Voltaix Names Peter A. Smith Chief Executive Officer

BRANCHBURG, N.J., Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Voltaix, a leading provider of materials that enhance the performance of semiconductors and solar cells, has named Peter A. Smith Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors.  Smith is a 20-year high technology industry veteran having served at Motorola, Honeywell and most recently as Vice President of Corporate Strategy for the Bussmann Division of Cooper Industries in St. Louis, MO.  

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111109/NY03356 )

"Over the last four years Voltaix has embarked on a plan that has increased sales and expanded manufacturing capacity," said Peter B. de Neufville, Voltaix's Chairman.  "As we considered the impact of this growth and the potential for continued expansion, the Board of Directors sought a Chief Executive with vision and distinguished operating and technical leadership experience.  We believe Peter Smith is just such a person and are delighted to welcome him to Voltaix."      

"Peter is a top notch strategist who has proven himself developing specialty materials at Honeywell, scaling the MEMS business at Dover and significantly enhancing performance at a Cooper Industries wireless unit," said Voltaix Director and former Renewable Energy Corporation CEO Reidar Langmo.  "He brings a broad array of leadership and management talents with a track record of successfully implementing corporate growth in North America, Asia and Europe."  

Smith, 45, succeeds Mark K. Fine, who served as the company's Interim CEO since January 2010, and who will remain at Voltaix, succeeding John P. de Neufville as President.  Fine will have responsibility for a number of the company's strategic initiatives and will oversee relationships with distributor partners world-wide.

"Mark Fine has played a key role in our development plan from the beginning and as interim CEO for the past 22 months has strengthened the company's leadership position," said Peter de Neufville.

John de Neufville will continue as the company's Chief Scientist overseeing chemical research and end-use applications development.  He will also remain a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Committee.  

Peter Smith's career spans two decades of high technology management.  At Cooper Industries Smith led the acquisition of Martek, a significant manufacturer of power management devices, and dramatically improved Cooper's industrial wireless business.  Before joining Cooper he led the consumer electronics product group at Dover Knowles which he grew from $150M to $240M.  

Earlier in his career Smith focused on semiconductor and display manufacturing at Motorola and later worked on behalf of one of its key suppliers, Three-Five Systems, where he managed M&A activities and also oversaw manufacturing productivity in the Philippines and China.  

Smith has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Rutgers, a BS in Materials Engineering, also from Rutgers, and an MBA from Arizona State University.  He is Associate Editor for the Journal of the Society of Information Display and past-President of the Ceramic Association of New Jersey.

About Voltaix

Voltaix is the world's leading producer of diborane, germane, trisilane, and trimethyl boron - specialty chemicals that enhance the performance and manufacturability of semiconductors and photovoltaics.  Voltaix chemicals enable logic chips to compute more quickly and solar cells to absorb a broader portion of the solar spectrum, and they improve manufacturability by minimizing defect formation and increasing machine throughput.  

Utilizing exceptional expertise in silicon, germanium and boron chemistry, our products are custom designed for the most demanding applications, including:

• Advanced DRAM computer memory
• Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) transistors for wireless communications chips
• Strained silicon for high speed logic computer chips (CPUs)
• Copper-enabling low-K dielectrics for computer chips
• High efficiency thin film silicon solar cells
  

We use proprietary synthesis, purification, and packaging technology developed in-house.   We also design and build our own equipment for use in our manufacturing operations.  The company, founded in 1986 and privately held, currently employs approximately 140 people at its sites in Branchburg, NJ and High Springs, FL.  Voltaix investors include Intel Capital, MissionPoint Capital and Novus Energy Partners.  Further information about Voltaix is available at www.voltaix.com.  

SOURCE Voltaix