IMS was founded in July 1997 as an offshoot of work performed at Duke University. The Company occupies 45,000 square feet of modern research and manufacturing space in Morrisville, NC near Research Triangle Park. The Company shipped its first commercial system in 2000 and currently has systems deployed or under development in a variety of industrial applications including: textiles, pet food products, human food applications, environmental tile manufacturing, hydrophilic foam manufacturing and chemical processing. IMS was acquired by Laitram, L.L.C., an industrial manufacturing leader based in Harahan, Louisiana in 2003.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Howard A. Laffler, President

Howard has more than thirty-five years experience (25+ at the CEO, President, GM and VP levels) both in start-up organizations and large companies (GE, Unisys, ITT). He has a BA in Biochemistry from Northwestern University with advanced studies in both Biochemistry and Business Administration.

Prior to joining IMS in 2005, Howard was the President and CEO of Volumetrics Medical Imaging, a Duke University spinout. Prior to Volumetrics, he was President and CEO of LNR Communications, a satellite communications company. Howard’s experience spans several different industries including diagnostic medical imaging, computer hardware and software products, laser systems and telecommunications.

Much of his career has been devoted to product and market development both domestically and internationally. He has served on the Boards of Directors for several high technology companies.

David L. Parrott, Ph.D., General Manager

Since obtaining his BS in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D., in non-Newtonian Heat Transfer, David has gained over thirty five years of industrial experience in process engineering, with more than thirty
years in the food and beverage industries.

Following graduation in the United Kingdom, David joined the APV Group, a global designer and supplier of sanitary equipment for the food and beverage processing industries, and now part of Invensys UK. He held a variety of technical development, sales, marketing and managerial positions in the UK as well as in Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the USA. His experience includes the formation of joint venture design and manufacturing companies in Indonesia and China, as well as P & L responsibility for their south east Asian operations. For his final six years with APV, David was VP of Technology and New Product Development for their North American operations.

Before joining IMS, David was General Manager, responsible for operations of the US subsidiary of Schmidt-Bretten GmbH, a division of API Heat Transfer in Buffalo NY.

John A. Messler, Director of Manufacturing and Engineering

John received his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from Syracuse University. John has also accumulated over thirty years of experience in machine design and manufacturing.

His career has spanned a wide range of applications from high volume consumer products to ‘one of a kind’ capital systems. John spent thirteen years with International Paper Company’s Liquid Packaging Division including the roles of Systems Engineering Manager for Extended Shelf Life Packaging and Product Manager for High Speed Aseptic Packaging Systems.

Prior to joining IMS, John was Engineering Manager at Aeroglide Corporation, a custom manufacturer of drying equipment.

William D. Wilber, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development

Bill’s background includes more than 20 years of work with microwave materials and measurements. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from S.U.N.Y. Cortland in 1979, and his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1987 with a thesis on microwave-driven nonlinear effects in ferrimagnetic materials. From 1984 through 1997 Bill worked
at the United States Army Research Laboratory in Fort Monmouth, NJ, continuing to work on microwave properties of ferrites, and also the fabrication and characterization of dielectrics, ferroelectrics, and high-temperature superconductors. From 1997 through 1999, he worked on electronic warfare for the US Army.

Bill left government service and joined Celwave/Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) in 2000 to work on filters f or cellular communications, and later became the Director of Development for the RF Conditioning group at RFS.

TECHNICAL CONSULTANT

William T. Joines, Ph.D., Technical Consultant

William T. Joines, Ph.D., contributes to IMS as a Special Technical Consultant for research and development issues. Dr. Joines brings more than 40 years of microwave engineering and entrepreneurial start-up experience to IMS. He received his undergraduate Electrical Engineering degree from North Carolina State University followed by his masters and doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Duke University.

Dr. Joines, a full professor at Duke University, is revered as a world leader in the microwave industry with more than 200 publications to his credit.

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