FlexTech Alliance Elects John Batey Chairman of the Board

FlexTech Alliance, focused on developing the electronic display and flexible, printed electronics industry supply chains, announced that Dr. John Batey has been named chairman of the Governing Board. Dr. Batey has over 25 years experience developing and commercializing display technology and most recently served as president of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. (QMT). Dr. Batey will serve this term for two years, replacing Thomas T. Edman of Applied Materials, who served as FlexTech Alliance chairman since 2009.

“John’s extensive industry experience, broad management skills and exceptional technical background have led to significant contributions to the display and emerging electronics industries,” said FlexTech Alliance president Michael Ciesinski. “We’re excited to have John deploy his leadership skills in helping our organization grow the display and flexible electronics industries.” Ciesinski added, “The Governing Board and membership extend our appreciation to Tom Edman for his service to the FlexTech Alliance. Under his guidance, we made substantial progress in supporting the display industry and expanding into multiple markets for flexible electronics, such as photovoltaics and sensors.”

In his role as FlexTech Alliance chairman, Dr. Batey is charged with overseeing the organization’s decisions on policy, program content and disposition of funds available to the consortium for sponsoring technology-related R&D projects. During his term, he will work with the governing board and all FlexTech Alliance stakeholders to further the organization’s development in a manner that increases the consortium’s value.

“The electronic display and flexible, printed electronics industries have before them both immense opportunities as well as significant challenges,” said Dr. Batey. “As an industry, we are all acutely aware of the role advanced supply chain development and management plays in both expanding and enabling new display technologies and associated infrastructure. The FlexTech Alliance plays an important role in that development and I am honored to have been chosen to lead this organization for the next term.”

Dr. Batey joined Qualcomm with the acquisition of Iridigm Display Corporation in 2004, where he was COO and acting CEO. Following the acquisition, he served as assistant general manager of QMT until 2007 when he became president of QMT. Dr. Batey began his professional career in 1983 as a research staff member at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center working on the physics of insulating films.

In 1995, Dr. Batey left IBM to join Xerox Corporation and worked with the management team in the Electronics and Imaging Laboratory at Xerox PARC to spinout an independent company, dpiX Incorporated. At dpiX, Dr. Batey was a corporate officer and held several positions, including vice president of operations and senior vice president of engineering, and helped lead the commercialization of large area, solid-state X-ray imaging devices from laboratory-scale demos through medical product qualification and into volume production. He left dpiX to join Iridigm in 2001. Dr. Batey holds a Ph.D. in applied physics from the University of Durham, UK.