Empowering Electric Vehicle Adoption^TM

Team Biographies

Daniel Liddle, Founder & CEO

Dan is a true Silicon Valley veteran, with more than thirty years’ experience navigating high-growth, rapidly evolving markets with some of the key technology leaders in the IT space. He has over two decades building venture-backed start-ups from the ground up, followed by almost another decade with executive marketing and sales responsibility at a U.S.-based Fortune 500 global technology contract manufacturer. With a focus on strategic marketing and Sales, Dan has been responsible for driving significant product growth in dynamic, rapid-growth industries including networking, database, servers and data storage. One of the high points of Dan’s career was helping to guide ‘First Virtual Corp’ from a small startup to a highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO). Dan has assembled a top-caliber team of seasoned industry experts across different functions for Splitvolt pulling from the deep contact base that developed over his career. Dan has a keen interest in building businesses, developing high-performance teams and solving problems that make people’s lives easier—so after having owned three consecutive electric and hybrid cars over much of the past decade, coming up with the idea to form Splitvolt was serendipitous.

Dan has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Michigan.

Debra A. Young-Snowdale, Finance

With over thirty years’ practice in financial leadership for technology businesses, Debra brings extensive financial experience to the Splitvolt team. Debra has been the CFO at a number of well known firms in the Bay Area including ViOptix, Vermillion and Phillips Medical Systems. She is also well versed in guiding startup technology businesses and leveraging working capital for growth. Debra’s specialties include financial modelling, cash forecasting and debt / equity fundraising.

Debra is a graduate of Manukau Technical Institute, NZ. She received her Chartered Accountancy (CA) in New Zealand before moving to the US in 1993.

Allen Adolph, Manufacturing Operations

Allen is the complete ‘manufacturing professional’ with over 40 years’ experience in managing local and offshore turnkey manufacturing and global distribution. His specialties include supporting fast track ‘new product introduction’ (NPI) programs and implementing business system applications for both early stage start-up companies and high-volume public firms. He has vast experience in manufacturing outsourcing, using both local and offshore CMs/ODMs. Allen has also served as VP of Operations for several technology start-ups and held senior operations management positions at public companies. Allen’s extensive U.S. and global experience in manufacturing and NPI lends itself directly to Splitvolt’s strategy and products.

Allen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration – Operations Research from California State University Northridge and received a CPIM certification from APICS.

Pam Gilbert, Business Planning & Operations

Pam brings her high-power, high-energy drive to the Splitvolt team along with a diverse and extensive background in Inside Sales, Operations and Finance. In the past 30 years she has managed top to bottom Finance and Operations for small technical startups as well as serving in financial and operations functions in Fortune 500 companies and higher education. During this time she has had major impact on businesses ranging from small, privately held start-ups to large public institutions.

Pam has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida and a Masters in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University.

Kevin Rowett, Engineering and Patents

Kevin has a prestigious background in systems engineering and management going back several decades working in engineering leadership roles for top-tier technology companies including Violin Memory, SeaMicro, Blue Coat Systems, Cisco, Tandem, Boeing and IBM. Kevin has also served in a leadership role of the Patent group at Cisco, and has an impressive number of patents in his name. Having been at the Senior Vice President roles at large technology companies as well as co-founding roles at start-ups, Kevin brings a wealth of knowledge and direct hands-on experience to the team at Splitvolt.

Kevin has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma.

Chirsten Zubka, Social Media Marketing

Chirsten brings her knowledge, energy and fresh-perspective to the team, leveraging her prior start-up experience focusing on consumer nurturing and brand-building. She loves innovation and is always looking for new approaches to problem solving, customer outreach and understanding. Her direct social media background is complemented by her consumer analytics / advertising experience and studies. Chirsten utilizes these skills and experience to create positive engagement through our social media channels.

Chirsten is attending the University of Florida in Gainesville while majoring in Advertising and minoring in Innovation.

George Fellingham, Engineering

George is an expert analog design engineer with a career that spans more than 30 years. He is a hands-on designer and consultant who has been awarded thirteen U.S. Patents. George is highly regarded in the industry and has developed a specialty in analog and power electronics for a range of consumer, medical/industrial equipment and computer peripherals. One key area of focus has been engineering/test and project management services to OEMs, to help clients minimize risk and increase reliability of their products. George has been engaged using this expertise to assist in the development and validation of the initial Splitvolt product set.

George has a Bachelor of Science – Electrical and Electronics Engineering – from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Benjamin Swieskowski, Social Media Marketing

Benjamin has been working in online advertising since 2007.  He specializes in performance marketing and has helped launch many successful startups, including Tile App, Eero, and Molekule.  Benjamin holds an MS in Statistics from Stanford University and is an avid SciFi fan.

Alex Nielsen, Web Development

Alex brings a diverse skillset to Splitvolt, with an emphasis on systems administration and web development. He has a strong background in software engineering, working in a senior developer role at an early stage enviro-tech startup, and his technical expertise is augmented with experience in SEO and web content marketing. Alex thrives on using these skills to help new consumer technologies bridge the adoption gap.

Alex is attending Stanford University, pursuing a major in International Relations and a minor in Classics.  

Aaron Duran, Retail Marketing

With nearly 30 years of sales, marketing and business development experience in the technology industry, Aaron Duran has delivered successful high-tech products and services to consumers, businesses and multi-national corporations. Aaron has held a variety of senior sales and marketing positions at Apple, Claris, Hewlett-Packard, Sling Media and Ooma both in the U.S. and Europe.

Tim Lieber, NPI and Product Strategist

Tim has a 40+ year career as a technologist and leader in the computer storage industry. He has worked at top high-tech companies such as Digital Equipment Corp, Adaptec and Western Digital Corporation. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to create product development teams for companies such as Eurologic Systems and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Throughout his career Tim has been instrumental in integrating advanced technologies into product strategies for data center roadmaps. He holds numerous patents and brings an innovative view of product management to the Splitvolt team. Tim is passionate about technology that helps to conserve our planet’s resources. His interests range from electric vehicles to home efficiency, with a particular interest in solar energy harvesting by private residences.

Tim has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Jeff Thomas, Engineering and Advanced Development

Jeff has a diverse background in server and microprocessor design and development managing teams including architecture, logic and physical silicon design, PCB design, mechanical and thermal design, and power supply development. He is familiar with the intricacies of the NPI process having released the first product on a number of new technology nodes and has released both cutting edge high performance products and also high volume, cost critical products. As a Sr. VP, Jeff has managed teams on both the east coast and the west coast and also in Japan and China while working at companies including DEC, SUN, ATI, Amdahl and several startups including co-founder at one of them. He has a number of patents issued.

Jeff earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Tom Curtis, Operations

Tom has extensive experience in Silicon Valley, holding senior roles in business management, supply chain and manufacturing operations with both OEM and contract manufacturing organizations. He has developed and managed both domestic and offshore supply chain partners supporting a broad mix of electronic and mechanical commodities. Tom also has experience with both domestic and offshore contract manufacturing, including supplier development and qualification. He has managed projects from introduction to volume production, being responsible for coordinating NPI to production ramp, quality, and logistics.