The only team capable of bringing the next era of computing to fruition
Manufacturing operators, materials scientists, and systems engineers — with experience taking both meso-scale dry-particle 3D printing and SSBs to TLR9.
John Lees
John led the engineering and sales teams that scaled a novel dry-particle digital printing process from lab concept to TRL9 commercial production at Evolve Additive Solutions — the process MOTIF now applies to batteries. Previously held technical and commercial leadership roles at Optomec, Bosch Packaging, and Tetra Pak, where he spent 17 years learning how to build manufacturing businesses that scale. He co-founded MOTIF to bring that manufacturing DNA to the micro battery problem nobody else is solving.
CEO
Prof. Brian Hayden
Brian founded Ilika plc (LSE: IKA) in 2004 and served as Chief Scientific Officer as it became one of the world's leading solid-state battery companies. He pioneered the combinatorial materials synthesis methodology that underpins modern solid-state battery research, holds 32 active patent families, and has published over 150 refereed papers. He joined MOTIF to build the technology that makes solid-state chemistry ubiquitous. Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, University of Southampton. Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics.
CTO
Gary Johnson
Gary led Ilika’s business development efforts in the medical market building the commercial relationships that established solid-state batteries as a credible technology for implantable medical applications and wearable devices. At Texas Instruments he lead business strategy targeting ASICs for Implantable devices resulting in $300M in design wins at the top OEMs. He knows the hearing aid OEMs, the implantable device companies, and the wearables startups that MesoCell is built for. He joined MOTIF to go beyond selling the promise of solid-state batteries — to selling the real thing.
VP BD
Rod holds a PhD in Chemistry from Stanford and spent decades as a Senior Scientist at Kodak developing deep expertise in electrostatic dry-particle deposition physics and materials science. He led the adaptation of that process to precision additive manufacturing at Evolve Additive Solutions. He is the reason MOTIF can print battery electrode materials with the precision and consistency MesoCell requires. The materials knowhow that makes this technology work lives in Rod.
Principal Technologist, Materials and ProcessDr. Rod Bucks
Zeiter was hand-picked by Stratasys founder Scott Crump to lead initial development of a novel dry-particle digital printing technology from nothing — taking it to TRL2 before Evolve spun out. He then joined Evolve as a founding team member and rose to VP Engineering and Operations, leading the cross-functional teams that took the platform to TRL9 commercial production. He co-founded MOTIF to build the production systems that bring MesoCell from the lab to manufacturing scale.
COOZeiter Farah
Alex served as Principal Systems Engineer at Evolve Additive Solutions, where he led system architecture and integration of a complex novel manufacturing platform across mechanical, electrical, and software domains. A licensed Professional Engineer with deep mechatronic systems experience, he co-founded MOTIF to architect the MesoCell production system from pilot to commercial scale.
System Architect