Steve Leith Email & Phone Number

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at JetMeds, an early-stage start-up commercializing a precision medication dosing platform to improve therapeutic outcomes in the animal healthcare space. Our initial market entry is an IoT smart collar for flea and tick control on companion animals that delivers targeted efficacy with significantly less medication vs. incumbent consumer solutions. Leveraging technology from the wearables space and combining with insights from ink jet printing and microfluidics, the JetMeds smart collar and control App delivers a micro-dose treatment directly onto the animal’s fur from a replaceable cartridge. The JetMeds solution results in improved care with less chemical exposure, improving safety for both pets and humans. Our first flea and tick control product for dogs is currently on target for a 2025 commercial launch. At JetMeds, I am responsible for technical delivery of the commercial product, manufacturing supply chain management and collar/cartridge COGS.

St. Augustine, Fl, Us

Director of Engineering and Technology for high density electrical interconnect solution provider serving the medical, semiconductor test and industrial sensor market sectors. Responsible for development and management of flex PCB technology road-map for capability growth and market expansion into existing and adjacent application spaces. Accountable to General Manager for organizing, managing and growing Process and Applications Engineering groups to meet strategic milestones on tech road-map and fully support sister organizations in Sales, Manufacturing and Quality. Core member of factory leadership team with full budgetary and performance responsibility for engineering organization. Key Accomplishments: • Core member of executive team supporting MicroConnex sale process to Carlisle Interconnect Technologies including pre-transaction management presentation, due diligence evaluations and post-sale transition and integration. Transaction closed April 1, 2019. • Technical program manager for two largest strategic customers. Responsible for technical and capacity delivery to meet customer NPI schedule and cost targets. • Developed and managed CapEx plan for critical upgrades to PVD, resist application, exposure and develop, metal etch, laser micromachining, bonding/packaging and metrology/inspection cells.

Seattle, Wa, Us

Director of Research and Development for C-Stage start-up specializing in design and manufacture of engineered zinc and nickel-based wear and corrosion resistant coatings for applications in aerospace, petrochemical processing and oil and gas recovery. Responsible for definition and implementation of the company technology development roadmap for commercialization of coatings with disruptive performance per unit cost. Reported directly to CEO progress vs. schedule, spend vs. budget and technology status metrics. Accountable for complete R&D budget forecast and spend management. Key Accomplishments: • Implemented stage-gate NPI process to reduce product development cycle time and manage technical risk.• Grew and managed diversely skilled R&D team to meet organizational goals including product design, process demonstration, material characterization, performance evaluation and tech transfer.

Director of Engineering and Technology for chemical process engineering consulting firm specializing in design, commissioning and operation of commodity scale (> $500M CapEx) electronic and solar grade polysilicon production facilities. Responsible to CEO for management and execution of new business development activities and opportunity evaluation for process & design modifications to enable top line reductions in CapEx and OpEx. Coordinated, authored and submitted written and oral technical proposals to prospective clients and supported CEO in contract negotiations and defining commercial framework. Responsible for technical oversight and delivery of staff-generated basic engineering design package including PFD’s, M&E Balances, P&IDs and process descriptions. Key Accomplishments: • Successfully delivered comprehensive design package to Tier 2, state owned Asian client on time and on budget. • Technical and management lead in creation of adjacent business in renewable energy technology consultation and diligence services with initial focus on opportunities in the PV market space (single crystal, poly, DSC and thin film). Project lead on first revenue generating diligence contract.

Richland, Wa, Us

Senior Engineer and Project Manager at the MBI (now ATAMI), a public-private demonstration and commercialization consortium managed by PNNL and Oregon State University. Responsible for developing and demonstrating cost-competitive processing platforms and manufacturing cost models for fabrication of metal-based arrayed microchannel devices used in a range of chemical and energy conversion applications including heat exchangers, high temperature recuperators, hydrocarbon processing units and separation devices utilized in combined heat and power, waste heat recovery and fuel cell systems. Identified contract R&D funding opportunities and submitted as Co-PI with industrial cost-share partners multiple proposals to U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense (via DARPA) and The Murdock Charitable Trust. Key Accomplishments: • Developed design for manufacturing (DFM) methodologies to enable estimation of microchannel device manufacturing costs over a wide range of production volumes using a number of new and existing fabrication process technologies. • Applied DFM results to identify production cost drivers to enable prioritization of R&D investments and to evaluate commercialization opportunities.• Awarded $430,000 with OSU colleague in competitive proposal process from Murdock for capital purchase, install and commissioning of 1.0 kW Yb-Fiber Cutting and Welding Laser Station, Cold Wall Vacuum Bonding Furnace and 3D Optical Profilometer. • Member of PNNL tech team honored with 2014 R&D 100 Award (Solar Thermochemical Advanced Reactor System) for design, material selection and fabrication of the reactor and high temperature recuperator sub-systems. Awarded US patent for the same.

Project manager of five member engineering team responsible for delivering preliminary design (PFDs, P&IDs, M&E Balances) and economic feasibility analyses (CapEx, OpEx) for an electronic grade polysilicon production facility in SE Asia for Tier 1 global poly manufacturer. Responsible for negotiating deliverables and milestone schedule with client and managing company spend vs. project budget. Key Accomplishments: • Successful completion of preliminary design and feasibility study resulted in award of multi-million dollar contract for complete design and consulting services for RMT.

Houston, Texas, Us

Project manager of 12-member engineering team responsible for delivering transparent, flexible, thin film transistor (TFT) and passive circuitry architectures, materials, fabrication and test processes to meet product roadmap goals for next generation display technologies. Full accountability to Section and Lab Managers for developing backplane design rules, modeling and fabrication strategies and coordinating product integration schedule and scope with program partners.Key Accomplishments: • Team demonstrated kHz frequency Zinc-Tin Oxide and Zinc-Indium Oxide-based TFTs fabricated using low temperature processes on flexible, plastic substrates with existing wafer-based, fab toolset. • Developed and initiated multi-million dollar capital acquisition plan for strategic investment in roll-to-roll (R2R) process development line including: PVD Metal Deposition, Pattern Emboss, Dielectric Etch and Electrodeposition unit process cells.

Houston, Texas, Us

As Senior Member of Technical Staff, I worked with colleagues to leverage in-house MEMS fabrication capabilities to support core Ink jet and new business initiatives in a number of areas including: Lead engineer responsible for creation and technical leadership of piezo-actuated chip yield engineering team. Formed and led a cross organizational yield team to quantify, report and respond to unit process and system level yield metrics to meet market delivery goals. Manufacturing development engineer - Created and managed electrochemical microfabrication technology lab to complement existing capability in thin film CVD and PVD and to expand electrochemical processing capability in metal anodization and low temperature additive processing of semi-conducting materials. Developed and demonstrated low temperature electrodeposition processes for thin film and high aspect ratio architectures including conductor traces, semiconductors and flexure posts on wafer and flexible plastic substrates.Lead process engineer responsible for development of through-wafer slotting process for scalable printing platform. Provided technical leadership to six member wet silicon etch engineering team in process characterization and development of statistical process control strategies. Led $3M capital tool purchase project including wet bench installation and qualification. Successfully transferred wet etch technology to engineering partners in production organization.

Albuquerque, Nm, Us

Responsible for development of novel electrodeposition processes for fabrication of MEMS components from metal-ceramic electro-composites and compositionally modulated alloys in support of Department of Energy nuclear weapon stockpile stewardship program. Partnered across organizational boundaries to create predictive modeling, fabrication and test infrastructure for proto-typing of high value-add components for arming and telemetry control systems. Led small team of engineers and technicians in implementation of process development best-practices with focus on process characterization, control and quality assurance.Key Accomplishments: • In Q-Clearance program, demonstrated capability for deposition of nickel-based alloys in very high aspect ratio resist patterns created using x-ray lithography processes. • Awarded $575,000 funding from DOE Advanced Manufacturing Program in competitive proposal process for development of advanced materials and processes in support of submarine-based weapons system upgrade initiative.

Phd, Chemical Engineering

Ms, Chemical Engineering

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Chemical Engineering