Our Team
GREG CIPRIANO
CEO, CTO and Founder
Greg Cipriano has 40 years of experience in technology commercialization, strategic partnerships, and in the development and launching of new products into early markets. He is a hands-on engineer and serial entrepreneur who has founded, built, and exited three businesses. He has a proven track record in the successful development and commercialization of advanced high-tech products that have produced over $1B in new revenue.
Greg was most recently the VP Business Development & Marketing at Protonex, a military portable power systems provider, based on advanced fuel cell and power electronics technology. At Protonex, he developed and secured major DOD and DOE funding for power and energy development programs in the multi-million dollar range. He also helped build the company from 6 to 120 people, closed over $50M in early revenue, forged major strategic partnerships, and participated in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
Greg’s business and product development experience includes OEM and end user products for the energy, defense, communications, and healthcare markets. He was the founder of Affinity and HealthCom (both acquired), and the founder and President of Internexsys, a renewable energy project development and consulting firm. He has also held executive positions at California Microwave, Prime Computer, Instrumentation Labs, and PR Mallory Labs. He has a patent in early switched digital telecom equipment and patents pending in flow battery systems. He received a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and attended the MIT Sloan School of Management, Executive Education Program.
DR. FRANK GIBBARD
Senior Technical Advisor and Founder
Dr. Frank Gibbard was most recently the CEO of WattJoule, but has since retired and holds an advisory role with the company. Frank is a seasoned executive in the field of electrochemical power systems. Throughout his career, Frank has managed battery and fuel cell activities at all levels of responsibility ranging from senior scientist to Vice President R&D of Duracell, and as the Chief Executive Officer of two publicly-owned NASDAQ companies – H Power Corp, an early-stage PEM fuel cell company; and Altairnano, a lithium ion battery company.
Frank holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an internationally recognized leader in energy storage and power generation. His technical experience includes directing research and development on primary and rechargeable batteries, including the following: redox flow batteries, lithium ion, nickel metal hydride, alkaline manganese oxide, alkaline zinc air, reserve lithium thionyl chloride, lithium sulfur dioxide, and high-temperature molten salt.
As CEO of H Power Corp., a fuel cell company, Frank grew the company from 17 employees to more than 200 and led its NASDAQ IPO to raise more than $100 million in public equity capital. He has published and presented more than 100 technical papers in journals, conference proceedings, and battery handbooks.
DR. THOMAS ZAWODZINSKI
Senior Technical Advisor
Dr. Thomas Zawodzinski is presently the Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Conversion and Storage, with appointments in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and at ORNL involved in flow battery and fuel cell research. He previously was the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Fuel Cells, Director of the Case Advanced Power Institute, and the founding Director of the Wright Fuel Cell Group. Dr. Zawodzinski is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and played leadership roles in more than $100 million worth of research projects, including projects on fuel cell materials and systems, such as development of new polymeric membranes for automotive applications at elevated temperature and low relative humidity, electro-catalysis, gas diffusion media and fuel cell durability, as well as projects related to batteries, electrochemical sensors, electro-responsive polymers and other applications of electrochemical technologies.
Dr. Zawodzinski was the PI for the Wright Center for Fuel Cells in Ohio. As Team Leader for Fuel Cells at Los Alamos National Labs until 2002, he led a comprehensive program with R&D components related to automotive, stationary and portable power applications of PEM and direct methanol fuel cells. In addition to his continuous involvement in the fuel cell program, he initiated and led programs including preparation of new electrolytes and new methods for studies of transport and electrode materials in Li batteries.
Tom has published more than one hundred refereed papers and a number of book chapters, holds two patents, has co-edited several books on fuel cells and related topics, and has been an active public speaker with hundreds of presentations and short courses given around the globe on fuel cell and electrochemical devices. Dr. Zawodzinski received his Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo.