The Canadian Printable Electronics Industry Association has elected its first board of directors as part of its first annual general meeting at the 2015 Canadian Printable Electronics Symposium in Montreal this week.
“Installing a Board of Directors is a critical step in the continued growth of this Association,” said Peter Kallai, president and CEO of the CPEIA. “Not only does this provide the CPEIA with a strong governance framework, it allows us to tap into the expertise of key players in Canadian industry to help guide the development of our Member services, ensure the financial stability of the Association, and build the partnerships to bring to market compelling new products and applications enabled with printable and organic electronics.”
Paul Smith, vice-president, Xerox’s Research Centre of Canada, has been named Chair of the CPEIA Board of Directors.
“Printable and organic electronics is an industry where the dream of what is possible is rapidly becoming reality as more products and applications come to market from the large industry players,” said Smith. “This Association is the right move at the right time for Canada to organize itself and take advantage of this opportunity. Printable and organic electronics is applicable to a whole range of areas where Canada is strong and strategically well-positioned, such as automotive, aerospace, packaging and advanced manufacturing.”
The first act of the Board of Directors was to promote Kallai from executive director to president and CEO of the CPEIA.
The Board of Directors includes:
Paul Smith, vice-president, Xerox Research Centre of Canada, (Chair)
Paul joined Xerox in 1995 and currently leads Xerox Corporation Global Materials Research Centre (XRCC), which is responsible for Xerox advanced materials research and development. The research centre also conducts research and development in support of commercial clients in the areas of advanced and specialty materials. He is a named inventor on 73 U.S. patents and has 16 publications.
Peter Kallai, president of the CPEIA
Dr. Michael Tischler, chief technology officer, Cooledge Lighting
Dr. Tischler has been involved in intellectual property, both in invention and prosecution, throughout his career and is a named inventor on over 70 patents. He is an editor for the Journal of Crystal Growth and the Journal of Electronic Materials. Cooledge Lighting develops innovative broad-area lighting based on large arrays of small, low power light-emitting diodes on a thin flexible plastic sheet. Cooledge incorporates a number of aspects from RFID and printable electronics into its approach to high-quality lighting.
Robin Jeffries, president, Tangio Printed Electronics
Robin Jeffries has vast knowledge of printable electronics, including design, prototype conception and commercializing various products and production methods over the past 34 years. He is President of Sytek Enterprises and the company’s printed electronics division, Tangio. He drives new strategic initiatives in electronic printing methods and product development creating new opportunities worldwide.
Board of Advisors
The CPEIA also named the first appointees to its Board of Advisors. The role of the Board of Advisors is to support white paper working groups and provide technical insight and advice about printable and organic electronics products and applications in various industry verticals, and the state of technological readiness, and market acceptance, for new products and applications.
The Board of Advisors includes appointees from across Canada:
Thomas Ducellier, executive director, PE Flagship Program, National Research Council of Canada
Ducellier is the Executive Director of the NRC’s flagship program on Printable Electronics. The $70-million, five-year initiative aims to grow a successful PE industry in Canada by developing and transferring to industrial partners relevant market-leading technology building blocks in new inks, new printing processes and new printed device designs. Prior to joining NRC, Ducellier founded and led three technology startups in optical telecommunications, scientific instrumentation for mining and solar energy generation. He holds Masters degrees in physics and electrical engineering.
André Dion, general manager, Printability and Graphic Communications Institute (ICI)
Prior to ICI, Dion worked for 20 years in the printing industry for Moore, Transcontinental Printing and Quebecor World. Throughout his career, he has worked on new products development, digital printing and print-on demand strategies, business acquisitions and the start-up of the largest financial printer in Canada, Quebecor-Merrill Canada. Dion guides ICI in pursuit of its mandate to meet the needs of the commercial printing and packing industry as it undergoes great change in response to new emerging technologies such as printable electronics. Andre will be our ambassador in the Quebec region and an important interface to the packaging and printing industry.
Professor Mario Leclerc, Professor of Chemistry, Université Laval
Prof. Leclerc has a Ph.D. in chemistry and has completed post-doctoral work at the INRS-Energie et Matériaux near Montréal and the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, in Mainz, Germany. He has held the Canada Research Chair for Electroactive and Photoactive Polymers since 2001 at Laval, one of Canada’s top 10 universities, with programs in sciences, engineering and medicine. Prof. Leclerc will be instrumental in helping to build the CPEIA’s university research network.
