Corporate Relations

Andy Rindos is the head of the RTP Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), which coordinates university relations for the IBM community in NC. Andy is also the World Wide CAS Strategist, responsible for creating new centers - with currently 26 centers across the globe. Previously, Andy has headed Tivoli performance, as well as the WebSphere Technology Institute. Andy is an IBM Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM), an executive technical resource, as well as an adjunct professor at NC State. He joined IBM in 1988, after receiving his PhD in Electrical Engineering (Control Theory) from the University of Maryland (College Park). Prior to IBM, he was a neurophysiologist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda MD.

 Caren Andersis vice president, transmission operations and planning for Progress Energy Carolinas. She is responsible for operations, maintenance, testing, construction, engineering, planning and asset management of the transmission system, including substations. 

 Eric P. Pearson is the Sector Director of Development Programs for the Electronic Systems sector of Northrop Grumman Corporation.  After several years as an organizational Staff Manager and the Antenna Integrated Product Team lead for major radar programs he began the development of Internship, Co-op, New Graduate Engineering rotation and Early Career Leadership Training Programs. Eric carries a passion for assisting soon-to-be and recent university graduates as they develop their technical, professional and leadership skills through their early careers in industry.

Gary S. May is the Dean of the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In his previous role as Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he served as chief academic officer and provides leadership to over 110 faculty members and almost 2,400 students in the School. Dr. May previously served as executive assistant to Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough from 2002-2005. In this position, Dr. May acted as Dr. Clough\'s chief liaison to a variety of Georgia Tech constituencies and carried out actions on behalf of the president.

Dr. May joined the ECE faculty in 1991 as a member of the School\'s microelectronics group. His research is in the field of computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits. He was a National Science Foundation "National Young Investigator" (1993-98) and was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing (1997-2001). He has authored over 200 articles and technical presentations in the area of IC computer-aided manufacturing. In 2001, he was named Motorola Foundation Professor, and was appointed associate chair for Faculty Development.

Dr. May is the founder of Georgia Tech\'s Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science (SURE) program, a summer research program designed to attract talented minority students into graduate school. He also is the founder and director of Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science program (FACES), a program designed to encourage minority engagement in engineering and science careers. Dr. May was a National Science Foundation and an AT&T Bell Laboratories graduate fellow, and has worked as a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

Dr. May is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He received the B.E.E. degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1985 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 and 1991, respectively.

 Jan van Dokkum is an Operating Partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with the specific task of assisting the Greentech ventures toward commercialization.   He brings many years of experience in building organizations to achieve rapid growth in the areas of sales, marketing, manufacturing, product development, quality and supply chain development.

Nelson Peeler is vice president of system planning and operations for Duke Energy’s U.S. Franchised Electric and Gas organization. He leads the group responsible for the real-time monitoring and control of the bulk electric transmission and distribution systems, as well as transmission system planning for Duke Energy. He was named to his current position in January 2010.  Previously, Peeler served as vice president of performance support. He led the power delivery support team for five states served by the company, including the areas of business planning, contract management, IT integration, training, labor strategy, resource planning and process improvement.  He joined Duke Power in 1988 and  has held a variety of leadership roles within the power delivery and engineering departments.

The Faith, N.C., native graduated from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from Queens University. He is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Peeler serves on the board of directors of the North American Energy Standards Board and is a member of the Edison Electric Institute’s Distribution Executive and Reliability Executive Advisory Committees. He chairs the Carolinas Energy Workforce Development Consortium and serves on the board of directors of the North Carolina State Engineering Foundation and the advisory board of the Computer, Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Technology (CEEET) department at Central Piedmont Community College.

He and his wife, Lorie, have a son and a daughter.

Robbie is the Director of Advanced Technologies at Troxler Electronic Laboratories in Research Triangle Park, NC.  Troxler Electronics was founded by Robbie\'s father, William Troxler, a 1953 NC State graduate.  Robbie received his BS in Electrical Engineering from NC State in 1983 and his MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.  The Troxler Family has been a long time supporter of the ECE Department making major donations the Troxler Design Center, the ECE Department and the College of Engineering. 

Tony Montalvo joined Analog Devices in 2000 and founded the Raleigh design center on NCSU’s Centennial Campus.  He earned a B.S. in Physics from Loyola University in 1985 and an M.S.E.E. from Columbia University in 1987.  From 1987 to 1991 he was with Advanced Micro Devices where he was involved in the design of flash memories.  He received the Ph.D. degree from North Carolina State University in 1995.  

He was with Ericsson from 1995 to 2000 where he led the RF IC design group.  He has been an Adjunct Professor in the ECE department at NCSU and was named the Outstanding Teacher in 1995.  He served on the technical program committee of the International Solid State Circuits Conference from 2000 to 2008.  He has 25 patents granted or pending.

Wesley B. (Wes) Covell is vice president of Strategy, and chief growth officer for Harris Corporation. In this position, Mr. Covell is responsible for the Emerging Business Opportunities (EBO) initiative, the EBO Enterprise Team, enterprise-wide growth, and the corporation\'s strategic growth plan.

Prior to being named to his current position, Mr. Covell was president of the Government Communications Systems Division\'s (GCSD) Defense Programs business unit and responsible for communications systems, networks, and products for military aerospace, terrestrial, and maritime applications.

Since joining Harris, Mr. Covell has held positions of increasing responsibility, including division vice president of engineering for GCSD, vice president in the corporate technology group, and vice president of engineering for the Defense Programs business unit.

Prior to joining Harris in 1990, Mr. Covell was a systems engineer with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, working on communications systems for the U.S. Navy and Army.  He earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and a master of science in electrical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. He is also a graduate of the Mahler Advanced Management Skills Program.