Tellurex
Our Team
Board of Directors
Clyde E. McKenzie (Chairman) is the Chief Executive Officer. An energy development expert, Mr. McKenzie led a group of investors to purchase Tellurex after extensive due diligence of the firm's IP, research and design capabilities, and engineering knowledge. He has been an executive in various capacities in banking, oil and gas exploration and production and in the natural gas pipeline and services industries for over 25 years and today serves on a variety of business and community boards. He is co-founder of McKenzie Curtiss-Lusher & Associates LLC and MC-L Holdings LLC. The first entity is a consultancy working with privately owned businesses in the areas of contract management, due diligence and strategic planning. The latter entity owns interests in businesses and tangible assets. Mr. McKenzie also is a co-founder of Nexus Resources LLC (and its affiliates), an oil and gas exploration and production company. Mr. McKenzie holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Business Administration from the University of Michigan where he and his wife have endowed a scholarship for in-state undergraduate students in financial need.
Barry Curtiss-Lusher (Secretary, Director) Mr. Curtiss-Lusher is co-founder with Mr. McKenzie of McKenzie Curtiss-Lusher & Associates LLC and MC-L Holdings LLC. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nexus Resources. He has over 25 years of experience in the oil, gas and energy industries. Prior to his decision to pursue an entrepreneurial business career, Mr. Curtiss-Lusher practiced law in Denver, focusing his efforts in the areas of capital formation, securities, and natural resources. Mr. Curtiss-Lusher's community activities include serving on the boards of the Anti Defamation League, Rose Medical Center in Denver and Colorado Public Radio. He received a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School
Donald Surber (Director) is a forty-year manufacturing veteran supplying metal and plastic components to the automotive, appliance, electronics and telecommunications industries. In 1978, Mr. Surber became President of ATF, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods. In 1982, Mr. Surber acquired ATF and began to build a multi-divisional manufacturing business. Today, ATF is the cornerstone of a number of companies housed within Surber Investments. To foster global partnership, he co-founded the Global Fastener Alliance (GFA), which is comprised of members from Europe, Asia and North America. He is Past Chairman of the Industrial Fastener Institute (1984-85 and 1994-95). Mr. Surber has a B.S. degree in Marketing and Economics from the School of Business at Indiana University.
Jeffrey H. Berlin (Director) is owner of Bridge Industries, LLC, president and CEO of Multi Products and a board member of Cimarron Energy (a down-well products manufacturer), all industrial entities based in Ohio. Prior to the establishment of his entrepreneurial endeavors, Mr. Berlin worked for Hawk Corporation, a global manufacturer of friction products and precision components for markets ranging from industrial to aerospace. Previous to Bridge Industries and Hawk Corporation, Mr. Berlin accumulated early career experience in manufacturing, corporate development and middle market investment and merchant banking. Mr. Berlin graduated from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) with an accounting degree and is a CPA. His community activities include the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (Trustee), the Multiple Sclerosis Society (Trustee Emeritus), Big Brothers/Big Sisters and YPO.
Founder
Charles J. Cauchy (ret.) founded Tellurex in 1986 and for twenty-five years took a hands-on approach to leading the Company as a technology-driven pacesetter in thermoelectric research and product development. Mr. Cauchy was awarded several patents in thermoelectric technology ranging from (1) improved semiconductor alloys and processing techniques, (2) thermoelectric power generation systems, and (3) high temperature solder alloys to (4) consumer and automotive thermoelectric products. The Company now owns these patents. As past Chairman of the Northern Chapter of the Michigan Technology Council and as a member of its statewide Board of Directors, Mr. Cauchy was an early and effective proponent of high technology business in Michigan.
Key Executives
Richard G. Harmon is Director of Product and Process Development. His responsibilities include oversight and analysis of engineering, design and prototyping of all Tellurex projects and product developments. His activities extend to significant interface with customers in collaborative activities and in the company’s objectives in product development for the developing world. He is responsible for interfacing engineering with Quality, Sales, Purchasing, Accounting and general management. Mr. Harmon is registered as inventor in several patents. He has been in the employ of Tellurex for nine years.
Catherine S. Collins is Director of Finance and Administration. Her responsibilities include Controller functions and extend to banking, corporate insurance, certain human resources functions including benefits administration and primary business planning. She is a career financial officer with experience across five manufacturing firms. Her financial management experience includes chemicals, tool and die, heat-treating, automotive and aerospace manufacturing. She is on the board of the Holiday Race Team for kids at Mount Holiday in Traverse City.
Craig Tremp is Director of Sales. His responsibilities include planning and administration of business development and sales strategies and acting as the company’s principal representative to its strategic suppliers and largest customers. His career has spanned corporate controller, small business owner, process and program developer across business development, capitalization strategies, financial analysis and business planning for 20 years. He joined Tellurex in early 2011.
Peter Schmitz is Sales Manager. He is a principal point of contact across company’s existing customer base and many emerging prospects — creating collaborative product development initiatives, costing out and quoting all emerging business. His career background includes program development, analysis and management, manufacturing engineering, and building a variety of successful retail companies now privately owned by his family.
Jeff Howe is Manufacturing Manager. His responsibilities include management of all elements of product manufacturing and assembly, all scheduling, inventory control, quality assurance, meeting all delivery commitments and all industrial maintenance. His career background is concentrated in the automobile industry.
Executive Consultant
RFD Insight, Inc. (www.RFDinsight.com) has been a consultant to the company since April 2009. Over the following two years, during the worst economy since the Great Depression, with defense budget cutbacks, big reductions in commercial R&D and delays in product programs, RFD Insight led Tellurex to a 50% growth in sales, implemented lean manufacturing processes, expanded capacity to meet expanding demand, launched new products and positioned Tellurex as a leading provider of thermoelectric products and services across the many facets of Google search.