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Richard Johnson
CEO, CTO, MBA, PhD in Engineering Mechanics (UW-Madison)
Dr Johnson is the creator of Rockwind Venture Partners.  He has been actively involved in wind turbine rebuilding and research for the past 8 years.  Dr. Johnson has 40 years experience in advanced manufacturing and machinery technology research – including gear and bearing research, condition monitoring, and re-manufacturing.  He started his career working on research of advanced rocket engines for NASA and over the years has headed materials and manufacturing process research departments at large US equipment manufacturers (i.e.  Borg Warner and GATX Corp).  His IITRI group pioneered the use of “superfinishing” for gears in helicopters; and, later, for wind turbine drive trains. His groups were among the earliest to explore the use of condition monitoring systems for industrial machinery – now commonly used on the most expensive utility scale turbines. His team at IITRI won an R&D 100 award for development of laser cladding for use in rebuilding components such as drive shafts.  He has been a business consultant to start-ups that have become listed on NASDAQ (Psych Systems) or otherwise have become large entities that are still privately owned.

Chet Kolodziej
Business Development & CFO, CPA, MBA-Finance
Mr. Kolodziej is the past Executive Director of Freedom Field Renewable Energy in Rockford Illinois. He has 40 years of experience in financial and operational affairs, including a number of external start-ups and corporate initiatives. He has been a program peer reviewer for NSF, National Academies of Science, and DOE Washington, who specializes in the commercial aspects of Renewable Energy. He has been a participant in the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) Growth and Investment conferences in Denver these past several years.  He is also a presenter mentor for the Clean Energy Trust  business plan contests held in Chicago, as well as being a judge (five years) in the regional Fast Pitch business plan events. Mr Kolodziej initiated and obtained $200,000 of start-up capital for RockWind thru the County of Winnebago (Illinois) and is very experienced in regulatory, tax, and investor structuring.

Leif Kyhl Johansen
Director of Field Operations
Mr. Johansen has been actively involved in the wind turbine industry for 25 years, and has worked for many of the Danish wind turbine manufacturers such as Vestas, NEG Micon, Nord Tank and Wind World.  He has worked with joint ventures and projects where installation and commissioning of turbines was his primary area of focus.  Leif has been involved in the wind turbine industry in many locations, among them five years in India where he erected some of the first turbines. He also was key in the implementation of the service department in India. Leif has been an active field service engineer, and has considerable experience in service and maintenance on turbines.  Not only has he been an active participant in the optimization of wind turbines, and of service and maintenance; but as a field trainer, he has trained many service engineers throughout the world and continues to work independently as a consultant in optimization of operation and maintenance of turbines.  Mr. Johansen is the co-owner of a wind turbine farm in Norway.