The Pajarito Powder team brings extensive experience from both fuel cell startups and the industry as a whole, from theoretical and practical applications in research, and finally from manufacturing and business development. Pajarito Powder has an experienced Board of Managers, a Chairman & CEO with a successful fuel cell exit, a CTO & President with extensive catalyst engineering experience, a Chief Scientist with extensive catalyst and PGM-free development experience, along with relevant patents and world-class Technical Advisory Board.
All contribute to the effort to produce advanced catalysts for mobility and hydrogen generation. Pajarito Powder’s patented VariPore™ process is readily-scaled for high-volume manufacturing – the condition ultimately necessary for cost-effective, widespread fuel cell adoption.
Board of Managers
Thomas J. Stephenson
Paul Short
Prof. Dr. Christian Mohrdieck
Prof. Dr. Christian Mohrdieck is Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of cellcentric GmbH & Co. KG. He had been CEO of Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell GmbH since 2015, which in June 2020 was first merged into Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG, then in March 2021 into cellcentric GmbH & Co. KG in March 2021, for which he served as Managing Director.
After studies of physics in Germany and France, Prof. Mohrdieck joined Daimler-Benz Research in 1989. In 1995 he became head of the Executive Office of the Member of the Board responsible for Research and Technology in Stuttgart.
From 1999 on Prof. Mohrdieck was a Senior Manager for Fuel Cell Systems with Daimler-Chrysler Corporation in the United States. Back in Germany, he became a Director of Structural Materials at DaimlerChrysler AG and afterwards in 2003 Director of Alternative Energy and Drive Systems. In 2005 Prof. Mohrdieck assumed the responsibility for Fuel Cell Drive System Development.
In 2006 he got the additional responsibility for Li-Ion battery development at Daimler AG. Two years later Prof. Christian Mohrdieck became a Director of Fuel Cell & Battery Drive Development. He became a Director Fuel Cell at the Daimler Group in 2012.
In 2013 the University Ulm appointed Dr. Mohrdieck Honorary Professor. He currently teaches at the University of Ulm and the Technical University of Vienna..
Dr. Sukhwan Yun
Management Team
Dr. Barr Zulevi
Dr. Olaf Conrad
Dr. Conrad’s career spans 20+ years of leadership experience in electrochemical energy conversion technologies in four countries on three continents. His most recent roles included the establishment of South Africa’s flagship Centre of Competence in Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Catalysis, HySA/Catalysis in Cape Town, South Africa as their Director and overseeing all technical areas of the Redox Flow Battery product line at Schmid Energy Systems in Freudenstadt, Germany. Immediately prior to joining Pajarito Powder between 2016 and 2021 he grew German battery startup Jenabatteries from five to 35 employees and a valuation of a quarter billion dollars as their Managing Director. Dr. Conrad is a frequent speaker on international conferences, and is author or co-author on over 30 peer-reviewed publications and 3 patent family applications.
Dr. Alia Lubers
Dr. Alia Lubers began her research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where she investigated ruthenium oxide for battery materials. Dr. Lubers is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and her Ph.D. research sought to scale platinum deposition onto carbon via atomic layer deposition in a fluidized bed. In her time at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Dr. Lubers completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015 before joining Pajarito Powder.
Luber’s holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Matt Montgomery, C.P.A.
Webb Johnson
Mr. Johnson joined Pajarito Powder in November 2015 as Director of Business Development. Over his career, Mr Johnson has worked in varying capacities for software and hardware startups, including his own. Mr. Johnson was Vice President of an emerging technologies consortium called “Next Generation Economy Initiative” in the early 2000s, based upon cluster research developed by Michael Porter and later, the Milken Foundation aimed at leveraging National Laboratory strengths in technology development while addressing weaknesses in commercialization. At SWSH, LLC he helped recruit and assemble senior engineering and science teams for startups throughout the southwest, including Lumidigm, a biometric startup acquired by Swedish firm Assa Abloy through its Texas-based U.S. subsidiary HID.
In 2014 Mr. Johnson helped establish the ABQid Accelerator, a Global Accelerator Network-accredited program based on the Techstars model using Lean Startup processes to “accelerate” startups.
