Amos Michelson, M.B.A., B.S. Electrical Engineering
Chairman
Amos Michelson is Chairman of three high-tech start-ups and Director in an additional five high-tech companies in the areas of life sciences, energy, and Web 2.0. Mr. Michelson was CEO of Creo, Inc. from June 1995 until Kodak purchased Creo for C$1.2 Billion in May 2005. Prior to joining Creo, he was CEO of Opal Inc., a semi-conductor equipment company, and prior to this Mr. Michelson was Chief Operating Officer of Optrotech Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of optical and imaging systems for the electronics industry.
Amos Michelson holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Amos Michelson is a past member of the Premier’s Technology Council and in 1999 was named Entrepreneur of the Year, along with Dan Gelbart, by Ernst & Young. In 2005, Mr. Michelson was named the “BCTIA Person of the Year”, an award presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the technology industry during the year.
Ron Klopfer, M.B.A., B.S. Electrical Engineering
CEO
Mr. Klopfer is an experienced technology entrepreneur and manager, having co-founded, financed and managed three successful technology startups over the past eight years, two of which have been acquired by larger companies to generate strong returns to seed-stage venture investors. Mr. Klopfer has also consulted to various technology companies on market strategy, sales, mergers and operations. Mr. Klopfer's technology sales and business development background originates in the Silicon Valley, where his sales team doubled a large sales region and key Fortune-500 account revenues for a hardware manufacturer. Mr. Klopfer holds an MBA in technology marketing from Queen's University, and a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Thomas W. Steiner, PhD
Chief Scientist
After graduating with a PhD in experimental physics from Simon Fraser University in 1986 Dr. Steiner spent a year and a half at IBM’s T.J. Watson research lab before returning to British Columbia and eventually working at Creo (later to become a division of Kodak). At Creo he provided technical leadership and many of the core ideas in the development of several world beating products including Creo’s first thermal laser exposure head, an optical cross-connect switch and a continuous inkjet printing head. Dr. Steiner held the position of principal physicist at Kodak before founding Etalim to pursue his interest in energy related topics. He is the author of more than 30 papers in peer reviewed journals and the holder of nine patents with at least six more pending.
Briac de Chardon, P.Eng.
Director of Business Development
Mr. de Chardon obtained a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria in 1999. He spent over six years working at Creo (later Kodak) in product development roles and ink jet research. In 2005 he then moved to start-up company Vectis Technologies to commercialize plate processing technology. Mr. de Chardon joined Etalim in 2006.
Takao Kanemaru, B. Eng. M. Eng.
Materials Scientist
After graduating from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1985 with a Masters degree in Nuclear Power Engineering, Mr. Kanemaru spent 10 years with Kawasaki Steel’s research lab in Chiba, Japan as a senior researcher. During this time he focused his research on high thermal conductivity ceramics. This was followed by 8 years at Westaim, later to be renamed Zimarc (a division of the Alberta Research Council), in Alberta Canada as a director of technology developing applications for ceramic components in electronics. He then spent 4 years with Creo (later Kodak) as a Material scientist collaborating on continuous ink jet projects before returning to Asia to join Holystone Enterprise for two years in Taipei Taiwan as a technical consultant in high thermal conductivity ceramics. Mr. Kanemaru joined Etalim in 2008.
Sylvia Smullin, PhD
Physicist
Dr. Smullin has a PhD in experimental physics from Stanford University, with particular expertise in designing and building precision measurements. after graduating in 2005, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. Prior to joining Etalim, Dr. Smullin worked as a scientist and team leader at Makani Power, designing crucial components for prototype development of a kite-based wind powersystem.
