Meet the ElectraTherm Team

Meet the sales and engineering team at ElectraTherm. Here’s a brief introduction to some of your key contacts on staff.

Robert R. Emrich II, Managing Director

Robert R. Emrich has over 10 years with ElectraTherm, previously as the Sales & Marketing Director during ElectraTherm’s early years. Rob previously worked at Western Nevada Supply, a leader in the pipe, valve and fittings industry where he led the branch sales team for 15 locations, in addition to driving the company’s industrial product line. Previous experience in the pump market led Rob to work with mines and power plants in Colorado and Nevada. Following a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corp, Rob’s career began in the livestock feed industry in his home state of Nebraska. He went on to purchase the company and manage it for five years, sparking his interest in business leadership.

Tom Brokaw, Engineering Manager

Tom Brokaw has 20 years of experience as an engineer with an emphasis on product development. Since joining ElectraTherm, Brokaw has overseen the completion of several design iterations of the Power+ Generator™, including the integration of the BITZER expander and broadening the unit’s operating range in the B+ Design. He joined the team in 2011 from HyProSys, a research and development company where he managed various projects from idea conception to fabrication and execution. Prior, Brokaw served as Vice President of Research and Development at 6X7 Visioneering, where he assisted in the development of the company’s hydrogen production technology. He is a co-inventor of three patents, and received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at University of Nevada, Reno.

Kevin Kirkeby, Business Development Analyst

Kevin Kirkeby joined the ElectraTherm team after receiving his Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy from the University of Nevada, Reno. Kevin also has a Master of Business Administration and a Management undergraduate degree from UNR. Kevin previously worked on renewable energy and natural resources issues for over ten years as a director for the U.S. Senate and for four years in his role as an elected county official.

Erick Wipf, Electrical & Service Engineer

Erick Wipf has over 24 years of experience in electrical engineering, project management, and sales. During his time working as a Sales Engineer for ElectraTherm, Erick not only drove the development of our flagship SMART tool but also performed much of the initial business case development and heat balance work on applications from 2011 – 2014. As an Electrical Engineer for ElectraTherm Erick oversaw the product development of a VDE machine for the German market, which utilized inverters for power generation providing the ability to support grid functions and the ability to ride through grid transients. He also led the development of a higher performance PLC utilized to control the new BITZER expander. Currently Erick is working the deployment of BITZER retrofit kits for previously installed ORCs and now manages the operating fleet database, provides machine commissioning and service documentation, as well as implementing an updated service ticket system focused on new service inquiries on deployed equipment. Erick is committed to improving direct customer communication as well as helping troubleshoot equipment with an emphasis on root cause analysis. Prior to ElectraTherm, Erick was an electronics engineer for a gaming company as well as project manager responsible for public and private commercial electrical works with project values exceeding $5,000,000. Erick Wipf graduated from the University of Nevada with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering.

Yide Wang, Process Engineer

Yide Wang has about 5 years of research and development experience as thermal engineer. He joined the Electratherm team in early 2020, serving as process engineer that focuses on thermodynamic process design, heat exchanger design, component selection and overall system performance modeling. Prior to joining the group, Yide Wang received his Ph.D. degree in Thermal Science and Engineering from UCLA, where he conducted research on system level performance and cost analysis of sulfur-based thermal energy storage system for power generation.

Paul Artigues, Design & Production Support Engineer

Paul Artigues joined Electratherm in the fall of 2019. He holds his bachelors in Manufacturing Operations, an associate in Mechanical Drafting and Design, and is passionate about all things mechanical. He has been granted six U.S. letters patents over the years, and has enjoyed success from two businesses he founded. Since joining the team, Paul has worked to refine the 4400B, developed Bitzer expander upgrade kits for existing models, and designed new 4400B+ and 6500B+ high temperature units.

Joshua Hernandez, Controls Systems Engineer

Joshua Hernandez is a very knowledgeable Controls Systems Technician with a concentrated background in industrial automation and HVAC. Prior to coming to ElectraTherm, Joshua has gained experience working as a Controls System Technician for Johnson Controls, a CNC machinist and programmer for Insert Molding Solutions, as well as an HVAC service technician and mechanical engineering intern during his time at Texas Tech University; which is where is received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from in 2019. He has several years of experience designing HVAC equipment layouts utilizing psychosomatic as well as heat/mass transfer analyses. Joshua also has a deep understanding of PID loop tuning, HVAC systems, and thermodynamics.