Founder / Chairman of the Board

Dr. Lonnie Johnson is an engineer and inventor who holds more than 140 patents and whose technologies have been listed as world-class by media such as CNN, Popular Mechanics and TIME.

Dr. Johnson is most well known as the inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun, which became one of the most popular toys in the world and has generated billions of dollars in retail revenue.

Dr. Johnson holds an honorary doctorate in science, a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tuskegee University.

Chief Executive Officer

Bert Ellis serves as the CEO of Johnson Energy Storage, as well as CEO and Chairman of Ellis Capital, a consulting and investment firm primarily focused on the media, technology, healthcare, and Fintech industries.

Bert previously founded and served as CEO of Act III Broadcasting, Ellis Communications, and iXL, and was a founding investor and board member in WebMD. He is also a founding investor and board member of Vivex Biologics, NOWaccount Network Corporation, Brightwell Payments, MAXEX, Semantic-AI, Pensare, and VoAPPs.

Bert holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia (UVA), and a BA in Economics from UVA.

Chief Financial/Administrative Officer

Matt has worked with Dr. Johnson for over 20 years as his Controller and, more recently, as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of Johnson Energy Storage (JES). He also serves as Secretary and Treasurer for JES. Matt has extensive experience in budgeting, financial modeling, government grant administration and human resource management. Matt received a B.S. in Management and Finance and an MBA in Management of Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Scheller College of Business.

Co-Chief Science Officer

Laz is responsible for overseeing all research, development and commercialization of our solid state battery technology. He has previously directed research efforts on our solid state battery development for the past 12 years. He has over 15 years’ experience in polymer synthesis, nanocomposites, including formulation of solid glass/glass-ceramic electrolytes and cathodes formulations/designs for solid state batteries. He has co-authored 12 publications and is listed as inventor on 8 patents. Laz received a M.S. and PhD in Material Science from Tuskegee University.

Co-Chief Science Officer

Adrian is responsible for overseeing the R&D and commercialization of our solid state battery technology. He has over 10 years of experience developing energy storage and energy conversion technologies. He has coauthored 3 publications and is listed as inventor on 2 patents. Adrian received a B.S. in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University.

VP – Research

Bill is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of solid-state battery development. He previously worked in the glass and metals industry and has 9 years working with Dr. Johnson, where he headed a number of government funded research programs in energy storage devices. He has co-authored more than 20 publications and is listed as inventor on 8 patents. Bill received a M.S. in Ceramic Engineering and a PhD in Materials Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

VP – Engineering

Ian is responsible for overall laboratory management and engineering services. He spent six years in the Air Force maintaining technological and cryptographic systems. He spent 12 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Senior Technician and also worked for Oak Ridge National Laboratory providing engineering and process control/data acquisition support to research physicists. Ian received an AAS EE, Electrical Engineering Technology degree from Alfred State College – SUNY College of Technology.