MANAGEMENT TEAM
Ralph Russo, President & CEO 
Mr. Russo has 30 years experience in high-tech industry. Mr. Russo is an accomplished senior executive with over 30 years experience in a variety of business environments. He has functional experience in operations management, sales, marketing, product development, and information systems technology. He has led organizations through start-ups, turnarounds, explosive growth periods, mergers, and divestitures. Senior executive experience includes: President of Enterprise Channel Division, Nortel Networks, President Automotive Safety products SBU Allied Signal Inc., and V.P. of World-Wide Operations, Apple Computer Inc.
Qiming Zhang, Ph.D., Vice President & CTO 
Dr. Zhang is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Material Science Engineering at Penn State University and an IEEE fellow. As a leading expert in electroactive polymers in the world, he has over 260 publications and 9 patents in this field. He also has co-edited 4 books and contributed many chapters in electroactive polymers and related technologies. His group discovered and developed electrostrictive polymers with high strain responses, developed microfluidic devices and microactuators based on EAPs, proposed and demonstrated ultrahigh dielectric constant hybrid nanometamaterials based on delocalized electron system, and more recently, the dielectric polymers with high electric energy density for capacitor applications. His research has been funded by NIH, DOE, DOD, NSF, and many companies.
Shihai Zhang, Ph.D., Director of Engineering
Dr. Zhang earned his Ph.D. degree in materials science. He was at GE Global Research Center and has over six-years experience in dielectric properties in polymer blends and polymer nanocomposites, polymer film capacitors, polymer structure-morphology-property relationships. Six Sigma quality control, over 35 publications in polymer dielectrics and blends, 5 patents filed on polymer dielectrics.
Dean Anderson, Ph.D., Director of Operations
Dr. Anderson has 20 years of industrial experience with capacitor and actuator materials, process and product development. He earned his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in Solid State Science. He has functional experience in research and development, engineering management, new process and product development, account management and operations management. He has over 15 years of experience in high volume process development, over 10 years in customer development and holds three patents. Management experience includes: Engineering Management at Motorola, Director of New Product Development at TRS Technologies, and Global Account Management at Flextronics.
Paul W. Rehrig, Ph.D., Director of Program Management
Dr. Rehrig has over 15 years experience with electro-active materials research and development for the commercialization of transducer and actuator applications. He earned his Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. With over 6 years of research and development program management experience in industry (DOD, NIH, NASA and corporate sponsored), he has led multi-functional research teams in driving innovative technology to market in both small business and large corporation environments. He has functional experience in government grant and proposal development, intellectual property protection, cultivating relationships, and securing financial backing. He has over 50 publications and 1 patent (2 pending patents). Management experience includes: Director of Research and Development, TRS Technologies, Inc., Ceramic Processing and Characterization Group Leader, Saint-Gobain High-Performance Materials, and State Director, Missouri Federal and State Technology (MoFAST) program.
Ailan Cheng, Ph.D., Director of Solid-State Cooling
Dr. Cheng directs the development of Electro-Caloric Effect based high efficiency solid-state cooling technology development.
ADVISORY BOARD
Mitchell Halpern, Ph.D.
Dr. Halpern has spent over 20 years assisting large and small companies around the world maximize the value of their technology assets. He has led major consulting efforts throughout the entire business development chain ranging from new product ideation to the development of market entry strategies and the negotiation of acquisition and licensing agreements. Before joining SPS, Dr. Halpern spent most of his career at SRI International--one of the world's largest research and consulting organizations--where he was instrumental in the expansion of the technology management and commercialization practice. Dr. Halpern received his BA with honors from Columbia University and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Michael T. Lanagan, Ph.D.
Michael Lanagan received his B. S. in Ceramic Engineering (Highest Honors) from University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from Penn State. He is presently Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Associate Director of the Materials Research Institute. Before joining Penn State, Dr. Lanagan was a staff scientist at Argonne National Laboratory for twelve years where he studied materials for superconductors, molten carbonate fuel cells, and high-energy density capacitors. He is an author of over 150 technical publications and 8 patents. His present interests include synthesis, processing, and characterization of new materials for wireless communications and power electronics applications.
Dr. Lanagan has extensive research programs in pulsed power and power electronic capacitors that are sponsored by the Department of Energy, U.S. Air Force and the Office of Naval Research. Dr. Lanagan also leads a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on pulsed-power capacitors with participating faculty from Northwestern University and the University of Missouri. His main interests for capacitors are in achieving high energy density and high temperature capacitor performance.
Clive W Reed
Retiree from General Electric, over 40 year experience in capacitor technology