Board of Directors
Jerry Elkind, Ph.D.
Chairman, President and CEO, Stellar Generation, Inc.
Dr. Elkind founded Stellar Generation in 2009 in order to pursue a long-held passion for producing cost-effective, ultra-clean fuel. Previously, he was with Texas Instruments for 21 years, where he held a number of key positions overseeing both technology and business development. In his most recent role at TI, he managed business, product, and engineering development for chips in implantable medical applications, an area of high visibility at TI. Prior to this, he directed a chemical- and bio-sensor "intrapreneurial" business for over 10 years, from its earliest technology development (Electronic Products 1999 Product-of-the-Year) through its successful commercialization, as it was ultimately licensed for three diverse applications in production today at multiple companies. He began his career in TI's Central Research Labs, developing advanced processes for manufacturing mercury-cadmium-telluride chips for infrared space and defense systems. His work in defect reduction in this complex material, led to his election as Senior Member of the Technical Staff, and he ultimately became the development engineering manager for all infrared device fabrication. Following this, he worked in process engineering for high-volume silicon chip manufacturing and led the implementation of an industry-leading manufacturing fault-detection system that is still in use today throughout TI.
Dr. Elkind received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from U.C. Berkeley and simultaneous M.A. and B.A. degrees with high honors in chemistry from Brandeis University. He also held a post-doctoral fellowship at Rice University with Dr. Richard Smalley during the pivotal time prior to Dr. Smalley's 1996 Nobel Prize for the discovery of nanostructures in carbon. He holds fifteen issued patents, to date, and has co-authored forty five papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Christopher T. Winkler, CFA
President of CARDARC Partners, LP
Mr. Winkler was graduated with highest distinction from Indiana University in 1993 with a B.S. in finance and real estate from the School of Business. He immediately began his professional career on Wall Street as an investment banking analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds in the corporate finance department with a focus on REITs. In 1995, Mr. Winkler joined CM Advisors, Inc., a startup long/short hedge fund utilizing a fundamental value approach. While at CM Advisors, he performed rigorous company and securities analyses of primarily equity positions and monitored numerous investments. Mr. Winkler next joined Siegler, Collery & Co., an established fundamental value-based long/short hedge fund, in February 1996 as a senior stock picker. He then left in 1998 to co-found Ivory Investment Management, LLC, a de novo long/short value-based hedge fund with a novel and proprietary risk management approach. Mr. Winkler remained with Ivory until he recently retired from the hedge fund industry in January 2017. Mr. Winkler is a former President and Chairman of the Houston Angel Network. Mr. Winkler formed CARDARC Partners in 2018 to focus on specific acquisition opportunities in small private business landscape.
Mary Ellen Weber, Ph.D.
Principal, Stellar Strategies, LLC
Through Stellar Strategies, Dr. Weber provides consulting services in leadership and risk management strategies for high stakes operations. She serves on the NASA Advisory Council Committee on Technology and Innovation, which advises NASA on its technology portfolio, and on the board of Uplift Education, a high-performing charter school system. She is also a board member and vice president of the Association of Space Explorers, the only professional society of U.S. Astronauts. Previously, Weber was chief government affairs officer at UT Southwestern Medical Center for nine years, a renowned $1.6 billion medical school, research center, and hospital system. She was also a NASA Astronaut for ten years and is the veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Weber received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley, an M.B.A. from SMU, and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue.
Advisory Board
Ron Chiarello, Ph.D.
General Manager, Entegris
Dr. Chiarello is an Entrepreneur and technology visionary with over 20 years of experience in developing high technology products and bringing them to market. He co-founded Jetalon Solutions in 2002, an innovative high tech sensor system company supplying sensor solutions to Micro-electronics, Biopharmaceutical, Petrochemical and Solar Cell manufactures around the world. He was the CTO from 2002 and CEO from 2009 until it was acquired by Entegris in 2013. Prior to Jetalon, Dr. Chiarello was technical advisor to many leading high technology companies and government agencies on product development, manufacturing improvements and environmental concerns. He also founded and sold 2 other startups: Etalon Technologies (1997-2002) and Orion Metrology (2007-2010). He spent more than a decade as a researcher and program director at Stanford University and the University of Chicago and has published more than 50 technical articles. He is a NATO fellow and has won the Department of Energy Award for Excellence in Research, and the University of Chicago Pace Setter Award. Dr. Chiarello received a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and MS and Ph.D. in Physics from Northeastern University.
Colin J. Cumming
Principal, TechVen Partners, LLC
Mr. Cumming is founder of TechVen Partners, LLC, which is dedicated to growing early-stage, high-technology companies. He negotiated the acquisition of TechVen’s first investment, a majority stake in SensiQ Technologies, Inc., and he now serves as CEO and Board Member for SensiQ Technologies. Mr. Cumming also serves as a Board Member for High Desert Discovery District (HD3) an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to technology development in New Mexico. Prior to forming TechVen, Mr. Cumming served as CEO and President of ICx Technologies, Inc., leading the company through an IPO and subsequent acquisition by FLIR Systems, Inc. in 2010, after which he served as Division President for FLIR. Prior to ICx Technologies, he founded in 1994 and served as CEO of Nomadics, Inc. Mr. Cumming has extensive experience in technology businesses, especially in identifying key technologies and securing the rapid development and commercialization of emerging technologies.
John N. Randall, Ph.D.
President, Zyvex Labs, and Adjunct Professor, UT Dallas
Dr. Randall has over 30 years of experience in Micro- and Nano- Fabrication. He joined Zyvex in March of 2001 and was instrumental in developing and spinning out two successful nanotechnology companies, Zyvex Technologies, and Zyvex Instruments (now part of DCG Systems). Before Zyvex John worked for 15 years at Texas Instruments where he worked in high resolution processing for integrated circuits, MEMS, and quantum effect devices. Prior to working at TI, John worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory on ion beam and x-ray lithography. He has 97 articles published in refereed journals with > 2500 citations and 25 issued US Patents with > 600 citations. He has a BS, MS, and PhD all in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston where he was elected Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 2010. Dr. Randall was also elected Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff while at Texas Instruments, is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and is a Fellow of the Society of the AVS.
Jerry Elkind, Ph.D.
Chairman, President and CEO, Stellar Generation, Inc.
Dr. Elkind founded Stellar Generation in 2009 in order to pursue a long-held passion for producing cost-effective, ultra-clean fuel. Previously, he was with Texas Instruments for 21 years, where he held a number of key positions overseeing both technology and business development. In his most recent role at TI, he managed business, product, and engineering development for chips in implantable medical applications, an area of high visibility at TI. Prior to this, he directed a chemical- and bio-sensor "intrapreneurial" business for over 10 years, from its earliest technology development (Electronic Products 1999 Product-of-the-Year) through its successful commercialization, as it was ultimately licensed for three diverse applications in production today at multiple companies. He began his career in TI's Central Research Labs, developing advanced processes for manufacturing mercury-cadmium-telluride chips for infrared space and defense systems. His work in defect reduction in this complex material, led to his election as Senior Member of the Technical Staff, and he ultimately became the development engineering manager for all infrared device fabrication. Following this, he worked in process engineering for high-volume silicon chip manufacturing and led the implementation of an industry-leading manufacturing fault-detection system that is still in use today throughout TI.
Dr. Elkind received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from U.C. Berkeley and simultaneous M.A. and B.A. degrees with high honors in chemistry from Brandeis University. He also held a post-doctoral fellowship at Rice University with Dr. Richard Smalley during the pivotal time prior to Dr. Smalley's 1996 Nobel Prize for the discovery of nanostructures in carbon. He holds fifteen issued patents, to date, and has co-authored forty five papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Christopher T. Winkler, CFA
President of CARDARC Partners, LP
Mr. Winkler was graduated with highest distinction from Indiana University in 1993 with a B.S. in finance and real estate from the School of Business. He immediately began his professional career on Wall Street as an investment banking analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds in the corporate finance department with a focus on REITs. In 1995, Mr. Winkler joined CM Advisors, Inc., a startup long/short hedge fund utilizing a fundamental value approach. While at CM Advisors, he performed rigorous company and securities analyses of primarily equity positions and monitored numerous investments. Mr. Winkler next joined Siegler, Collery & Co., an established fundamental value-based long/short hedge fund, in February 1996 as a senior stock picker. He then left in 1998 to co-found Ivory Investment Management, LLC, a de novo long/short value-based hedge fund with a novel and proprietary risk management approach. Mr. Winkler remained with Ivory until he recently retired from the hedge fund industry in January 2017. Mr. Winkler is a former President and Chairman of the Houston Angel Network. Mr. Winkler formed CARDARC Partners in 2018 to focus on specific acquisition opportunities in small private business landscape.
Mary Ellen Weber, Ph.D.
Principal, Stellar Strategies, LLC
Through Stellar Strategies, Dr. Weber provides consulting services in leadership and risk management strategies for high stakes operations. She serves on the NASA Advisory Council Committee on Technology and Innovation, which advises NASA on its technology portfolio, and on the board of Uplift Education, a high-performing charter school system. She is also a board member and vice president of the Association of Space Explorers, the only professional society of U.S. Astronauts. Previously, Weber was chief government affairs officer at UT Southwestern Medical Center for nine years, a renowned $1.6 billion medical school, research center, and hospital system. She was also a NASA Astronaut for ten years and is the veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. Weber received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley, an M.B.A. from SMU, and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Purdue.
Advisory Board
Ron Chiarello, Ph.D.
General Manager, Entegris
Dr. Chiarello is an Entrepreneur and technology visionary with over 20 years of experience in developing high technology products and bringing them to market. He co-founded Jetalon Solutions in 2002, an innovative high tech sensor system company supplying sensor solutions to Micro-electronics, Biopharmaceutical, Petrochemical and Solar Cell manufactures around the world. He was the CTO from 2002 and CEO from 2009 until it was acquired by Entegris in 2013. Prior to Jetalon, Dr. Chiarello was technical advisor to many leading high technology companies and government agencies on product development, manufacturing improvements and environmental concerns. He also founded and sold 2 other startups: Etalon Technologies (1997-2002) and Orion Metrology (2007-2010). He spent more than a decade as a researcher and program director at Stanford University and the University of Chicago and has published more than 50 technical articles. He is a NATO fellow and has won the Department of Energy Award for Excellence in Research, and the University of Chicago Pace Setter Award. Dr. Chiarello received a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and MS and Ph.D. in Physics from Northeastern University.
Colin J. Cumming
Principal, TechVen Partners, LLC
Mr. Cumming is founder of TechVen Partners, LLC, which is dedicated to growing early-stage, high-technology companies. He negotiated the acquisition of TechVen’s first investment, a majority stake in SensiQ Technologies, Inc., and he now serves as CEO and Board Member for SensiQ Technologies. Mr. Cumming also serves as a Board Member for High Desert Discovery District (HD3) an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to technology development in New Mexico. Prior to forming TechVen, Mr. Cumming served as CEO and President of ICx Technologies, Inc., leading the company through an IPO and subsequent acquisition by FLIR Systems, Inc. in 2010, after which he served as Division President for FLIR. Prior to ICx Technologies, he founded in 1994 and served as CEO of Nomadics, Inc. Mr. Cumming has extensive experience in technology businesses, especially in identifying key technologies and securing the rapid development and commercialization of emerging technologies.
John N. Randall, Ph.D.
President, Zyvex Labs, and Adjunct Professor, UT Dallas
Dr. Randall has over 30 years of experience in Micro- and Nano- Fabrication. He joined Zyvex in March of 2001 and was instrumental in developing and spinning out two successful nanotechnology companies, Zyvex Technologies, and Zyvex Instruments (now part of DCG Systems). Before Zyvex John worked for 15 years at Texas Instruments where he worked in high resolution processing for integrated circuits, MEMS, and quantum effect devices. Prior to working at TI, John worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory on ion beam and x-ray lithography. He has 97 articles published in refereed journals with > 2500 citations and 25 issued US Patents with > 600 citations. He has a BS, MS, and PhD all in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston where he was elected Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 2010. Dr. Randall was also elected Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff while at Texas Instruments, is a Senior Member of the IEEE, and is a Fellow of the Society of the AVS.
