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About Us
Ampulse was founded in 2007 by Innovation Valley Partners and Battelle Ventures, an independent venture fund formed by the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world's largest non-profit research and development organization, manager of seven National and four major private laboratories in the United States. Ampulse is leveraging proprietary technology developed over the past ten years at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and National Renewal Energy Laboratory (NREL), focused on flexible thin-film photovoltaic technologies. Based on its innovative technology, Ampulse was the first recipient of Technology Commercialization Funding (TCF) from the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Agency of the United States Department of Energy (EERE/DOE).
Ampulse is currently funded by Battelle Ventures and its affiliate fund, Innovation Valley Partners.
Ampulse has
received funding from Battelle Ventures and its affiliate fund,
Innovation Valley Partners.
Our Team
Steve Hane President - Chief Executive Officer
Steve joins Ampulse with an outstanding performance record in leadership roles within both venture-backed start-ups and large-scale businesses. Prior to Ampulse, Hane was president and CEO of Picolight, Inc., a pioneer in designing and manufacturing the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), a key technology used in high-speed short-to-medium-distance optical interconnects. Within two years of assuming top positions at Picolight, he architected a company restart that produced dramatic increases in revenue, profitability and customer acceptance of Picolight's optical technologies. Steve orchestrated successful $125-million sale of Picolight to JDSU in mid-2007.
From 2000 to 2004, Steve was vice president of business development for LightPointe Communications, a free-space optics manufacturer. He played a leadership role in strategic-partnership development with Cisco, Siemens, Corning and Huawei, and drove deployments of FSO with top service providers, including Qwest and Nextel. Previous to LightPointe, Steve was vice president in the Business Broadband Group of ADC responsible for North American sales. Steve was instrumental in leading ADC's network transport and access product group to a $500-million revenue run-rate, with more than 70 product approvals in an eight-year span of service.
Steve holds a bachelor's degree in geological engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology (1983). With his present efforts focused on emerging clean technologies, Steve serves on the advisory board of the University of Colorado's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, was named the 2008 "National Clean Energy Entrepreneur of the Year" for early seed ventures at the 21st NREL Industry Growth Forum, and is a founder and member of the first Board of Directors for the launch of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA) in early 2009.
Paul Schroeter - Chief Operating Officer
Paul is a strong data-driven leader of R&D, operations, and engineering with a record of success in organizations ranging from pre-product start-ups to $500 million public companies. Previously as COO and Senior Vice President at Neophotonics Corp., a leading designer and manufacturer of optical components, modules, and subsystems, Paul was responsible for research and development, operations, and engineering, both domestic and international. He grew the company from a 25-person materials research startup to an industry leader with over 2,300 employees and more than $100 million in annual revenue, recognized for technical excellence, on-time delivery of complex integrated optical components, and outstanding customer service to customers.
As Vice President of Operations and Engineering at Read-Rite Corp, Paul was a primary contributor in transforming Read-Rite from a $10 million per year, 250-employee company in a bankrupt position into the largest independent supplier of thin film computer disk heads employing 10,000 people with $500 million in revenue. Earlier in his career, as an Engineering Manager at Advanced Micro Devices, Paul Started three separate high volume semi-conductor wafer fabrication/production facilities from initial planning and set up, through daily operations and transferred processes from R&D into production.
Paul received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1977 at University of Illinois, Urbana.
Vidya Sharma - Vice President, Strategic Marketing
Vidya is a seasoned marketing executive with more than 20 years experience in strategic marketing, strategic partnerships and implementing successful "go to market" strategies at both large public and venture capital backed companies. Recently, he was Vice President of marketing and business development at Picolight, a manufacturer of vertically cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) based high-speed products. As part of the turnaround team, he led structuring of the company placing Picolight on accelerated growth path. His strength and discipline in managing P&L, product strategy and customer interaction transformed Picolight into a fastest growing company in less than 24 months. After Picolight's acquisition by JDSU in May 2007 for $125M, Vidya led Picolight integration into JDSU and directed strategic marketing for JDSU's entire Transmission Business Unit.
Previous to Picolight, Vidya led LightPointe's strategic marketing team focused on strategic partners and carriers. He managed LightPointe's marketing efforts with key strategic partners such as Cisco, Huawei, Corning, ADC, and key carrier customers including Qwest, Nextel, M1, Chungwa and Tata Telecom. As Director of Business Management at Nortel, Vidya launched and managed Nortel's Metro Ethernet and Data Center Switching portfolio from 1998 to 2000 with full P&L and business management responsibilities. In less than 18 months, he transformed metro Ethernet portfolio into Nortel's highest growth datacom segment.
Vidya holds a Master's in Business Administration from University of Ottawa, Canada and Master's in Science from Punjab University, India.
Tom Fanning - Director, Technology
Tom Fanning is well-recognized leader in semiconductor industry with over 19 years epitaxial crystal growth and materials characterization experience. Previously at Picolight from 1998 to 2007, Tom managed Picolight's Epitaxy operations, developing the oxcideconfined VCSEL and led the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) epitaxial growth fabrication and materials characterization. Tom continued in that role with JDSU after Picolight's acquisition by JDSU from May 2007 to April 2009.
Previous to Picolight, Tom worked at Vixel Corporation from 1995 to 1998 where he researched the epitaxial growth of visible VCSEL using gas source MBE. Tom was a key member of the team involved in producing world's first commercial VCSELs for data communications.
Tom received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1996. His doctoral research involved performing molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of infrared sensitive semiconductors at the Northrop Grumman Advanced Technology Development Center in Bethpage, NY.
Scientific
Team
Ampulse core R&D team has a strong backing from a number of distinguished scientists and inventors with several decades of combined photovoltaic experience from ORNL and NREL. These scientists are involved with the development of Ampulse's technology on an ongoing basis.
Investors
Strategic
Partnerships
ORNL is a
multiprogram science and technology laboratory managed for the
U.S. Department of Energy by UT-Battelle, LLC. Scientists and
engineers at ORNL conduct basic and applied research and
development to create scientific knowledge and technological
solutions that strengthen the nation's leadership in key areas of
science; increase the availability of clean, abundant energy;
restore and protect the environment; and contribute to national
security.
NREL's
distinctive R&D competencies are positioned to advance national
energy goals by developing innovations to change the way we power
our homes and businesses, and fuel our vehicles. Our R&D
competencies allow us to develop and advance renewable energy and
energy efficiency technologies more effectively through the full
R&D life-cyclefrom basic scientific research through applied
research and engineering; to testing, scale-up, and demonstration.
News
Ampulse Raises $8 Million in Series A Funding
(November 3, 2009)
http://www.ampulse.com/pressrelease.html
NREL Commercialization Project Accelerates PV Technology Innovation
(NREL May 2, 2008)
http://www.nrel.gov/technologytransfer/news/2008/595.html
Battelle
Ventures, Affiliate Invest $8 Million in Three Energy Start-ups
(Business Wire, October 10, 2007)
http://deals.venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/battelle-ventures-invests-8m-in-cleantech-startups/
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