Board of Advisors

Rob GuytonAdvisor
Mr. Guyton is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Business Officer for Encell Technology, Inc.

Prior to his role at Encell, Mr. Guyton served as Chairman and CEO of Monarch Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage information technology and alternative energy companies. In early 1996, Mr. Guyton co-founded Inktomi Corporation and served in various roles there including Vice President, Business Development, President and Board Member. Inktomi went public in June 1998 and was later acquired by Yahoo Corporation.

Prior to Inktomi, Mr. Guyton served as a Vice President in the Corporate Finance Department of The Robinson-Humphrey Company, Inc. Mr. Guyton graduated cum laude from Washington & Lee University with a BS in Business Administration with concentrations in finance and accounting. He also holds an MBA from Harvard University.

Jon HalletAdvisor
In addition to being a current investor in over 40 start-up companies, Mr. Hallett is actively involved as Chairman or as independent Board advisor at enterprise software companies StrataCloud, Salesfusion, Cloud Sherpas, BetterCloud, Rachio, QASymphony, among others. As an operator, Mr. Hallett has served as CEO or interim CEO on multiple occasions, with a very successful track record. Mr. Hallett started his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and holds a B.S. in Engineering from Lehigh University.

Dr. James LyonsAdvisor
Dr. James Lyons entered the venture capital business in 2008 after a 30-year technology career at General Electric. Jim currently serves as chief technologist for the venture investment team at Capricorn Investment Group focused on the creation and growth of clean/renewable energy companies.

Formerly, Jim was Chief Engineer for Electrical Technologies at GE Research, serving as technology leader and mentor for a 250-member global team. He was a leading advocate for renewables within GE and corporate champion behind the formation of GE Wind Energy in 2002 – which quickly grew to $8B annual revenues.

In 2000 Dr. Lyons was the technology leader during the creation of GE’s Digital Energy business unit. While at GE, Jim served on the board of directors of Powerex, the Electric Drive Trade Association, and the US Offshore Wind Collaborative, as well as becoming a principal company spokesperson for renewable energy. In 2006, Jim co-chaired the American Wind Energy Conference, initiating the AWEA/DOE 20% wind energy roadmap.

Dr. Lyons has led many additional technology and business initiatives, including waste gasification, electric vehicles, advanced batteries, power electronics, solid-state lighting, solar PV, rural electrification, and nuclear fusion. He currently serves on a variety of technical board assignments including: Curent ERC, Servato, Encell, Sunpreme, Kinestral, Helion, Norwegian Crystals, Navitas Semiconductor, and Rayvio.

Dr. Lyons is also a member of Servato’s Board of Directors and a reviewer for the DOE and the National Science Foundation. He holds 40+ patents and a BSEE degree from RPI, an MSEE from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in EE & CS from Cornell University.

John PowellAdvisor
Mr. Powell is a renowned tech investor, having co-founded Integral Capital Partners (one of the first technology crossover funds) with Roger McNamee in 1991 in partnership with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Integral pioneered the concept of “crossover” or “lifecycle investing.” In 1999, Integral Capital Partners co-founded Silver Lake Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity fund focused on large scale, control-oriented transactions in technology and related growth businesses.

Prior to Integral, Mr. Powell spent nine years at T. Rowe Price in various research and portfolio management capacities. He has served on the boards of Learnist and Encell, and as a Trustee of the Arts and Sciences Foundation of the University of North Carolina. Mr. Powell is a CFA, and holds an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Niel RansomAdvisor

Dr. Ransom previously held the position of CTO of Alcatel and was a member of its Executive Committee, where he directed a staff of 1200 engineers and scientists comprising Alcatel’s research, corporate strategy, intellectual property and R&D investment organizations.

Dr. Ransom has also advised such breakthrough telecom success stories as Teknovus, Cyan, CoreOptics, Ruckus Wireless, BigBand Networks and NetD. Dr. Ransom is a former member of the Technological Advisors Council of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission. He holds several patents in telecom technology and is co-author of the book Broadband Access Technologies, published by McGraw-Hill.

In Memoriam

David BodenAdvisor
Dr. David P. Boden passed away on September 15, 2017, after a long-term battle with cancer. “Dave” (as he was known to our team) was a well-respected technical advisor to the battery industry. In addition to serving in research and technology management roles at such leading battery vendors as ESB (Exide), Chloride Group (Emerson), C&D Power Systems and Douglas Battery, he had spent the past two decades advising the world’s leading battery designers and manufacturers regarding their product strategies, through a period of dramatic and exciting change.

Boden was past Chairman of Battery Council International (BCI) committees and subcommittees on Industrial Battery and Charger Technology; Tests and Ratings; and Analytical Methods. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Polytechnic University of New York and his BS in Chemistry from University of Salford (England). Dr. Boden is the author of over 40 scientific papers and presentations to technical meetings.

Dave helped to design our core technology, including our hardware and charging algorithms. He strongly believed in the value of resting lead acid batteries. In many ways, Servato is the manifestation of his passionate belief in periodic charging as an alternative to float charging. He was not only a critical technical contributor to our company, he was a friend to our team. We will miss him dearly and pledge to continue our work at Servato in his honor and memory. For Dave…