ENTEK Leadership

	Richard W Pekala, ScD - Vice President, Research and Development
		Dr. Pekala has a B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University (1981) and a Sc.D. degree in polymeric materials from M.I.T. (1984). Upon completion of his graduate work, Dr. Pekala joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a research scientist. During more than decade with the Materials Science Department there, he pioneered the field of organic aerogels. Among his inventions is the use of carbon aerogels as an electrodes for double layer capacitors and capacitive deionization. During his last 6 years at LLNL, Dr. Pekala served as head of the Polymeric Materials Section. In 1996, Dr. Pekala joined PPG Industries as a scientist working in the Silica Products business unit. At PPG, he managed the Microporous Materials Group and had responsibilities for precipitated silica used in battery separators and synthetic printing media. In 1999, Dr. Pekala joined AMTEK where he quickly helped to commercialize a new product (i.e. Teklon) for the lithium-ion battery separator market. Dr. Pekala has over 100 technical publications, 25 patents, and has given numerous invited talks at major technical meetings. He is also the recipient of a 1995 R & D 100 award for his work on the use of carbon aerogel electrodes in capacitive deionization.


	Graeme Fraser-Bell, MBA, PhD - Vice President, Sales and Marketing
		Graeme is responsible for strategic sales and marketing of both TEKLON™ separators and RhinoHide^® automotive starter battery separator products. He is also Chairman of the ENTEK’s sales subsidiary in Singapore. In his many years with the company, Graeme has worked in a variety of strategic sales & marketing positions gaining substantial international exposure and experience as well as living in the UK, USA and South Africa. Graeme has a Bachelors degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Oxford University and an MBA from Rolls-Royce/Newcastle-upon-Tyne University.

	Steve Gerts - Manager, Sales and Marketing
		Steve began his professional career in France at the European Headquarters of Johns-Manville Inc. as a Financial Analyst. Five years later he joined the sales and marketing group there as a Regional Sales Manager for Diatomaceous Earth in Liquid Filtration and Fillers. That position led him to take charge of Microfiber Glass for Air Filtration and Battery Separator Paper. After a brief period as European Sales Manager for Aerospace Cabin Insulation, he was recruited by AXOHM Industries S.A. in 1989 to become the Director of Sales and Marketing – Battery Separators. Steve moved to the USA in 1997 to become the Sales and Marketing Manager – Asia, for RhinoHide^® automotive starter battery separator products. In January 2007 he took charge of the sales and marketing of various new product developments for ENTEK Membranes LLC: Xscape Waterproof Breathable Membranes and High-porosity Membranes.

	Robert Waterhouse - Senior Research Scientist
		Robert is an electrochemist and has a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from U.C. Berkeley (1979) and more than 25 years of experience in high-tech R&D companies. At Altus Corporation in 1979, he was responsible for high energy density lithium thionyl chloride batteries. At Giner Inc. (1981-1985) he worked on the development of electrode catalysts for phosphoric acid fuel cells, iron-chromium flow batteries, blood glucose sensors, and electrochemical reactors. At Physical Sciences, Inc. until 1987 he improved chlor-alkali reactors and membranes for SPE fuel cells. Again at Altus Corporation from 1987 to 1989 he developed lithium primary batteries for several US Army high rate applications. In 1989, Mr. Waterhouse became a senior engineer at Lockheed where he headed the development of nickel-hydrogen batteries for specific space applications. Mr. Waterhouse worked as a consultant for Evanite Fiber Corporation (1994 to 1997) in battery separator R&D for flooded and sealed Pb-Acid batteries, plus a product for a zinc-bromine flow battery. From 1997 to 2000, he was back at Lockheed as a consultant on numerous satellite projects. At ENTEK Membranes LLC since 2000, he has been the project leader developing ElectroFlex^® technology for electrode films in batteries and capacitors. He also provides technical support for the battery separator products made by Entek International LLC.

Contacts

Richard W Pekala, ScD

Dr. Graeme Fraser-Bell

Robert Waterhouse

	Srinivas Cherukupalli - Polymer Scientist
		Srinivas is a Polymer Scientist at ENTEK Membranes LLC. He has a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India (1998) and a PhD from Clemson University (2004). During his graduate studies, Dr. Cherukupalli worked extensively on processing-structure-property relationships in blown polyolefin films using online Raman Spectroscopy technique. Upon its completion, he briefly worked on lactic acid derivative substituted (bio based) thermoset composites at Tetramer Technologies LLC (Pendleton, SC), before joining Amtek in August 2005. At Amtek, Dr. Cherukupalli has worked on understanding electrolyte influence on the Li-ion separator shutdown characteristics, modeling chemistry structure-property relationships, and is a project leader on developing Xscape waterproof/breathable membranes. Dr. Cherukupalli has over 20 technical publications.