About Us
NanoLumens has assembled some of the brightest business and technical leaders from the global display industry to create a clear path for product development and commercialization. The team’s experience ranges from fundamental research to product development, component design, manufacturing and final assembly. Combined they share over 200 patents in display technologies.
The executive team has led both small and large firms from inception through public offering or acquisition and have been collectively responsible for securing over a half billion dollars in capital. This experience is drawn from a wide range of service, manufacturing, industrial and consumer goods firms that have operated around the globe. This team has directly led the full set of critical functions across these firms, including finance, business development, research, manufacturing, sourcing, licensing, marketing and government relations. They lead a group of seasoned manufacturing, engineering and intellectual property professionals and are supported by C-level advisors drawn from the leaders of the global display industry.
Corporate Staff
Rick Cope
CEO
John Wilson
President
Mike Casey
CFO
Robert Jackson
VP Sales & Marketing
Paul Schaefer
Dir. of Sourcing and Operations
Melissa Austin
Dir. of Intellectual
Property
Jorge Perez
Principal Electrical Engineer
Drew Meincke
Design Engineer
Rick Cope
CEO
CEO, COO and CTO of both public and private technology firms (electronics, automotive, fuel cells); Retired Marine Corps Officer (Special Ops Advisor to Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf for Desert Storm, head of Marine Corps Missile R&D); Program manager, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Global experience - raised capital and/or built manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia.
Mike Casey
CFO
Founding partner of TechCFO, an executive level financial services organization for the software, technology, life sciences, manufacturing and services industries; Held CFO positions for numerous public and private firms including MAPICS, iXL Enterprises, Manhattan Associates and IQ Software; Former CPA at Arthur Andersen
John Wilson
President
CEO of automotive JV between US motorsports firm and smart car unit of Mercedes; CEO of regional technology consortium of 75 companies, universities and national labs developing advanced systems for global markets (motors, batteries, power electronics); SVP/Global Practice Director for international marketing and public affairs firm; Global experience - raised capital, conducted business negotiations and sourced technology components in Europe, North America and Asia.
Melissa Austin
Dir. of Intellectual Property
Chemical engineer and U.S. Patent Agent, registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; Former Patent Examiner, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia (Chemistry Art Unit); Former Engineer/Lab Manager, Institute of Paper Science & Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
Jorge Perez
Principal Electrical Engineer
Electrical engineer with extensive experience in digital and analog hardware design at system, board and FPGA level for high performance microprocessor, telecommunication systems and consumer electronic products. Perez has an MS in Electrical Engineering and brings over ten years experience leading teams in the design and execution of electronics products ranging from MP3 players and video displays to Bluetooth and broadband.
Drew Meincke
Design Engineer
Mechanical Engineer with over 20 years experience in electro-mechanical designs of products that must meet complex UL and/or FDA requirements. Extensive machining and plastics knowledge including modeling, rapid prototyping, sourcing and production in China. Experienced on several critical CAD platforms as well as UL and ISO certifications for facilities and products. Co-author of five U.S. patents for medical devices.
Paul Schaefer
Dir. of Sourcing and Operations
Electrical engineer with over 15 years manufacturing operations, vendor and customer care experience in global and entrepreneurial settings. A Master Black Belt, he led Six-Sigma program at GE Electronic Services and was integral to the ISO-9000 certification team at GE Capital TMS. He also served as VP of Operations for a wireless consumer electronics firm, sourcing components around the globe.
Rick Cope
CEO
CEO, COO and CTO of both public and private technology firms (electronics, automotive, fuel cells); Retired Marine Corps Officer (Special Ops Advisor to Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf for Desert Storm, head of Marine Corps Missile R&D); Program manager, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Global experience - raised capital and/or built manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia.
Mike Casey
CFO
Founding partner of TechCFO, an executive level financial services organization for the software, technology, life sciences, manufacturing and services industries; Held CFO positions for numerous public and private firms including MAPICS, iXL Enterprises, Manhattan Associates and IQ Software; Former CPA at Arthur Andersen.
Robert Jackson
Vice President - Sales & Marketing
A veteran of the advertising and marketing industry, most recently focusing his efforts on digital signage applications for the out-of-home and place-based advertising industry. Previously he spent over a decade with the Atlanta Falcons as VP of Sales and Marketing and over 20 years in radio station management and ownership in Atlanta. He also served as General Manager of American Transit Display Systems, at the time one of the largest independent transit shelter infrastructure providers.
Board of Advisors
Aris Silzars, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
James Stoffel, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Gary Thomas, Ph.D.
Physical Chemistry
Bruce Gnade, Ph.D.
Nuclear Chemistry
Adrian Kitai, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Chris Summers, Ph.D.
Physics
Brent Wagner, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Francis Dramis
Joe Cochran, Ph.D.
Ceramic Engineering
C.P. Wong, Ph.D.
Chemistry
Terry White
Aris Silzars, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
President, Northlight Displays, Past President and Chair of the Publications Committee, Society for Information Display; Former Director, Sarnoff (RCA) Display Research Laboratory; Founder and President/CEO Interchip Solutions; President/CEO of Lanxide Electronics (a DuPont spinoff); Led manufacturing at Tektronix displays for hybrid components, solid state components and ceramics; 30 years experience leading display electronics programs, senior consultant to industry on display patent issues, 10 US patents issued.
James Stoffel, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Syracuse University; former Senior Vice President, director of research and CTO of Eastman Kodak Corporation and former Chief Engineer, Xerox Corporation. He holds over 28 US patents, and is the author/editor of a college reference book on image processing. He is a director of Harris Corporation, a Fellow of the IEEE, a Trustee of the George Eastman House, and is on the Graduate Studies and Research board of the University of Notre Dame.
Gary Thomas, Ph.D.
Physical Chemistry
30 years @ Philips culminating in CTO Display Technologies; Conducted technical due diligence on over 80 partnerships and ventures between Philips and other display firms; Lead tech executive on pioneering Philips/LG LCD joint venture; Broad knowledge in all aspects of displays (CRTs, LCDs, Plasma, OLED/PLED, EL, SEDs, FEDs).
Bruce Gnade, Ph.D.
Nuclear Chemistry
VP, Sponsored Research, University of Texas at Dallas; Former DARPA program manager for advanced displays and phosphors and noted thin-film metals expert; Manager, Texas Instruments for Advanced Silicon Materials (including DLP projector chips), Field Emission Displays and 1Gbit Process Integration programs; 68 US and 54 Foreign Patents Issued.
Adrian Kitai, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Professor of Engineering Physics and Electrical Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University; 20 years in field and inventor of core display technologies (13 patents in core technologies); Chair, Canadian Society of Information Display; Distinguished lecturer (50+ international presentations), author, editor (40+ peer-reviewed publications and noted textbook in displays) and professor.
Chris Summers, Ph.D.
Physics
Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; Director, DARPA-funded Phosphor Center of Excellence, leading work of nine universities and U.S. Display Consortium; Noted expert on phosphors (over 200 peer-reviewed articles); US patent for thin-film EL display device.
Brent Wagner, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineering
Head, Advanced Materials Branch, GA Tech Research Institute; Senior Research Scientist, Electro-Optics Systems Laboratory; Helped form DARPA Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence and issued several U.S. patents in phosphors; Currently working on new phosphor nanomaterials and their synthesis processes, including quantum dots and photonic crystals.
Francis Dramis
The former Chief Information, Ecommerce and Security Officer for BellSouth and managing director/CIO at Salomon Brothers. He founded CIO Strategy, Inc. and also served as president/CEO of Network Management Inc. and president/COO of Telic Corporation. Early in his career, he worked with AT&T and Bell Labs, rising to the position of executive director of information product management. He currently serves on the boards of Avocent, Netezza, Ditech Networks, Virima and IOCOM, and on the advisory boards of Voyager Capital and Diabetech.
Joe Cochran, Ph.D.
Ceramic Engineering
B. Mifflin Hood Professor Emeritus and Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; School of Materials Science and Engineering; Distinguished researcher in ceramics and materials processes; Issued several U.S. patents for materials processes, including combustion chemical vapor deposition of thin films and coatings.
C.P. Wong, Ph.D.
Chemistry
Regents’ Chair and Charles Smithgall Institute Endowed Chair, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology; Expert in plastics packaging for electronics manufacturing; Honored by IEEE in 2006 as the “Father of Modern Semiconductor Packaging”; Fellow of IEEE, AIC, AT&T Bell Laboratories and member, National Academy of Engineering; Over 500 technical papers, 50 U.S. patents and numerous international patents issued.
Terry White
The former President and CEO of the Rayloc Division of Genuine Parts Company (NYSE). Over a 30-year span with the company, White held numerous positions in sales, manufacturing and senior management. In these roles he developed valuable experience in international business development, sourcing and manufacturing and spearheaded a company-wide Six Sigma program together with Lean Manufacturing techniques to drive productivity improvements. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Oglethorpe University and the Children’s Healthcare Research Trust and is an active member of the Atlanta Rotary Club.