Riccardo Signorelli MIT Ph.D.
President and CEO
Dr. Signorelli completed his Ph.D. in 2009 at the MIT at the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems,
where he spent six years co-designing and co-developing FastCAP’s low-cost, high-energy and high-power density ultracapacitor. During his doctoral work,
Dr. Signorelli led and managed an interdepartmental team of postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students, and laboratory technicians
focused on the development of the nanotube enhanced ultracapacitor technology. Prior to joining MIT in 2003, Dr. Signorelli worked as a researcher at
GE Global Research, in Schenectady, NY, as an Engineer at Siemens AG in Erlangen, Germany, and at EXIDE Technology in Italy. Dr. Signorelli received his
Laurea cum Laude from the Polytechnic Institute of Milano and his Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002.
John Cooley Director of Application Engineering and Cofounder
During his 5 years as a Doctoral candidate at MIT, John has focused on cutting‐edge renewable and sustainable energy
technologies. He has led a team of graduate associates in the lab at LEES RLE who have developed innovative electronic systems for energy monitoring and
power processing. Meanwhile John's Doctoral thesis work has been on the design and fundamental modeling of hybrid power systems. In early 2009, John
joined FastCAP Systems to commercialize a breakthrough energy storage technology developed at MIT LEES. John holds four technical degrees from MIT, three
in Electrical Engineering and one in Physics. In 2007, John simultaneously won the MIT Master's Thesis Prize and the Masterworks Competition for his work on
a retrofit demand-side energy management tool. In 2009, John became a Martin Fellow for his work on sustainable energy research. Prior to joining FastCAP
Systems, John worked as an Electrical Engineer at AAI Corp., Baltimore, MD and Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN.
Arunas Chesonis Chairman
Mr. Chesonis began his career at Rochester Telephone Corporation and went on to serve as President of ACC Corp. and led
the company until it was purchased by TCG/ATT in 1998. That same year, he founded PAETEC Holding Corp, which has since achieved remarkable growth. He's received
the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award by the College of Business at Rochester Institute of
Technology and was elected to the Rochester Business Hall of Fame. Mr. Chesonis holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an
MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Rochester.
He is co-director of the MIT Sustainable Energy Revolution Program (SERP), and serves as trustee at the Harley School, Rochester Institute of Technology, and
the University of Rochester.
Professor John Kassakian Engineering Advisor
Prof. Kassakian serves MIT as professor of electrical engineering, as well as Director of the MIT Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES).
Prof. Kassakian was the founding President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Power Electronics Society and served as the U.S.
representative to the European Power Electronics Association. He is the recipient of the IEEE Centennial Medal, the IEEE William E. Newell Award, the IEEE Power
Electronics Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the European Power Electronics Association Achievement Award, and the Kabakjian
Science Award. He is a fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a co‐author of the textbook Principles of Power Electronics.
Professor Joel Schindall Technology Advisor
Prof. Schindall serves as associate director of the MIT Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) as well as the Research Laboratory of
Electronics (RLE). He has been working with Dr. Signorelli for over six years on the development of the FastCAP ultracapacitor. Prior to returning to MIT,
Prof. Schindall worked for over 35 years as President of Loral Conic and Chief Engineer of Globalstar.
Professor Donald Sadoway Scientific Advisor
Prof. Sadoway serves as John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Professor Donald Sadoway has been working with Dr. Signorelli for over three years on the metallurgy that governs the electrode improvement and on
the electrochemistry governing the ultracapacitor operation. Professor Sadoway’s research interests lie in the field of chemical processing of materials --
both in engineering applications and in the supportive fundamental science. His primary interest is electrochemical processing in nonaqueous media.
Dr. Nikola Marincic Manufacturing Advisor
Dr. Marincic is a world expert in the development of advanced ultracapacitors. He has been developing batteries, ultracapacitors, and electrochemical systems
for over forty years. Dr. Marincic designed and directed, through development and production, the first lithium batteries for cardiac pacemakers (1974), the largest ever (ICBM) batteries for the US Air Force (1976), and the first batteries used in oil drilling operations (1980). Dr. Marincic's degrees are in Chemical Engineering. He advises FastCAP on cell design, optimization, and manufacturing strategy.
William Aulet Business Advisor
Bill Aulet, Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, has 25 years of experience in technology business operations. He started his career at IBM and then ran two private companies, Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies. Most recently he helped engineer a dramatic turnaround at Viisage Technology as its Chief Financial Officer. He has created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value by building focused, fundamentally sound businesses. He has raised $100 million in institutional financing via private placements and public offerings. Mr. Aulet now teaches extensively at MIT as well as working with students and start-up companies to build strategies and operating plans that will create sustainable value. Mr. Aulet has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the
MIT Sloan School of Management.
Leon Sandler Operations Advisor
Leon Sandler is the Executive Director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His experience
spans senior general management, marketing, finance and business development roles at companies such as Boston Consulting Group, Eastman Kodak, Texas
Instruments and Digital Equipment. Prior to joining the Deshpande Center he ran his own consulting firm, Monmouth Group, where he transformed more than 20
growing businesses in a variety of technology sectors. Leon has also served as the CEO of several start-ups and has assisted many ventures as an interim
executive or advisor. He holds a bachelor of science and masters in science in Chemical Engineering from Natal University in South Africa, and a MBA from the
Stanford Business School.
Gordon Baty Strategy Advisor
Gordon Baty is an angel investor and director of several technology companies. In his career he has occupied every seat around the venture table: entrepreneur/CEO, venture capitalist, angel investor, director, professor, advisor/mentor. From 1981 through 2002 he was a general partner in Zero Stage Capital, Cambridge MA, which invested $450 million in over 120 technology startups. He was also chairman of Navigator Technology Ventures, a seed-capital fund created by MIT Draper Laboratory in 2000. Earlier in his career, Dr. Baty headed three startups over a span of twenty years, in the fields of automated machine control, optical character recognition, and fluidized-bed coal combustion. He taught entrepreneurship for several years at Northeastern University, and venture finance at MIT Sloan School. He has published numerous articles and books on new venture formation. He holds BS, MS and PhD (finance) degrees from MIT.