Gary Shimozono, P.E., VP RD&E, Navatek, Ltd., received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii. He joined Pacific Marine in 1995 as Corporate Engineer supporting the company's advanced ship design activities (SWATH, SLICE, MIDFOIL, HYSWAC and WAVERIDER); and ship systems monitoring and control software. Prior to joining Pacific Marine, He worked for 16 years as a Mechanical Engineer, Systems Test Engineer and ultimately as a Project Engineer with Hughes Aircraft Co. In these capacities, he was responsible for all aspects of mechanical design, analysis, fabrication, and assembly of electro-mechanical systems. Tasks included managing the mechanical engineering and hardware development of a $150 million program involving state-of-the-art electro-mechanical systems for an anti-missile system for the U.S. Dept. of Defense; and managing an award-winning team which developed, within 18 months, a prototype air-to-surface missile from conception to successful test.

Todd Peltzer, P.E., Director of Programs, Navatek Ltd., received a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979, and he received a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and the advanced degree of Naval Engineer from MIT in 1989. He joined Navatek in 1999 as a Program Manager supporting a variety of projects including full-scale hydrodynamic measurements on MIDFOIL and the AHFID electric drive demonstration. Prior to joining Navatek, he completed twenty years of active duty in the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of Commander. As an Engineering Duty Officer and Salvage Officer, he gained extensive work experience in ship repair and construction techniques, design and engineering, ship salvage and towing, and deep-sea diving. His assignments included Project Manager for several multi-million dollar ship repair projects on both surface ships and submarines, including the overhaul of a Los Angeles class submarine’s nuclear reactor for which he coordinated the safe and timely completion of complex repairs and modernization of reactor plant components. He has been a Licensed Professional Engineer (Mechanical) in the State of Hawaii since 1998. He served as Chairman of the Hawaii Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (1998-1999) and he is also an active member of the American Society of Naval Engineers.

Jeff Kline, Vice President-Naval Architecture/Systems, Navatek, Ltd., came to the company from Lockheed Martin where he served as Technical Manager/Capture Manager in the Ship Systems Program Office developing advanced marine vehicles for naval and commercial applications, including naval high-speed connector vessels for the littoral operations, commercial off-shore crew and pilot boats, and high-speed ferry transportation. Key project responsibilities included serving as capture manager for seabasing opportunities; program manager for the NAVSEA Focus Mission Ship Program; program manager for the oceanographic research vessel AGOR 26; and advanced programs manager developing new business related to the application of automation to hazardous environmental remediation and military operations. Prior to joining Lockheed, he served as a business manager for Martin Marietta’s Air and Naval Facility, Baltimore, MD. that developed, manufactured and serviced underwater robotic handling systems for the U.S. Navy. A registered professional engineer, Kline received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Catholic University, and an MBA from Loyola University.

Troy Keipper, Project Manager/Naval Architect, Navatek, Ltd., joined the company in 2002 after working for the Northern California design firm, Antrim Associates Naval Architects. At Navatek, he manages the Naval Architecture and CFD Group. Troy is co-inventor on the Low Drag Lifting Body (US Patent #7,004,093), the Bow Lifting Body (US Patent #7,191,725 B2). He served as the lead Designer and Project Manager for the CFD and Tank Test validation program, HDV-300. He was also lead Naval Architect and Project Manager for the design and construction of the 70 ft Aluminum Bow Lifting Body prototype, BLB-70. He graduated with a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Brian Kays, P.E.,Project Engineer/Mechanical Engineer, Navatek Ltd., joined the company in 2002 and now manages the Advanced Ride Control Systems Group.  During his time at Navatek Ltd., he has supported a variety of projects including Seaflyer, HDV-100, and BLB-70 with hydraulic circuit design and fabrication and installation of ride control systems.  Prior to coming to Navatek, Brian served as a Mechanical Engineer/Senior Design Engineer for Genie Industries, a large construction/industrial equipment manufacturer where he was responsible for parts of the mechanical design, finite element analysis, stability analysis, and hydraulic system design as well as buildup of prototypes and support of manufacturing.  Brian holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Mealani Parish, Mechanical Engineer, Navatek, Ltd, joined the company in 2006, and now works in the Naval Architecture and CFD Group supporting various projects with a focus in performing Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis. Prior to joining Navatek, she interned in Japan for a year in the ultrasound R&D division of Toshiba Medical Systems. She also worked for Schlumberger in England for three years as a Mechanical Engineer on the sustaining team for downhole drills. Mealani received a B.S. in 2000 and M.S. in 2003 in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Christopher J. Hart, Regional Director East Coast, Navatek, Ltd., joined Navatek in 2002, and initially directed a series of experiments on two Navatek test craft involving both deep-vee and lifting body technologies. He is currently assigned as the Test Director for performance sea trials for HYSWAC, and he is also involved in development of lifting body applications for the Navy’s X-Craft and LCS designs. Prior to joining Navatek, he served as Principal Naval Architect at Swath International Ltd. from 1991 to 2002, where his responsibilities included seakeeping and speed/power predictions, stability analysis, active ride control system design, and scale model testing of new commercial SWATH designs. He was active in the development and production of a 37 meter, 28 knot SWATH passenger ferry, Cloud X, and was responsible for sea trials planning, data acquisition and performance analysis. His experience includes 13 years at the U.S. Navy’s David Taylor Model Basin where he specialized in the hydrodynamics and scale model testing of advanced marine vehicle designs including SWATH, hydrofoil, SES, ACV, and planing craft. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MS in Ocean and Marine Engineering from George Washington University. He is a Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Ben Rosenthal, Controls Engineer/Naval Architect, Navatek Ltd., joined the company in 2005 from Anteon Corporation’s Fluid Mechanical Systems Group.  At Navatek, he has designed the ride control algorithm for Navatek’s HDV-100, a foil supported/lifting body boat.  He designed the control algorithm for the Navatek BLB-70, a foil/lifting body assisted boat.  He also built a fully nonlinear six degree-of-freedom simulation adaptable to a large class of boats, including hydrofoil and lifting body-assisted boats.  At Anteon, Mr. Rosenthal designed an advanced control algorithm for a supercavitating torpedo capable of speeds in excess of 100 knots; and developed a vorticity based planing force estimator.  Other research projects focused on forces generated by a vertical cycloidal propulsion system; noise generated by propellers with non-uniform spaced blades; steady and unsteady forces on a sonar dome using the commercial CFD code Fluent; and analysis and simulation of wing tip vortices as they interact with the ground plane in airplane landing situations. He graduated with a B.S. in Naval architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering focused on control systems from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.

John Elm, Senior Hardware Engineer Navatek, Ltd., joined Navatek in 2005 after working with the company as a consultant since 2001.  He is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of fault-tolerant, Advanced Ride Control System electronic hardware for Navatek’s advanced hull-form ships.  Most recently, he designed and developed the custom, proprietary, high speed, environmentally rugged, electronic assemblies for the SeaFlyer and HDV-100 along with the embedded software for the hardware control and diagnostics. He came to Navatek with over 25 years engineering experience as a self-employed engineering consultant at ELM Engineering; as Senior Member of Technical Staff at Raytheon Corp. specializing in RADAR signal processing; and as a Member of Technical Staff at the Hewlett Packard Instrument Group  Research and Development Lab designing test and measurement products. He received his B.S.E.E from Carnegie Mellon University in 1979.

Jennifer Dupalo - Assistant Project Engineer
Scott Yamashita, P.E. - Aeronautical Engineer
Mitchel Kagawa - Systems Administrator