Nano-C’s Board of Directors
Nano-C’s Board is made up of 3 outside Directors along with our CEO. Our outside Directors represent an invaluable skill set, and includes successful industrialists, venture investors with significant expertise in corporate and patent law.
Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors of five of Fontinalis’ portfolio companies: ClimaCell, Humatics, Nano-C, SmartKargo, and Verity Studios. Previously, Chris served as a Director of Life360 (IPO in May of 2019) and Synovia Solutions (acquired by CalAmp in April 2019). Chris also served as a Board Observer of nuTonomy (acquired by Delphi/Aptiv in November 2017) and Parkmobile (acquired by BMW Group in January 2018).
Prior to Fontinalis, Chris worked for LaunchCapital, a venture capital firm with offices in New Haven, Cambridge and San Francisco. At Launch, Chris analyzed, evaluated and executed early-stage principal investments. Previously, Chris worked at Highbridge Principal Strategies, a multi-billion-dollar private equity and mezzanine investment business. He participated in due diligence, financial modeling and deal execution across various business sectors and types of transactions. Prior to business school, Chris worked at UBS in New York.
Chris earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. Chris works in Boston and is a happy father of three. He is a devoted athlete who enjoys the outdoors and mountains. Chris has an interest in deep tech and the digitization of the physical world and loves working with successful startups who have a positive social and/or environmental impact.
Viktor brings over 20 years of international general management experience with a successful track record in building new businesses, repositioning, and turning around under-performing companies. He was the General Manager of an advanced materials start-up funded exclusively by Cabot Corporation that created millions of dollars in shareholder value. He had global P&L responsibility, managed a global sales team, launched a new manufacturing process in Malaysia and was successful in commercializing new business with key accounts in automotive, military, aerospace and rail applications. Prior to joining Cabot, he was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little, Inc. and AT Kearney. As a consultant, he provided guidance to senior management on issues related to strategy, product development, operations improvement and organizational development with the end aim of fundamentally improving bottom line performance. Through this consulting work, he developed a broad background in chemicals, materials, pharmaceutical chemicals, medical device and service industries. Immediately prior to joining Nano-C, Mr. Vejins assisted two early stage materials start-ups in strategy, market development, implementation planning, business valuation and fund raising. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering (UWM ’80) and a SM in Materials Engineering (MIT ’82).
Technical Advisors
His research interests include the rational chemical syntheses of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes along with the synthesis and study of related organic compounds. He is actively engaged in synthesis and study of organic compounds and materials with unusual structures and properties: molecular bowls, baskets, belts, and related nonplanar geodesic polyarenes. Dr. Scott’s research area also included the thermal reactions of aromatic compounds.
He has published over 175 papers and been an invited speaker throughout the world on the rational synthesis of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes. Dr. Scott is currently working with Nano-C on the synthesis of a number of new fullerene derivatives for use in photovoltaics, polymer electronics and oxidative applications.
Dr. Swager’s research is broadly focused on supramolecular and materials chemistry. He is interested in a spectrum of topics with an emphasis on the synthesis and construction of functional assemblies. Molecular recognition pervades a great deal of his research. Chemosensors require recognition elements to discriminate chemical signals. Electronic polymers are one of the areas that his group is well known for having made many innovations. Dr. Swager’s group is constantly developing new electronic structures, properties, and uses for these materials. He and his group continue to be key contributors to the ISN. Dr. Swager is working with Nano-C in the area of dispersion of nanotubes in polymeric materials and is interested in applications such as actuators and transparent conducting films.
Dr. Vander Sande’s areas of expertise include observation of the structure of materials through the use of various forms of electron microscopy. His research seeks to establish the relation between the ways in which a material is processed and the structure and properties the material exhibits. He has been investigating carbonaceous material produced by combustion processes with an orientation toward correlating particle structure and composition with the particle source. He has investigated fullerene formation in flames and is currently working with Nano-C on characterization of single-walled nanotubes. In addition, Dr. Vander Sande has been involved in high temperature superconducting oxides first discovered in 1986. He is co-founder of American Superconductor Corporation of Westborough, MA.
He has served on many industry and scientific panels and is a former President of the American Chemical Society. He currently serves on the Boards of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the NSF Science & Technology Center at the University of Washington, and the Nanoscience Center of Columbia University. He continues to consult with industry on improving the management of corporate research.