Engineering Manager

Kenneth E. Pfeiffer

***A East **nd Street Austin, TX 78705

[E-Mail]: abnw9l@r.postjobfree.com [Cell]: 512-***-****

Objectives:

A leadership position in emerging renewable energy fields where I can leverage my experience,

business skills, and technical knowledge to deliver highly-valued products to the marketplace.

Satisfy my intellectual curiosity and desire to continuously learn

Fulfill my personal mission to enable a cleaner, safer, and more-sustainable economy for subsequent

generations.

Selected Achievements:

Technology demonstrations for investors (2006-2009) which closed +$125M in VC financing.

2008 R&D 100 award winning team for Hybrid Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) with National

Renewable Energy Lab. Editor’s Choice for “Most Revolutionary Technology”

2006 Time Magazine “Best Invention”/Wall St. Journal “Innovation of the Year”

Managed design team for the world’s most efficient, high-power UPS used as backup at military, data

center, broadcast, & hospital sites worldwide. Another R&D 100 Award-winning technology.

US Patents: #6,092,981, #6,481,449, #6,918,397

Employment History:

2006-2009 HelioVolt Corporation (VC-funded startup) www.heliovolt.com

A startup solar energy company developing and manufacturing breakthrough thin film technology

Director, Engineering

Led start-up engineering team developing CIGS thin-film solar panel processing equipment from 2

inch R&D scale through 1.2 meter production size in 3 generations over a 3.5 year period.

Established budget and executed a series of programs with numerous global suppliers to build a

40 MW/year production facility. Modeled CAPEX cash flows for pro-forma operations planning on

+$65M capital budget.

Cross-functional engineering mgmt. to develop core processes such as; reactive sputtering,

thermal co-evaporation, liquid flow-cells, laser patterning, and robotic material handling automation.

Established U.L. compliance capability on solar products by creating a proprietary robotic edge-

deletion technology.

Achieved low COGS, high reliability, and high productivity in factory systems through extensive use

of CAD, FEA, and other analytical software tools. Standardized all machine and factory-level Mfg.

Execution Systems (MES) control platforms to facilitate long-term internal software development

capability.

Interviewed and participated in the hiring of the first (100) employees in engineering, product

design, mfg. ops, quality, EH&S. Augmented supplier’s capability to address critical path schedule

and resource issues.

Co-developed new products with suppliers that are now being offered to the entire solar

marketplace including; VEECO(Thermal Sources), Matrix Metrologies(XRF), Innovative Systems

Engineering(Thin-Film Deposition Systems), R2 Automation(Vacuum Automation), ATS.

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2001-2004 Active Power, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACPW) www.activepower.com

A provider of battery-free energy storage solutions for backup power systems worldwide.

Program Manager

Managed electrical, mechanical, and software engineering teams to develop a portfolio of

1.2-3.6MVA environmentally-friendly, flywheel energy-storage based UPS products.

Created product requirement specifications with the Caterpillar, Inc. and internal marketing team.

Designed 1.2MVA (3)-Phase grid-tie inverter with 800V DC Bus. Achieved UL-1741 and CE-mark

compliance while meeting numerous global voltage/frequency power standards under a common

hardware and control architecture.

Served as technology liaison between ACPW and Caterpillar, Inc. on OEM issues including;

reliability, global spares/service support, and customer-special features. Assisted sales team to

close large contracts with customers such as: Delta Airlines, VISA, and UniVision.

Formed teams with engineering, operations, & supply-chain personnel to establish a low-cost

manufacturing capability during the transition from pilot phase to volume production.

Created a rigorous reliability testing protocol to insure product quality.

1992-2001 Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT) www.amat.com

World’s leading manufacturer of process equipment for semiconductor and solar markets.

Global Product Manager/Systems Engineer

Developed and managed product lifecycles on the 200 & 300mm Centura robotic vacuum cluster

tools for semiconductor customers such as; Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Micron, & Texas Instruments.

Created a flexible, open-architecture for the integration of Etch, CVD, PVD, & Epitaxial wafer

processing chambers. Managed product architecture team and technology roadmaps for +$250M/

yr. product line. Designed specific product features for high-value customers.

Created and enhanced business processes to achieve high-productivity and increased reliability

while reducing costs through supply-chain mgmt. and near net-shape design.

Improved factory workflows with module-level testing and lean manufacturing techniques.

Education:

2008 MBA University of Texas-Austin

1992 M.S. Mechanical Engineering University of Texas-Austin

1990 B.S. Mechanical Engineering Texas A&M University-College Station

(References available upon Request)

Keywords:

Renewable energy, Solar, Start-up company, Engineering Management, Project Management, Energy

Storage, Mechanical Engineering, Vacuum Systems, Thin-Film Deposition, Automation, Machine Design,

Equipment, Semiconductor, Power Electronics, UPS, Inverter, Grid-Tie, UL-1741, Product Development,

Lean Manufacturing, 3-D CAD, FEA, Business Processes, Control Software Architecture, Patents.

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