APEI Team Wins 2012 Arkansas Small Business Award

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APEI management team, l-r: Alex Lostetter, Jared Hornberger, Marcelo Schupbach, and Sharmila Mounce.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The four-member management team of Arkansas Power Electronics International has been named the 2012 Arkansas Small Business Person of the Year, in the team category, by the Small Business Administration. The APEI management team members are Alexander Lostetter, president and chief operating officer; Jared Hornberger, director of manufacturing; Sharmila Mounce, business operations manager; and Roberto Marcelo Schupbach, chief technology officer.

APEI was founded in 1997 and is located in the Arkansas Research and Technology Park on the University of Arkansas campus. The company has grown from one employee when it began to more than 35 employees, most of them either with a degree or pursuing a degree from the University of Arkansas. The management team members are all graduates of the university College of Engineering. Lostetter has a doctorate in microelectronics-photonics; Schupbach has a doctorate in electrical engineering; Hornberger and Mounce both have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

APEI has expanded from a 100-square-foot work space to a plant with over 20,000 square feet that includes multi-million dollar laboratory and manufacturing facilities for advanced electronics. Additional expansion for 2012 and 2013 includes plans to add 15,000 square feet in the existing plant and hire approximately 20 employees.

“We are excited about the ongoing growth of our company,” said Mounce. “It is great to see how the employees’ hard work and dedication to APEI is being rewarded through the continued success of the company.”

APEI's core business is to develop, manufacture and market state-of-the-art technology in high performance, high energy-efficiency power electronics systems. APEI's technology reduces energy losses of electrical power systems by more than 90 per cent and has the potential to save billions of dollars per year in wasted energy, when implemented on a mass scale.

APEI is recognized internationally in the development and marketing of state-of the-art technology in power electronics systems, electronic motor drives, and power electronics packaging. The company has filed for or been awarded more than two dozen patents on its high performance silicon carbide power module technology.

The Arkansas Research and Technology Park is the only technology incubator in the state associated with the University of Arkansas. It offers a unique business, research, and entrepreneurial environment to nurture innovation and commercialization of breakthrough technologies to stimulate Arkansas' knowledge-based economy and provide quality employment opportunities for University of Arkansas graduates.