A major-league energy veteran with global pop will help guide Applied DNA Sciences’ approach to power-grid protection.
The Stony Brook-based supply-chain, anti-counterfeiting, anti-theft and product-authentication specialist has appointed Robert Catell to its Board of Directors. It’s a big get for the biotech, which develops and markets botanical-DNA-based security and authentication solutions, and a departure of sorts for Catell, who is arguably known best as the one-time chairman of both KeySpan Corp. and National Grid’s U.S. operations.
Catell’s extensive résumé is devoted exclusively to energy concerns. The former chairman of the American Gas Association and leader of corporate boards at numerous energy concerns currently chairs the New York State Smart Grid Consortium and Stony Brook University’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, and boasts a long history of executive leadership and business formation throughout the energy industries.
Applied DNA Sciences CEO James Hayward: Catell knows infrastructure.
Although Applied DNA Sciences’ primary focus is not energy, those experiences could provide enormous benefit now. The company has applied its flagship SigNature DNA authentication and anti-theft products to many disparate industries – from automobile security to law enforcement to missile defense – and has Big Energy in its sights.
Specifically, Catell will “assist in” Applied DNA Sciences’ expansion into the protection of critical power grid and railway infrastructures, the company said in a statement.
Applied DNA Sciences Chairman and CEO James Hayward, who noted his company has been working with Catell “throughout the past several months,” said the newest board member offers “knowledge and insight into important markets that include protecting critical infrastructure as well as power grids and railways.”
“We look forward to his continued leadership and contributions as we work toward expanding our presence in these markets,” Hayward said.
Catell noted that protection of power and transportation assets is critical “not only to the agencies that run these businesses, but to our citizens as well.”
“I look forward to taking an even more active role in helping the team at Applied DNA enter and succeed in these markets,” he said in a statement.
