BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Thomas D. MinoTom Mino brings to Sixtron more than 30 years of business experience in manufacturing, marketing, sales and general management of semiconductor and optoelectronic based products.
Tom most recently served as CEO of Lumera Corporation a polymer based optoelectronic company. Prior to that he was general manager of optical components supplier Agere Systems' high-speed long haul business unit (formerly Lucent Technology Optoelectronics Unit) where he was responsible for the development and sales of products with revenues in excess of $600 million.
In addition to his tenure at Agere, Tom served as president and CEO of Synergy Semiconductor, a manufacturer of specialty high speed semiconductors, and as vice president and general manager of ATMEL Corporation, a semiconductor design and manufacturing company. Tom also has significant management experience from a variety of senior management positions at AT&T and Honeywell.
David Berkowitz, General Partner - Ventures West
David Berkowitz joined Ventures West in 1996 and leads the firm's Cleantech practice, investing in energy technology, water technology, and advanced materials opportunities. David has become one of the most active and best-known cleantech investors in Canada. He speaks regularly at industry conferences and is frequently quoted in the media.
Prior to Ventures West, David worked with Motorola New Enterprises, the venture arm of Motorola, and previous to that was a consulting engineer.
He currently serves as a director of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum, 6N Silicon Inc., Angstrom Power Inc., PolyFuel, Inc., Sixtron and SWITCH Materials. He is past winner of Business in Vancouver's Top 40 under 40 Award.
David's past investments include Cellex Power Products (acquired by Plug Power, NASDAQ: PLUG), Greenlight Power Technologies (acquired by Hydrogenics Corp, TSX:HYG, NASDAQ:HYGS), and TIR Systems, (acquired by Royal Philips Electronics, NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI).
David earned a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University and a MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Jean Lamarre, President - Lamarre Consultants
Since 1992, Jean Lamarre has been president of Lamarre Consultants, which specializes in offering strategic planning and organizing financing for Canadian companies that are in the process of setting themselves up or expanding. Lamarre Consultants works principally with organizations based in Quebec that specialize in the domains of life sciences, technology, cleantech and mining.
Mr. Lamarre sits on numerous boards of directors including publicly held companies such as Semafo inc.(gold production), Pebercan inc. (oil production) and Medical Intelligence (TSXV), (medical equipment).
Previously, he held the title of International Vice-President at Canam Manac Group, supervising operations and business development activities in Mexico, France, Venezuela and China.
For 15 years, Mr. Lamarre took a very active role within the Lavalin Group, a Canadian Engineering, Procurement and Construction company operating around the world. He was acting mostly as the CFO of the Group. He was also based in Belgium as the European Vice-President.
He has a bachelor degree in commerce from HEC Montreal, with a specialization in applied economics.
Steven L. Lerner
From 2001 through 2008, Steven L. Lerner served as the senior vice president and chief technology officer of Praxair. He joined the firm as manager of process chemistry in Applications Research & Development in 1989. Lerner earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from The Cooper Union, New York, and received a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University. While at Princeton, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. He is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.
Lerner is a board member and former chairman of the Industrial Research Institute, and serves on advisory boards for Anellotech, The University at Buffalo School of Engineering & Science, and Princeton University Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. Between 1995 and 1999, he was a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Technology Alliance. Lerner holds 10 patents and has published articles in numerous scientific publications.