WITRICITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
- CEO of Wi
Alex Gruzen is the CEO of WiTricity, the industry pioneer in wireless power transfer over distance. Before WiTricity, Gruzen co-founded Texas-based Corsa Ventures, where he focused on building leading technology companies via early-stage investments. Prior to Corsa, he was the Senior Vice President of the Consumer and Small Medium Business Product Group at Dell, and previously led the company's global notebook computer business. His experience spans product development, global sales and marketing, operations and growth through mergers and acquisitions, having also held leadership roles at Hewlett Packard, Compaq, and Sony. Gruzen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a S.M. and S.B. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
CEO of WiTricity. Before WiTricity, Gruzen co-founded Austin-based Corsa Ventures. Before Corsa, he was Senior Vice President of the Consumer and Small Medium Business Product Group at Dell, led the company's global notebook computer business, and previously led the global notebook businesses of Hewlett Packard and Compaq.
Amy Barzdukas is the Chief Marketing Officer at WiTricity, responsible for leading global marketing for WiTricity and driving the company through its next wave of growth as EVs with WiTricity's patented wireless charging solutions become commercially available. Barzdukas has more than 25 years of B2B and consumer marketing, communications, and product management experience. Prior to WiTricity, Barzdukas was CMO of Omnitracs, the global pioneer of fleet management solutions to transportation and logistics companies. Before Omnitracs, Barzdukas was CMO and Executive Vice President at Poly, Inc. and Polycom, Inc., Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Business Personal Systems at Hewlett Packard, Inc., and held various positions at Microsoft. Barzdukas attended Wellesley College and earned her BA from Abilene Christian University.
Kahn is an internationally recognized scholar on retailing, variety-seeking, brand loyalty, product assortment and design and consumer decision-making. She is currently the Patty and Jay H. professor of marketing at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She has published more than 75 articles in leading academic journals.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO of InterDigital
President and CEO of InterDigital, the mobile and video technology research and development company. Merritt is an expert in intellectual property and leads one of the most successful technology licensing businesses of all time.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Managing Partner at Stage 1 Ventures
Managing Partner at Stage 1 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. Baum is an experienced general partner with 35 years in the IT industry, including 25 years in technology finance and 10 years in entrepreneurial operating management roles.
David joined WiTricity in 2008 and now serves as VP of Product Management. He is responsible for the global productization of WiTricity's technology. David has performed multiple roles at WiTricity. Prior to his current role he was VP of Global Sales and Business Development, where he was responsible for driving WiTricity's customer engagements and closing business with car makers, Tier 1s, and infrastructure suppliers. He has also been responsible for sales and business development in industrial, medical, and defense related applications of WiTricity's patented wireless charging technologies.
Prior to joining WiTricity, David was V.P. of Corporate Development at Cognex Corporation, the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems. In this role, David led the acquisition and integration of 12 companies, contributing to the growth of Cognex to over $220M in annual revenues. David is co-author of seven patents. David holds a B.S. (1979) in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, and an M.S. (1983) in Management from the Sloan School, MIT.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Engineering
David Trabulsi is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at WiTricity. He brings more than 25 years of Tier 1 automotive and consumer electronics experience, with extensive global leadership across all phases of product design and development. His long career at Bose included Director of various divisions, including Advanced R&D Technology, Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chain Engineering, Application Engineering, and others - both in the United States and Japan. David has led international engineering organizations across industries with enterprise-wide success, including responsibility for advanced design, analysis, and testing of vehicle body structures at General Motors. Prior to joining WiTricity, David was Chief Product Development and Supply Chain Officer for 4Moms.
Donald Peck is the Chief Financial Officer at WiTricity and is responsible for WiTricity's financial and accounting functions, as well as the legal and human resources activities for the company. Prior to joining WiTricity, Don was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Lojack. Previously, Don served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Satcon Technology Corporation and was Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Egenera, Inc. He also served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of The First Marblehead Corporation. Don is trained as an attorney and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
- Professor of Engineering at the University of Auckland
Professor of Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where there are more than 40 Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers on campus working on wireless charging. Covic leads industrial and EV wireless power research efforts, is a pioneer in inductive power transfer, and actively collaborates in WiTricity research.
Job Titles:
- MIT Professor
- Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MacArthur Fellow and WiTricity founder. Soljačić and his team developed the foundational technology for wireless power transfer over distance via strongly-coupled magnetic resonators and founded WiTricity in 2007.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President and Chief Licensing Officer at InterDigital, Inc
Hakoranta serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Licensing Officer at InterDigital, Inc. She previously led patent licensing at Nokia, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Head of Intellectual Property and Litigation. She is a globally recognized intellectual property professional and licensing executive with a particularly deep knowledge and understanding of licensing standard essential patents.
Job Titles:
- SVP, Business Development & Strategy
Farooq is responsible for global sales at WiTricity, including the marketing and selling of sophisticated mixed-signal analog semiconductor solutions as well as broadly licensing WiTricity's world-leading wireless energy IP portfolio. In addition to sales, Farooq also leads business development and worldwide strategic partnering for the company.
Farooq was most recently VP of Worldwide Business Development and Strategy for Dell's End User Solutions group. In this role, Farooq was responsible for leading Dell's strategy across a rapidly expanding multi-billion dollar product and intellectual property portfolio. Prior to his role in Dell's End User Solutions group, Farooq drove Strategy and Business Development for Dell's Consumer Business. In earlier positions, Farooq served as Senior Director of Technology Strategy at Motorola's Mobile Devices Business and also served as Director and Chief Strategist for Motorola Asia Pacific, where he drove key Sales, Marketing and Channel initiatives in the emerging, high growth markets of Asia. Prior to Motorola, Farooq worked as a software designer at Stratus Computer. Farooq received his M.S. in Computer Science from George Mason University and B.S. in the same field from The College of William and Mary.
Job Titles:
- President of Climeon Japan
President of Climeon Japan, a clean energy company. Watanabe is a 36-year veteran of Mitsubishi Corporation, having last served as the chief strategist and SVP of Mitsubishi Energy Group.
Joe Benz - Chief Legal Officer
Joe Benz is the Chief Legal Officer at WiTricity and is responsible for developing and leading the company's legal strategy. Joe brings more than 20 years of experience in intellectual property (IP) law, the automotive industry, and international technology licensing to his role at WiTricity. At Boeing, he served as Chief Counsel and Senior Director for intellectual property, helping to lead Boeing through a major organizational redesign and solidifying a global patent portfolio in a changing competitive environment. Prior to his role at Boeing, Joe served as the President and Chief Operating Officer for Ford Global Technologies and Chief IP Counsel to the Ford Motor Company. Prior to his work at Ford, Joe provided senior-level legal client services across the global IP spectrum at Alston & Bird and Paul Hastings. He has represented clients in numerous Federal District Courts and before the International Trade Commission. Joe holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Masters of Business Administration from Goizueta Business School at Emory University, a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law, and a Masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College. He is a registered patent attorney and licensed to practice law in North Carolina and Georgia.
Job Titles:
- VP, Fleets & Commercial Vehicles
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Cellular One, the Major - Market Cellular Industry Pioneer, and Air Waves Wireless Electricity
Kim joined WiTricity in January 2015 as the company's first Human Resources leader. She is responsible for all aspects of HR including Talent Acquisition & Management, Organizational Design, Executive & Management Coaching and Compensation & Benefits. Prior to joining WiTricity, Kim led the HR function at four other organizations in high tech, non-profit and academia. WiTricity is the third high tech company where she has served as the first HR resource and built the entire function. Kim holds an MBA with a concentration in Organizational Behavior from Suffolk University and a BA in American Studies from Brandeis University.
Job Titles:
- CEO and Member of the Board of Directors at Novus Capital Corporation
Larry Paulson is CEO and member of the board of directors at Novus Capital Corporation. Novus Capital Corporation is a special purpose acquisition company with a focus on smart and innovative technologies. Paulson has more than 30 years of global experience in the wireless telecom industry.
McNabb is the former President and CEO of Electrify America LLC. He served as COO of Volkswagen of America, Inc. for over 3 years.
McNabb also served as President and CEO of Maserati North America for 4 years, then transitioned to a Commercial Director for an additional 3 years.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Quality
Michael Edmunds is the Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Quality at WiTricity. He joined WiTricity from Bose, where he was Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Global Supply Chain. His global responsibilities included developing, coordinating, and executing manufacturing and global strategies for consumer electronics, automotive systems, professional systems, and medical products. He oversaw end-to-end global operations from raw material procurement to manufacturing internally and externally with contract manufacturers to finished good distribution and reverse logistics. He led global quality and regulatory, ES&G, S&OP, and lean enterprise with field operations in 16 countries across North America, Asia, and Europe. Michael earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Clemson University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana University.
Morris is the Chief Technology Officer at WiTricity where he is responsible for the research and development activities in the company. He joined WiTricity in 2007 and has served as Chief Engineer and vice president of research and development. Prior to joining WiTricity, he was a founder of Wide Net Technologies, Inc., which developed unique optical communication and sensing systems for both government and industry.
His work at Wide Net Technologies involved secure high-speed communications systems for fiber and free space applications, and the development of novel nano-photonic devices for communications and sensing. From 2000 to 2003, Morris held the position of Consulting Engineer at PhotonEx Corporation, where he was responsible for transmission engineering and testing and played a key role in the development of the PhotonEx 40 Gb/s optical transport system. Morris spent ten years with the Georgia Tech Research Institute where he led research programs in electromagnetic scattering, antenna arrays, novel antenna structures and photonic band-gap structures. He held the position of Principal Research Engineer when he left. Morris was a post-doctoral fellow at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory where he studied semiconductor quantum well lasers. He holds over 70 patents and has published over 40 technical journal and conference papers. He holds a B.S. (1984), M.S. (1984), and Ph.D. (1988) from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Stephen leads a team responsible for expanding WiTricity's relationships with automakers and their Tier 1 suppliers across the Asian continent, most notably in China and South Korea, to commercialize wireless electric vehicle (EV) charging.
Tsao specializes in transforming advanced, innovative technologies like EV wireless charging into mass-produced, commercialized products. His experience includes semiconductor development, end-product design, manufacturing, and channel sales. Prior to his latest role at WiTricity, Tsao was senior vice president of global business development at Season Group, a global, vertically integrated electronic manufacturing solutions (EMS) provider with specialty in product design and IoT connectivity. Tsao previously held roles as CEO of Giant Wireless, VP of sales & marketing of WE3 Technology Company Ltd., and marketing director at Freescale Semiconductor and Motorola. He received his MS in electrical engineering at Texas A&M University.
As VP of Automotive and Industrial Engineering, Steve Ganem leads the electric vehicle wireless charging product development team. He is also responsible for the customer applications team which spans support, professional services, and training. Prior to WiTricity, Steve held leadership positions in engineering and technical support at Brooktrout Technology where he helped develop and commercialize DSP-based technology for speech and fax technology in the OEM space. He graduated with honors from Northeastern University where he holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Job Titles:
- VP, Global Automotive & Infrastructure
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Advisors
- Founder and Former CEO of Nest
- Principal at Future Shape
Principal at Future Shape, a global investment and advisory firm. Fadell is the founder and former CEO of Nest (acquired by Google), and former SVP of Apple's iPod Division, where he led the development of the first 18 generations of the iPod and first three generations of the iPhone.