Dr. Gerald Timothy Keep
President & Owner, Missing Octave Insights, Inc.,
A Consulting and Creative Services Company
www.MissingOctave.com

Summary

Experienced in cradle-to-grave commercial development of polymeric materials for specialty molding, sheet, and fiber products, but I am energized by any campaign to develop and commercialize new materials or their application. Currently seeking targeted projects in New Product Development and Innovation that require a "New Range of Perspectives" be brought to all aspects of a developing business, including fundamental understanding of principles, creative development of robust product and process design, quality assurance, troubleshooting manufacturing processes, technical literature and training, and marketing strategy, as well as coordination between all these elements.

Accomplishments

• Commercialized 20 families in 10 incrementally developed generations of glass fiber reinforced THERMX PCT polyester polymers for injection molding of electronics components. This business peaked at about $25M/yr revenue before it was sold to a fortune 100 company.
• Commercialized flame retardant masterbatches for polyester fiber and sheet products.
• Commercialized a portfolio of flow and crystallization modifiers for fiber and film.
• Commercialized a supertough unreinforced crystalline polyester PCTA for molding.

Work History

• 1986-2003, Development Associate at Eastman Chemical Company.
• Commercialized an average of $5M/yr in Net Present Value new products.
• Recognized as company expert in flammability and fiber reinforced materials.
• Developed company database of polymer additives technology.
• Involved in all aspects of a single business from its birth to its achieving and exceeding cost of capital, followed by spin-off, which allowed me to experience the varying stages of growth and development a business can go through.
• 2002-2004, Owner, LIFE Care, Inc., a home health care organization.
• 2004- present, Owner & President, Missing Octave Insights, Inc., consulting.
• 2003- present, Contract Consultant for a cutting edge specialty fiber producer, bringing enhanced polymer formulation technology to their bicomponent and novel cross-section fiber capabilities.
• 2003- present, Contract Consultant for a masterbatch producer, expanding and improving their line of colors and additives to include flame retardants for polyester, and enhancements in flow, crystallization, stabilization, friction reduction, dyability, anti-microbial, and other properties for films, fibers and textiles.

Education

• 1986, Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, Stanford University.
• Selected as Teaching Assistant for graduate level Quantum Mechanics.
• Coursework in Polymer Chemistry, Polymer Physics, Polymer Rheology, and Materials Science & Engineering.
• 1981, B.A. in Chemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Additional Items

• Analytical skills include operation of Differential Scanning Calorimeter, Scanning Electron Microscope, Melt Flow Rheometer, Instron Tensile Testing, Dynamic Light Scattering Apparatus, Fabry-Perot Interferometer, etc.
• Training in Negotiation, Meeting Leadership, Effective Presentations, Selection Interviewing, Project Management, Statistical Process Control, and more.
• Electroless copper plating experience.
• Experienced with ISO and practical quality system development.
• Have developed four websites – www.MissingOctave.com, our subsidiary www.RememberingTogether.com, and two for other corporations.

Information About Missing Octave Insights, Inc., a Consulting and Creative Services Co.

MOII was formed to market the creative products of the Keep/Waltner family, ranging from music to writing to, of course, scientific and technical consulting.

We were joined in 2004 by Bill Haile, Eastman Retiree with 34 years industrial experience, President of the Fiber Society, who brings extensive knowledge of the fiber and textile market, as well as advanced business and marketing methodologies.

MOII is licensed to do business in the state of Tennessee, and stands ready as a tool for various facilitating activities including resin trading and IP arrangements.

MOII is working on its second patent filing, its first trademark, its first book publication, its first e-commerce venture, and offers such creativity products over the web as the "Creative Brainstorming Kit" and "Creative Insight Cards".

Outside Interests

• Director of Finance, Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.
  Author, "Today's Stoic, Tomorrow's Hero?" about dealing with terminal illness in the family (in press).
• Adoptive father of two boys.
• Game Designer.
• At various times a Master Freemason, Big Brother, Cub Scout Leader, soccer coach, international folkdancer, blood donor, craftsman, artist, and amateur musician/roadie.

Compensation

• Flat rate plus expenses for small scale tasks such as workshops, troubleshooting operations, and editing of technical literature, patent applications, or procedures.
• Negotiated fee or commission for larger scale projects such as R&D program development, technical or strategy analysis, quality system overhauls, internal or external website development, product portfolio development or rationalization.
• Creation of new Intellectual Property to give you a competitive edge, by arrangement.
• Please call to discuss your needs, free of charge.

Contact Information

Cell Phone: 423-360-6354
Fax/Home: 423-288-9336
E-mail: DrKeep@StanfordAlumni.org
Mail: PO Box 3203, Kingsport, TN 37664-0203

Publication History Includes:

• Inventor or co-inventor of ten current US Patents, with others pending.
• 6,818,293 Stabilized polyester fibers and films.
• 6,277,905 Process for improving the toughness of PCT formulations by adding rubber impact modifiers.
• H1,987 Non-volatile plasticizers and flow aids for polyesters.
• 5,965,648 Poly(alkylene ether)s as plasticizers and flow aids in poly (1,4-cyclohexanedimethylene terephthalate) resins.
• 5,624,987 Polyalkylene ethers as plasticizers and flow aids in poly(1,4-cyclohexanedimethylene terephthalate) resins.
• 4,985,293 Polymer blend for molded circuit boards and other selectively conductive molded devices.
• 4,978,569 Process for preparing selectively metallized articles.
• 4,917,761 Method of rendering polymeric materials hydrophilic for etching.
• 4,879,081 Process of making fused, oriented-grain polymeric materials.
• 4,874,809 Reinforced polyesters, article thereof and method of making low warpage articles.
• 2005 INTC St. Louis, "Flame Retardant PET for Fiber and Nonwovens."
• 2001 SMTA Chicago, "Thermoplastic Connector Housings in a Lead-Free Wave Soldering Environment."
• 1990 IICIT Symposium, "Bending the Rules with Snap-Fit Connections."
• 1990 Plastics Processing Society & Virginia Polytechnic Institute, "Ultimate Glass Fiber Length, Fiber Entanglement, and other aspects of Short Glass Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics following Extrusion Compounding."
• 1990 UT Knoxville, "Warpage into the Third Dimension: The Search for the Elusive Factors in Development of a Low Warp Grade of Glass Fiber Reinforced PET."
• 1988 Macromolecules, "Dynamics of Rodlike Macromolecules in Nondilute Solutions: Poly(n-Alkyl isocyanates)."
• 1986 Thesis, "Concentration Effects on the Dynamics of Rodlike Poly(Alkyl Isocyanates) in Solution."
• 1985 Macromolecules, "Reevaluation of the Dynamic Model for Rotational Diffusion of Thin, Rigid Rods in Semidilute Solution."
• Over 300 internal technical reports at Eastman Chemical Company.