Axion Power Augments Management Team

NEW CASTLE, Pa., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Axion Power International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AXPW), the developer of advanced lead-carbon PbC® batteries, today announced the appointment of three senior executives.  Chairman & CEO Thomas Granville announced that Charles R Trego, 59, will be the Company's new Chief Financial Officer; Philip S Baker, 62, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, a new position; and Jack A Shindle will serve as Vice President/Engineering.  All appointments will be effective as of April 1st.

Granville commented, "As we advance toward commercialization of our technology, it is time to right-size our management, in order to maintain our forward momentum.  All three individuals are seasoned business veterans and we believe their contributions will help propel us to our goals in 2010 and beyond."

Charles R Trego most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Minrad International, an Amex-listed pharmaceutical and medical device company in Orchard Park, NY.  Minrad was acquired by India's Piramal Healthcare in early 2009, and Trego was an integral part of the acquisition strategy and managed the bridge financing through the transition.  Prior to that, from 2005 to 2008, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Elmira NY-based Hardinge Inc, a Nasdaq-listed global machine tool company ($327M in annual revenue), and from 2003 to 2005 he was Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Latham NY-based Latham International ($180M in annual revenue), a privately held manufacturer and marketer of swimming pool components.  After taking a degree in accounting from the University of Dayton in 1972 and achieving his CPA designation in 1973, Trego earned an MBA from the University of Dayton in 1978.  His career began with a position as Senior Auditor with Ernst & Whinney in Dayton, and continued with increasingly responsible positions with Ponderosa Inc, Bojangles of America, Rich Sea Park, Rymer Foods and Rich Products Corporation.  During his 14-year tenure as Chief Financial Officer at Rich Products, sales revenue increased from $650M to more than $1.8B. He is experienced in M&A activities, supply chain processes,  information  systems, business partnering, team building, capital markets and risk management, as well as financial management best practices. While at Rich Products he was also actively involved in multiple aspects of operations.

Philip S Baker was with Santa Fe Springs CA-based Trojan Battery Company from 1997 to 2009.  From 2006 to 2009 he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of a new battery facility  for which he led all the phases of development and operations in Sandersville, GA.  Baker guided the lead-acid battery plant from negotiations and permitting forward, and is considered to be an expert in quality control and documentation, productivity and the maximization of uptime, automation and the management of environmental issues.  Prior to Sandersville, Baker served from 2001 to 2005 at the Trojan plant in Lithonia GA as Senior Vice President and General Manager, where he executed a turn-around in leadership, quality and output, introduced Kaizen events and Six-Sigma tools and improved productive output by 20% in critical bottleneck areas.  Before Lithonia, Baker worked for Trojan in Santa Fe Springs as Director of Operations.  He was with privately held Wyomissing PA-based Glen-Gery Corporation, a manufacturer of building materials where 700 employees reported upstream to him. He began his career at the Houston Brick & Tile Company after taking a degree in Ceramic Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jack A Shindle, 40, joins Axion Power from Westborough MA-based, privately held CTP-Hydrogen Corp, which was developing a hydrogen generator for fuel cells. He served as Operations and Ceramic Manager from mid-2005 until 2009 when he joined Axion as a consultant. Prior to that he was with another Westborough MA venture-backed company, CellTechPower Inc from 2001 to 2005, where he directly supervised a team of scientists, engineers, technicians and operators in the development of a liquid metal anode Solid Oxide Fuel Cell.  Before joining CellTechPower he was a Senior Manufacturing Engineer with Worcester MA-based Saint-Gobain Industrial Ceramics Company from 1993 to 2001.  Saint-Gobain concentrated on components for semiconductor processing.  Shindle has several patents issued and pending, and has co-authored several articles on hydrogen generation.  He earned a degree in ceramic engineering and science from Pennsylvania State University in 1992 and a Masters degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2001. Shindle will report to the CEO.  

About Axion Power International, Inc.

Axion has developed and patented a next generation energy storage device that won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Technology Award for North America in the field of lead-acid batteries. According to Frost & Sullivan, Axion's new PbC® batteries have "the potential to revitalize the lead-acid battery industry by breathing new life into an established technology that is not well suited to the requirements of important new applications like hybrid electric vehicles and renewable power."

Axion Power International, Inc. is the industry leader in the field of lead-acid-carbon energy storage technologies. Axion believes this new battery technology is the only class of advanced battery that can be assembled on existing lead-acid battery production lines throughout the world without significant changes to production equipment and fabrication processes. It also believes it will be able to manufacture carbon electrode assemblies in volume at low cost using standard automated production methods that are commonly used in other industries. If and when its electrode manufacturing methods are fully developed, Axion believes it will be able to sell carbon electrode assemblies as virtual plug-and-play replacements for lead-based negative electrodes used by all other lead-acid battery manufacturers. Axion's future goal, after filling their plant's lead-carbon battery production capacity, is to become the leading supplier of carbon electrode assemblies for the global lead-acid battery industry.

For more information, visit www.axionpower.com

SOURCE Axion Power International, Inc.