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About Us

WAVE’s Executive Team combines extensive and unique experience.

 

About Us

WAVE, Inc., a Utah State University technology spin-out company, tackles the problem of heavy and expensive vehicle batteries through wireless power, transferring electricity between vehicle and roadway.The Executive Team is comprised of engineers, transportation industry leaders, and business and technology professionals dedicated to bringing to market the latest innovations in wireless power technology.
 

Mike Masquelier

Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Masquelier is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of industry experience as a business development executive and technologist, with expertise in manufacturing, operations, engineering, product development, and market research. Mr. Masquelier’s technical experience includes power electronics, microelectronics, sensing, and wireless communications. He most recently architected a Mobile Sensing Services platform at Motorola to serve a $5.1B enterprise, consumer, and government market. Mr. Masquelier led teams that secured funding from DHS-DNDO, DIA-MASINT, NIH, and DOE. Mr. Masquelier has 11 issued and pending patents and more than 25 technical publications. He holds a B.S.E.E. 1983 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a M.S.E.E. 1989 from Arizona State University.

Wesley Smith

Chief Development Officer & Founder

Mr. Smith has over 20 years of experience in the commercialization of emerging technologies for startup and Fortune 500 companies. His activities have included strategic business development and planning for energy, transportation, and information companies and government agencies. Wesley has worked for or represented such diverse companies as Electrobras, PEMEX, AES Corporation, NASA, Argentina's Ministry of Telecommunications, AT&T, Union Pacific, Diveo Broadband Networks, Deutsche Telekom, and Questar Corporation. He received a law degree from George Washington University in 1989.

Hunter Wu

Chief Scientist

Dr. Wu holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Bioengineering (2010) and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering (2008) from the University of Auckland. He was awarded the Senior Scholar (equivalent to being ranked #1 in major) and the Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship (equivalent to the Fullbright Scholarship), both in 2008. He now serves as the principal investigator and research scientist at USU over the Wireless Energy and Power Conversion (WEAPC) branch. He has over a dozen peer-reviewed, IEEE international journal and conference publications, as well as one patent and six patents pending. He also received a Best Paper Award at the 6th IEEE ICIEA 2011 conference and serves as a technical journal reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, and Society of Automotive Engineers.

James W. May

Vice President of Program Management

Mr. May’s background is in energy policy and economics. Prior to co-founding WAVE, James spent two years as a Director of Special Projects at the Utah State University Research Foundation working to commercialize emerging energy related technologies. Prior to that, he spent seven years working as an economist for a major strategy consulting firm. Mr. May’s energy policy experience also includes periods working for the Rocky Mountain Institute in Boulder, CO, as well as the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds master’s degrees in public policy and environmental management from Duke University.

Zachary Kahn

Director of Business Development

Zachary Kahn brings his passion for sustainability and clean technology to WAVE. Zach's focus is on introducing WAVE’s technology to new markets and industries. Prior to joining WAVE, Zach worked in finance at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Before relocating to Utah in 2010, he held a legal clerkship with the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board Panel at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a fellowship at the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability in New York City where he focused on energy policy. Zach is a LEED Green Associate and has a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He received his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University where he graduated magna cum laude.

John Inglish

Director

Mr. Inglish is a national leader in public transit and the former Chief Executive Officer of the Utah Transit Authority. He has 35 years of transit experience, including Board of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He is a White House Champion of Change (Transportation sector).

Curt Roberts

Director

Curt Roberts is the Associate Vice President for Commercialization and Regional Development at USU where he oversees the Commercial Enterprises group. Before moving to USU, Roberts was the Vice Provost for Innovation and Economic Development at Weber State University where he served as the Director of the Northern Utah Technology Outreach Center for USTAR. Prior to joining Weber State Roberts served as a Vice President for Nike, Inc., based in Beaverton, Oregon. His most recent role at Nike was Vice President and General Manager of Vision, Timing, and Tech Ventures. Prior to this Roberts was Vice President for Global Strategy where he oversaw the development of Nike's short and longer-term strategy for its corporate portfolio of brands. Roberts has also served as Chairman and CEO of PeaceHealth, based in Eugene, Oregon. PeaceHealth is a regional healthcare delivery system including three hospitals, a multi-specialty group medical practice, and several joint ventures. Roberts holds a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Weber State University and a MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.

Clarke Miyasaki

Director

Clarke Miyasaki is the Managing Director of Kickstart Seed Fund and has a history of success in start-up and early-stage investment environments. Most recently, Clarke served as the Global Vice President of Business Development at Skullcandy, which went public in July 2011. He joined Skullcandy in early 2008 when there were 18 employees and oversaw several initiatives that helped grow the company to over $230 million in revenue in 2011. Prior to Skullcandy, Miyasaki was the Vice President of Business Development at Logoworks from August 2004 - April 2008 and helped with the acquisition by Hewlett-Packard for $57 million in April 2007. Joining on the ground floor of Logoworks and developing several strategic partnerships that spurred Logoworks' rapid growth, Clarke positioned Logoworks for a successful sale to HP. Partnerships included Staples, eBay, Network Solutions, HP, Legalzoom and Intuit. Miyasaki joined vSpring Capital in 2002 during a very active investment period for the fund and opened up vSpring’s first satellite office in New Mexico with Paul Ahlstrom. Clarke also helped develop many of the initial modeling and diligence tools. Prior to vSpring, he worked as a financial analyst for Ford Motor Company. Clarke received a B.S. in Finance from Brigham Young University and is an active angel investor, as well as serving on the boards of Ecoscraps and Dropship.com.