Menon Leadership Team
Integrity • Expertise • Innovation
Transforming Concepts into Products for a Better Planet
The Menon leadership team represents over 150 years of combined experience in business, finance, technology and management.
Principal
Suresh Menon, Ph.D., Founder, Menon International, Inc.
Dr. Menon completed his Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics
(ESM) at the Pennsylvania State University. He was awarded
contracts through private companies and the U.S. Government to advance
research in life sciences, materials, electronics and
manufacturing. During his term as a student, a consortium of
companies (small, medium and Fortune 500) funded his research. He
built products and deployed systems for these firms to enable efficient
production of key components. Through the University, Dr. Menon
received the needed background to apply knowledge in the diverse areas
of manufacturing, systems engineering, materials science, electronics,
microbiology, life sciences, biochemistry, chemistry and several other
disciplines to meet tomorrow’s challenges.
As
a serial entrepreneur, he constantly seeks out technology and market
gaps and brings together team members who can solve problems. He
has a strong background in commercializing core technologies and
transitioning these from the laboratory into a commercial environment
on a global scale. Establishing collaborations amongst
universities, companies (internationally) and his own employees he has
managed to complete projects for customers on time and budget, learned
to set up arrangements such as licensing and other avenues to bring
technology to the marketplace. He has learned corporate finance,
working with investment bankers and venture capital, and management of
operations through hands-on experience of several projects and multiple
firms which he owned and operated. For example, from 1998-2001,
he managed and ran a team that designed, built and assembled VAIO
systems for the Sony Corporation.
Menon International, Inc. was incorporated in the year 2000. Today,
the firm has established a reputation with customers in carrying out
innovation and commercialization of core technologies to solve
challenging problems. The team has worked with private and public
corporations, both prime and subcontractors, to complete
projects. Dr. Menon is the chief architect in developing
biodetectors and biofuels, including the co-products, which are now in
advanced phases of deployment. Investments have been made to move
these technologies into the global marketplace. Dr.
Menon's primary focus is to scale up new ventures, while maximizing
profits for all parties involved.
Gregory P. Hanson, CMA, MBA
Mr.
Hanson is an advisory board member of Menon International. Mr.
Hanson is Managing Director of First Cornerstone, a management and
board advisory service with roots dating back to 1984. Mr. Hanson
has over 18 years as an executive financial officer including Chief
Financial Officer positions at Adventrx Pharmaceuticals from 2006 to
2008, Avanir Pharmaceuticals from 1998 to 2006 and Onsite Energy and
XXsys Technologies prior to that. Earlier in his career Mr.
Hanson held management positions at Caterpillar Capital Company, a CAT
subsidiary, and Ford Motor Company. Mr. Hanson holds an MBA with
distinction from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science
in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University. Mr.
Hanson has passed the Series 7 and Series 63 securities examinations
and is licensed in California as a registered representative for an
investment banking firm. He is a Certified Management
Accountant and an associate member of the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Hanson was a founding and
6-year committee member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s,
or FASB’s, Small Business Advisory Committee and is also a board member
of San Diego Financial Executives International, or SDFEI.
David E. Newman, Ph.D.
Dr. Newman serves as Chief Technology Advisor for Menon International. He is an experimental physicist with extensive
experience and numerous innovations cutting across multidisciplinary
areas of instrumentation, systems and molecular science. He has
developed instrumentation such as automated fluidics and advanced RF
systems for Department of Homeland Security and Navy projects.
These systems included optical and NMR spectral analysis, image
processing, on-line automation, and integration with other
sensors. He is co-inventor of the process using aerobic microbial
fermentation of lignocellulosic materials to produce lipids as a
precursor for petroleum-compatible transportation fuels, as well as
developer of several key system components. He earlier served as
Scientist at General Atomics, where he led numerous projects over a
wide range of applications ranging from nuclear diagnostics for fusion
reactors to demonstration of magnetically self-focusing intense
particle beams and development of new superconducting materials.
Dr. Newman obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in physics from
Princeton University.
Peter V. Czipott, Ph.D.
Dr. Czipott is Chief Science Advisor for Menon International.
He has been an independent consultant in applied physics, government
marketing and project management since December 2008. Prior to
that, he was with Quantum Magnetics (QM), a San Diego firm developing
advanced sensor systems for threat detection, noninvasive medical
diagnostics, and nondestructive evaluation. Joining QM as Manager
of Research in 1995, he helped see the company through acquisition by
InVision Technologies in 1997 and GE Homeland Security in 2004,
becoming QM Chief Scientist in 2007. He began his postdoctoral
career as Staff Scientist at Physical Dynamics and then was co-founder
and Vice President of SQM Technology, an R&D start-up. Dr.
Czipott obtained his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the
University of California, San Diego. He is author of over 40
technical papers in peer-reviewed publications and holds 11 patents
issued to date. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the
San Diego Symphony. A published literary translator, he received
the 2010 Bálint Balassi Memorial Medallion for services to Hungarian
literature and culture.
Jagadish C. Sircar, Ph.D.
Dr. Sircar serves as Principal Product Development Advisor to Menon International. He has consulted to firms in the
pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology industries since retiring in
2007 as Vice President, Drug Discovery and Corporate Vice President of
Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Under his leadership, Avanir developed
four drugs that proceeded to clinical trials and three that have been
licensed to large multinational pharmaceutical firms. He joined
Avanir in 1995 as Director of Chemistry and developed its medicinal
chemistry drug discovery program. Prior to Avanir, Dr. Sircar
worked at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, where he attained the position of
Associate Research Fellow and Chair of the Immunoinflammatory Project
Team, and then at Biofor, where he was Senior Vice President, Research
and Drug Discovery. Dr. Sircar holds B.S. (Honors), M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in chemistry and organic chemistry from the University of
Calcutta; he is author of over 190 scientific publications and patents.