Management and Key People
Atiq Raza, CEO
As former president of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Mr. Raza laid the foundation of AMD’s processor roadmap and brought the AMD-K6 and Athlon™ family of processor products to the market. He has been working in various engineering and management positions in Silicon Valley for the last 33 years.
Mohit Singh, Vice-President for R&D and Engineering, Co-founder
Dr. Singh has more than 10 years experience with polymers and has spent more than five years developing polymer electrolyte batteries. He was a part of the team that developed LBNL’s solid polymer electrolyte technology. At Seeo, Dr. Singh has successfully led the effort to integrate and optimize Seeo’s materials technology at the cell and battery level. Previously at Arkema Chemicals, Dr. Singh received a PhD from Tulane University and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay, both in chemical engineering.
Hany Eitouni, Director of Materials Development, Co-Founder
Dr. Eitouni has more than 10 years experience with polymer materials and has specialized expertise in ionic transport through polymers. He was part of the team that developed the LBNL solid polymer electrolyte technology. At Seeo, Dr. Eitouni has successfully led the effort to design, synthesize, and optimize Seeo’s proprietary electrolyte polymers with improved properties. Previously he was a staff scientist at Symyx Technologies where he established methods for determination of mechanical properties of low viscosity hot melt adhesives and developed high throughput instrumentation for materials discovery. He received a PhD from University of California, Berkeley and a BS from University of Texas, Austin, both in chemical engineering.
Neilesh Mutyala, Manager of Marketing and Business Development
Before joining Seeo, Neilesh Mutyala completed his MBA from University of California, Berkeley with a concentration in Management of Technology. While at Berkeley, Neilesh led the commercialization strategy for an ionic liquid electrolyte invention from LBNL and interned for Better Place, an electric vehicle services provider based in Palo Alto, California. He spent 4 years consulting in the financial services industry with Oliver Wyman and helped launch the firm’s Strategic Technology practice. At Seeo, he is responsible for product marketing, business strategy and development. Neilesh graduated magna cum laude with an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University.
Franz Kruger, Senior Technical Advisor
Dr. Kruger is a chemist, manager and former CEO with nearly 35 years experience in the battery industry. After receiving a PhD from the University of Stuttgart., he spent nearly 20 years with VARTA in both Germany and Singapore developing lithium battery systems and directing their production. In the early 1980s he left to be director of marketing for Raychem in Menlo Park, California, and Munich, Germany. In 1986, Dr. Kruger rejoined VARTA as technical director of its Central Technology Department, then in 1992 was named general manager. In 2000, he founded his own consulting firm, InnoventisConsulting GmbH. In 2001 he joined Gaia Akkumulatorenwerke Nordhausen as CEO and after its 2002 merger with Lithium Technology Corp. of Plymouth Meeting, USA, became president and chief executive officer of LTC/GAIA. Before joining Seeo, Dr. Kruger served as Senior Vice President for Engineering & Product Development at PowerGenix Inc. in San Diego, CA.
Board of Directors
Atiq Raza, CEO
As former president of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Mr. Raza laid the foundation of AMD’s processor roadmap and brought the AMD-K6 and Athlon™ family of processor products to the market. He has been working in various engineering and management positions in Silicon Valley for the last 33 years.
Nitash P Balsara, Founder
Dr. Balsara is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A world-expert in polymer materials, Dr. Balsara was the lead investigator in developing Seeo’s electrolyte technology. His strong vision is responsible for the creation of the company. Previously Dr. Balsara has held positions at the Brooklyn Polytechnic University, the University of Minnesota, and the Exxon Research and Engineering Company. He received a PhD from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, an MS from Clarkson University and a BTech from the India Institute of Technology at Kanpur.
Pierre Lamond
Currently a partner at Khosla Ventures, Pierre Lamond was a founder and technical director of National Semiconductor and the general manager of Fairchild's Integrated Circuit Division. He has also been the president of Advent, a consumer electronics company and Coherent, a manufacturer of lasers. Pierre is a past president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. Prior to joining Khosla Ventures, Pierre served as a partner at Sequoia Capital for more than 20 years.
Richard Lim
Mr. Lim is one of the founding Managing Directors of GSR Ventures. He manages the GSR Silicon Valley office, and focuses on investments in the Internet and green technology. Prior to GSR, he founded three venture-backed Internet and software companies in the United States. He was also an executive at Lotus Development Corporation. Mr. Lim grew up in Singapore and has an MBA from Stanford University (Arjay Miller Scholar) and a Bachelor's degree from the National University of Singapore.
Scientific Advisory Board
Nobuhiro Furukawa
During a career spanning more than 30 years at Sanyo Electric Company, Dr. Furukawa held a variety of research and management positions including CEO of Sanyo North America and General Manager of the Soft Energy Technical Development Center. He is an inventor on more than 20 US patents in Ni-Metal Hydride and Lithium batteries and in related fields. Over the years Dr. Furukawa has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Tokushima, Kyoto University, and Doshisha University, and as an affiliate professor at Waseda University. He received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Kyoto University.
Louis Hegedus
Dr. Hegedus is the former Sr. VP, R&D of Arkema Inc., a global manufacturer of chemicals and plastics. Previously he has served in R&D executive and management positions at W. R. Grace (chemicals), General Motors, and Daimler-Benz. He is a member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering.
Arif Maskatia
Mr. Maskatia brings over 30 years of technology leadership and commercialization experience in power management. Prior to becoming VP of engineering and CTO of Acer in 1994, he spent four years with Zenith Data Systems (a Group Bull Company) as vice president of their Advanced Technology Center and seven years as senior director of technical operations with PC manufacturer Alcatel/ITT Information Systems. Mr. Maskatia was also a senior director of engineering for Phoenix Technologies and Poqet Computers of California.
Phil Ross
Former senior scientist and associate division director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Ross is a world expert in electrochemistry and analysis of advanced materials for batteries and fuel cells.
Hiroshi Watanabe
Dr. Watanabe is a professor at Kyoto University, where he leads the Laboratory of Molecular Rheology within the Institute for Chemical Research. He is a world expert in understanding and engineering the mechanical properties of polymeric materials.