ABOUT US
Our Team
Jim Castelaz, CEO and Co-Founder
Jim is responsible for Motiv’s strategic and technical direction and manages Motiv’s technical team. Jim’s engineering strengths lie in framing, partitioning, and designing complex, interdisciplinary systems in new and creative ways. Prior to founding Motiv in 2009, Jim was Chief Architect at an EV start-up focused on designing electric drive buses for the Chinese market. Previously, Jim was a full-time PhD student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he worked on MEMS for power electronics and solar applications. His other projects include developing an electric motorcycle, solid state transformers for the power distribution grid with Southern California Edison, and various other embedded systems. Jim holds an MSEE from Stanford University and a BS in Engineering and Economics from Harvey Mudd College.
David, Principal Software Engineer
David leads Motiv's software group, creating architectural and system designs, implementing and testing software, and cat herding as the need arises. He brings to Motiv over 30 years of experience developing software for a widely varied collection of deeply embedded and/or hard realtime applications. When not leaping tall buildings in a single bound, he relaxes by designing culinary infrastructure for extreme environments and occasionally whipping up a mean seafood chowder.
Wayne, Principal Mechanical Engineer
Wayne is responsible for leading the mechanical and thermal design at Motiv. He develops innovative system packaging solutions for battery packs, inverters, drive line components, control systems and mechanical system integration and brings expertise in mechanical system development including structural, thermal and manufacturing processes to those designs. He brings over 40 years of experience in the fields of mechanical engineering, system packaging, manufacturing engineering and engineering management for defense, commercial and industrial market segments to Motiv. He has taught, planned and installed design and documentation process and procedures as well as created and edited related documents and manuals for companies engaged in these market segments during his career.
Alex, Senior Electrical Engineer
Alex does Motiv's electrical designs - he's responsible for schematics, layout, and all other facets of electrical hardware. At Motiv, he brings his considerable electrical expertise to bear on the automotive field - an area of long time personal interest. Prior to Motiv, he spent a decade doing hardware engineering and design on a wide variety of Cisco's successful switch products, invaluable experience that also led to a desire to escape the "pizza box" form factor. Alex received a BSEE from San Francisco State University.
Max, Senior Controls Engineer
Max is responsible for the design and deployment of control algorithms behind Motiv's Power Control System at both component and system levels. He develops mathematical models of power devices, analyzes their dynamic behavior, designs algorithms to control power processes, and oversees their integration with the software layer. Prior to joining Motiv, Max worked with novel haptic robotic devices in the Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory jointly operated by Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He received his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialization in control systems from the University of Illinois, where he was a member of the Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory. Max's primary research was focused on formulation of state-of-the-art feedback control algorithms for haptic robotic devices. He is an author of 20 publications in the areas of control algorithms, system identification and robotics.
Ryan, Mechanical Engineer
Ryan is responsible for mechanical design, prototyping, and implementation at Motiv. Prior to joining Motiv, Ryan worked at a startup focusing on controls for power electronics and HVAC systems. While there, he brought a significant redesign of their current HVAC module to production, helped develop a calorimeter test facility, as well as participated in research projects on solar thermal, wind turbines, and load-following generators. His primary interests are in power electronics, rapid prototyping, and renewable energy. Ryan holds a BS in Product Design from Stanford University.
Justin, Embedded Software Engineer
Justin grew up in Concord, California and studied Electrical Engineering at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. He began as a student of Mechanical Engineering before making the switch to EE. Justin went on to pursue concentration coursework in computer systems, digital signal processing, and advanced digital circuits, reflecting his shift in interest towards higher layers of abstraction. His past projects include developing a prototype wireless sensor network for the Cal Poly Pilot Winery, and designing an FM sound synthesizer. Here at Motiv he works on all things code - from embedded implementation and testing to code architecture to documentation.
Dave, Associate Engineer
Dave grew up working at his dad's shop taking apart cars, boats, and motors in San Jose, Ca. He became interested in tug boats and ships that would come into the Oakland Alameda Estuary and decided to become a Merchant Marine Officer. After graduating Cal Maritime with a B.S. in Marine Transportation, Qualified Member of the Engineering Department, and Tankerman endorsements, he sailed the world; working and learning cultures abroad. His passion has always been working with his hands and mind to create and implement exciting ideas. Now, as he transitions to mechanical engineering, his passion has brought him to Motiv, where he is responsible for Motiv's shop and lab spaces and supports vehicle integration and mechanical design while reconnecting with his automotive roots.
Linda, Accounting Clerk
Linda brings a diverse background to bear on Motiv's accounting and finance, where she is responsible for purchasing, invoicing, AR, AP, bank reconciling, and countless other accounting functions, single-handedly supporting Motiv's growing financial and accounting needs. She's done books and accounting for real estate, construction, and tech startups, but she likes Motiv the best of them all. She wears many hats around the office, generally keeping everyone happy and things running smoothly.
Greg, Summer Intern
Greg is interning at Motiv throughout the summer; he assists in assembling various components on the bus as well as aiding in Motiv's marketing. Greg is heavily involved in competitive debate and was first seed at the national invitational tournament in the spring of 2011. This summer he completed the rank of Eagle Scout after spending 5 years in the Boy Scouts. As a rising senior in high school he plans to attend classes at the local junior college before applying for a four-year school in fall of 2011.
Doug Mandell, Counsel & Co-Founder
Doug serves as general counsel for Motiv and is involved with business development. Doug has extensive experience working with start-ups and has been general counsel to several venture backed companies including: ememories, Inc. (one of the first on-line photosharing sites) and Tornado Development (a unified messaging software company). Most recently, Doug was LinkedIn's first General Counsel and member of the Executive Team in 2007 and 2008, a company he has represented since its inception. Doug is the managing partner of the Mandell Law Group, PC, a boutique law firm he founded in 2001 specializing in technology transactions, corporate, employment law and general counsel services. Clients of MLG include Fortune 100 companies such as Seagate Technology LLC; venture backed companies such as LinkedIn and 23andMe; as well as entrepreneurs and executives. Doug also currently serves as general counsel for other technology companies including: Originate Labs and Soar BioDynamics. Doug was also previously an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco, California and graduated with honors from Washington University in St. Louis and Tulane Law School. Doug is passionate about the environment and is a member of the Full Circle Fund’s Environment Circle. Doug’s complete bio is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmandell.
Advisors
John Formisano
John Formisano serves as an expert industry advisor to the Motiv Management team. He is also on the Board of Directors of Azure Dynamics. Mr. Formisano retired as Vice President, Global Vehicles of FedEx Express in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to managing the FedEx vehicle fleet mix, FedEx Global Vehicles is focused on the development of fuel-efficient vehicle models. It pioneered the creation of hybrid vans in partnership with a diverse group of manufacturers such as Eaton Corporation, Isuzu and Iveco in 2003. Since then, the hybrid-electric and electric truck fleet of 325 vehicles around the globe has covered more than five million miles of revenue service. Over his twenty-six year career at FedEx, Mr Formisano held several operations management positions such as Vice President, Regional Operations and Vice President of Worldwide Ground Operations Planning & Support. Prior to these positions, he was the Managing Director, District Operations/AAA; Managing Director, Regional Planning & Administration and managed several engineering divisions. Before FedEx, he worked at Automatic Data Processing, Searle Medical Products, and the United Parcel Service.
He has been recognized with the FedEx Express Five Star Award, which recognizes team members who have enhanced service and profitability and exemplified the spirit of teamwork, in 2006, 2004, 1992, 1990. It is one of the most prestigious FedEx awards. In addition, Mr Formisano was also the recipient of the FedEx Express President’s Award in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998.
He has also been on the Board of Directors of CALSTART since 2005 and has held the Vice Chair Board Member role since 2007. He is also on the Board of Safe Kids Worldwide, and he holds an M.B.A from Fairleigh Dickinson University and B.S. from Montclair State College.