ANF Technology Ltd., the manufacturer of NAFEN™, the first ever superior-‐grade aluminum oxide nano fibers to be manufactured at commercially viable, industrial volumes, today announced the appointment of Mr. Ilya Grodnensky as Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Ilya Grodnensky
Mr.Grodnensky brings an outstanding hands-‐on track record of over 30 years in the successful execution of mass production strategies in emerging technology at multinationals as well as growing companies.
Mr. Grodnensky was previously a Principal Engineer at Intel from 2002-‐2005, working at Intel’s Portland Oregon site, a global center of semiconductor research and manufacturing, where he received an individual award for developing and introducing new PMOS metrology. From 1995 to 2002 he was Principal Engineer at Nikon Precision, in Belmont, California, where he was responsible for applications and technology support of state-‐of-‐the-‐art Nikon litho exposure tools.
Mr. Grodnensky’s 20 years of commercial experience and success builds upon early-career recognition of his scientific excellence. In 1993 he was invited by the French government and accepted the position of Program Director at the National Atomic Center in France. Prior to that, he was invited to collaborate with Nobel Prize winner Klaus von Klitzing in the field of quantum-wire and quantum-dot electronics at the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart. Mr. Grodnensky holds 21 patents and is the author of over 50 scientific publications.
More recently, Mr. Grodnensky was Chief Strategy Officer at Therma-Wave Inc., from 2005-2007, where he led the company to achieving more than a 50% market share worldwide in the CD/TF metrology tool market. Therma-Wave was acquired by KLA-Tencor in 2007.
Since 2010, he also serves as Vice President of Technology at NANO3D Systems, which is developing and licensing innovative process nanomaterials for low cost and scalable metallization of next generation integrated circuits and solar cells.
Mr. Grodnensky holds Masters level academic qualifications from the Institute of Physics and Technology in Moscow and two PhDs from the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, one in optics, the other in semiconductors.
Mr. Aleksander Timofeev, a member of the Board of Directors at ANF Technology, spoke of the Board’s decision to appoint Mr. Grodnensky as CEO: “Mr. Grodnensky’s buy-side technology acquisition experience, project management and business development capabilities will help drive successful strategic growth partnerships with major companies in the marketplace and accelerate the commercialization of NAFEN™ nano fiber products and solutions. The Board would like to welcome Ilya at this key stage in the company’s growth and is confident that his experience in leading technology operations will add great value to the company and the NAFEN™ brand.”
Mr. Grodnensky commented: “I am delighted to have been asked to join ANF Technology as CEO at this exciting stage in the company’s development. There is always a great deal to prioritize in the early stages of such an appointment and I will be working hard to ensure that the board’s confidence in me is rewarded from the start. As a scientist and engineer I am excited to be working with such an interesting materials solution as NAFEN™ nano fibers and as a businessman I look forward to ensuring that this product and the NAFEN™ brand reaches as many potential customers as possible - growing application markets, building key partnerships with industrial customers and achieving positive results for ANF Technology.”
ANF Technology welcomes the addition of this experience and vision as the company continues to open new applications for its NAFEN™ based solutions in cutting-edge industrial innovations.
ANF Technology continues to strengthen its technical team with the recent hiring of several application engineers, who are focused on supporting the companies that are currently testing NAFEN™ nano fiber samples and incorporating feedback into NAFEN™’s development.