Meet the Team
Founders
DexMat’s co-founders are among the founding minds of the carbon nanomaterials industry.
Our technical team also includes three additional Rice Pasquali Lab PhDs.
Together DexMat has unmatched expertise in the production of high-performance and highly scalable carbon nanomaterials.
CO-FOUNDER / CTO
Dmitri Tsentalovich, PhD
Dmitri began his career defining the industry’s base understanding of how carbon nanotube properties affect carbon nanotube fiber properties, unlocking the high performance DexMat demonstrates today. He has over 15 years experience in CNT fiber technology.
CO-FOUNDER / CHIEF SCIENCE ADVISOR
Matteo Pasquali, PhD
Matteo co-invented the technology with Nobel laureate, Rick Smalley, PhD, and created the scientific base for DexMat’s CNT fiber spinning. Today he leads DexMat’s science efforts. His experience includes 20+ years in CNTs and CNT fiber technology, 230+ articles, 20K citations, Kavli Prize Winner, Fellow of The Society of Rheology, and AIChE 2025 Braskem Award for Excellence in Materials Engineering and Science.
Leadership
CEO & BOARD DIRECTOR
Bryan Guido Hassin
Seasoned climatetech entrepreneur with $400M+ in exits. Former Cofounder and CEO at Third Derivative, driving $2.5B+ investment in 200+ gigaton potential climatetech startups.
CHIEF OF STAFF
Jill Dupré
Previous strategic leadership as Associate Director of the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado. Expert in university IP commercialization. J.D., University of Colorado School of Law
HEAD OF MARKETING
Asena Hertz
Built and led marketing teams at startups and established companies. Previously VP Product Marketing at Turbonomic (acquired by IBM for $2B), then Program Director, Product Marketing at IBM.
Team
SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Colin Young, PhD
APPLICATION SPECIALIST
Sofia Izaguirre
PROCESS DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER
Oliver Dewey, PhD
PRODUCTION TECHNICIAN
Barivure Norbana
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Cody Jones
BUSINESS OPERATIONS CATALYST
Maayan Hotam
Advisors
Natnael Behabtu, PhD
Joe Trentacosta, PhD
Bernard Duroc-Danner, PhD
Sunit Patel
John Jaggers
Maury Peiperl, PhD
Corey Billington, PhD
Scott Nyquist
Sten Gustafson