The People
People
LEADERSHIP
Paul E. Mann
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Paul Mann co-founded ASP Isotopes in September 2021 and serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Paul has more than 20 years of experience on Wall Street investing in healthcare and chemicals companies. He’s worked at Soros Fund Management, Highbridge Capital Management and Morgan Stanley. Paul started his career as a research scientist at Procter and Gamble, and he is named as the inventor of numerous skin creams in the Oil of Olay range of cosmetics. Paul has an MA (Cantab) and a Master of Engineering from Cambridge University, UK where he studied Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering, and he is a CFA charter holder.
Robert Ainscow
Chief Financial Officer
Robert Ainscow co-founded ASP Isotopes in September 2021 and serves as the Chief Financial Officer. He has more than 20 years experience in finance, having worked at Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Investec Bank. He started his career in the legal and regulatory department with responsibility for M&A and capital markets oversight. He later transitioned into the capital markets business units and became a Senior Transactor, structuring a broad range of bespoke transactions and funding programs for balance sheet assets and on behalf of clients, more latterly for smaller, early-stage companies in niche markets as an advisor, director, or founder. Mr Ainscow holds a BA (Law & Modern Languages) from Bristol UWE in the UK.
Hendrik Strydom, PhD
Director, Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Strydom has over thirty years’ of experience in isotope enrichment. He co-developed the isotope separation technology, known as “Aerodynamic Separation Process” (ASP), which is the technology backbone of ASP Isotopes. Hendrik’s work on the separation of isotopes started when he was employed as a scientist at the South African Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC), where he specialized in the laser separation of heavy isotopes. Hendrik left AEC in 1993 to co-found Klydon, an isotope enrichment company based in South Africa. Dr. Strydom holds a BSc(Ed) (Physics & Maths) (1981), followed by the Hons course at the University of Pretoria (1983). Dr Strydom also holds an MSc (Physics) from the University of Port Elizabeth (1990) and a PhD (Physics) (2000) from the University of Natal (Durban).
Peter Shaefer co-founded our company in September 2021 and has served as our EVP and Chief Operating Officer since October 2021. Peter has held numerous c-suite executive positions in both public and private companies in the roles of Chairman, CEO, Head of Business Transformation, Head of Business Development and CFO. He has significant experience in fiscal planning and oversight, start-ups, turnarounds, project management, development and implementation of corporate strategies and business development transactions. Peter’s sector experience includes consumer goods, petrochemicals, oil and gas, logistics and energy generation. Until the end of 2015, Peter was a key executive of Coty Inc, serving on its Executive Committee that guided the business from a subscale underperforming privately owned regional company to a global public $4 billion beauty player. At Coty, Peter held a number of roles encompassing strategy development, M&A, market expansion, joint ventures and regional CFO EMEA and Asia. He was the de facto Corporate Project Manager overseeing all global restructuring, cash management, acquisition integration and new market entry initiatives. Subsequent to leaving Coty Inc, Peter has and continues to sit on a number of Boards providing business development and turnaround plus financial management expertise. Most recently in October 2019 he co-founded La Perla Beauty Ltd, funded by Tennor. Peter is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BSc (Hons) in Geology with Industrial Management from the University of Liverpool.
Senior Management
Robert Ainscow
Head of Finance & Business Development
Robert Ainscow Co-founded ASP Isotopes Inc in September 2021 and serves as the Head of Finance & Business Development. He has more than 20 years experience in Finance, where he worked at Global Investment Banks Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns and Investec Bank. He started career in the Legal and Regulatory Department with responsibility for M&A and Capital Markets oversight before moving into the capital markets business units and becoming a Senior Transactor structuring a broad range of bespoke transactions and funding programmes for balance sheet assets and on behalf of clients, more latterly for smaller, early-stage companies in niche markets as an advisor, director, or founder. Mr Ainscow holds a BA (Law & Modern Languages) form Bristol UWE in the UK.
Ben Swanepoel
Senior Chemist
Ben Swanepoel has 44 years of experience in the petrochemical, nuclear, chemical process, aerospace and defense industries as chemical technologist, consultant and project manager. Ben was employed by various companies in South Africa such as Sasol, The Uranium Enrichment Corporation of SA (UCOR), The Atomic Energy Corporation of SA (AEC), Thermtron Technologies (as Technical Director) and Klydon. Ben holds a National Diploma in Chemistry (1978) and a Higher National Diploma in Chemistry (1986) from the Technikon Pretoria (currently the Tshwane University of Technology).
Non-Executive Directors & Advisors
Einar Ronander
Chief Scientific Advisor
Prof Einar Ronander is globally recognized as a leading scientist in the field of isotope separation for medical and industry production. He has over 50 years of experience in isotope separation, which covers the mass spectrum from very light isotope systems to very heavy isotope systems. He pioneered the ASP process in South Africa and co-developed the intellectual property and the industrial application. He also pioneered the Molecular Laser Isotope Separation (MLIS) and the Atomic Vapour Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS) for heavy volatile isotopes at the South African Atomic Energy Corporation (1977 – 1997). Einar has an extensive knowledge of and experience in gas centrifuge separation, distillation separation, electromagnetic separation, infra-red lasers for MLIS, and visible lasers for AVLIS. Einar obtained a PhD (physics) at the University of Stellenbosch and a PhD (chemistry) at the University of Pretoria. He serves on the Advisory Board for Science (Univ. Stellenbosch) and the Steering Committee of the Laser Institute at University of Stellenbosch. Einar serves as reviewer of global scientific papers for leading journals, and his own published papers rate in the top 10% globally by citations standards. He performs as an invited speaker at global conferences and is an Extra Ordinary Prof (physics).
Duncan Moore, PhD
Director
Duncan Moore, Ph.D. has served on the board of directors since October 2021. Duncan has been a partner at East West Capital Partners (which has a focus on making investments in the healthcare industry in Asia) since May 2008. From 1991 to 2008, Duncan was a top-ranked pharmaceutical analyst at Morgan Stanley, leading the firm’s global healthcare equity research team. Duncan was educated in Edinburgh and went to the University of Leeds where he studied Biochemistry and Microbiology. He has a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, where he was also a post-doctoral research fellow.
Todd Wider, MD
Director
Todd Wider, MD. has served on the board of directors since October 2021. Todd is the Executive Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of Emendo Biotherapeutics, which focuses on highly specific and differentiated next generation gene editing. Todd previously consulted with a number of entities in the biotechnology industry and has served on numerous boards of directors during his career. Todd is an active, honorary member of the medical staff of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he worked for over 20 years. Todd received an MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was Rudin Fellow, and an AB, with high honors and Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University. Todd completed his residency in general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. He completed his postdoctoral fellowships in complex reconstructive surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he was Chief Microsurgery Fellow, and in craniofacial surgery at the University of Miami. Todd is also a principal in Wider Film Projects, a documentary film company focused on producing films with sociopolitical resonance that have won Academy, Emmy and Peabody Awards.