Akoustis Appoints Ken Boller as Chief Financial Officer
Akoustis Technologies has appointed Ken Boller as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Boller, who joined Akoustis in 2017 and has served as Interim CFO since 2018, brings over 25 years of finance experience to the role. He is committed to cost control and capital allocation to support sales growth and capacity expansion. The company is actively ramping production of its Wi-Fi 6 and 5G XBAW™ filter solutions and plans to increase annual production capacity to approximately 500 million filters. This leadership change aims to strengthen Akoustis amidst rapid market growth.
- Ken Boller has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer, bringing valuable experience and continuity.
- Akoustis is ramping production of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G filter solutions, indicating strong market demand.
- The company plans to increase production capacity significantly to 500 million filters per year.
- None.
•Boller Joined Akoustis in 2017; Brings Over 25 Years’ Finance Experience
Charlotte, N.C., Feb. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) (“Akoustis” or the “Company”), an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced the appointment of Ken Boller as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Boller joined the Company in 2017 as Corporate Controller and has served in the role of Interim Chief Financial Officer since 2018.
Mr. Boller will continue to operate out of the North Carolina headquarters of Akoustis and will continue to lead the finance team in the new position. Prior to Akoustis, he was a Regional Controller and Corporate Director of Accounting at Ecolab in Charlotte, NC, responsible for all US-based manufacturing plants in the Chemical division. Mr. Boller held senior roles at ATI Allvac, AWWC, and other firms after graduating from Rutgers University and becoming a Certified Public Accountant.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “I am pleased to announce Ken’s promotion to Chief Financial Officer. He has executed the role of Interim CFO with excellence and has been instrumental in building a world-class finance operation at Akoustis. Ken has successfully navigated many challenges as we ramp commercialization of our products and scale our manufacturing facility, and the Board and I believe he has demonstrated unique knowledge, commitment, and experience to help Akoustis grow its business in this rapidly changing environment.”
Ken Boller, the new Chief Financial Officer, stated, “It is a great honor to become the CFO of this rapidly growing company. Akoustis is emerging as a leader in high-frequency BAW micro-filter solutions, and I am committed to diligent cost control while allocating the necessary capital to support continued capacity expansion and sales growth.”
Akoustis is actively delivering volume production of its Wi-Fi 6 tandem filter solutions, shipping multiple 5G small cell XBAW™ filter solutions, delivering initial designs of its new 5G mobile filter solutions to multiple customers and is now entering the market with its new Wi-Fi 6E coexistence XBAW™ filter solutions.
Given the rapidly growing sales funnel activity as well as ongoing interaction with customers regarding expected ramps in 5G mobile, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E in calendar 2022, the Company plans to increase the annual production capacity at its New York fab to approximately 500 million filters per year.
About Akoustis Technologies, Inc.
Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com/) is a high-tech BAW RF filter solutions company that is pioneering next-generation materials science and MEMS wafer manufacturing to address the market requirements for improved RF filters - targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and higher output power compared to incumbent polycrystalline BAW technology deployed today. The Company utilizes its proprietary and patented XBAWTM manufacturing process to produce bulk acoustic wave RF filters for mobile and other wireless markets, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and digital back end. Superior performance is driven by the significant advances of poly-crystal, high-purity and single-crystal piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology which enables optimal trade-offs between critical power, frequency and bandwidth performance specifications.
Akoustis plans to service the fast growing multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated device manufacturer (IDM) business model. The Company owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015 registered commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 / class 1000 cleanroom facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter wafers - for the design, development, fabrication and packaging of RF filters, MEMS and other semiconductor devices. Akoustis Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in the Piedmont technology corridor near Charlotte, North Carolina.
Forward-Looking Statements
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Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated include, without limitation, risks relating to our ability to obtain adequate financing and sustain our status as a going concern; our limited operating history; our inability to generate revenues or achieve profitability; the results of our research and development activities; our inability to achieve acceptance of our products in the market; the possibility that the anticipated benefits from business acquisitions (including the acquisition of RFMi) cannot be realized in full or at all or may take longer to realize than expected; the possibility that costs or difficulties related to the integration of acquired businesses’ (including RFMi’s) operations will be greater than expected and the possibility of disruptions to our business during integration efforts and strain on management time and resources; the impact of a pandemic or epidemic or a natural disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on our operations, financial condition and the worldwide economy, including its impact on our ability to access the capital markets; general economic conditions, including upturns and downturns in the industry; shortages in supplies needed to manufacture our products, or needed by our customers to manufacture devices incorporating our products; our limited number of patents; failure to obtain, maintain, and enforce our intellectual property rights; claims of infringement, misappropriation or misuse of third party intellectual property that, regardless of merit, could result in significant expense and loss of our intellectual property rights; our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our reliance on third parties to complete certain processes in connection with the manufacture of our products; product quality and defects; existing or increased competition; our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell products based on our technologies; our ability to meet the required specifications of customers and achieve qualification of our products for commercial manufacturing in a timely manner; our ability to successfully scale our New York wafer fabrication facility and related operations while maintaining quality control and assurance and avoiding delays in output; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any of our products; our ability to achieve design wins from current and future customers; contracting with customers and other parties with greater bargaining power and agreeing to terms and conditions that may adversely affect our business; risks related to doing business in foreign countries, including China; any security breaches, cyber-attacks or other disruptions compromising our proprietary information and exposing us to liability; our failure to innovate or adapt to new or emerging technologies; our failure to comply with regulatory requirements; results of any arbitration or litigation that may arise; stock volatility and illiquidity; dilution caused by any future issuance of common stock or securities that are convertible into or exercisable for common stock; our failure to implement our business plans or strategies; and our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections of the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Considering these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking statements regarding future events and circumstances discussed in this document may not occur, and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements included in this document speak only as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly or privately any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, for any reason after the date of this document to conform these statements to new information, actual results or to changes in our expectations.
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