Our Team


Professor Giovanni Lanzara, Co-Founder and Chairman
Professor Giovanni Lanzara has been an entrepreneur, engineer, and university professor in a wide variety of fields for over 40 years.  Prior to co-founding Solergy, Prof. Lanzara was the founder, chairman, and product architect of Invision Technologies, the world leader and pioneer of tomographic scanning machines for airport security.  After ranking #1 on Fortune’s “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list for two consecutive years, Invision was acquired by General Electric for $900M.  Prof. Lanzara also led a turnaround of Imatron, a CT medical scanner company, which resulted in its eventual acquisition by GE Medical for $210M.  Aside from technology ventures, Prof. Lanzara is the founder and owner of a boutique winery in Sicily that has already won several prestigious awards in top European wine exhibitions.


As an academic, Prof. Lanzara is a professor emeritus of transportation engineering at the University of L’Aquila in Italy.  He was promoted to full professor at the young age of 35 and over the span of his career, has over 90 publications and 10 patents.  The product of his lifelong research on high speed levitating trains is the world’s first vehicle that exhibits zero motion resistance. It was recently on display at the G8 meeting in 2009 in L’Aquila, Italy.

Yoav Banin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Yoav Banin has 15 years operating experience in leading teams that create and sell innovative high-tech products. Prior to co-founding Solergy, Mr. Banin was Director of Products at Mercury Interactive (sold to HP for $4.5B) where he invented and launched new enterprise software products that generated over $50M in revenue within three years. During this time, he played a key role in Fortune 500 customer wins and strategic corporate acquisitions. His creation of the first product for the IT runbook automation market inspired the formation of iConclude, which was purchased by Opsware for $70M within two years of inception. Previously at Radcom, he pioneered the first monitoring and troubleshooting products for the emerging Voice-over-IP telephony market that evolved into one of the companies leading business units.

Mr. Banin holds a Master's degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree with High Honors in Applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley. During his time at Stanford, Mr. Banin conducted research on novel, micro-Solid Oxide fuel cells. He has three publications and one patent.

Giuseppe Marchitto, Vice President Engineering
Giuseppe Marchitto has over 25 years experience in leading multidisciplinary product development, engineering, and transfer to high volume production in various fields including automotive components, robotics, and especially household electrical appliances.  While at Indesit (formerly Merloni) he was responsible for all technical aspects of the dishwater product platform, managing a team of 45 people.  In this role he drove three generations of product development that resulted in a production increase from 600,000 to 1,200,000 units per year.  At Electrolux he led the study of product/processes integration of the Norimberga and Solaro factories, delivering significant manufacturing cost reductions.  Afterwards he  managed all products of the Washing and Cooling division for OEM companies, where he also ed a cross-functional product management and business team charged with defining new product and market entry strategy.  Mr. Marchitto’s broad professional experience has also included various roles at Olivetti Numeric Control and Systems, MagnettiMarelli, and Candy-Hoover.

 

Mr. Marchitto holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Naples.  While a student he conducted applied research at the Aeritalia Research Center in Pomiglianod’Arco (Naples).

Alessio Romeo, Executive Director Company Operations
Alessio Romeo brings 10 years of experience spanning across nearly every aspect of operating company management in market-leading organizations.  He started his managerial career in the Global Service division at General Electric (GE) as a technical sales support and sales manager in the Asia and Middle East Regions.  At GE, he drove over €200M in sales and achieved Six Sigma certification. Returning to Italy, he served as Coordinator of Staff to the CEO of Azimut Benetti Group, the world’s leading producer of luxury yachts.  In this role, he made sure that highly complex shipbuilding projects were delivered on time and on budget. He rounded out his operational management experience as Financial Controller at Unopiu S.p.a., a leader in luxurious outdoor finishings, playing a key role in its eventual acquisition by private equity.

Mr. Romeo holds a Master’s degree with honors in Civil Engineering, with specializations in environment and energy.  He received a prestigious scholarship to complete his studies at the Fiat Division DAPI (Department of Environmental and Industrial Policies), with subsequent post-graduate experience with Fiat Auto Spain in Madrid.  He served two years as an officer in the special corps of army engineers in the Italian military, ranking first in the national entrance exam.

Giuseppe Femia, Director of Glass Technology & Production
Giuseppe Femia brings rich experience in the development of glass production machines and processes. Prior to joining Solergy, he was Product Innovation Manager at Sidel Spa, part of the Tetra Laval Group, which is the world leader of food processing and packaging equipment. In this role, he established the R&D team from the ground up and led an extended team of 20 engineers and technicians in the realization of next-generation, highly automated plastic and glass bottling equipment. During this process, he also collaborated with universities in Milan and Brescia to integrate novel technologies into the bottling machines. Within one year of introduction, Sidel Spa sold over 50 machines to leading international beverage manufacturers such as Coca Cola, Modelo Group, and Heineken. Mr. Femia began his career at Sidel as an R&D engineer where he initially focused on quality and design.

Mr. Femia holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Calabria. His thesis investigated topics in diffractive optics and interferometry. He holds two WO patents regarding inventions for increasing the efficiency of mechatronic devices.

Massimiliano Viola, Director of Production Engineering
Massimiliano Viola has over 10 years experience in the field of process and production engineering. Throughout his career he has successfully designed and implemented mass production processes based on Lean Manufacturing, TPM, and TPS best practices that reduce cost and improve yield. Prior to joining Solergy, Mr. Viola was Process Engineering Leader at Key Safety Systems (KSS), the global leader in automotive safety systems that are integrated in over 300 vehicle models worldwide. In this role, he built a team of 15 engineers and technicians tasked with re-designing an airbag inflator production line that produced over 3M units per year. The new line cut unit production costs by 50% and cost less to implement than refurbishing an older, existing line. Previously at PSA S.r.l, a start-up company, he managed all production activities for a new automatic CNC machine.

Mr. Viola holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, graduating cum laude from the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. He also holds an MA in Business Management for Engineers from IPSOA. Mr. Viola received a national prize from ANASTA, the Italian Association for steel cutting and welding, in recognition of his research of spot-welded steel structures under fatigue loads.

Dr. Hojun Yoon, Director of Solar Cell Technology
Prior to joining Solergy in 2008, Dr. Yoon spent 10 years at Spectrolab, Inc. (A Boeing Company), the world's leading supplier of high-efficiency multijunction solar cells for CPV and space applications. As a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow at Spectrolab, Dr. Yoon was involved in various R&D activities of III-V multijunction solar cells, including the demonstration of the first solar cell device ever to exceed 40% efficiency.  He also led the technology development efforts of 3- and 4-junction coplanar solar cells and the inverted metamorphic (IMM) solar cells.  His contributions to the development of the triple junction solar cell have been recognized by numerous industry awards. 

Dr. Yoon has published over 30 papers related to semiconductor materials/devices and has three patents (one pending) related to solar cells. Hojun has a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Sciences in Engineering from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.