NY-BEST Board members are elected for staggered two year terms at the annual meeting held in March of each year. Board members must be employed by NY-BEST member organizations.
Transparent and open decision-making are hallmarks of NY-BEST. Board meetings are held monthly and are open to all NY-BEST members. Board Members must comply with our conflict of interest policy.
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Richard Fioravanti KEMA, Inc. |
 Director, Storage Applications & Support, KEMA, Inc. Through KEMA labs, R&D activity, advanced modeling, and experience demonstrating energy storage systems, he has supported efforts including testing of MW Lithium-ion device at Indianapolis Power & Light, auditing of the AES 12MW plant in Chile, testing of a MW-scale battery for a wind farm in Hawaii, and even testing of a new, zinc-metal air battery. Also, KEMA has modeled emission benefits of the Beacon Power Flywheel for frequency regulation and used its “KERMIT” model to assist the CAISO and CA Energy Commission to assess the impact of the State’s 2020 and 2030 Renewable Portfolio Standard, whether energy storage could mitigate the impacts, and how much storage would be required to accomplish the goal. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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Rich Hopf BAE Systems, Inc |
 General Manager Transport Systems, BAE Systems, Inc. has led the hybrid propulsion business at BAE Systems since 2003. During this time BAE’s installed base of transit bus propulsion systems has grown from a pilot fleet of 18 systems in the United States to over 2,700 systems in operation in North America and Western Europe. The packaging and management of energy storage systems has been a key aspect of BAE’s success in this market. His corporate experience with a variety of storage technologies including lead acid batteries, ultra-capacitors, and lithium-ion batteries has been significant. He also helped develop expertise in the management of fuel cell applications to vehicles. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Robert K. Jaworski, Ph.D., CFA Ioxus, Inc. |
 Chief Financial Officer, Ioxus, Inc. has energy storage industry experience of more than nineteen years, including multiple energy storage technologies, all company life cycle stages, and work across four continents. His experience includes basic research of energy storage technologies at three academic institutions, development of battery and ultracapacitor products at industrial research labs, business and technology consulting, and investment banking for companies in the industry. He has been doing business with organizations ranging from very early stage ventures to multinational corporations. Ioxus develops and manufacturers ultrapacitors products. The Ioxus family of ultracapacitors and hybrid-capacitors are optimized for high performance with low resistance, making them ideal for delivering high power bursts for start/stop mild hybrids, acceleration, energy recapture, peak load shaving, and high power applications. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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Glen Merfeld GE Global Research |
 Manager, Chemical Energy Systems Laboratory, GE Global Research manages the Chemical Energy Systems Laboratory at GE Global Research in Niskayuna (Schenectady County) where his group works on chemistry-based energy storage. His team has played a foundational role in advancing the sodium metal halide battery technology that is now the basis for GE’s new battery business, GEMx Technologies LLC, which plans to build a 900MWh manufacturing facility in Schenectady with applications ranging from industrial transportation to grid utility and renewables. He played a central role in shaping the battery business opportunity for GE through market assessments and technology evaluations. He has represented GE externally with invited talks on energy storage at Conferences, Universities, Government Agencies, and National Laboratories across the U.S. and with customers around the globe. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Andrew J. Naukam Ultralife Corporaiton NY-BEST Board Vice Chair |
 Vice President of Technology and Program Management, Ultralife Corporation, led Ultralife’s foray into Large Format Lithium Ion Batteries and Energy Storage Systems, leveraging core technologies of rechargeable batteries, electronics and battery management systems. With 25 years of battery design and manufacturing experience and several major battery and system development programs, has implemented significant product and manufacturing improvements for both Lithium Manganese Dioxide and Lithium Ion Polymer cells and batteries, at Ultralife factories in the US, Asia and Europe. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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Sanjoy Banerjee The City College, The City University of New York |
Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the Energy Institute, City University of New York. He has developed the Electrochemical Energy Storage Lab at CUNY, and aggregated expertise in the CUNY Colleges related to electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering, as well as electrode and electrolyte materials. There are now about 20 faculty affiliates in developments ranging from metacapacitors through flow batteries based on metal anodes to lithium technology batteries. Several patent disclosures have been made and the Energy Institute is working closely with NY industry to take these lab developments through pre-commercial and commercial developments. His personal R&D interests are on dendrite formation and control in metal anode batteries, e.g. Zn and Al anodes for metal-gas cathode systems, and he leads a CUNY collaboration with University of Buffalo. Before being recruited to CUNY, Dr. Banerjee was with the University of California at Santa Barbara. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * | |
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Matthew Fronk (Consultant) NY-BEST Board Chair |
 Matt has more than 30 years of experience leading both research and product development teams in advanced technology, fuel cells and energy storage. He spent 20 years leading General Motors’ Fuel Cell Research and Development program in Honeoye Falls, New York (Monroe County). During his tenure at GM, development of these electrochemical devices advanced from lab-scale 50cm2 cells to 100 operating vehicles -- the largest of any OEM auto company. This involved advancement from research into product development and then execution for a large fleet build up. Matt also has extensive global supplier community experience. After GM, Matt served as Director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility at Rochester Institute of Technology and was instrumental in developing durability and life cycle analyses for new product design as they moved from concept to product. Matt is an expert consultant to the energy storage and fuel cell industry and also serves as an Engineering Advisor to ACAL Energy Ltd., a developer of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells powered by the company’s proprietary platinum-free cathode technology known as FlowCath®. He also participated in the development of the recently released New York Climate Action Plan draft as a contributor in the Transportation Segment. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Paul F. Mutolo Energy Materials Center at Cornell NY-BEST Board Secretary/Treasurer |
 Director of External Partnerships, Energy Materials Center, Cornell University has worked in the alternative electrical energy sector for 10 years, concentrating in micro fuel cells for portable power and battery storage. He has also worked for the start-up company, MTI MicroFuel Cells (MFC), Albany where he helped develop Mobion technology, the fuel cell core that MTI MFC is now commercializing. At MTI MFC, he worked with vendors and materials suppliers, and also acted as a vendor internally, delivering the fuel cell core to system engineers for integration into products. Batteries and other energy storage are closely related fields that he worked in parallel to his time at MTI, and he has acted as a liaison during five years at Cornell. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Wolf W. von Maltzahn Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
 Associate VP for Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is associated with two NYSTAR-funded Centers for Advanced Technologies focused on Automation Technologies and Systems and Future Energy Systems. Both centers have close relationships with NY-based companies engaged in energy generation, energy distribution, and energy storage. He has been in the forefront of energy-related research projects such as the recent RPI invention of the paper battery and the start-up company that followed. Other examples include work on cellulosic materials for ultra-capacitors, developing nano-structured silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, building a battery test lab, and studying ionic transport phenomena in electro-chemical devices. Such projects have lead to active interactions with companies like Ioxus, Ultralife, Oak-Mitsui, GE, and Energenics. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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M. Stanley Whittingham The State University of New York - Binghamton University NY-BEST Board Vice Chair |
 Director, Institute for Materials Research and Professor of Chemistry, Binghamton University has been involved in battery technology for 40 years, first working on the solid electrolyte beta alumina at Stanford (received Young Author Award of ECS). Later, he worked on lithium batteries at Exxon, from fundamental research through commercialization of the world’s first rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. He holds 15 US Patents related to batteries. Since 1988 he has concentrated on R&D on advanced materials for the electrodes of lithium batteries. With more than 200 publications, and having co-chaired the DOE study in 2007 of chemical energy storage (batteries), and helped publicize the recommendations through presentations and a widely publicized article in the Materials Research Society Bulletin, he received the Battery Research Award and Fellowship in the Electrochemical Society. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Aubrey Braz Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. |
 Vice President, Consolidated Edison Company of New York where Con Edison uses batteries in a number of mission critical applications such as providing back-up power at substations. As Vice President overseeing operations, he has been closely involved in the installation, evaluation and maintenance of these important pieces of its electric system. In addition, Con Edison has a number of on-going research efforts related to the advancement of batteries and other energy storage technologies. He has worked closely with in-house R&D teams to identify and prioritize corporate expenditures on this technology. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Michael Field The Raymond Corporation NY-BEST Board Vice Chair |
 President, Operations and Engineering Division, founded in 1949, the Raymond Corporation, the North American market leader in producing electric forklifts for the warehouse and distribution markets. Raymond forklifts use primarily AC inverter driven motor and controls technology, which include regeneration. Thousands of units per year are produced at the Greene, Chenango County plant and all those units require energy storage. The most common storage device is a lead acid battery, though Raymond produces units designed to be powered by fuel cells and continues to invest in R&D in lithium-ion battery applicability. Investigating the use of super capacitors to optimize on board energy management systems integrated in forklifts is underway. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Catherine Hill CooperHill LLC |
 Partner, CooperHill, an energy consulting practice that connects the right resources, with the right opportunities at the right time. CooperHill focuses on the energy and energy efficiency industries and can help you create meaningful, positive changes for your business. Recently CooperHill advised SU on the $130mm DOE opportunity to create an energy efficiency research innovation consortium in new York State. Prior to that I was a Partner and Counsel at Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna, where I founded that firm’s CleanTech practice which sited over 800MW of wind energy, and where I represented developers and innovators in the solar, energy storage, geothermal, energy efficiency, smart grid and lighting industries. As former Vice President of Corporate Development for MTI Microfuel Cells, I worked with the energy storage industry and markets. I have also entered into strategic transactions with energy storage companies including Duracell and Beacon Power. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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Hank McGlynn AEYCH LLC |
 President, AEYCH LLC, retired from BAE Systems in 2008 as Vice President and General Manager of a $500 million business unit. In 1990, he helped launch a new business initiative to develop drive systems for hybrid electric vehicles. Demonstrations were conducted for many types of vehicles, the most successful application being the hybrid electric transit bus. Today, over 2500 buses are in service. Energy storage is a key element of a hybrid vehicle and his work has improved concept designs to a rugged, reliable storage system in daily revenue service. AEYCH was founded in 2008 to provide management and technical consulting services to those enterprises engaged in research, development, production, or operation of rugged, reliable, integrated power electronic systems used in heavy-duty hybrid electric vehicles or grid-connected energy storage systems. Term Expires: Mar 2013 * |
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Jim Misewich Brookhaven National Laboratory |
 Associate Laboratory Director, Brookhaven National Laboratory. BNL has made energy storage one of BNL’s focus areas in fulfilling its mission as a Department of Energy Laboratory. BNL operates a significant materials science effort at the lab and has a history of contributions in lithium-ion battery science, particularly in the use of advanced techniques for in-situ study of battery materials. They have developed tools and techniques for battery characterization at its user facilities including the National Synchrotron Light Source and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and have made these tools available to academic and industrial users. In addition, BNL runs workshops to improve the utility of their facilities. Term Expires: Mar 2012 * |
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Frank Murray NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) |
 President and CEO, NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). He served as policy advisor to the US Secretary of Energy, assisting in the development of the Clinton Administration’s energy policy. He served as the State Commissioner of Energy and Chairman of the NYSERDA Board of Directors and also served as Chairman of the State Energy Planning Board, a statutory board charged with developing a comprehensive, integrated energy plan for the State that integrated State energy, environmental and economic development policies.
Earlier, he served as Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Energy and the Environment, and as Assistant Secretary for Energy and the Environment in the administration of Governor Mario M. Cuomo. He represented New York in numerous national and regional energy and environmental activities, including the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the National Governors’ Association, and the Council of Great Lakes Governors. |
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Ed Reinfurt NYSTAR (New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation) |
 Appointed Executive Director, NYSTAR by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and serves as a member of the Economic Development Subcabinet of Gov. David Paterson. He also serves as a member of the New York State Broadband and Deployment Council.
Gov. Paterson named him to the New York State Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Cabinet, which manages the development of State and local infrastructure projects financed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NYSTAR is involved in the administration of Gov. Paterson's New Innovation Economy Matching Grants Program. Under this program New York is committing up to a 10% match in State funds for ARRA awardees in strategic areas of innovation.
Prior to his appointment at NYSTAR, he served as Vice President of the Business Council of New York State, Inc. The Business Council represented more than 3,000 member businesses, chambers of commerce and professional and trade associations. |