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Team
Board of Directors

Ed Zschau, Co-founder & Chairman of the Board
Dr. Zschau (pronounced like the first syllable of "shower") is a Visiting Lecturer with the rank of Professor at Princeton University in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Operations Research and Financial Engineering and in the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. After serving as a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Business School in the 1960s, Dr. Zschau was the founder and CEO of System Industries, a Silicon Valley computer products company, from 1968 to 1982. He served as a director and Chairman of the American Electronics Association in the 1970s and as a U.S. Congressman representing the Silicon Valley area for two terms in the 1980s. In 1987, Dr. Zschau became a General Partner of Brentwood Associates, a California-based venture capital firm, and in 1988 he left to serve as CEO of Censtor Corporation, one of Brentwood’s portfolio companies, until 1993, when he became the General Manager of the IBM Storage Systems Division. Dr. Zschau was a Professor of Management at Harvard Business School, teaching entrepreneurial management courses from 1997 to 2000, while also on the Princeton faculty. Dr. Zschau is the Founding Chairman, Emeritus, and a member of the National Advisory Board of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, is on the Board of Scholars of the ACCF Center for Policy Research in Washington, DC, and is a Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology. Currently, he is Chairman of Princeton Power Systems, Inc. and StarTek, Inc. (NYSE), and a director and investor in several other private technology companies. Dr. Zschau received an A.B. degree from Princeton University, MBA, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, and a Doctor of Laws degree (honoris causa) from University of San Francisco.

Philippe Inagaki, Co-founder, CEO & Board Member
Prior to founding Polyera, Mr. Inagaki worked in operations and business development roles at high-tech start-ups in various fields, including biomaterials and embedded electronics. He has also led technology scouting and investment efforts in universities across the U.S., and has given guest lectures on Entrepreneuership at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Inagaki holds an A.B. in Physics magna cum laude and received the Allen Goodrich Shenstone Prize for excellence in research from Princeton University.

Pierre P. Barthélemy, Board Member
Dr. Barthélemy leads development efforts in Organic Electronics as Senior Vice President, Global Business Development at Solvay. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Liège, Belgium in 1987, working on lanthanide coordination chemistry. After one year of postdoctoral studies at Florida State University, he joined Solvay in 1988. He worked for several years in the field of fluorocarbons until he became the Technical Service Manager for Solvay Fluor und Derivate GmbH, Hannover, Germany in 1996. In 2000 he moved back to Belgium to join Peptisyntha SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solvay, and was the Managing Director of Peptisyntha SA. In 2008 he moved to his current position at Solvay. Dr. Barthélemy is a member of the Board of Plextronics, Inc., and of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A).

Sean Murdock, Board Member
Mr. Murdock is Executive Chairman of the NanoBusiness Alliance, the premier nanotechnology policy and commercialization advocacy group in the United States, and is one of the nation’s foremost experts on nanotechnology policy. He has led the effort to amend and reauthorize the 21st Century Nanotechnology R&D Act, which provides roughly $1.5 billion of federal nanoscience funding annually. Mr. Murdock has testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science Committee on issues ranging from national competitiveness to technology commercialization and economic development. In addition, Mr. Murdock has advised the Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative of the National Academies. In recognition of Mr. Murdock’s leadership and impact, he received the 2006 Advocate of the Year award from Small Times Magazine, the leading publication for nanotechnology. Mr. Murdock has also been widely recognized as a thought leader in the business media. He has appeared on CNBC, closed the NASDAQ exchange with leaders throughout the nanotechnology community and has been widely cited in publications including Fortune and the Economist. Prior to formally making nanotechnology a career focus, Mr. Murdock had more than 7 years experience in management consulting, most recently as Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. Mr. Murdock received his MBA and Masters in Engineering Management from Northwestern University. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Notre Dame.

William J. White, Board Member
Mr. White has been a Professor at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science since January 1998. He received Northwestern Alumni Association’s Teaching Excellence Award In 2004. He was named McCormick teacher of the year in 2001. Associated Student Government named him to the Faculty Honor Role in 2000, 2005 and 2008. Prior to Northwestern he served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bell & Howell Company from 1990. Previously he served as Chairman of Whitestar Graphics, Inc., an Executive Vice President and Director of USG Corporation, and President of Masonite Corporation. His latest book “From Day One: CEO Advice to Launch an Extraordinary Career” was released in November 2005. He is a sought-after speaker and frequent guest on TV and radio shows. Currently, Mr. White is a member of the Board of Directors of Intermatic Incorporated, and has served on the Boards of nine public companies and several start-ups, including The Reader’s Digest Assoc., Harris Bank, USG Corporation, Ivex Packaging Corporation and TJI Inc., ForestOne, and NextPart. He also has served on the Boards of several non-profit organizations, including, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, the Field Museum, and the National Association of Corporate Directors. Mr. White is an Industrial Engineering graduate from Northwestern University and received his MBA from Harvard University.

Jean Pfau, Co-founder & Board Observer
Mr. Pfau is a successful Swiss inventor, entrepreneur, executive, and angel investor. Mr. Pfau began his career as a researcher at Charmilles Technologies, where he pioneered the field of electro-erosion machinery and became Head of Research & Development. He was instrumental in establishing Charmilles as the world leader in this technology market and served as the company’s CEO during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 2002, he retired as the chairman of Swissquote, the Swiss market leader in on-line banking, which he guided from its founding in 1992 to its IPO in 2000. He has also participated in many other entrepreneurial technology ventures as an advisor, board member, or angel investor. These ventures covered a large spectrum of products, systems, and services based on innovations in the fields of precision mechanical engineering, electrical discharge, electrochemical machining, micro and nano-machining, electronics, computer controls, robotics, CAD-CAM systems, electron-beam and ion-beam material processing, thermoplastic processing, and RFID. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Pfau served as a Member of the Council of the Swiss National Bank and as Vice President of the Swiss Machine Association. Mr. Pfau received a ‘License en physiques’ from the University of Geneva.

 
Advisory Board

Tobin J. Marks, Co-founder & Scientific Advisor
Dr. Marks is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalyic Chemistry at Northwestern University. He received his B.S. from University of Maryland (1966) and Ph.D. from MIT (1971), and came to Northwestern immediately thereafter. In 2005, he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the United States Government. In 2008, he was awarded the Principe de Asturias Prize for Technical and Scientific Research in Materials, and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India. Dr. Marks is on the editorial boards of 9 major journals, has published 910 research articles, and holds 89 U.S. patents. Dr. Marks has received 65 named lectureships and awards, including American Chemical Society Awards in Polymeric Materials, 1983; Organometallic Chemistry, 1989; Inorganic Chemistry, 1994; the Chemistry of Materials, 2001; and for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry, 2008. He was awarded the 2000 F. Albert Cotton Medal, Texas A&M American Chemical Society Section; 2001 Willard Gibbs Medal, Chicago American Chemical Society Section; 2001 North American Catalysis Society Burwell Award; 2001 Linus Pauling Medal, Pacific Northwest American Chemical Society Sections; 2002 American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal; 2003 German Chemical Society Karl Ziegler Prize; 2003 Ohio State University Evans Medal; 2004 Royal Society of Chemistry Frankland Medal, 2005 Bailar Medal, Champaign-Urbana Section of the American Chemical Society, Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1993; Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 1993; Member, Leopoldina German Academy of Natural Sciences, 2005; Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005.

 
Management

Philippe Inagaki, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
Prior to founding Polyera, Mr. Inagaki worked in operations and business development roles at high-tech start-ups in various fields, including biomaterials and embedded electronics. He has also led technology scouting and investment efforts in universities across the U.S., and has given guest lectures on Entrepreneuership at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Inagaki holds an A.B. in Physics magna cum laude and received the Allen Goodrich Shenstone Prize for excellence in research from Princeton University.

Antonio Facchetti, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Facchetti obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from State University of Milano in Italy. He did his postdoctoral research in Materials Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley and then at Northwestern University, where he is now an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Facchetti has published over 150 research articles and holds over 30 patents.

Prakash Ramachandran, Chief Financial Officer
Prakash is a finance professional with over 25 years experience, including CFO roles in various industries. Prior to joining Polyera, Prakash was CFO of Nordic Windpower, a start-up that introduced innovative two bladed wind turbine technology in the wind power market. Prior to that, he was CFO of Novariant, a start-up that successfully sold GPS based machine control products to agriculture and mining industries. He has raised over $100 millions in equity and debt for these companies from Tier 1 VC firms and other institutions, including a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. Previously, he was CFO of a $300 million consumer products group headquartered in Hong Kong with operations in over 11 countries. Prakash is qualified as a Chartered Accountant in India, completed Management Accounting of UK, and holds a Masters in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Henry Yan, Vice President, Product Development
Prior to joining Polyera, Dr. Yan worked at Air Products, where his responsibilities covered the development of polymer materials for PLED applications. Dr. Yan had extensive experience in the field of organic electronics, covering OTFT, OPV and OLED technology. Dr. Yan obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry under Prof. Tobin J. Marks at Northwestern University, where his research focused on OLEDs. Dr. Yan did his post-doctoral research in the areas of dielectrics for OTFTs and interlayers for OPVs. Dr. Yan has published 45 research articles and holds 20 patents.

Brendan Florez, Assistant General Manager
Prior to joining Polyera, Brendan was Executive Team Consultant for Rosetta, a digital marketing agency. While at Rosetta, Brendan lead an organizational change-management effort to restructure the project-management function while helping manage early integration efforts after Rosetta’s acquisition of Brulant. He aided the design and management of an award-winning CRM program for J&J Vision Care, Inc., which grew the customer database from 500,000 to over 2MM, contributing an estimated additional $15MM in revenue. Prior to that, Brendan managed a team supporting strategic marketing efforts for Microsoft, Church & Dwight, and others. Brendan holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Chung-Chin Hsiao, Vice President, Business Development
Prior to joining Polyera, Dr. Hsiao had extensive experience in the field of flat panel displays, covering TFT-LCD, OLED/PLED, and EPD technologies. He was previously employed at AU Optronics, where his responsibilities covered the development of oxide TFT, organic TFT, R2R printing technology, and several international cooperating projects for flexible display applications. (AUO is one of the biggest display makers in the world with 42,000 employees.) Dr. Hsiao obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, where he studied “Interfacial engineering and failure mechanism in polymer light-emitting diodes”. Dr. Hsiao has published 14 research articles and holds 10 patents.

 


 
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