ADVISORY BOARD - COMPANY
| Dr. Ronald F.M. Lange Founder / CEO 9-om AG Wiesenstrasse 26 CH-3073 Gümligen (Bern), Switzerland |
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Dr. Ronald F.M. Lange is the founder and CEO of 9-om AG, a company whose focus is to “translate inventions into money” and “to help customers to be more successful.” The company’s photovoltaic (PV) activities are concentrated in the business unit, Solceler, whose goal is to accelerate PV module business. Short term (3-6 months), the group is focused on providing startup assistance for new PV module production factories in various parts of the world (60 MW in Canada, 25 MW in Azerbaijan), as well as offering interim (project) management and various troubleshooting activities at PV module-, equipment-, and raw-material producers. Longer term, the group is working on developing partnership with raw-material, production-equipment, as well as PV-module producers with the overall aim of significantly decreasing the cost / kilowatt-hour generated.
Previously, Lange held the role of Chief Innovation Officer at 3S Swiss Solar Systems in Switzerland where he initiated and oversaw the company’s innovative technical developments as well as sales activities. The company 3S, including Somont and Pasan, is and now part of Meyer Burger Swiss Solar Systems, which, in turn, is one of the technology and commercial leaders in the solar panel equipment market.
From July 1988 until January 2002, Lange was predominantly active in the area of engineering plastics at DSM in The Netherlands. From January 2002 till July 2008 he joined BASF and held various research and senior management positions in Germany and the UK. During this time, he published more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Science, gave more than 30 invited lectures, and co-authored more than 25 patents.
Lange studied organic chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. working on Supramolecular Polymer Chemistry with Prof. Dr. E.W. (Bert) Meijer at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
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| Dennis Gieselaar Co-founder / Managing Director Oskomera Solar Power Solutions B.V. Vuurijzer 23 5753 SV Deurne, The Netherlands |
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Dennis Gieselaar is Co-Founder and the current Managing Director of Oskomera Solar Power Solutions B.V., a division of Oskomera Group – an organization of companies that specialize in developing the building envelope of high-end commercial buildings, including facades, roofs, and steel works. In his current role, Gieselaar is responsible for all of the organization’s solar photovoltaic (PV) activities and he has established Oskomera Solar Power Solutions as one of the leading solar PV engineering / procurement / construction (EPC) contractors in the Netherlands for large-scale projects, as well as a leading distributor of PV equipment.
Gieselaar has contributed to the installation of more than 100 MWp of solar PV power across Northwest Europe, and therefore has built a strong network of investment firms in solar PV, project finance banks, due-diligence consultants, plus leading module suppliers. Since 2006, Gieselaar has been a member of the board of Holland Solar, the Dutch solar industry association, where he represents downstream industry interests before Dutch politicians and governmental bodies.
Prior to co-founding Oskomera, Gieselaar was a consultant at Ekomation Solar Energy Consultancy in Rotterdam from 1997 to 2001. While there, he worked as an advisory with energy utilities, property developers, and governmental bodies on financing and subsidizing solar PV projects. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Environmental Science from Hogeschool Holland (Amsterdam) and an MS. in Total Quality Management from the University of Humberside in the UK.
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| Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Henning Deputy Director Fraunhofer ICT Director Polymer Engineering Fraunhofer ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Str. 7, 76327 Pfinztal, Germany Director Chair of Light-Weight Technology Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT Institute for Vehicle System Technology - FAST Fritz-Erler-Str. 1-3, 76133 Karlsruhe Adjunct Research Professor at University of Western Ontario www.eng.uwo.ca/mechanical/ |
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Henning is currently a Full Professor for Lightweight Technologies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (Fraunhofer ICT). He was a lecturer for composites at the Berufsakademie Mannheim from 1997 to 2008. Between 2001 and 2002 he was Deputy Director of Polymer Engineering at the Fraunhofer ICT and in 2002 he became Director of Polymer Engineering there. Henning was appointed Head of the Competence Center for Automotive Light-Weight Solutions, which is a cooperation between the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the University of Karlsruhe, in 2005.
Since 2008, he has been the CEO of KITe hyLITE – the Karlsruhe Innovation Cluster for Hybrid Light-Weight Solutions - which is a collaborative venture between the Fraunhofer Institutes ICT, IWM and LBF, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and partners from industry. In December 2008, Henning was appointed by KIT for a full professorship in lightweight technologies. At the beginning of 2009 he was also appointed Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology. Together with Prof. Drechsler, Prof. Henning is responsible for the new high-performance composite team in Augsburg, which is a research group of the Fraunhofer ICT.
In November 2010, Henning was appointed by the University of Western Ontario, Canada as an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. Also, he coordinates the Fraunhofer FUTURE “hybrid materials” for the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Henning has more than 14 years of experience in applied research. Prof. Henning is also Vice President of SAMPE Deutschland e.V. and is currently European Liaison for the SPE Composites Division.
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| Dr.-Ing. Tapio Harmia Owner / managing director Harmia Beratungsgesellschaft GmbH Steigerhügel 15 D-67659 Kaiserslautern, Germany |
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Dr.-Ing. Tapio Harmia is the founder and CEO of Harmia Beratungsgesellschaft GmbH, a company offering consulting in the field of composites and plastic materials, company startup, and business development. In this role, he currently advises e.g. Trovotech GmbH, a company producing a new type of foamed glass particle as a performance additive for various materials, as well as Finnester Coatings, a producer of high-performance fire-resistant coatings. Additionally, Harmia is a member of the board of directors for Finnester Coatings Oy (demanding fire protection coatings), Finresin Oy (a plastics distribution company in Finland), and Circomp GmbH (a composites parts manufacturer for the aviation industry in Germany).
Prior to his consulting work, Harmia was managing director of Future Advanced Composites & Technology GmbH (FACT) between 1998 and 2006. Under his leadership, the company became one of the leading suppliers of long-fiber thermoplastic (LFT) materials in Europe.
Harmia studied Chemical Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology from 1985 to 1992 and came to Germany to Kaiserslautern at the Institute of Composite Materials (Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe (IVW)) to earn his doctorate degree in Engineering in 1992. After finishing his Ph.D., in 1996, he worked as a research at IVW for 2 years before founding his own company, FACT. Harmia has deep insight in the field of composite LFT, and in thermoplastics composites. He has also carried out research work in this field, resulting to 14 publications, as well as patents and inventions.
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| Christopher Johnston Director of Technology and Processes Continental Structural Plastics 755 W Big Beaver Rd. Suite 700 Troy, MI 48084, USA |
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Christopher Johnston has over 24 years of experience in the field of polymer composites with an extensive background in composite materials selection, product design, tooling design, and manufacturing processes. In 2007, he was appointed Director of Advanced Process Engineering at Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), where he is active exploring opportunities for new design, processing, and material technologies. He is currently involved with the implementation of one of the first commercial automotive applications for the compression molding of thermoset prepregs.
Previously, Johnston was appointed Director of Technology at CSP in 1999, where he oversaw implementation of the company’s new technologies, including direct long-fiber thermoplastics (D-LFT), plunger molding, and lightweight reinforced thermoplastic (LWRT) composites. He joined CSP as an engineering manager in 1990, overseeing all technical aspects of the company and supporting its growth over the next decade from annual revenues of $3-million USD to over $75-million USD. During the 1990s, Johnston established CSP as an industry leader in the design and manufacturer of composite automotive bumpers, with over 17 applications. He also helped introduce an integrated stay, I-section bumper that won the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition in 1999 as both Grand Award winner and also Exterior category winner for most innovative use of plastics.
Johnston studied Mechanical Engineering at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology from 1980 to 1984. He began his career in composites in 1987 joining Butler Polymet, Inc., an early pioneer in the compression molding of glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) composites. While there, he gained experience in compression molding techniques and managing automotive programs.
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