CTP currently has a full-time staff of six, complimented by a variety of on-call industry experts. The team takes a inter-disciplinary approach to projects and assignments are frequently varied to provide the most added value to each potential situation. Scroll down to review all of the CTP staff biographies.
Masood Akhtar, Ph.D. - President
Masood's key responsibilities include:
An entrepreneur with experience in technology transfer, Masood founded CTP in June 2002 to improve the competitiveness of Wisconsin businesses by accelerating the adoption of energy efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies. Masood is also Chief Executive Officer of BioPulping International, a University of Wisconsin spin-off, in Madison. He co-founded the company in 1996 to commercialize biopulping after serving as biopulping project leader at the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center/USDA Forest Products Laboratory from 1989 to 1996. Prior to joining the Forest Products Laboratory, Masood served as a Post-doctoral fellow in Plant Pathology at Ohio State University.
Dr. Akhtar has Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees in Microbiology (Botany) as well as a M.S. degree in Botany and B.S. degrees in Botany, Chemistry and Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University in India.
Tim R. Konicek, Ph.D. - Director - Venture Investments
Tim's key responsibilities include:
Tim has extensive business management experience in both large multi-national and start-up companies. He was most recently President and CEO of OpGen, Inc., an early stage Madison, WI biotechnology company. Prior to joining OpGen, Tim was a management consultant to start-up and high growth technology companies in California, working on business plan development, strategic planning, technology licensing, joint ventures, market analyses and positioning, and product development planning. Before joining the entrepreneurial world, Tim worked at S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. in Racine, Wisconsin where he held management positions in product development, technology search and acquisition, business development, and strategic marketing. While at S. C. Johnson, Tim built a successful track record creating significant new business by identifying and commercializing new products and technologies. He is skilled in all aspects of corporate operations from product development and design to commercialization. Throughout much of his career, Tim has structured and managed strategic alliances with venture-backed companies.
Ed Corrigan- Director - Finance and Operations
Previously, Ed served 10 years as the President and Chief Executive Officer at Diachemix, an early stage biotechnology firm developing diagnostic products for the veterinary disease and food safety markets. He was responsible for the company’s organization, strategic planning, equity funding, product development and regulatory approval, intellectual property, collaborative research agreements, grants administration, OEM contract manufacturing, license agreements, and financial management.
Prior, Ed worked as a Vice President and Regional Market President at US Bank. There his responsibilities included small business and commercial lending, retail management, bank acquisition integration, credit analysis, regulatory compliance and risk management. Ed also has worked in the state government strategic planning and executive budgeting areas, and for non-profit organizations supervising program planning and grants allocations activities.
Brent English - Senior Technology Analyst
Brent's key responsibilities include:
Brent English has a broad technical background that gives him a good understanding of technologies used in the forest products, metal working and plastics industry. He has ten patents ranging from packaging design to material processing. While a researcher at a Federal laboratory, Brent won grants from the United States Department of Agriculture, US Department of Energy and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Founder and Technical Director of North Wood Plastics, Inc., a start-up venture producing composite compounds, and a recipient of a large low interest business development loan from the State of Wisconsin, gave Brent first-hand start-up experience. Working as R&D Project Manager at Electronic Theatre Controls and as Engineering Project Manager at Gammex RMI gave him experience in bringing products to market.
Brent has a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Industrial/Technology Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Tom Wroblewski - Senior Energy Specialist
Tom's key responsibilities include:
Prior to joining CleanTech Partners, Tom was the Energy Engineer for Stora Enso’s North American pulp and paper operations, where he was responsible for energy efficiency, energy auditing and benchmarking, supporting corporate climate change initiatives, and implementation of energy and environmental conservation projects. This provided a close working relationship with State and Federal energy programs, including best energy practices implementation, as well as technical experience and methodologies within the Scandinavian pulp and paper operations. He also gained operating management experience in the power & recovery operations of a Kraft chemical pulp mill. In addition to over eight years in pulp & paper, Tom worked 17 years in both power plant engineering and supervisory capacities for Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Electric Power Company, including six years in nuclear power engineering roles.
Doug Presny P.E. - Emerging Technology Analyst
Doug Presny has 18 years experience in assessing and implementing both best practice and emerging energy efficiency technologies. This experience has come from serving as a facility energy manager, a utility industrial representative, an energy consultant within the US and abroad, and extensive work with state and national energy efficiency programs. Included in this work are technology validation demonstrations and detailed industrial sector initiatives to identify barriers and create solutions that enable industry to take advantage of energy cost reduction technology.
Jeffrey B. Brewer, P.E. – Energy Efficiency Specialist
Jeff has 22 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry with 13 years of experience in the chemical industry earlier. He was most recently Sr. Energy Engineer at NewPage Corporation. Jeff has a wide range of experience in originating/developing projects, justifying projects, estimating projects, overseeing the installation of equipment, and starting the new equipment up. Jeff has also worked with maintenance on equipment repairs, equipment upgrades, preventative maintenance procedures, and parts control. There is further experience monitoring ongoing operations with an eye on operating changes for cost improvement. Project work scope covers installation of a boiler & steam turbine to replacement of a bearing/mechanical seal.