ZT Solar hires Dickerson as CEO, gets grant, moves to TECH Fort Worth lab

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 11, 2010 -- Contact: Darlene Ryan
Executive Director
TECH Fort Worth
(817) 339-8968
darlene@techfortworth.org


ZT Solar hires Dickerson as CEO,
gets grant, moves to TECH Fort Worth lab


FORT WORTH, Texas – ZT Solar, a local company developing an anti-reflective coating to increase the efficiency of polysilicon and thin-film solar cells, has a new leader, new money and a new working space.

• Thomas E. Dickerson III has joined the company as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

• The company has signed a new licensing agreement with the University of Texas at Arlington for the technology developed by Drs. Meng Tao and Weidong Zhou.
• ZT Solar recently received a two-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation Phase II Small Business Innovative Research grant made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A Phase II grant is awarded when the NSF is convinced a company has commercial potential and an acceptable business plan.
• ZT Solar, which participated in TECH Fort Worth’s Incubation program in 2008, has signed on as an Acceleration client of TECH Fort Worth and leased a lab at the TECH Fort Worth Acceleration Lab at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

• The company has hired its first full-time scientist to work in its lab on the further development of the technology.

"I'm very excited to be joining ZT Solar at this unique time for the company,” Dickerson said. “The solar industry is poised for a period of sustained growth and our technology will be a key enabler for increased solar adoption.

“Having our technology validated by the National Science Foundation is a huge win for us, and we look forward to working with TECH Fort Worth and the UNT Health Science Center to bring this technology to market."

Dickerson previously was Chief Operations Officer and Senior Vice President of Engineering for another startup company developing alternative energy solutions. Earlier, he worked for Samsung Austin Semiconductor as a Principal Engineer and Manager of Factory Automation.

He has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas.

“Tom’s appointment is a large step forward. Having the right CEO is imperative for any company as it prepares to move from the university lab to being a ‘real’ company,” said Darlene Ryan, TECH Fort Worth Executive Director. “Tom has the perfect background with his combination of engineering and operational management skills.

“We will be working with ZT Solar as it proceeds to further develop its ideas and creates a process that can be sold to solar cell manufacturing facilities. Potentially this could result in a manufacturing facility for ZT Solar’s equipment in the Fort Worth area.”

TECH Fort Worth is a nonprofit technology incubator, with offices at the James E. Guinn Complex in Fort Worth South and at the UNT Health Science Center’s Cent

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