Solving a Different Kind of Energy Crisis
We are a global leader in RF-based wireless charging technology and are passionate in our pursuit to provide mobile power to everyone. Headquartered in San Jose, California, we are deeply committed to intelligent innovation and our WattUp® RF-based charging technology is the embodiment of our pursuit to re-imagine today what is possible tomorrow.
Meet the Management Team
Stephen R. Rizzone
President & CEO
Director
Cesar Johnston
Chief Operating Officer
Executive Vice President of Engineering
Brian Sereda
Senior Vice President &
Chief Financial Officer
Neeraj Sahejpal
Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy
Meet the Board
Board of Directors
Board of Advisors
Board of Directors
Robert J. Griffin
Chairman of the Board
Mr. Robert J. Griffin was named Chairman of the Board in March 2018, after serving on the Board of Directors since February 2014. Mr. Griffin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin International Companies, a Minneapolis-based retail sales and marketing firm. Since founding Griffin International Companies in 1997, Mr. Griffin has led the expansion of the company’s business across three continents and secured the license of brands and technologies from a number of large, well-known companies. Prior to founding Griffin International Companies, Mr. Griffin spent 6 years at Best Buy Co. in various management roles. Mr. Griffin holds a BA in Economics from Gustavus Adolphus College. Mr. Griffin’s extensive executive leadership experience and his in-depth knowledge of the retail industry and technology licensing make him well qualified to serve as Chairman of the Board.
John R. Gaulding
Chairman Emeritus
Since July 1996, Mr. Gaulding has been a private investor and business consultant in the fields of strategy and organization. Mr. Gaulding is a Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of Sage Partners, an advisory firm providing counsel on strategy and corporate governance issues. He is also Chairman Emeritus of Dominican University of California where he served for 7 years as Chairman and 16 years as a Trustee. From 1996-1999 and again from 2001 to the present, Mr. Gaulding has been an independent director of Monster, Worldwide (NYSE:MWW), where he serves on the Audit Committee and chairs the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. From 2002-2012, he served as a Director for Yellow Media, Inc. (TORONTO:YMI) where he also chaired the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and the Compensation Committee. Mr. Gaulding’s extensive corporate board experience includes ANTS Software, Inc. where he was lead director and Chairman of the Audit Committee, and ORTEL (NASDAQ:ORTL), a high-technology manufacturer of electro-optical devices used in the telecommunications industry. In addition, he served as the executive Chairman and CEO of National Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NAIG). Mr. Gaulding has also served as non-executive Chairman of Novo Media, Inc., one of the first digital agencies, sold to BCOM3 and in the same capacity with GetMeIn, a secondary ticketing agency headquartered in London and sold to Ticketmaster. Finally, he was a founding director of the popular in-airport wine lounge, Vino Volo. Mr. Gaulding’s industry experience includes 15 years as a corporate officer, serving as Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Development for Pacific Telesis Group, President and CEO for Pacific Bell Yellow Pages, and President and CEO for ADP Claims Solutions Group. Mr. Gaulding holds a BS in Engineering from UCLA, an MBA with honors from the University of Southern California, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Dominican University of California.
Stephen R. Rizzone
President & CEO, Director
Mr. Stephen R. Rizzone joined the Company in October of 2013 and currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Energous. Mr. Rizzone has more than 35 years of executive management, marketing, sales and entrepreneurial experience in the data communications hardware, networking hardware and software, silicon and optical components markets. Prior to joining the Company, he served as Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the board of directors of Active Storage, Inc. from June 2011 until December 2012, and as the Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the board of directors of Communicado, Inc. from April 2006 to September 2009. Mr. Rizzone previously served as a member of the board of directors of Katzkin Leather from June 2011 to November 2013 and the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance (LARTA) from February 2009 to November 2011. He holds a B.A. in Public Administration from California State University at Fullerton. Mr. Rizzone’s extensive industry, executive and board experience position him well to serve as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors for Energous.
Nick Alexopoulos
Director
Dr. Nick Alexopoulos joined the Energous Board of Directors in March 2018 after serving on the Board of Advisors since March 2017. He is currently Vice President for Academic Affairs and University Relations with the Broadcom Foundation. Prior to that, Nick served as the Vice President for Antennas, RF Technologies and University Relations at Broadcom Corporation. Before joining Broadcom, he was the Dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California at Irvine (UCI), a position he held from 1997 to 2008. Previously, he was a member of the faculty at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1969 to 1996, where he served as Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department between the years 1987 and 1992. While at UCLA, he also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs between 1986 and 1987. Dr. Alexopoulos was elected an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to the understanding of substrate-superstrate effects on printed circuit antennas and integrated microwave circuits. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to microwave circuits, antennas, and structures for low observable technologies, and for contributions in engineering education. Dr. Alexopoulos is highly cited in Computer Science and has received two IEEE Best Journal Paper Awards. He and his students have published more than 300 articles in journals, refereed conference publications and book chapters. He also holds several US patents and has received Honorary Doctorates from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and Chapman University in California. Dr. Alexopoulos has served as a consultant to various high-tech companies and to the US Government. In addition, he founded Kimalink Inc., which was bought by Broadcom in 2000. Dr. Alexopoulos graduated from the 8th Gymnasium in 1959 and earned his BSEE in 1964, his MSEE in 1967, and his Ph.D. in 1968 in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Recently, he and his wife, Sue Curtis were honored with a $2 million endowment for the establishment of the Nicolaos G. and Sue Curtis Alexopoulos Presidential Endowed Chair in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering of the University of California, Irvine.
Dan Fairfax
Director
Mr. Dan Fairfax joined Energous’ Board of Directors in April 2019. Mr. Fairfax is a seasoned executive who has served in a variety of financial management and operational leadership roles throughout his career. He most recently served as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Brocade through its acquisition by Broadcom. At Brocade, Mr. Fairfax also served as the company’s vice president of global service and support, and as vice president of business operations, following Brocade’s acquisition of Foundry Networks, where he was chief financial officer. Prior to that role, he served in various senior financial management positions at companies such as GoRemote Internet Communications, Ironside Technologies, Acta Technology, NeoVista Software, and Siemens and Spectra-Physics. In addition to serving on Energous’ board, Mr. Fairfax is a member of the board of directors for Saama Technologies. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Whitman College and graduated from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Rahul Patel
Director
Mr. Patel joined the Company’s board of directors in August 2019. Mr. Patel serves as senior vice president and general manager, Connectivity & Networking Business Unit, at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at Broadcom where he last served as senior vice president and general manager for the Wireless Connectivity business. Prior to joining Broadcom, Patel held senior marketing and engineering positions at HIFN, Inc., Samsung Semiconductor, Tritech Microelectronics, and EPSON/S-MOS Systems. Patel is a proven leader with more than 25 years of experience and a strong track record for developing successful product lines, driving P&L growth and building global organizations of Fortune 500 companies in the semiconductor and telecommunications industries.
Mike Noonen
Director
Mr. Noonen joined the Company’s board of directors in August 2019. Mr. Noonen currently serves as CEO at MixComm, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company for emerging wireless applications and markets. He brings a wealth of experience in the semiconductor industry, from analog, RF and millimeter-wave to digital, and has two decades of executive experience at large multi-national companies such as NXP Semiconductors, GlobalFoundries and National Semiconductor, as well as early stage start-ups. Noonen was the co-founder and chairman of Silicon Catalyst, the world’s first semiconductor incubator and helped launch many innovative companies. Noonen also served on the Global Semiconductor Alliance board of directors.
Reynette Au
Director
Reynette Au joined the Energous Board of Directors in August 2019. Au currently serves as vice president of marketing, Network & Custom Logic Group at Intel Corporation. Prior to her position at Intel, Au was vice president of marketing for Micron Technology’s mobile business unit. Other leadership positions she has held throughout her career were at organizations including Phoenix Technologies, GTIA, NVIDIA Corporation, Triscend Corporation, which was acquired by Xilinx and others. Au brings a track record of driving marketing strategy and customer engagement programs that enable the scaling and market segment share growth for a range of system solution products.
Board of Advisors
John Major
Mr. John Major joined the Energous Board of Advisors in July 2014. He founded MTSG, a strategic consulting and investment company of which he has served as president since 2003. From April 2004 to October 2006, he also served as chief executive officer of Apacheta Corp., a privately held mobile, wireless software company whose products are used to manage retail inventory, service and deliveries. From August 2000 until January 2003, Mr. Major was chairman and CEO of Novatel Wireless Inc., a wireless data access solutions company. Previously, Mr. Major was chairman and CEO of Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture of Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Prior to joining Wireless Knowledge, Mr. Major served as corporate executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of its wireless infrastructure division. For approximately 18 years, he held various executive and leadership positions at Motorola Inc., the most recent of which was senior vice president and chief technology officer. He served on the University of California President’s Board on Science and Innovation and currently serves as Chairman of the Dean’s Advisory Committee of the University of Rochester Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Science and as Chairman of the University of Illinois at Chicago-Engineering School Advisory Board. Mr. Major is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of EvoNexus, a nonprofit telecom industry group and incubator and Chairman of the La Jolla Institute, the premier research institute focused on the immune system. Previously, he has served on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academy of Science, and the board of the Software Engineering Institute. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Broadcom, Lennox International Inc., Littelfuse Inc., ORBCOMM Inc. and Resonant Inc. Additionally, he is chairman of the board of Pulse Electronics. Mr. Major received a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Loyola University. Mr. Major is a named inventor in 13 U.S. patents.
Franco De Flaviis
Dr. Franco De Flaviis is a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). Dr. De Flaviis has been consulting for companies in CMOS passive design, small form factor antenna, and phased array systems. He was a long-time consultant to Broadcom Corporation working on antenna design and CMOS passives and has also previously consulted for Motorola Inc., Atlantic Aerospace, and various small start-up, high tech companies. Dr. De Flaviis has authored and co-authored over 200 papers in reference journals and conference proceedings, filed several international patents and authored one book and three book chapters. He is a member of the URSI Commission B and was elected to the grade of IEEE Fellow in 2014 for his contributions to reconfigurable antennas and tunable dielectrics for wireless communication systems. His research interests include the development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for RF applications fabricated on unconventional substrates such as printed circuit board and microwave laminates, with particular emphasis on reconfigurable antenna and front-end systems. He is also active in the research field of highly integrated packaging for RF and wireless applications and small size, low-cost antenna array for personal communication systems and vehicle. Dr. De Flaviis received his degree (Laurea “Summa cum laude”) in electronics engineering from the University of Ancona in Italy in 1990. He was a visiting student in 1991 at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) working on ultralow distortion resistive mixers. Dr. De Flaviis then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCLA in 1994 and 1997 respectively, followed by his post-doctoral fellowship on full-wave analysis of nonlinear dielectric for microwave structures in 1998.
Sheryl Wilkerson
Sheryl Wilkerson has served in a variety of leadership roles and comes to Energous with in-depth experience in public and private sectors in the U.S. and abroad. She is a bi-partisan advisor and results-oriented leader with a reputation for building and retaining highly-motivated teams. Prior to her current role, Wilkerson was president at Willow, LLC where she served global wireless, telematics and automotive companies and the senior vice president of strategic planning and corporate services at Ygomi. Wilkerson spent more than a decade working in the federal government including the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Federal Judicial Center and Federal Communications Commission where she led the office of legislative and intergovernmental affairs, and served as an advisor to the general counsel and chairman.