Jan. 5, 2007 — Advance Nanotech Inc., a New York-based provider of financing and support services to drive the commercialization of nanotechnology related products for homeland security and display technologies, announced that the company’s subsidiary, Advance Display Technologies plc (ADT), has appointed Gerhard Rebel to the position of chief technology officer and Tom Holzel, a display industry veteran, to its board of directors.
As was announced on December 22, 2006, ADT is in the process of listing its shares on the PLUS-Quoted (OFEX) market in London and expects to be listed by mid-January. Rebel’s appointment is intended to strengthen the management of ADT as it commercializes its technology portfolio.
“We are very pleased to have promoted Gerhard to this role. During his service as senior vice president, technology for Advance Nanotech, Gerhard played a leadership role in building these promising, young technologies into products with real road-maps to commercialization,” said Tony Goncalves, CEO of Advance Nanotech, in a prepared statement. “The recently announced planned listing of ADT in London will serve to underline the inherent value and strength of our display technologies.”
Rebel is a former engineering research fellow and lecturer at the University of Reading, UK, where he specialized in mechanical engineering, system modeling, materials science and advance sensor systems. He holds a BSc and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and an MSc in international securities, investment and banking from the ICMA Centre, University of Reading.
Rebel will be leading the development of a portfolio of technologies that will aim to serve current unmet technology needs within the $100 billion display and plastic electronics industries. Rebel remains a senior vice president for technology for Advance Nanotech Inc. and will join the board of directors of ADT.
ADT also appointed Tom Holzel to its board of directors. Holzel’s expertise in product assessment and the development of strategic positioning campaigns has consistently produced results for many start-ups as well as for companies including Raytheon, Sony, and IBM.
While it was still a prototype, Holzel sold a medical flat panel digital display to Zoll Medical for $12 million, so helping to fund the IPO of display company PixTech. Holzel sold a high-density low-voltage power supply to Motorola for $20 million, also a prototype.
He has been a company officer in four startups that led to IPOs and is a recognized expert in flat panel displays. Holzel was formerly the VP of Marketing for PixTech, a pioneer in the manufacture of first-generation field emission displays and ran their U.S. operations in Silicon Valley. Mr. Holzel has a degree in economics from Dartmouth College.
ADT was formed in August 2006 as one of two operating divisions and majority-owned subsidiaries of Advance Nanotech.
ADT has published a prospectus disclosing details of its proposed floatation by way of a placing of 50 million shares at 96 cents per share.
Following the placing there will be 50 million ordinary shares in issue, valuing the company at approximately $49 million at the placing price. Advance Nanotech Inc. will hold 94 percent of the issued share capital with a market value of just over $46 million. Trading is expected to commence in mid January.
ADT represents the consolidation of the company’s display technology portfolio and includes nine nanotechnologies providing nano-enabled materials and devices across three display applications areas: flat panel and projection displays, plastic electronics and flexible displays.
ADT possesses relationships with the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol. The company says that of particular note within the portfolio is the NanoFED technology. NanoFED is seeking to utilize the unique properties of diamond, nano-sized dust to significantly increase the performance and lower the price of flat-panel displays.
Advance Nanotech says that NanoFED has exceeded expectations and that it intends to showcase the technology to potential licensors within 2007. NanoFED represents the first technology within ADT’s pipeline for commercialization and will be its first business built from an academic sourced platform technology.