DayStar Technologies

Dr. Aldrich served from 1992 to 1995 as Group Vice President, Electric Power Research Institute (ERPI).  From 1990 to 1992, he was a director of Ramtron, a public company developing non-volatile memory chips. Prior experience includes executive positions with Alcan Aluminum Corporation, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, and Syracuse Research Corporation.  Since 1992 he has been a member of the American Management Association's International Council.  Dr. Aldrich holds a Ph.D. in Solid State Science and Technology from Syracuse University and a Bachelor in Metallurgical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Mr. Ratson Morad brings over 20 years in building and leading startup companies and global organizations in the high tech sector, mainly in PV solar and semiconductor equipment.  Prior to joining DayStar, Mr. Morad was part of the founding team of Solyndra, Inc. and served as Vice President of Engineering and Technology since July 2005. While at Solyndra, Mr. Morad was responsible for the development of new solar panels and the architecture and build of the production systems.  From December 2002 to July 2005, Mr. Morad served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Blue29, a wafer processing startup Company in semiconductor capital equipment industry that was successfully acquired by KLA-Tencor in late 2004. From 1995 to 2002 Mr. Morad held several executive positions at Applied Materials including Vice President and General Manager of a business division where he led the development and commercialization of new 300mm wafer processing systems.  Between 1989 and 1995 Mr. Morad was responsible for the development of new MRI systems at Elscint Medical Imaging in Israel.

Mr. Morad’s prior experience includes serving as Director of Engineering at ECL in Oxford England, where he developed new superconductive magnets for MRI.

Mr. Morad holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ben Gurion University in Israel and completed his studies of Business Management in the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Mr. Steckel was appointed as Daystar’s Chief Financial Officer in June 2008.   He brings nearly 20 years of management experience at both public and private companies, ranging in size from $30 million to more than a billion dollars in annual revenues.  He has extensive experience in running large manufacturing organizations, in financial planning and restructuring, in raising significant amounts of capital and in operations of both electronics and biotechnology companies worldwide.

From April 2006 until June 2008, Mr. Steckel was Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President and Treasurer at Norwood Promotional Products, a the leading supplier of imprinted promotional products. Before Norwood, he was with Lambda Power (a division of Invensys plc), a global manufacturer of power supplies, power filtering and power protection equipment, where he was President from 2003 to 2005 and CFO from 2001 to 2002. Earlier in his career, Mr. Steckel served in various financial and general management roles at medical device, microelectronic and electronic components companies.  

Mr. Steckel earned his Bachelor of Science in industrial management at Iowa State University, and his M.B.A. from Western Illinois University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Weiss has served as our Chief Technology Officer since May 2007. He initially joined us in January 2006 as Director of the Equipment Development Group and served as our Vice President of Advanced Technologies from March 2006 to May 2007. From September 2005 to January 2006, he served as a consultant to us. From 1992 to 2005, he was with Intevac, Inc., a supplier of thin film deposition manufacturing equipment, most recently serving as Chief Technology Officer, where he led hardware and process development teams in commercializing tools used in the production of plasma and polysilicon displays, hard disks, and low light cameras. Mr. Weiss has a B.A. in English and Psychology from Grinnell College, Iowa.

Mr. Forkin was appointed as DayStar’s Vice President – Corporate Development in September 2008.  Mr. Forkin, brings over 25 years of senior level experience in equity research, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and strategic planning.  He has extensive experience providing strategic and investment research to large institutional investors and private equity firms. 

Immediately prior to joining DayStar, Mr. Forkin was senior vice president, equity capital markets at Tejas Securities Group, Inc., where he specialized in solar photovoltaics, energy technology and other renewable sectors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Forkin was a Senior Manager with the public accounting firm of Deloitte & Touché for 9 years and managed the Corporate Finance Group of Deloitte’s St. Louis office for 5 years. While with Deloitte, Mr. Forkin participated on national, due diligence engagement teams representing two of the largest LBO firms in the country, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. (“KKR”) and Forstmann, Little & Co.

Mr. Forkin earned his Bachelor of Science in Accountancy at the University of Illinois, Champaign.  He is also a Certified Public Accountant. 

Mr. Adams has over 20 years experience in technology related sales, marketing and product development.  He joined Daystar in April 2008 from Solyndra, Inc. where he was responsible for market development of new solar module technologies.  Prior to his entry in the solar photovoltaic space in 2006, Mr. Adams spent several years at major semiconductor equipment suppliers in marketing leadership positions for the industry’s most successful companies and products.  At Varian Semiconductor (2003-2006) and Applied Materials (1991-2003) he held various positions in product management, corporate marketing, market research and strategic planning.  Prior to semiconductors, he held various product development positions in the laser and disk drive industry.  He has been granted 11 US patents and has authored several technical papers.

Mr. Adams holds an MBA from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.