Board of Directors and Advisors at Nano-C

Mr. Stata is chairman and co-founder at Analog Devices, Inc., a company he built into a leading provider of semiconductor integrated circuits and analog-to-digital circuits for digital processing. Ray was CEO of the company from 1971 to 1996 and continues today as Chairman of the Board. He co-founded the Massachusetts High Technology Council and served on the executive committee of the United States Council on Competitiveness and the board of overseers of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. Ray is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. A founder of Stata Venture Partners, he holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from MIT and served as a member of the MIT Corporation from 1984 to 2010.

Mr. Grover has had a long history as a private investor in a number of successful companies. He most recently served as the non-executive Chairman of Halifax Corporation (AMEX), where he was a Director since 1985. He was Director of TransTechnology Corporation (NYSE) from 1969 to 1992 and the Axe-Houghton Group of Mutual Funds from 1982 to 1992. In addition, he continues to serve as director of several private companies. Mr. Grover was also, until recently, associated with Research Industries, Inc., a private investment company in Alexandria, Virginia, serving as Executive Vice President, Treasurer, CFO, and Director until December 2002, and then as President until July 2003. His prior experience was with Atlantic Research Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia, one of the leading developers of rocket technology in the United States, where he served as Chemical Engineer in the Gaseous Combustion Group, Technical Assistant to the President, head of the Aerothermodynamics Group, and Financial Manager of the New Products Development Operation. Mr. Grover is the author or coauthor of several scientific papers and is co-holder of a patent on rocket motors. He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with B.S.and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering.

Chris is a Founder and Partner of Fontinalis, where his responsibilities include a wide range of critical processes ranging from deal sourcing and execution to portfolio management and firm strategy. Chris is a determined company builder, who works tirelessly with the boards and C-Level management teams of Fontinalis portfolio companies to support their go-to-market strategies as well as their corporate and business development functions.

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).

Dr. Scott is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. He received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Harvard University in 1970 and joined UCLA as Assistant Professor. In 1975 he joined the University of Nevada where he became Full Professor in 1980. Dr. Scott joined Boston College in 1993.

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 is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry, and formerly the Head of the Chemistry Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1988 and was a post-doctoral fellow at MIT from ’88 to ’90. He joined the University of Pennsylvania in ’90 as Assistant Professor of Chemistry & later promoted to Full Professor. He joined MIT as Full Professor in 1996. From ’02 to ’05 he was the Associate Director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN).

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 is Professor Emeritus and former Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Vander Sande has a Ph.D. in materials science from Northwestern University (1970). He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oxford prior to joining MIT. in 1971.

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.

Dr. Wasserman has had a distinguished career in the chemical industry with a particular focus on the management of innovation and the creation of new materials and chemicals. Since receiving his PhD from Harvard University in 1957 Dr. Wasserman has worked with Bell Labs (’57-’76) and served as Director of Corporate Research for Allied Corp. (now Honeywell) from ’76 to ’81. He joined DuPont Company in ’81 as Associate Director, Chemical Sciences and in ’93 became the Science Advisor, Central Research and Development until his retirement in 2004. During his tenure at DuPont he was active in its 15-year R&D program for fullerene chemistry, particularly the free radical chemistry of C60 and halogen reactions and in the oxidation of organics.

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.

A renowned carbon nanotube scientist and one among the top 1% of highly cited researchers serves as associate professor in the chemical engineering department at MIT. Prior to his move to MIT, Michael was a faculty member in the department of chemical and bio-molecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, preceded by a post-doctoral position with Professor Richard Smalley at Rice University. His work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, most notable being the Unilever award of the American Chemical Society (2007), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2006) and the DuPont Young Investigator Award (2004). Michael has published more than 50 papers in peer reviewed journals and is an inventor/co-inventor on key patents/patent applications. Michael serves on the editorial board of many professional journals and serves as a consultant to industry majors. Michael holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware. He brings to this project his vast expertise on fundamental processes that define the optical and electronic properties of single walled carbon nanotubes.