Management

Damoder Reddy is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in developing products and business based on novel materials. He brings to Solexant his extensive expertise in developing high volume printing processes on flexible substrates. Before founding Solexant in 2006, he founded Nuelight in mid 2003 to develop mixed signal ICs for organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays and served as its CEO until Dec 2005. Prior to founding Nuelight, he served as COO of Opsys Ltd., an Oxford University spin off developing novel OLED materials and devices. He also served as COO of Lite Array, a China based thin film display manufacturer. He held technical management roles at Dow Chemical, Raychem and Rockwell. He received Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Osmania University (India) and conducted postdoctoral research at University of Denver and Princeton University.

Charlie Hotz has extensive experience in developing commercial products based on semiconducting nanocrystal technology. Prior to joining Solexant, he was Vice President of Research and Development at Quantum Dot Corporation, where he was responsible for development of the quantum dot nanocrystal technology and the commercial release of the line of Qdot Conjugate labeling reagents from the company's inception in 1999 until the company was sold in 2006. Prior to his employment at Quantum Dot Corporation, Dr. Hotz was involved in the development of advanced materials at Hewlett-Packard, Applied Biosystems, and Dow Chemical. Dr. Hotz holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from The University of Michigan.

Craig Leidholm has over 18 years of experience in the field of thin-film photovoltaics. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Material Science from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Mr. Leidholm spent the first 11 years at International Solar Electric Technology (ISET) developing novel thin-film solar cell technologies including high-efficiency nanoparticle-based solar cells as well as flexible substrate architecture cells and modules. Most recently as Director of R&D at Nanosolar, Inc., Craig was responsible for defining and establishing the nanoparticle-based thin-film CIGS PV technology as the foundation for Nanosolar’s low-cost, high-throughput roll-to-roll production process. Mr. Leidholm has two issued patents and fourteen pending patents in the area of thin-film PV.

Board of Directors

Damoder Reddy, see above

Paul Alivisatos, Professor at U.C. Berkeley

Paul Alivisatos is Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science, and the Larry and Diane Block Professor of Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received Bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry under the supervision of Charles Harris from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Louis Brus at AT&T bell Labs. He has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellowship, the ACS Exxon Solid State Chemistry Fellowship, the Coblentz Award, the Wilson Prize at Harvard, the Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award, the ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (2004), the Rank Prize (2006), and the University of Chicago Distinguished Alumni Award (2006). He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2004, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the Editor of the American Chemical Society Journal and Nano Letters. He is a senior member of the technical staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has been appointed Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and where he also serves as Director of the Materials Sciences Division.

Michael Borrus, General Partner, X/Seed Capital

Michael Borrus is the founding general partner of X/Seed Capital, a seed-focused early stage venture fund focused on breakthrough innovation. Prior to founding X/Seed, he was an Executive in Residence (EIR) at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining MDV, he was Managing Director of The Petkevich Group (TPG), a merchant bank providing financial advisory services and investment capital to growth companies in life sciences and technology. He led the technology banking group at Petkevich & Partners, TPG’s broker-dealer subsidiary, executing a variety of financial transactions from M&A and capital raising to spinouts and bankruptcy reorganization. Before TPG, Michael was Adjunct Professor in UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, Co-founder and Co-Director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) at the University of California, Berkeley, and a partner in Industry and Trade Strategies, a business consultancy. Much of his academic and consulting work has focused on how business models need to adjust to successfully commercialize new technologies, to exploit new market opportunities or to adapt to new competitors. He is the author of three books and over 70 chapters, articles and monographs on a variety of topics including management of technology, high technology competition, international trade and investment, and financial strategies for technology companies. He is a frequent speaker before corporate and public audiences, and has appeared in numerous media outlets from CNN and NPR to Business Week and the New York Times. Michael is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University. He is a member of the California State Bar.

Donald Dixon, Managing Director, Trident Capital

Don Dixon is a co-founder of Trident Capital and has been a Managing Director since 1993. From 1988 to 1993, Don was Co-President of Partech International, a venture capital firm associated with Banque Paribas. From 1983 to 1988, he was a Managing Director of Alex. Brown & Sons. Earlier in his career, Don was a Vice President of Morgan Stanley & Co. and a Senior Account Officer at Citibank, N.A. Don's current directorships include Advanced Payment Solutions, Clarus Systems, KSR, Inc., Merchant e-Solutions, Qualys, Royalty Share, Inc., Solexant, Syndero and Transware. In addition, Don serves on the investment committee for Mustang Ventures. Earlier, he served as a director of the following companies: Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), Anaszi Inc., BankAmerica Merchant Services, Inc. (BPI), BlueStar Solutions, CSG Systems International, Inc (CSGS), Epicor Software Corporation (EPIC), EMIC Networks, Evolving Systems, Inc. (EVOL), InfoUSA.com, Inc., a subsidiary of InfoUSA, Inc. (IUSA), Pegasus Solutions, Inc. (PEGS) and Unison Software, Inc. (UNSN). Don earned his B.S.E. from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Don is Co-Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Martin Lagod, Managing Director, Firelake Capital is a Board Observer

Martin Lagod is a managing director and co-founder of Firelake Capital Management LLC. Mr. Lagod is responsible for private company investments. He serves as a member of the board of Miasolé, Plextronics, Nano-Tex, and HydroPoint Data Systems. He is an observer on the boards of Pionetics, Sensicore, Solicore, Liquidia, and Nanostellar, all Firelake portfolio companies. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Lagod worked in the energy technology sector. He was the co-founder and CEO of Solo Energy Corporation, a start up energy technology company that developed microturbine and clean combustion reciprocating engines for the distributed power market. For the previous 19 years, Mr. Lagod was an intellectual property attorney based in Silicon Valley. He was a partner in the Palo Alto office of Phoenix-based Brown and Bain until 1995 and at Cooley Godward LLP in Palo Alto from 1995 to 2001. Mr. Lagod holds a B.A. in Economics (with Honors) from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.