week.
“I was going over to his house and we were working on that project together,” Jason recounts. “One night, I got a call from Ben about a downside situation we were experiencing with our engineer. The next day, I mentioned it to Neil while we were sitting on his back porch having a beer.”
That casual conversation would prove transformative for Monolith. Neil revealed something Jason hadn’t known—he had extensive experience with polyurethane manufacturing through his work with dental implant training kits.
The timing couldn’t have been more critical. Monolith was at a crossroads with their engineering partner. The relationship had deteriorated to such a point that communication had broken down entirely, with the engineering team refusing to allow certain team members into their shop or on calls. This created an existential threat to the entire venture – without engineering expertise, there could be no mold, no production, and ultimately, no business.
“I wonder if we could get Neil to come on board and help us sort out this problem,” Jason thought. “Trial basis, see if it works, and then we’ll go from there because we need someone to help us get this engineering and research and development over the line.”
Neil, intrigued by the challenge and already familiar with polyurethane’s remarkable properties, agreed to step in. What happened next, according to Jason, was nothing short of transformational.
“He genuinely saved the business,” Jason states unequivocally. “He rebuilt the relationship with the engineers, and then when they had an insolvency issue, he led us through that, which was extremely rocky because we had to take on unexpected financial commitments.”
What made Neil so effective wasn’t just his technical knowledge, but his emotional intelligence.
“He gets how to communicate with people,” Jason explains. “He’s strong when he needs to be strong, gentle most of the time. He’s very emotionally intelligent—his wife’s a therapist, which helps—but he himself is just self-aware and aware of how to manage dynamics in a helpful way.”
For Neil, the decision to join Monolith wasn’t just about applying his expertise in polyurethane. It was about recognizing a superior building technology that aligned with his values and vision.
“When I started looking at the block, initially I wasn’t all that surprised because it seems like that’s the way ICF should have been made to begin with,” Neil reflects. “I’ve done a lot of work with polystyrene before, expanded polystyrene, and it’s really, really difficult to work with. It’s very reactive to a lot of chemicals, paints, glues. It’s just not a great building material at all.”
Neil’s experience gave him a unique perspective on why polyurethane represented such a significant improvement.
“The space shuttle Challenger used polyurethane foam to protect it against the elements,” he points out. “The company we’re using has been producing foam for NASA since 1980. The properties of polyurethane foam have been known very well for a long, long time.”
This raises an obvious question: if polyurethane is so superior, why hasn’t the industry already embraced it?
“Polystyrene is a cheaper material,” Neil explains. “It’s not safe, it’s not a good building material, but it’s what people have used. I think that’s just the cost.”
He draws a parallel to another industry disruption: “When Yeti came on the market about 15 years ago, their differentiating product was using rotational molding instead of blow molding for coolers, creating a stronger shell, and using polyurethane as the insulated material instead of polystyrene that all the other cheap coolers were using.”
For Neil, the future of Monolith is exceptionally bright. The polyurethane molding process is simpler than polystyrene, though the material itself is more challenging to work with. Once those challenges are mastered, Neil sees enormous opportunities for distributed manufacturing centers that will reduce shipping costs, fuel consumption, and emissions.
“Being closer to your end goal is clearly how Amazon made a killing by having distributed warehouses,” Neil observes. “This manufacturing process demands and actually allows that because the manufacturing process is a lot less expensive, although the materials are more expensive.”
Beyond the business advantages, Neil sees Monolith addressing fundamental issues in housing and construction.
“A lot of the natural disasters and other needs that people have in building homes are demanding higher quality materials,” he notes. “We’ve been building the same way for hundreds of years, and the older homes are deteriorating at a rate that makes it almost cheaper to build a new home and live in it for 10 years than to buy an older home and live in it for 10 years.”
With ICF, and particularly with Monolith’s polyurethane innovation, Neil believes we can change the longevity and value of homes for the long term.
“I think the future is really, really bright for polyurethane,” he concludes. “It’s becoming more ubiquitous in a lot of areas. Its insulative properties are very well known—the only coolers you buy have polyurethane in them because they’re the best. Same thing with homes. It’s going to be more expensive because the materials are just higher performing, but I think we can absolutely deliver more value than cheaper materials.”
For Neil, joining Monolith wasn’t just about applying his expertise to a new challenge—it was about helping to create a product that solves real problems for people, even problems they didn’t know they needed to solve.
“I’m looking forward to helping deliver a product and a company that will solve problems for people,” Neil says with quiet conviction. “When they build a home with this, they’ll realize, ‘Wow, this is actually much better than I expected.’ That’s a hope—I think we can help tons of people, and that’s an exciting prospect from a human point of view.”
