Hammond Group names four industry experts to Innovation Leadership Council

Hammond Group announced mid-December two senior fellows to guide its Innovation Leadership Council. They are John Miller, recently senior director of engineering for Stryten Energy, and Francisco Trinidad, recently the director of battery technology for Exide Europe.

“We’re excited to have John and Francisco join Hammond,” said Gordon Beckley, chief operating officer at Hammond.

“With their extensive battery industry knowledge base they will play a leadership role in supporting our research and development staff, enhance our product development efforts, and contribute to Hammond’s continued innovations towards the industry’s goals of advanced energy storage solutions.”

With 37 years in the battery business, Miller has a long history of introducing innovative products to the marketplace. Before his most recent position at Stryten, Miller led teams in the areas of product engineering, process engineering, applications engineering, and R&D at GNB and Exide Technologies.

He has participated in various industry committees and forums and has helped write battery standards, handbooks, and white papers for Battery Council International and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

During more than 43 years of experience with different electrochemical systems, Trinidad has been the author of 24 articles, more than 70 presentations in battery conferences, and holds 14 international patents. He looks to promote new technological approaches for automotive and industrial applications, including the use of different materials for positive, negative, and electrolyte of current battery designs as well as determine the added value of new alternative designs like bipolar plates and spiral wound cells.

In 1977, he joined the Tudor group and was promoted first to the position of research manager in Azuqueca (Spain) and then the industrial devel- opment director in Madrid and Soest (Hagen Industrial plant). Following Exide’s acquisition of the company, he became its research director in Paris, then, the development director of transportation Europe, basic research director, and more recently, director of battery technology.

Also joining Miller and Trinidad on the Council are Rosalind Batson, president of Clear Science, and Lash Mapa, professor of industrial engineering and technology Purdue NW.

Batson is a lead-acid battery expert specializing in characterization of leadacid battery materials. She owns Minneapolis-based Clear Science, a laboratory focusing on the testing, research and development of metals, powders, porous materials, coatings, and advanced materials.

She is a metallurgist working with advanced materials and is a recognized expert in the Taguchi DOE method, which is de- signed to produce a highquality product at a low cost for manufacturers.

Earlier in her career as the R&D manager for GNB Technologies, Batson co-invented a patented continuous process for making lead-acid grids and plates for a family of cells and batteries.

Professor Mapa has several years’ experience as a chemical engineer, process and project manager with European and US lead-acid battery manufacturing organizations.

Currently, he is associated with the MS Technology program at Purdue NW and has managed over 30 projects including lean six sigma projects with manufacturing, service industry, and educational institutions.

Beckley said: “We welcome these important voices in developing Hammond’s next generation of innovations for the battery storage industry and look forward to the years ahead.”