Management
Scott Landstrom – Chief Executive Officer
Scott has held a number of senior executive positions in semiconductor related firms in his career, spanning the range from start-up firm CEO, to VP/GM of several different business units at KLA-Tencor. Prior to starting SCI, Inc., Scott’s last two positions were VP of Global Field Operations, responsible for worldwide Sales and all Field Activities at Lam Research, directing a team of 2200 field personnel, and President of Volex, Inc, a $ 180M, 2400 employee opto-telecom manufacturing firm, with eight factories in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. He has also designed and taught classes in strategic marketing and negotiation skills. Among many smaller firms, he has been retained as an executive consultant at various junctures by Lam Research, Varian Semiconductor, KLA-Tencor, and Applied Materials. Scott has a B.S. degree in Physics from Syracuse University/SUNY, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.
Robert Guy Ward – Executive Chairman
The principal of Direct Grid Technologies, Robert has 20 years experience in engineering and executive management in the field of utility & power grid related products and services.
Prior to establishing Direct Grid Technologies (2009), Robert built Island Technologies, Inc. (1988), a leading producer and supplier of utilities and defense products. Island Technologies provided initial seed capital to Direct Grid Technologies, LLC to launch operations. Today, Island Technologies has successfully grown to over one hundred employees and services some of the largest companies in the respective markets they serve. Robert holds an MBA, which complements his electrical engineering background.
Frank Cooper – President & Principal
Having 28 years experience in managing and growing technology companies, Frank holds numerous technology patents (US patents 5,540,080 / 5,507,175 4/ 4,984,451/4,949,572/ 6,377,110/ 6,577,139), and is a co-developer of the of the DGT micro inverter. After eight years, Frank stepped down as President of ZMDA, a 45 year old, analog mixed signal semiconductor company, expressly to found Direct Grid Technologies, LLC. He continues to serve as Chairman of ZMDA. Formerly, he was at Bowthorpe PLC for 15 years, where he served as VP Sensing and later Dir. of Business Development. As Chairman of the Strategy Leadership Team, he drove the acquisitions of six sensor companies, which then became General Electric’s “GE Sensing.” Earlier, Frank was division manager of Computer Instrument Industrial Products for 5 years, designing and marketing Industrial, Military and Aerospace sensors and systems. In Biomedical, his work at Medical Systems was on the BH1 infusion controller used for drug discovery. As President/CEO of Protimeter Inc., Cooper authored patents for cycling chilled mirror hygrometers employing chilled optical bandpass substrates.
John Parizek – Chief Financial Officer
John brings more than 20 years of experience in finance and executive management with technology companies. Prior to joining Direct Grid, John spent 9 years in the semiconductor industry with MicroProbe, Inc., a leading manufacturer of probe cards used in the wafer testing process. He started with the company as Chief Financial Officer and was later promoted to President and CEO, and lead the company through a successful sale to an investment group headed by Intel Capital. John spent the decade prior to MicroProbe in the telecom industry with Tempo Research Corp., a manufacturer of outside plant test equipment, where he served as Chief Financial Officer and facilitated the sale of the company to a division of Textron, Inc. John has a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, received his CPA certification, and spent 3 years in public accounting before joining the technology industry.
Rich MacArthur – Director of Engineering
Rich is a founding member of Direct Grid Technologies LLC., and holds a Masters degree in electrical engineering with 28 years of experience as an innovator in magnetics and switching power supply designs.
Rich’s body of work spans high reliability and demanding non-standard designs as required in radar jamming for military, to biomedical imaging. He is an architect of Direct Grid’s patent pending, micro inverter technology. Prior to Direct Grid, Rich was senior designer at Spellman Engineering and Venus Scientific.
Eric Hoffman – Engineering, microcontroller & digital communications
Eric, a founding member of Direct Grid Technologies LLC., is an Electrical Engineer with area of expertise being digital electronics and control systems. Having been a key designer of the Blackberry internal architecture with former key roles at Intel and IBM, Eric is uniquely qualified to lead Direct Grid’s Smart Grid & Echelon digital communications together with the DG series microcontroller design and firmware. Prior to Direct Grid, Eric was the senior digital designer for ZMD America Inc.
Mark Grigoraki – Team Leader
As Team Leader, Mark brings over 20 years manufacturing experience to the Direct Grid team. Mark is responsible for product commercialization and liaison to our contract manufacturer for optimal manufacturability of the Direct Grid micro inverter. Prior to Direct Grid, Mark worked as a System Engineer for RVSI, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer, where he maintained all aspects of system assembly through final calibration of the Smart Wafer Scanning system. When RVSI was divested, Mark was contracted by the acquiring company, Rudolph, to transfer the knowledge, including assembly instruction and training classes. Proceeding RVSI, Mark was calibration and test supervisor at Protimeter where he managed all aspects of the calibration department. This included new production, final assembly & test, sensor/system calibration.
David Petry – Director, Quality Assurance
As Director of Quality Assurance, David brings 25 years experience in electronics design, product certification, component technology, reliability and quality assurance. Prior to Direct Grid Technologies, David was Director of Quality at ZMD America, a global analog mixed signal semiconductor company. David was instrumental in obtaining necessary product certifications, detailed FMEA and DFMEA analysis and implementation of Six Sigma in North American operations. David has held quality related positions at Symbol Technologies (now Motorola), and Parker Hannifin with a proven track record. David holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and is Senior Member of the IEEE.
Louis Squeo – Director, Marketing & Communications
A founding member of Direct Grid Technologies, LLC. Spanning over two decades, Lou’s experience in corporate B2B technical sales and marketing extends from semiconductors to sensing technologies and industrial process control. Prior to Direct Grid Technologies, Lou was Manager of Product Marketing at ZMD America, a global analog mixed signal semiconductor company addressing automotive, medical, industrial and consumer markets.
Preceding ZMD, Lou founded Squeo Graphics, a full service advertising agency which specialized in catering to companies that offered technical products. Lou ‘s technical background enabled the company to differentiate itself and grow. As National Sales Manager of Protimeter (subsidiary Bowthorpe PLC), Lou built brand and developed a competitive edge in a well served market.
Kevin McGinnis – Sr. Director Sales & Business Development
A 25 year veteran of the semiconductor industry, Kevin was most recently the Director of Business Development at Sokudo USA, LLC, a Joint Venture company formed between Applied Materials and Dai Nippon Screen.
Kevin brings a wealth of experience from strategic roles in sales, marketing and business development for KLA-Tencor and DuPont Photomasks as well as stints in two equipment start -up companies. Kevin began his career as a technical support engineer for GCA Corporation in Andover, Massachusetts.
Sharon Goggin – Financial Controller
Sharon holds a degree in accounting with over 16 years of experience both as an accountant and financial controller.
Prior to joining Direct Grid Technologies LLC., Sharon was an accountant with Bowthorpe PLC., a London based, global technology holding company consistently ranked “among the top 10% of best managed firms in the FTSE 100”.
Sharon also served as financial controller for Protimeter Inc., where she won “best controls” an internal Bowthorpe PLC awards & recognition program.
