Board Of Directors | Ocean Power Technologies

Terence J. Cryan has been a member of our Board of Directors since October 2012 and Chairman of the board since June 2014. Mr. Cryan was our lead independent director from October 2013 to June 2014 when he became Chairman of the Board. Since August 2017, Mr. Cryan has served as the Chairman of the Board of Westwater Resources, Inc. Mr. Cryan has served on the boards of directors of a number of other publicly traded companies including Uranium Resources, Inc. from 2006 to 2016; Global Power Equipment Group Inc. from 2008 to 2017; Superior Drilling Products from 2014 to 2016; Gryphon Gold Corporation from 2009 to 2012; and The Providence Service Corporation from 2009 to 2011. In July 2020, Mr. Cryan joined MACCO Restructuring Group, LLC as a Managing Director. Mr. Cryan previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Medical Acoustics, LLC from 2007 through 2010. From September 2012 until April 2013, Mr. Cryan also served as interim President and CEO of Uranium Resources, Inc., and was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uranium Resources, Inc. in June 2014 and served until March 2016. Mr. Cryan served as President and CEO of Global Power Equipment Group Inc., from March 2015 until July 2017. Mr. Cryan co-founded in 2001 Concert Energy Partners, LLC, an investment and private equity firm based in New York with a focus on the traditional and alternative energy, power and natural resources industries, and served as Managing Director until 2015. Between 1990 and 2001, Mr. Cryan was a Senior Managing Director in the investment banking department at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York City and a Managing Director at Paine Webber/Kidder Peabody in both New York City and London. Mr. Cryan earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University in 1983 and a Master of Science degree in Economics from The London School of Economics in 1984. In December 2014, Terence Cryan was named a Board Leadership Fellow by the National Association of Corporate Directors. We believe Mr. Cryan’s qualifications to sit on our Board of Directors include his significant experience in financial matters, his prior board and executive experience at other companies, his broad energy industry background and his extensive expertise in financings, mergers and acquisitions.

Peter E. Slaiby became a member of the Board of Directors on December 23, 2020. Mr. Slaiby has over 39 years of experience in the oil and gas industry including over 37 years working with Royal Dutch Shell. Mr. Slaiby serves on the Board of Directors for Glacier Oil and Gas (since 2019) and The Harris School in Houston, Texas (since 2017). Previously Mr. Slaiby served on the Board of Directors for the Alaska Oil & Gas Association (from 2009 to 2014) including as its Chairman (in 2014), and served on the Chancellors Advisory Board for University of Alaska – Anchorage (from 2010 to 2013). Mr. Slaiby is serving as the Managing Director for Quartz Upstream (since 2017) and is serving as Managing Partner for Floris Energy (since April 2020). From 2019 to 2020, Mr. Slaiby was a co-founder for Novara Energy. From 1980 to 2017, Mr. Slaiby worked with Shell in various roles: as Vice President, Decommissioning and Restoration, as Vice President, Shell Alaska, and as Asset Manager – Brunei and UK Shell Petroleum. Mr. Slaiby also worked with Pecten (a Shell subsidiary) as Technical Manager – Cameroon, as Project and Technical Manager – Brazil, and as Project Manager – Syria. Mr. Slaiby began his professional career in 1980 working for Shell Oil Company in various production roles in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Slaiby obtained his Bachelors of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1980. We believe that Mr. Slaiby’s significant experience in the oil and gas industry qualifies him to serve on our Board of Directors.

Clyde W. Hewlett became a member of the Board of Directors on December 23, 2020. Mr. Hewlett has over 40 years of experience in offshore engineering design, manufacturing and operations. Mr. Hewlett has served on the Board of Directors of Seismic City, Inc. since April 2000. From 2015 until 2019, Mr. Hewlett served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Oceaneering International, Inc., a global provider of engineered services and products to the offshore energy industry as well as the defense, entertainment and aerospace industries. Prior to his service as COO, Mr. Hewlett was the Senior Vice President for Projects (from 2007 to 2015) and a Vice President and Project Manager (1988 to 2007) with Oceaneering International, Inc. Prior to joining Oceaneering, Mr. Hewlett worked as in various project engineering and project management roles with Vetco Gray, Inc. (from 1987 to 1988), with Hughes Offshore (from 1985 to 1987), with CanOcean Resources, Ltd. (from 1979 to 1984) and with Esso Canada (from 1978 to 1979). Mr. Hewlett obtained his Bachelors of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada in 1978. We believe that Mr. Hewlett’s significant engineering, manufacturing and operational experience in the offshore environment qualifies him to serve on our Board of Directors.

Natalie Lorenz-Anderson became a member of the Board of Directors on December 14, 2021. Ms. Lorenz-Anderson has over 37 years of experience with government contracting and various technology fields including cybersecurity, privacy, risk management, information technology, energy, and solutions management across multiple markets including defense, national security, energy, environment and health. Ms. Lorenz-Anderson is limited partner and advisory member of the Board of Safar Partners LLC, a seed-stage technology venture fund (since 2019), and a Board Director for Embr Labs, an MIT technology start-up in personal temperature regulation (since 2020) and Board Director for 247Solar, Inc., a renewable energy technology start-up (since 2021). She is also a Board member of John Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering National Advisory Board (since 2013) and its Department of Environmental Health and Engineering (since 2018), a member of the Board of Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital Board since 2012 including as its Vice President and Chair of the STEM Committee from 2018 to present, and member of the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference Board (since 2019). Ms. Lorenz-Anderson also served as the first Vice Chair of the Board of AFCEA International 2008-2010, and as Chair of the Board 2010-2012. She also led the Compensation Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee and continues to participate as an Ex Officio Board member and a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Previously Ms. Lorenz-Anderson served on the Alumni Association Board for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (from 2008 to 2010) and the MIT Annual Fund Board and MIT William Barton Rogers Society Chair (from 2014 to 2016). From 2017 to present, Ms. Lorenz-Anderson has been working with 247Solar, Inc. as Vice President for Operations and Special Projects. From 1984 until 2017, Ms. Lorenz-Anderson worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, including as a Partner and Senior Vice President (from 2002 until 2017) and as Chief Scientist and Program Manager (from 1997 until 2002). Ms. Lorenz-Anderson obtained her Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1984, and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from John Hopkins University in 1989. We believe that Ms. Lorenz-Anderson’s significant experience in government contracting, information technology, cybersecurity, energy, and the environment qualifies her to serve on our Board of Directors.

Diana G. Purcel has served on the Board of Directors since December 2020. As an emerging voice on corporate governance and strategy, Ms. Purcel was named as a Director to Watch by Directors & Boards magazine and is NACD Director Certified®. Ms. Purcel has 20 years of experience as a chief financial officer, including 17 years with small cap publicly traded companies. Since April 2022, Ms. Purcel has served on the board of directors of PetMed Express, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETS) on their Compensation Committee, Governance and Nominating Committee and since July 2022, as the Audit Committee Chair. Since December 2017, she has served on the Board of Directors, and as a member of the executive committee and chair of the finance committee, for the Animal Humane Society. From March 2019 to June 2021 (when the company was sold), Ms. Purcel served on the Board of Directors for Now Boarding. From 2005 to 2008, Ms. Purcel served on the Board of Directors for Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance, as the chair of its audit committee. From April 2018 until May 2019, Ms. Purcel served as executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer for EvineLive, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVLV), now known as iMedia Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMBI), an interactive video and digital commerce company. From September 2014 until June 2017, Ms. Purcel served as the Chief Financial Officer for Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, LLC, which operated restaurants, manufactured private-label wines, and managed the largest wine club in the world. From 2003 until 2014, Ms. Purcel served as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary for Famous Dave’s of America, Inc. (at the time, NASDAQ: DAVE), which franchised and operated a casual dining restaurant chain of almost 200 locations in over 35 states. From September 2002 to June 2003, Ms. Purcel served as Chief Financial Officer, and from April 1999 to September 2002, as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of Paper Warehouse, Inc. (OTC:PWHS), a party-goods retailer and franchisor in 10 states. Ms. Purcel has also worked with Arthur Andersen & Co, from 1988 to 1993 as a certified public accountant and senior auditor, and with other companies including Target Corporation (from 1994 to 1998 as a senior analyst). Ms. Purcel holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas, a Bachelor of Science in Management, with a concentration in Accounting, from Tulane University, and is a certified public accountant (inactive). Ms.Purcel brings significant financial experience and expertise, and is considered to be an “audit committee financial expert” within the meaning of Item 407(d) (5) of Regulation S-K.We believe that Ms. Purcel’s significant financial, strategy and governance experience as a Chief Financial Officer in numerous public and private entities over a 20 year period qualifies her to serve on our Board of Directors.

Dr. Philipp Stratmann is Ocean Power Technologies President and Chief Executive Officer, based in OPT’s New Jersey headquarters. Mr. Stratmann joined OPT in December 2019 as Vice President, Global Business Development, bringing with him broad energy industry experience from oil and gas to renewables, both offshore and onshore. Prior to OPT, Philipp was Vice President, Biofuels, for Velocys, which he joined in 2015 as Business Development Director. He previously served as General Manager Global Development and West Africa for InterMoor and has held leadership positions with Acteon Group and Ernst & Young, in addition to experience with VT Group and Shell. Mr. Stratmann is a graduate of the United Kingdom’s University of Southampton, where he received his Engineering Doctorate and his Master of Engineering degree in Ship Science.