Experience and Integrity
Volker Oakey, Chairman and CEO
Volker Oakey is responsible for the market and financial strategy of the combined NovaTech organization. His current focus is the expansion of internal product development and external alliances with best-in-class product manufacturers. This will result in greater service and technology offerings to our customers around the world.
From 1986-2001, Volker was the Chairman and CEO of Bitronics, Inc., a manufacturer of substation-hardened digital meters and transducers. Because of their durable engineering and outstanding customer support, Bitronics meters were specified 4-to-1 over any other meter for substation applications.
Volker began his career at Bethlehem Steel Corporation, where he eventually held the position of Assistant Treasurer. He has a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Buz Zey, President
Prior to founding NovaTech LLC in 1984, Buz was VP of Technology for the Pritchard Corporation in Kansas City. He was responsible for technology used in the petrochemical industry including refineries, pipeline operations, natural gas processing, and utility plants. His current efforts for NovaTech include the management and integration of our utility and process operations with a particular emphasis on R&D functions.
Buz held a number of technical positions with other companies before joining Pritchard in 1974. He graduated from Central Missouri State University with a BS in Chemistry and an MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Missouri.
Ray Wright, VP Marketing
Ray Wright has sold and marketed automation products and systems for the past 30 years, including industrial robotics with Unimation (’81-85), Programmable Controllers at Modicon, (’87-’97) Protective relays at ABB, (’97-02) and substation automation and process automation at NovaTech (’02 to present). During this time, Ray has developed new approaches to automation problems, including the first industrial robot at General Motors Baltimore and suites of new products for substation automation while at Modicon, ABB and NovaTech. Ray’s education includes a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute (1978) and a Masters of Administrative Science from Johns Hopkins University (1985).
Dwight Wood, VP Process Sales
Dwight is responsible for sales and business development within the Process Solutions business unit. He has been with NovaTech and predecessor companies since 1980 in various sales and market development roles. Dwight started his career with The Singer Company, Link Division, supporting domestic power and industrial simulation sales efforts. He later managed the company’s Military Command and Control Simulation marketing efforts. In 1989, he assumed an international market development role in the Industrial Simulation unit and led a number of key business development initiatives expanding the company’s market position and presence in Western and Eastern Europe. In 1997, he joined the Process Automation Division where he has served in a number of sales leadership roles. Dwight is a graduate of West Virginia University with a B.S. Degree in Business Administration.
Paul Wallace, VP Utility Sales
Paul is responsible for sales and business development within the utility business unit. He has been with NovaTech since 2003 in various utility sales roles. While attending the University of Missouri – Kansas City, Paul began his career with NovaTech in 1987 providing support for the domestic sales efforts. He later joined Arcom Control Systems as Sales Manager before the entrepreneurial spirit seized him and he started a company to develop spread spectrum radios for the commercial metering industry. The company was acquired in 1999 by World Wireless Communications where Paul was Director of Sales prior to becoming the VP – Operations where he remained until 2003 and his return to NovaTech.
Frank Wendt, VP Bitronics Power Measurement Division
Frank joined Bitronics in 1995 after spending 10 years with Mannesmann Rexroth in various positions within production, inventory control and procurement. He is currently responsible for the site management of the Bitronics Division in Bethlehem. Frank’s education includes a BA in Business Management from Moravian College along with professional certificates in Leadership, Six Sigma, Production and Inventory Control.
Jean Bandy, VP D/3 Process Automation Division
Jean Bandy joined NovaTech in May 2011 after working for MillerCoors since 1997, holding positions in the Albany, GA and Milwaukee, WI breweries and in the Milwaukee corporate offices. During her tenure at MillerCoors she held positions of increasing responsibility in brewing operations, brewery IS management, corporate brewing, process and product development and corporate engineering. She was most recently Manager of Manufacturing Systems for Brewing and Utilities with responsibility for automation using NovaTech’s D/3®, DeltaV™ and PLCs in the breweries. Jean started her career as a process engineer for GE Engineered Materials in Waterford, NY and Mt. Vernon, IN.
She began working on the D/3 in Mt. Vernon in 1984 and joined NovaTech (then EMC) as an applications engineer in 1985. In addition to D/3 applications in numerous industries, she worked on the development of NovaTech’s TotalVision® and FlexBatch® products.
Jean has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a M.S. in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University.
Alan Staatz, VP Orion Substation Automation Division
Alan started with NovaTech in 1993, the same year of his graduation from the College of Engineering at Kansas State University. Since then, he has held the following positions with the company: Application Engineer, System Engineer, Project Manager, and Director of Engineering for the Orion Division. He currently holds the position of Vice President of Engineering for the Orion division. He possesses over 18 years of Substation Automation and RTU experience. Throughout those years, he has assisted in the development of the Orion product line. Alan has a B.S. degree from the College of Engineering at Kansas State University.
Kevin Johnson, VP Business Development
Kevin is responsible for corporate business development and partner relationships across NovaTech’s multiple operating divisions. Kevin joined NovaTech in 2003 as an account manager within the Process Solution Business Division and later was promoted to V.P. of Eastern region Sales for both the company’s Process and Utility Divisions. Prior to joining NovaTech, Kevin held senior management and business development positions at several professional services firms in the architectural engineering and construction fields. He began his career in 1981 at Philadelphia Electric Co. working in the research & testing group assigned to the nuclear division. Kevin graduated summa cum laude from Kings College with a B.S. Degree in Business Administration and holds a degree in Engineering Technology from Pennsylvania State University.
Andrew Blumenthal, Managing Director – NovaTech Europe BVBA
Andrew has been with NovaTech and its predecessor D/3 companies since 1985. Starting as an Application Engineer for EMC Controls, he has progressed through the ranks holding positions as Project Manager and Operations Manager for Texas Instruments, and General Manager for GSE Process Solutions Belgium. Still based in Belgium, Andrew is now responsible for sales, marketing, and operations for all Process Division customers outside of the Americas.
Prior to joining EMC, Andrew worked for CE Lummus in Bloomfield, NJ as a Process Engineer. He graduated in 1980 from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.
Leo R. Charpentier, P.E., Director, D/3 Product Development
Leo Charpentier started with the EMC companies in 1984 after working in process engineering, operations, and control systems in chemical plants for nine years. He has extensive experience in batch processing and has represented NovaTech on the ISA SP88 committee since 1989 and in other control and information organizations. He recently completed his most recent term as the Secretary of the WBF. Leo is currently the Director of Product Development for the Process Solutions business following many years in Marketing and Engineering. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Leo is also a registered Professional Engineer. When not at work, you can often find Leo sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, in the woods, or working with Boy Scouts.
Pat Russo, Director, Orion Software Development
Pat oversees software development for Orion5r, OrionLX, NCD, DDIO and DCIO products. Pat started with NovaTech in 1995 as a Software Development Engineer. He has over 20 years of SCADA industry experience including his work at Signalcrafters and Lucas Ledex. Pat has a Bachelors of Science in Electronic Engineering Technology from the University of Dayton, Ohio.
Andre Wagner, Director, Bitronics Product Development
Since joining the company in 1993, Andre has been involved in product specification, development, and support of measurement devices sold primarily to electric utilities. He presently leads the design team for the Bitronics brand measurement products. He is skilled as an embedded firmware engineer with in depth experience with various processors and their associated assembly languages. Primary emphasis has been on execution speed and size optimizations in implementations of control algorithms, mathematical functions, and digital signal processing algorithms. Andre holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University with additional coursework in Computer Science.