OCEANSIDE, CA, July 22, 2005 -- Hydranautics, a world leader in membrane technology, has added Upen Bharwada and Randy Truby to its upper management team.
Bharwada joins Hydranautics as president and COO as well as the vice president of Nitto Americas, Hydranautics' parent company's U.S. headquarters. Bringing with him over 24 years of technical and business experience including in water treatment systems, Bharwada holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology., a master's degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and an MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Possessing a strong academic background as well as extensive experience in manufacturing, business development and business management, Bharwada will be a true asset to the Hydranautics and Nitto teams. The deep relationship between the two companies inspires his statement:
"Hydranautics and Nitto Denko have an intellectual property and innovation rich foundation in reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membrane technology influenced by the parent company's deep technology well in surface coating and polymer science. Our business objective is to utilize this foundation, our global manufacturing asset base, our technical, software and applications know-how and commercially strong customer relationships around the world to make sensible decisions. It is our intent that these business decisions will offer a good value to our customers while allowing us to make a sustainable return on invested capital. The RO/NF modules and augmenting component parts business is going through a most exciting and a challenging phase in its growth life cycle and the Technology 'S' curve position may approach an inflection point in the near future. We understand this and aim to manage our business with discipline and focus."
Hydranautics also welcomes back Randy Truby as its new vice president of global marketing and sales. He began working for Hydranautics in early 2002 as vice president of operations. He briefly served as a consultant to the company in 2004, but recently returned as head of the marketing and sales departments. Graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology from San Diego State University, he now has over 36 years of experience in the membrane separations industry. In the early 1990s, Truby served as the president and CEO of Spiral Composites Inc. and from 1997-1998 he was the president and CEO of Fluid Systems Corp.
Truby is board chairman of the Affordable Desalination Collaboration. He's also past president of the International Desalination Association and is currently on its board of directors, serving as treasurer. He's on the board of AMTA, the IDA's U.S. affiliate. His new role at Hydranautics will require him to "focus on the discipline of marketing, product positioning and work with other team leaders at Hydranautics and in the Nitto Membrane Division to make the global implementation strategy cohesive and fiscally responsible." With years of experience in the membrane technology field Truby's expertise will be an integral part of Hydranautics' future as they continue their role as the membrane technology leader.
Based in Oceanside, Calif., with sales offices worldwide, Hydranautics was founded in 1963, and in 1987 became part of the multi-billion dollar Nitto Denko Corp. based in Osaka, Japan. With the exciting addition of Bharwada's and Truby's leadership experience, Hydranautics gains new momentum in their position as the technology leader in membranes for water and process applications.
For more information, see www.membrane.com.
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