Les Gonda - Chief Executive Officer

Les Gonda came to CMI in July of 2008 with over 25 years experience as founder, president and CEO of Ohio based, Sun Seed Company, Inc. After the sale of the company in 2002, Mr. Gonda was retained as a consultant and continued to offer his expertise until its recent sale again to a large international corporation in June of 2008.In 1981 he started Sun Seed Company in the agriculturally rich area of north-west Ohio. Under Mr. Gonda’s guidance, with a minimum investment, the company rapidly grew and gained prominence to become one of the top small animal and avian feed companies in the United States, with annual domestic and international sales of nearly 20 million dollars. At the height of the company’s growth, Sun Seed was staffed with over 150 employees with a spectrum of jobs that included manufacturing, packaging, sales, product development, QC, accounting and transportation. In addition to Mr. Gonda’s primary responsibilities of overseeing financial, regulatory, new product development and marketing, he was directly involved in the modernization and engineering of production lines. As part of his long term strategy regarding future growth, Mr. Gonda not only designed, but built and maintained a large number of highly specialized machines that directly increased efficiency and productivity while improving worker safety.

Mr. Gonda was a member of the highly regarded Young Presidents Organization and in 1996 was nominated and finalist for North West Ohio Entrepreneur of the Year. He attended Bowling Green State University, graduating in 1972 with a BS, majors in biology and chemistry.

Haydn Wadley - Scientific Advisor

CMI is fortunate to have as a part of its management team a number of researchers who have been instrumental in developing cellular materials technology, including Professor Haydn Wadley, an advisor to the company. Dr. Wadley is Professor of Material Science Engineering and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UVa and has published (or has in press) 265 papers in referred journals and conference proceedings. He is the co-editor or co-author of seven books and the holder of five US patents (six additional patents are pending).

Yellapu Murty - Director of Research and Development

Dr. Murty earned his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He has an extensive background in materials, with over 30 years of industrial experience in research and development of melting, casting, metalworking, and powder metallurgy. Coupled with his knowledge of the metallurgy and processing of this wide range of materials, he has been able to successfully develop a variety of applications for these materials in aerospace, marine, automotive, electronics, chemical processing, medical, and energy exploration markets. Dr. Murty has published over 50 technical articles in refereed journals in the fields of materials processing, materials characterization, and materials selection along with more than 10 patents issued or pending. He is a Fellow of ASM International and has served on the advisory boards of NSF, CDA, AFML Materials Affordability, and NIST.

Dr. Murty leads technology, application identification, and manufacturing process development activities required to implement Periodic Cellular Materials designs for specific fields of interest.

Robert Kurtz - Director of Manufacturing

Mr. Kurtz has more than thirty years experience in product development, manufacturing, and supply chain management with in-depth experience developing and expanding manufacturing operations. Previous to joining CMI, he held senior management positions with Domestic Corporation, AMF Bowling and Woolrich Incorporated. At AMF Bowling he relocated their 110 person production operation from Mansfield Ohio to Richmond Virginia. At Woolrich he consolidated 17 separate sewing facilities and eventually sourced most of Woolrich’s efforts into the Pacific Rim.

Mr. Kurtz is responsible for implementing the manufacturing paths for products designed by the research staff and leading the manufacturing facility scale-up efforts at CMI. In less than 2 years he spear-headed the efforts that matured lab-scale fabrication capabilities into a robust fabrication facility capable of producing 6 ft by 12 ft curved sandwich panels. Mr. Kurtz is has been awarded senior level certification by the Institute of Supply Management. He received his BS Mechanical Engineering Degree from The University of Virginia and MBA from the Darden School of Business Administration.