Leadership

Damien Deehan

Co-CEO

Damien Deehan is Co-CEO and Director of Sales and Marketing. He has an Honors Degree in Engineering, is an experienced Entrepreneur, an inspiring motivator and a proven leader. Damien has a strong track record in start-ups, marketing and sales, digital marketing, social media marketing, and new product launches.

Gary Huvard, PhD

Co-Founder & VP Engineering

Dr. Huvard has extensive industrial experience with 11 years in senior technical positions with BFGoodrich and duPont. He spent ten years in private practice and consulted for more than 40 companies in the U.S. and Europe before joining the faculty of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Chemical Engineering from 1999 to 2008. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Campbell College and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University. He has co-authored a dozen peer-reviewed papers, two book chapters, and holds three U.S. patents.

Larry Marshall, PhD

President & Co-Founder

Prior to forming VERDEX, Dr. Larry Marshall was DuPont Fellow, at du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. He was a key player in the research and development on all aspects of flash spinning Tyvek®, with reported annual sales in excess of $1 billion in 2008. Dr. Marshall has been involved in the development of nonwoven products for over 35 years. He is the author of 127 internal research notebooks and 53 internal research reports (confidential to DuPont) as well as the author of the book “Creativity and Successful Innovation” based on his experience at DuPont. . He is the inventor on 12 issued US patents.

Johan Brag

Patent Attorney

Johan Brag is an MIT trained engineer, IP attorney and business strategist with a 25+ year record of achievement starting companies, raising capital, striking partnerships and leveraging inventions in the nanotechnology, software and medical device markets. He has raised over $30 million in venture capital from global investors, planned public offerings, secured FDA approval and patents, and negotiated licensing agreements with Fortune 100 companies. He is experienced in generating new business opportunities and forging long term relationships with industrial, research and financial partners throughout the world. From a multi-cultural background, he has extensive international business experience in Europe and Asia.

Dr. Michael A. Bryner

Chief Scientist

Dr. Michael A. Bryner holds degrees in Chemical Engineering (Clarkson University, B.S. 1966, M.S. 1970, Ph.D. 1973). He retired in 2005 from DuPont after nearly 32 years of process and product research. As a Research Fellow at TheLab, he contributes his experience in synthetic fiber formation via melt spinning, melt blowing, flash spinning, and electrosprinning as well as his expertise in the design of spinning hardware, the structure, permeability, and filtration properties of fibrous nonwovens, fluid mechanics, transport phenomena, and process modeling. As an inventor/co-inventor he has been awarded 15 US/European patents.