The signs of climate crisis acceleration are everywhere. It’s now uniformly accepted that innovation of existing and new renewable energy technologies is required to meet the challenge of zero emissions by 2050.
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Dr. Stephan DeLuca

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Leadership team

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Dr. Stephan DeLuca

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

portrait of Jim against a light background

Jim Beltis

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Dr. Tom Tombs

Executive Vice President

Dave P. Buemi

VICE PRESIDENT COMMERCIALIZATION

Dr. Diane Herrick

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING

James Boyd

VICE PRESIDENT AND CONTROLLER

Kelly Burns

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Dr. Stephan DeLuca

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
In his book “A World Lit Only By Fire” the historian William Manchester describes the events that sparked the transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance that ultimately enabled the Industrial Revolution. It is ironic that with the vast cultural, political and technological changes over the past 500 years, we are still in a very real sense a world lit mainly, if not only, by fire. With an accelerating climate crisis, we can no longer afford another hundred years of fossil fuel burning to keep the lights on! We must now rely on our capacity to innovate; to build massively scalable renewable energy technologies that eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.

EMC’s innovation capabilities are laser focused on fulfilling the promise of solar energy. The high capital cost and complex value chain of existing silicon solar technology limits the scalability of that technology and the greater solar industry. Our unique business model centers on high-throughput, Roll-to-Roll solar module manufacturing enabled by perovskites. The 95% reduction in capital cost to produce EMC manufacturing facilities and the simplified value chain is efficiently scalable on a global basis. Furthermore, the significantly lower module production cost will allow the PV module industry to continue reducing prices, but at profitable margins and allowing higher margins throughout the downstream supply chain.

We firmly believe this model will deliver terawatt-scale solar energy that will be a significant contribution to the urgent decarbonization effort globally. Our tag line, “Accelerating Electrification”, expresses our energy transition value fully; our team is driven with a single passion of making the solar energy decarbonization pathway a reality in the next thirty years.

Dr. Stephan DeLuca

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

In his book “A World Lit Only By Fire” the historian William Manchester describes the events that sparked the transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance that ultimately enabled the Industrial Revolution. It is ironic that with the vast cultural, political and technological changes over the past 500 years, we are still in a very real sense a world lit mainly, if not only, by fire. With an accelerating climate crisis, we can no longer afford another hundred years of fossil fuel burning to keep the lights on! We must now rely on our capacity to innovate; to build massively scalable renewable energy technologies that eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.

EMC’s innovation capabilities are laser focused on fulfilling the promise of solar energy. The high capital cost and complex value chain of existing silicon solar technology limits the scalability of that technology and the greater solar industry. Our unique business model centers on high-throughput, Roll-to-Roll solar module manufacturing enabled by perovskites. The 95% reduction in capital cost to produce EMC manufacturing facilities and the simplified value chain is efficiently scalable on a global basis. Furthermore, the significantly lower module production cost will allow the PV module industry to continue reducing prices, but at profitable margins and allowing higher margins throughout the downstream supply chain.

We firmly believe this model will deliver terawatt-scale solar energy that will be a significant contribution to the urgent decarbonization effort globally. Our tag line, “Accelerating Electrification”, expresses our energy transition value fully; our team is driven with a single passion of making the solar energy decarbonization pathway a reality in the next thirty years.

Dr. Stephan DeLuca

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Drawing on an extensive 30-year background in corporate management, sales & marketing and product engineering, Steve has a spent the last fourteen years relentlessly pursuing low cost, simplified solar module manufacturability.

In 2006 he was recruited as a turn-around CEO for a publicly traded start-up solar thin-film manufacturing company DayStar Technologies (DSTI) where he experienced firsthand the massive capital demand of scaling low throughput PV manufacturing.

Prior to DayStar, he held multiple positions with Inficon and Leybold Inficon over 10 years where he built a new environmental safety and health product business unit, started 5 subsidiaries in Asia while located in Taiwan from 2000-2003 as President of Asia Operations, and initiated a global key account management system as Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Business Development leading to sales growth over 30%.

Steve holds a Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry and a M.S. in Geochemistry from Colorado School of Mines, an MBA from Syracuse University and a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.

portrait of Jim against a light background

Jim Beltis

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Jim is a seasoned CFO and Corporate Development Leader with 24+ years of multi-industry experience. Jim spent 10 years as a senior executive in the JPMorgan / Bear Stearns Energy Principal Investment Group, which deployed $1.8B of capital through 15 large-scale energy infrastructure acquisitions and assembled the 13 th  largest power generation company in the US.  Jim played an instrumental role in the acquisition of the Williams Power Company by Bear Stearns, a transaction which formed the nucleus of the Bear Energy business in 2007.

Most recently, Jim served as the CFO and Head of Corporate Development for Case Medical, Inc., a rapidly growing, medical device manufacturer.  Here, he led all aspects of an initiative to fund and construct a new manufacturing facility, expanding production capacity by 3X.  In addition to overseeing all finance/accounting functions, Jim architected 2.5X revenue increase through geographical markets expansion and addition of long-term supply agreements with Big 5 Medical Device Companies.

Jim holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a BS in Finance and Economics from Boston College.

Dr. Tom Tombs

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Before joining EMC Tom dedicated 25+ years to invention, technology development and commercialization leadership at Eastman Kodak and NexPress Solutions where he directed R&D and scale-up of highly complex equipment, opto-electronic thin films, software, and materials from invention to product.  

He has won 10+ technology and product awards for printing equipment, inks, and high-speed roll-to-roll printed electronics. Tom, an individual and contributing inventor for many of these technologies, holds 106 U.S. patents and several dozen international patents. He is skilled at de-risking product development and efficiently navigating complex interactions that require multi-disciplinary sciences.

Tom holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester and received the CTO Century Award for Extraordinary Achievements in Scientific and Technical Innovation from Kodak.

Dave Buemi

Executive Vice President

Dave brings over 23 years of broad solar energy industry fervor and experience to EMC. A specializing marketing generalist, he has worked extensively throughout the end-to-end supply chain in both entrepreneurial and corporate settings. In addition to holding mid and upstream positions in the EPC and project development segments, Dave has substantial strategic and tactical product bankability experience with start-up and early stage module manufacturing companies. Previously, he has held positions as Co-founder/Vice President Development, Brightphase Energy, Inc., Vice President, Business Development, DayStar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTI), Vice President, Business Development, Empower Energies, LLC., Vice President, Business Development, Gehrlicher Solar America, Inc/M+W Energy, Senior Director, Business Development, Suniva, Inc., Senior Vice President, Willdan Energy Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: WLDN)

Dr. Diane Herrick

VICE PRESIDENT COMMERCIALIZATION

Diane is an engineering executive with a 25-year history of successfully bringing digital print products to market including work with Eastman Kodak. Leading culturally and functionally diverse teams charged with characterizing and evolving new technologies from R&D to commercial products, she is committed to EMC’s mission of transferring the company’s high performing, roll-to-roll printed perovskite photovoltaic technology into the high value products needed for the global energy transition. 

As VP of Commercialization, Diane commands the central role of keeping the team on track to deliver products with supporting functional processes that are robust at launch and that are positioned for a long, profitable product run. As a seasoned program-management professional, Diane vigorously drives commercialization phases and gates process and employs relevant quality management tools and best practices to guarantee the team’s success. 

A resourceful and inventive PhD physicist from the University Rochester, she is adept at gaining and integrating relevant technical knowledge into product and identifying innovative solutions to technical problems. Diane holds 20 patents for her industrial contributions.

James Boyd

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING

Jim is an operations and engineering executive specializing in new business startups, with a focus on manufacturing development and scale-up. He has 25+ years’ experience across multiple industries, including roll-to-roll printed electronics, microelectronics, and high-volume consumer packaged goods. 

Before joining EMC, Jim spent much of his career at Eastman Kodak Company where he held senior leadership roles in engineering, operations, quality, and R&D. While working at Kodak, Jim led 10+ factory startups in China, Mexico, Europe and the US. He also initiated and developed Kodak’s one-time-use camera recycling program, which ultimately resulted in over 100 million cameras and 14 million pounds diverted from the waste stream.

Jim holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and an MS in Mechanical Engineering and Operations Management from Northwestern University. He is a Six Sigma certified Black Belt, and holds 22 patents for his inventions.

Kelly Burns

VICE PRESIDENT
AND CONTROLLER

Kelly joined EMC with over 26 years of experience developing financial and human resource business processes, financial audits, due diligence for mergers and acquisitions and key player in growth initiatives.

In 2008, Burns won the award for Financial Executive of the Year in the private company category presented by the Rochester, NY chapter of Financial Executives International. Criteria used to evaluate nominees included professional accomplishments, ethics, leadership pertaining to their organization’s financial performance and civic involvement.

Kelly has an MBA from Clarkson University and a BA from SUNY at Potsdam University.