Chief Financial Officer, Co-Founder & Director
Karl Matthiasson, has formerly served as the Company’s Chairman, CEO and COO. He is one of the two founders of the company and is a chartered engineer.
Before launching DTE in 2013 in collaboration with Sveinn Gudmundsson, Karl worked for many years for engineering companies such as Verkis and HRV Engineering, holding roles as consulting engineer and as a sales and project manager on projects involving all the main aluminium producers in Iceland – Alcoa, Rio Tinto and Century Aluminum.
He has deep expertise in technical project leadership, development, cost estimating, project control, scheduling, supervision, risk assessments, machinery CE compliance, health and safety supervision, process analysis and simulation, value stream mapping and consulting.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland and a Master’s degree in Production Engineering and Management from KTH (Swedish Royal Institute of Technology). He is a Certified Reliability and Maintenance Professional by SMRP (Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals).
Clemens Blum, is a Director of the Board of DTE, effective from October 22, 2021. He currently serves as Board Member of the Buhler Group, RAFI GmbH & Co. KG and Laird Connectivity. He is also a strategic advisor for Advent International and Oaktree Capital.
Clemens spent over 17 years at Schneider Electric, where he was the Industry Business Unit’s EVP between 2010 and 2016. In this role he led a global organization of over 15,000 people researching, defining, developing, manufacturing, selling and supporting industrial automation products, solutions and services.
Clemens holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Furtwangen University, and a Business, Management and Marketing degree from Pforzheim University.
Director
Margrét, currently a Partner at Brunnur Ventures, joined as a Director of the Board of DTE, effective from October 22, 2021. She is also Chairman for Taeknisetur, an Icelandic government owned non-profit company providing core infrastructure and technical support to high tech innovation companies.
For over six years Margret has held various lead managerial roles at the Icelandic cleantech company Carbon Recycling International, building the company from R&D phase to international growth. She has previously worked in corporate finance and restructuring in the National Bank of Iceland and has held various board and council roles at universities, start-up initiatives and in industry.
Margrét holds degrees in Industrial Engineering and Economics from the University of Iceland, focusing specifically on sustainable energy and energy markets.
Director
Tomas Sigurdsson has served as a Director of DTE since April 2021. He currently serves as the CEO of HS Orka, Iceland’s leading private renewable energy company. He was formerly Chief Operating Officer and President of Alcoa, responsible for the daily operations of global assets of the Company’s Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium segments and a member of the Alcoa Executive Team, setting strategic direction for the Company. He co-ordinated the activities of nearly 50 locations across Europe and was accountable for Alcoa’s smelters and refinery in Iceland, Italy, Norway and Spain. Prior to this he was Managing Director of Alcoa Iceland.
Tomas was the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Iceland, has served on the board of Federation of Industries and was also a member of the Executive Committees of the European Aluminium Association, Eurometaux, and the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union.
A graduate of the University of Iceland, Tomas has a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering and a master’s degree in planning from Cornell University,
Chairman of the Board
Richard MacKellar has served as Chairman of DTE since 2020. He is Managing Partner of Chrysalix Venture Capital, an investor in DTE. He is a successful entrepreneur, business leader, university professor and former CEO of start up companies. He joined Chrysalix as Managing Partner in 2007 and has been instrumental in refining the fund’s strategy for investing in intelligent systems, cleantech, and metals and mining technologies for resource intensive industries.
All three of Richard’s start up companies combined advanced intelligent systems with enabling hardware to become world leaders in their fields. From raising $57 million in venture capital financing and growing a company of two to 100 people, to successfully positioning a start-up for acquisition that resulted in annualized investor returns of 45% to 60%, Richard is a powerhouse of business acumen and knowledge gained from 30 years of industry and VC experience in the energy technology sector. Over the years, he has built strong strategic relationships with large corporations including GE, Honeywell, Mitsubishi, three of Canada’s largest utilities, and three larger utilities in the United States that provide him with unparalleled industry insights.
Richard’s expertise includes identifying and commercializing innovation. He sits on the boards of Chrysalix portfolio companies MineSense, HaiLa, and Rockburst Technologies, and is an observer on the board of Feasible.
Richard has a Metallurgy Degree from Sheffield University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He teaches Entrepreneurial Finance in the MBA program at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder
Sveinn Gudmundsson serves as DTE’s CTO, leading all technology development, including concept & product design, technical implementation and production strategy. Sveinn is a co-founder and the original inventor of DTE’s technology, serving as DTE’s Founding CEO for 7 years.
He is a chartered engineer with vast experience in working as a consulting engineer and project manager on projects involving all the main aluminium producers in Iceland. Sveinn has been the lead designer of all of DTE’s products and technologies — his expertise in mechanical engineering, concept design, prototyping, optical assembly and testing, has been critical to the innovation behind DTE’s on-line analyzer equipment,
He formerly served with engineering firms Verkis and HRV Engineering as a technical design manager and technical project manager.
He holds a mechanics degree from the Borgarholtsskoli Comprehensive College and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Reykjavik University.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Leosson is DTE’s Chief Scientific Officer and leads the Company’s scientific research team to advance its core technologies. He is a published expert in physics and optics specialist was formerly Managing Director of Dept. of Materials of the Biotechnology and Energy department in the Innovation Centre in Iceland, after his consolidated experience as Head of Physics and Senior Researcher in the University of Iceland.
Kristjan obtained his B.A. in Philosophy and his B.Sc. engineering in Physics and Materials Science, before further completing a Degree in Physics and also achieved a Ph.D. in Electronic engineering at the Technical University of Denmark.
Chief Executive Officer
Diego Areces has 25+ years’ experience in the industrial automation field. He was formerly with Schneider Electric, where he held the position of Industrial Automation Networks Leader, Mining, Minerals, and Metals President and Process Automation North Asia Hub Leader, responsible for driving growth, transformation, and innovation.
Mr. Areces is one of the early pioneers of Industry 4.0, leading the deployment of internet technologies in industrial devices during the early 2000s. He has been a safety and sustainability champion and a significant contributor to the digital transformation of global industrial customers.
Mr. Areces is a founding member of modbus.org, was a marketing chair of the Interface for Distributed Automation (IDA) organization and a member of the Development Partner Institute for Mining. He holds an MS in Electronic Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a CSS in Administration and Management from Harvard University, US.
