Team

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CEO, Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder

Dr. Michael Vestel is a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience in academic, corporate, and research environments. Renowned for his exceptional business acumen and extensive scientific knowledge, he has a proven track record of developing and delivering innovative system solutions, with six issued and two pending patents. As the CEO and Chairman of KlatchWERX, he combines strategic vision with hands-on expertise, guiding teams to achieve ambitious goals. Dr. Vestel was previously CTO and VP of Flawless Photonics, where he secured over $35 million in contracts from agencies like NASA, NSF, ESA and DoD, and achieved industry milestones, including the world’s longest draw of optical fiber in space. He also founded Deep Dive Engineering, transforming innovative concepts into market-ready products, and served as CTO of Novasentis, where he advanced haptic technology until the company was acquired. Dr. Vestel received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a  M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA. His leadership continues to push the boundaries of innovation in technology. 

CTO, Co-Founder

Dr. Alex Hallock is an experienced scientist and manager with over 20 years of successful execution on high-risk high-payoff projects. He is particularly interested in translating scientific discoveries from an academic setting into products in the marketplace. Over his career, he has worked in synthetic chemistry, microbiology, lasers and optics, quantum mechanics, medical devices, nanomaterials, and spectroscopy. For the last 10 years, he has worked in early-stage startups to bring technical and financial growth. Dr. Hallock has been a director at Flawless Photonics, CTO at GALT (now Isolation Biosystems), and a researcher and program manager at SRI International. He has worked in academic settings (postdoc at Columbia University), as a government contractor to defense and intelligence agencies, and in business. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University. Dr. Hallock is the author of several technical papers and 20 patents.