During his career, Andy has been a leader at several entrepreneurial companies, including Pittsburgh-based Internet Venture Works, Inc. (IVW) — a venture operating company focused on assisting large organizations in commercializing their intellectual property through new venture creation — where he was a Senior Managing Director/CFO from 2000 until 2002.

Prior to that, Andy was the CFO of STORM, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based technology company. Before STORM, he was the CFO of Boston-based ISI Emerging Markets (ISI), a global, online publisher of emerging markets business information. 

Early in his career, Andy spent seven years with Deloitte & Touche, LLP, where he worked with technology and middle-market manufacturing organizations. He holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz School of Business with an emphasis in marketing and finance and received his BS in Accounting from Penn State in 1987. 

Andy currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Organic Electronics Association, on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center and is a member of the Executive Steering Committee of Pittsburgh's Tech-based Economic Development Strategy.  He is also a charter member of TiE (Pittsburgh Chapter), a global organization that focuses on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation.
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Richard D. McCullough, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
Rick is Chief Scientist and co-founder of Plextronics, and the Vice President of Research at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

In 1998, he assumed the role of Department Head of Chemistry.  Then in 2007, Rick was named Vice President of Research at CMU, where he is responsible for nurturing interdisciplinary research initiatives, overseeing sponsored research and technology commercialization, as well as obtaining funding for research activities.  

Rick is internationally known as the world's expert in the synthesis of regioregular polythiophenes.  His research focuses on understanding the structure-property relationships displayed by these materials. 

He holds a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from The University of Texas at Dallas.
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James Dietz
Vice President of Business Development
Prior to joining Plextronics, Jim was the Director of Marketing for the ion implantation materials business at Advanced Technology Materials, Inc., a $300 million supplier of specialty chemicals and materials to the semiconductor industry. 

He spent fourteen years at ATMI in several sales and marketing roles where most recently he led the $95 million business unit providing specialty chemicals for semiconductor ion implantation processes.

Jim holds an Executive Masters in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.
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Shawn P. Williams, Ph.D.
Vice President of Technology
Since 2004, Shawn has been leading efforts to develop and commercialize technology and intellectual property at Plextronics.  Shawn joined Plextronics from W.R. Grace & Co. — the world's largest specialty chemicals company — where, most recently, he was the Manager of Global Applications Development for Grace's Chromatography Business. 

In his nine years with Grace, Shawn worked in product development, research management and customer technical service for diverse global markets such pharmaceutical and bio-separations, structural waterproofing and concrete additives. 

As a graduate student at the world-renown McCullough Labs, Shawn conducted research on the synthesis and properties of regioregular poly(3-substituted)thiophenes and was the first to characterize the electrochemical and optical properties of these materials as well as demonstrate their utility as sensors.

Shawn has published several articles in recognized chemistry magazines including Journal of the American Chemical Society, Chemistry of Materials, Molecular Engineering of Advanced Materials, and Synthetic Metals. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.S. in Chemistry from Geneva College.
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